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Appeals Court Says County Violated Rights of Anti-Muslim Demonstrators

(MPRN-Cincinnati, Oh) The US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Wayne County violated the speech and religious rights of a Christian group that staged an anti-Muslim demonstration at an Arab ethnic festival. 

The event took place in 2012 at the Arab International Festival in Dearborn. The group Bible Believers showed up, as it had in earlier years, to proselytize and mock Islam. The members carried a pig’s head on a stick and carried signs that said things like: “Islam is a Religion of Blood and Murder.”

According to the court’s description of the facts, a crowd of teenagers argued with the group. Some started throwing empty plastic bottles. Wayne County Sheriff’s deputies moved the Bible Believers to a spot behind barricades, and eventually threatened to cite them for causing a civil disturbance if they didn’t leave.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals says that was a mistake – the deputies should have protected the demonstrators. From the majority opinion:

“In this opinion we reaffirm the comprehensive boundaries of the First Amendment’s free speech protection, which envelopes all manner of speech, even when that speech is loathsome in its intolerance, designed to cause offense, and, as a result of such offense, arouses violent retaliation.”

The court opinion says the demonstration seemed designed to make people angry and upset, but the Bible Believers did not use any words that explicitly called for violence or disorder.

“They ratified the ‘heckler’s veto’ by threatening to criminalize the speech of the Bible Believers and that is just contrary to the First Amendment,”

said Robert Muise, an attorney with the American Freedom Law Center, which argued for the Christians.

The opinion says the Bible Believers are also entitled to payment for damages from the county. Wayne County officials say the decision is being reviewed. An appeal to the US Supreme Court is possible.

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