A July 9 WorldNetDaily article claims that that “Christian leader” Ruben Israel is “working with the American Freedom Law Center” to go after officials in Dearborn, Mich., because police offers purportedly “threaten[ed] Christians with disorderly conduct while angry Muslims were heaving chunks of concrete, stones, bottles and debris at them.
There’s lots wrong with this article. First, Israel is no “Christian leader” — he’s a street preacher.
Second, WND downplays the fact that Israel’s band of protesters at the Dearborn Arab event — whom the article portrays as doing little more than “holding signs about their faith” — were taunting and inciting the group of Muslims that eventually retaliated. As we detailed, the Christ and Pop Culture blog reported that Israel’s group was carrying a pig head on a pole — as Israel explained to police, that’s because Muslims are “petrified” of pigs and so it “keeps them at bay.”
Third, it’s simply false that police did nothing to stop the conflict between the Muslim and Christian groups. According to the Christ and Pop Culture blog, police intervened several times.
But WND clearly has no intention of reporting the full truth about this incident — the article’s awkward statement that “WND later learned that the Christian crowd had been carrying a pole with a pig’s head attached to the top, further angering the Muslim crowd” tells us that WND originally promoted this story with no evidence whatsoever that Israel provoked the Muslims. Thus its readers will never know how hateful Ruben Israel is — or that he doesn’t have a case.