DETROIT — Standing amid a crowd of Muslims at the 2009 Arab International Festival in Dearborn, Mich., this summer, the Rev. George Saieg declared: “I’ve been commanded as a Christian to reach out to these people.”
The California man is part of an ongoing effort by at least eight Christian groups across the United States to spread the gospel in Dearborn — a city known for its sizable Islamic population. The groups have visited Arab festivals, schools and mosques to talk about Christ. They’ve handed out thousands of pamphlets, books and DVDs. Others have held debates.
In Dearborn, about one-third of the city’s 98,000 residents are of Arab descent, many of them Muslim and some Christian.
Some say the conversion activity has gotten confrontational: They point to a controversial video produced by a Christian group about a religious dispute in Dearborn this summer that has already drawn almost 1.4 million views.
A wrestling coach at Dearborn’s Fordson High School was let go in May 2008 after complaints from parents that he allowed an assistant to convert Muslim students. One student was baptized at a camp the assistant helped supervise in 2005.
Other parents complained to Dearborn school officials when a Christian entertainment group was allowed to perform in schools in March; the group did not openly talk about Christianity during its school performances but did tell students about evening shows at a local church.
Some residents said the efforts in recent months have crossed over into harassment and bigotry.
During the annual Arab International Festival in Dearborn in June, for instance, some Christian evangelists were accused of openly insulting Islam’s prophet. And others yelled at passers-by “that they were going to hell because they were Muslim,” according to a Dearborn police report.
The evangelists said they’re the ones who are being harassed, claiming that some were unfairly kicked out of the festival for expressing Christian views.
“We’re not against these people,” said Pat Rojas, a Christian from Evangelical Free Church in California who attended the June festival. “We’re only there to help. They have a choice: They can accept Jesus or they can reject Jesus.”
Ahmad Hammoud, a security guard at the Arab festival, said he has no problems with an open dialogue about religion, pointing out that Muslims revere Jesus and consider him a prophet.
But, “why do you have to stand there and put down our religion?” Hammoud said, referring to one preacher at the festival. Why not instead “stand on the corner and say, Jesus is a peaceful person. We know he’s a peaceful man.”
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