Arab American Festival in Dearborn Canceled After Conflicts Drive Up Insurance Costs
The Arab International Festival in Dearborn has been canceled for the second year in a row, raising questions about the future of the three-day gathering in June that had become an annual tradition.
The festival was canceled last year when the city and festival organizers, the American Arab Chamber of Commerce, faced higher liability insurance costs because of growing tensions with some Christian missionaries that had resulted in arrests, accusations of harassment and lawsuits.
The Arab-American festival along Warren Avenue had become what organizers said was the biggest outdoor gathering of Arab Americans in the U.S., celebrating Arab culture in a city that’s 40% Arab. The 18-year-old event drew hundreds of thousands of people of all backgrounds.
After canceling the event last year, the chamber’s director, Fay Baydoun, said she hoped that the festival will “come back better and stronger” in 2014.
But once again there will be no festival, which was often held during Father’s Day weekend. Baydoun said today, “We’re still in the exploratory stages of how to continue to move forward.”
Baydoun said the chamber did not approach the city about the festival this year. In 2013, the city had proposed moving the festival from Warren Avenue to a park, but the chamber was unable to organize in time and negotiate an affordable fee with the city.
Mayor Jack O’Reilly Jr. said today that the festival, in addition to promoting Arab culture, was a fund-raiser for the chamber. He said there has been some discussion about holding a musical event at a city facility that would help the chamber raise money.
“I’m very supportive of the chamber,” O’Reilly told the Free Press.
Tensions at the festival broke out in 2010 when a group of Christian missionaries arrived with video cameras to record their attempts to debate Muslims. Some were arrested for disturbing the peace, though later acquitted of most charges. Their arrests drew outrage from conservatives across the U.S.
Another Christian group filed a lawsuit against the city, saying the missionaries were restricted in where they could distribute their literature. In 2012, a separate group of Christians brought a pig’s head mounted on a pole with anti-Islam signs, resulting in some youth hurling bottles at them.
Last year as part of a settlement, the city paid $300,000 to the missionaries arrested in 2010 and apologized on the city’s website.
Dearborn resident Majed Moughni said, “It’s very disappointing that a couple of troublemakers can come in and spoil it for half a million people.” He said he has fond memories of going to the festival with his family.
“It’s sad this tradition can be halted just like that.”
Niraj Warikoo
Detroit Free Press