DEARBORN — In the days leading up to last week’s protest by
extremist pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Florida on the steps of Dearborn
City Hall, community leaders suggested that ignoring him would be the best
course of action on the heels of the previous week’s successful interfaith
unity rallies.

But when onlookers passed by or showed up to his
demonstration on Friday, April 29, many were surprised to see a large gathering
of counter-protesters. A large portion of them came from local high schools
after being recruited by the Detroit-based national grassroots organization
BAMN (By Any Means Necessary).

Ali Sayed, the founder of Dearborn-based Hype Athletics who
works often with community youth, was one of those who couldn’t believe his
eyes as he arrived.

“It did surprise me, it was a big shock to see so many
people,” he said.

Sayed also was caught off guard when protesters broke
through barricades to confront Jones, who supervised a burning of a copy of the
Qur’an in March, and his supporters as he walked toward the fence in what many
saw as an effort to provoke them. Some threw bottles and shoes at Jones, who
had earlier taunted the crowd by asking them whether or not they speak English,
who “eat at McDonald’s,” and whether or not there were any
“tough guys” in the crowd.

Jones’ protest was against what he called
“shari’a” and “jihad” in the American Muslim community,
although Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly has repeatedly refuted such myths about
Dearborn and noted the unity of the community. The cost to the city was at
least $50,000 for public safety for Jones’ two protests.

Sayed took issue with Jones’ taunts and confrontational
attitude but said he had hoped to see a more reserved response from
counter-protesters.

“I really felt that they would make better decisions
than that…they reacted with aggression and they shouldn’t have, he’s not
worth it,” he said.

“Jones and his supporters were trying to rile up the
young kids to get them to overreact and they were doing it to incite
violence,” he said.

Many of the youths at the counter-protest were recruited by
BAMN, which was founded in 1995 to help defend students in affirmative action
cases and currently works to promote equality and to fight racism, religious
discrimination and other issues according to National Coordinator Donna Stern
of the Detroit office.

BAMN, which picketed Jones’ April 22 court appearance (in
opposition to Jones’ visit) said they were aware of local leaders’ calls to
ignore Jones but said they differed with that strategy and began soliciting
students by placing fliers on cars at local high schools and at the University
of Michigan-Dearborn.

“We organized in Dearborn and at high schools for
people to come out and oppose him…it’s our view that if the community had
mobilized thousands, he wouldn’t have been able to get out of his car,”
Stern said about the group’s plan.

She said the model for their plan was a civil rights movement
event in 1963 when children joined protests against segregation in Birmingham,
Alabama.

Stern also said that the breaking of the barriers wasn’t
planned but also decried Jones for provoking the crowd and “spewing his
filth….and hate against Arabs and Muslims.”

“It’s important that people like Jones are opposed and
not given freedom to foment violence,” she said.

Osama Siblani, the publisher of The Arab American News and
spokesman for the Congress of Arab American Organizations, which had circulated
a press release and flier urging people to ignore Jones’ second visit last
Friday, disagreed strongly with BAMN’s actions.

“She and her group are free to do what they want, it’s
a free country, but they cannot speak on our community’s behalf nor do they
know the community’s interests better than us,” he said.

“They need to learn from the people who have
experience…we don’t need any more leadership from them.”

Kassem Ali, the executive administrator of the Islamic
Center of America in Dearborn, where Jones originally intended to protest
before being forced to post a peace bond and being prevented from returning for
three years by Judge Mark Somers of Dearborn, said he was also surprised at the
size of the crowd, which swelled to about 500 at one point. He said he thought
that BAMN’s efforts to recruit local youths were “completely inappropriate
and unfortunate” but noted that the turnout was a small portion of the
community. The majority of them also stayed behind the barricades.

“Last Friday’s event was not representative of our
whole community, we have tens of thousands here,” he said, with most of
them ignoring Jones despite his continued verbal attacks against them.

“It was unfortunate that things got heated but he
incited the crowd and I think he was there for that incitement, to get some
kind of reaction.”

Sayed agreed with the plan to ignore Jones as well.

“We are thankful that the majority of the community
chose to stay home or to react in a peaceful way and we hope and pray for the
rest to follow suit, to be the better person and not let him win this battle,
if he doesn’t receive any attention then he loses,” he said.

O’Reilly also decried Jones’ actions as being antagnozing
while questioning his motives in the protest. He said he would continue to do
what it takes to maintain public safety despite costs if Jones were to return
as he said he would at some point.

“Stand Up America, his group, is basically two
people…he’s got five different credit cards on his site you can make
donations to,” he said. “This man has a new online business creating
fear and hatred and trying to benefit from that…over something that doesn’t
exist…he’s pandering for money because he lost his church (the Dove World
Outreach Center) and he needs that for himself.”