UPDATED: 10 August 2010, 5:07 AM (Pacific)
Jason Smathers, from the Witness Unto Me blog, has been continuing his research into the arrest of Acts 17 Apologetics and the charges against them. For just over a week he has been digging into “the Williams incident”—that is, the circumstances from which came the criminal complaint and for which Acts 17 Apologetics were arrested.
“The Williams incident,” of course, refers to festival volunteer Roger Williams, whose complaint to the Dearborn police serving at the Arab International Festival resulted in the arrest of the Acts 17 Apologetics team—Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla, and Negeen Mayel—on charges of disturbing the peace. What we know for sure is that there are two versions of the events surrounding the complaint: there is the version that Williams reported to the police, and the version that Acts 17 Apologetics says the video camera recorded. The question of interest to all those following this story, and to Judge Mark Somers and the 19th District Court, is which version corresponds with the truth? Perhaps another way to put it: Did Roger Williams and Amal Alslami report to the police what actually happened?
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Today was the arraignment of the four Acts 17 Apologetics members who were arrested last month in Dearborn, Michigan. They are all being charged with a misdemeanor offense for disturbing the peace; Nabeel Qureshi, 29, David Wood, 34, Paul Rezkalla, 18, and Negeen Mayel, 18 (who is facing an additional charge of disobeying a police officer) face fines of up to $500 each and up to 93 days in jail. Their attorney Robert Muise with the Thomas More Law Center entered a plea of “not guilty,” and noted that they will file a lawsuit against the City of Dearborn in federal court. They are all free on bond and will return to court on 3 August 2010 for a motion hearing, and the trial is set for 20 September 2010. Additionally, the Dearborn city attorney told them that their videos and cameras would be returned this week.
Click here for additional report from Jim Kiertzner of Local 4 News.
Update: 1 July 2010, 22:40 Pacific
Representative Tom McMillin (R-Rochester Hills) is asking that the Attorney General’s Office investigate the incident involving the 18 June 2010 arrest. McMillin sponsored a resolution along with state representatives Paul Scott, Brian Calley, Kim Meltzer, and Dave Agema and submitted it 1 July 2010; the next scheduled session day where it can be read into the record is 21 July 2010.
“Both the Constitution of Michigan and the United States guarantee the right of every person to enjoy free speech and practice their religion freely, just as these men were doing,” he said. “Those rights can’t be just pushed aside for political correctness or to accommodate certain circumstances or locations.” McMillin agreed to attend their arraignment as a show of solidarity. “These men should not be punished for exercising their inalienable rights,” he said, noting also on his Facebook page that he will be quite disappointed if the Attorney General “doesn’t immediately investigate this serious injustice of this basic freedom of speech granted in our state’s Constitution.”
