"Reverend" Terry Jones has come to Dearborn!

[phesina]

At the airport he told a local news reporter he does NOT plan to burn a Koran tomorrow. Saints be praised! Let's hope he keeps his word on that.

Being the devout, pious Christian that he is, he plans to observe the solemnity and sacrifice of Good Friday by spewing hate messages toward the local Muslims. He intends to hold his demonstration "against Sharia law in Dearborn" (or "Dearbornistan" as many as his fellow zealots call it) at the Islamic Center tomorrow.

Nobody is challenging his First Amendment right to say whatever he wants to say.. but unfortunately he seems to be getting caught up in a lot of municipal red tape!

Before he came, the mayor of Dearborn asked him to change the demonstration site to City Hall. It seems to me that, if you think Dearborn is being run under Sharia law, the place to make your protest should be where the city's laws are made and enforced.. but as my friend Vince (who also grew up in Dearborn) said, that's too logical for them.

Or else, if he insists on having it at the Islamic Center, where there is little public space, that he pay a bond to cover the expenses of extra police presence, crowd control, emergency services, whatever..

It also turns out that close by on the road where the mosque is there are also several churches, which of course will be holding Good Friday services tomorrow afternoon.

He refuses to pay the bond.

Now a trial will be held tomorrow to determine if he has to pay this bond and if he doesn't and holds the demo anyway, he is liable to go to jail. (He says he will go to jail rather than pay up, noble martyr for the cause that he is.)

His main concern is that the trial is finished before his planned start-time for the demo, 5pm, which it may not be..

Stay tuned for updates!