Michiganistan: Christians must waive rights?

A city described as a “serial violator” of religious rights that has been ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys’ fees in cases prompted by its actions against Christians has come up with a solution – demanding that people waive all their rights.

The demand has prompted another legal action, by the Thomas More Law Center on behalf of a controversial pastor who preaches on radical Islam, Shariah, same-sex “marriage” and other hot-button topics.

The lawsuit was filed this week in federal district court in Michigan against the city of Dearborn and its police chief over the city’s “new tactic” to stop Pastor Terry Jones from speaking out against Islamic law in the area. Dearborn has the largest population of Muslims in the U.S.

Jones and his Stand Up America Now organization applied several weeks ago for a special-events permit to allow Jones to speak Saturday in front of the largest mosque in North America, which is in Dearborn.

City officials, who recently had been ordered to pay $100,000 in one case in which Christians’ rights were violated and appeared to be heading to a similar result in another case, responded with a demand that Jones sign a “Hold Harmless” agreement.

“The agreement requires Pastor Jones to surrender all of his legal rights if he wants to speak on public property.”

Specifically, the agreement requires that Jones and his organization “RELEASE AND FOREVER DISCHARGE the city of Dearborn … and its officers, employees, and agents, from any and all claims, liabilities, or lawsuits, including legal costs and reasonable attorney fees, resulting from their activities on City of Dearborn property.”