ANN ARBOR, MI – New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) buses are now displaying ads opposing the Ground Zero Mosque.  MTA reversed its earlier refusals to display the ads only after a federal lawsuit was filed.

New York attorney David Yerushalmi and the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed the lawsuit against the MTA and its chief executive, Jay H. Walder, on August 6, 2010. 

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), and its officers, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, after their failed attempts to get MTA to honor the fully-paid contract for the ads.  The lawsuit alleged violations of the constitutional rights to freedom of speech and the equal protection of the law.

The federal lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on August 23, 2010, after MTA representatives agreed to display the ads as originally contracted and the buses started to run on the City’s streets with the ads.

The dramatic ad questioned why the proposed Ground Zero Mosque had to be placed so close to the Twin Towers destroyed in the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks by Muslim terrorists.  Ground Zero, considered by Americans as hallowed ground, is the site of the attack carried out by Muslims in the name of Islam that killed 3,000 innocent people.

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented, “There is a pattern developing whereby municipal transportation authorities across the country are refusing to run FDI ads they deem offensive to Muslims.  It’s only when they are prodded by litigation do they recognize that the constitutional right to freedom of speech trumps their attempts at political correctness.”

Continued Thompson, “Imam Rauf’s attempt to build the Ground Zero Mosque is an act of provocation and insensitivity.  The Law Center applauds Pam Geller and Robert Spencer for their courageous efforts to expose the Imam’s advancement of Sharia Law in the United States.”

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

Throughout history, Muslim conquerors have demonstrated their hatred and disdain for all other religions by purposefully erecting mosques over some of the most sacred and hallowed places of Judaic and Christian worship.

The al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is built on top of one of the holiest sites in Judaism, the Temple Mount.  The Hagia Sofia, once the world’s largest cathedral and orthodox patriarchal basilica until its capture in 1453, was the principal mosque of Istanbul for over 450 years.  During the Muslim conquest of medieval Spain, the Christian church in Cordoba was captured and converted into the central mosque of the Umayyad Caliphate.   Muslims have engaged in this practice for centuries, symbolizing their victories over the infidels.

Today, in New York City, Muslim leaders are plotting to build a mega-mosque near the site of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, where over three thousand Americans were callously murdered by Islamic jihadists.  The site of the Twin Towers has become the most hallowed ground in United States history since Pearl Harbor.

The Center for Security Policy has released a video with a chilling reminder that history repeats itself. Click HERE to see video.

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

ANN ARBOR, MI – Although there have been 15,000 Muslim terrorist attacks around the world since 9/11, New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) had no problem displaying bus ads that promoted Muslims for peace.  Yet that same governmental body refused to place an ad requested by the American Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI) that dramatically showed the connection between the proposed Ground Zero Mosque and the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks.

The requested bus ad has on one side a picture of the Twin Towers aflame with a plane headed toward them, and on the opposite side, a tower with the crescent, moon, and star. [Click here to see the ad]   After FDI fully paid for the ad, they were informed that the MTA refused to run the ad because the plane appeared to be flying into the Twin Towers.  Several alterations to the ad were made as demanded by the representative of the MTA, which destroyed the dramatic impact of the ad!  The altered ad has not yet been accepted by the Transportation Authority.

As a result, New York attorney David Yerushalmi and the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, filed a federal lawsuit last Friday against the MTA and its chief executive, Jay H. Walder.  The lawsuit alleges violations of the constitutional right to Freedom of Speech and the Equal Protection Clause, on behalf of FDI and Pamela Geller, its Executive Director, and Robert Spencer the Associate Director.  A motion for a Temporary Restraining Order will likely be filed sometime today. [Click here to read the lawsuit]

Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of the Law Center, commented, “Muslims placing a mosque within a few hundred feet of the Twin Towers attack is akin to the Marines planting the Stars and Stripes at Iwo Jima – each symbolizing victory over an enemy.  The Muslim terrorists who destroyed the Twin Towers and killed 3,000 innocent people in the 9/11 attacks were following the dictates of the Koran and Sharia law. The site of this mosque was explicitly chosen for its proximity to Ground Zero as a symbol of ‘Islamic Triumphalism’. Clearly, the Ground Zero mosque will become the icon throughout the Muslim world as a symbol of Islam’s defeat of America.”

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities. It does not charge for its services. The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

ANN ARBOR, MI – In an unprecedented and astonishing development, the City of Dearborn, through its mayor and its official website, has personally attacked the four Christian missionaries arrested at the annual Arab International Festival on June 18, 2010.  The Mayor’s intrusion into the case destroyed whatever semblance remained of an unbiased and professional law enforcement action following the illegal seizure of video cameras to prevent recording of the events surrounding the arrests.

One of the Christian missionaries, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, MD, tore apart the mayor’s five page statement attacking the missionaries. “Oh Really, Mayor O’Reilly?” [Click here to see video]

Dr. Qureshi was engaged in a peaceful dialogue with several Muslim youths. The other three missionaries were merely videotaping the conversation when the Dearborn police moved in, seized the cameras, and then made the arrests. 

The four Christian missionaries were arraigned on criminal charges on Monday morning, July 12, in Dearborn’s 19th Judicial District Court. The Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan is representing all of the Christian missionaries. 

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities.  It does not charge for its services.  The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.

ANN ARBOR, MI – On Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at 3:00 p.m., Federal District Court Judge Thomas L. Ludington will hear Attorney General Eric Holder’s motion to dismiss the first court challenge to the federal “Hate Crimes Act.”  The hearing will take place in Courtroom 214, 1000 Washington Avenue, in Bay City, Michigan.

This hearing will be the third court appearance by the Thomas More Law Center this week.  On Monday, July 12, the Law Center appeared at the arraignments of four Christian missionaries arrested in Dearborn, Michigan. [Click here to see “Dearborn Four” press release]  This afternoon, July 13, the Law Center and co-counsel David Yerushalmi will appear before Federal District Court Judge Denise Page Hood challenging a municipal bus authority’s refusal to display the controversial “Leaving Islam” ads. [Click here to see “Leaving Islam” press release] 

The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor Michigan, filed the federal lawsuit in February of this year challenging the constitutionality of the federal Hate Crimes Act, against U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr.  The Act adds violence based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” alongside race and color motivated violence deserving special federal protection by means of tougher criminal penalties. 

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, on behalf of Pastor Levon Yuille, Pastor Rene Ouellette, Pastor James Combs, and Gary Glenn, the president of the American Family Association of Michigan (AFA-Michigan).

The sole purpose of this law is to use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians from expressing their Biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin.  It elevates those persons who engage in deviant sexual behaviors, including pedophiles, to a special protected class of persons as a matter of federal law and policy. 

As president of AFA-Michigan, Gary Glenn is often publicly described and listed as an “enemy” of those who promote “gay rights” and other aspects of the homosexual agenda.  In 2006, for example, The Advocate, a “gay-rights” periodical, described Glenn as “[a] relentless foe of gay rights in every context.” 

Pastor Yuille is the Pastor of The Bible Church, located in Ypsilanti, Michigan.  He is also the National Director of the National Black Pro-Life Congress and the host of Joshua’s Trail, a radio talk show that airs in Michigan and can be heard in parts of Canada.  Pastor Yuille is often warned by his Canadian listeners that he will prosecuted under the new U.S. hate crimes law for his public ministry similar to how ministers and other religious persons in Canada are being silenced by that country’s “hate crimes” legislation.  As an African-American, Pastor Yuille finds it offensive to equate the so-called “civil rights” struggle of persons who engage in homosexual behavior with the real civil rights struggle of African-Americans. 

Pastor Ouellette is the Pastor of First Baptist Church of Bridgeport, Michigan, which has approximately 7,000 members.  He is the author of five books as well as many pamphlets and Bible tracts.  Pastor Ouellette travels across the country preaching God’s Word, which includes the Biblical teaching on homosexuality.

Pastor Combs is the lead Pastor of Faith Church, The Point Church, The Rock Church, and The River Church, all of which are located in Michigan.  Pastor Combs pastors approximately 10,000 church members.  He too preaches the Biblical teaching on homosexuality as part of his public ministry.

The lawsuit alleges that the federal hate crimes law violates the plaintiffs’ rights to freedom of speech, expressive association, and free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment, and it violates the equal protection guarantee of the Fifth Amendment.  The lawsuit also alleges that Congress lacked authority to enact the legislation under the Tenth Amendment and the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.  [Click here to read entire Complaint]

The Thomas More Law Center defends and promotes America’s Christian heritage and moral values, including the religious freedom of Christians, time-honored family values, and the sanctity of human life.  It supports a strong national defense and an independent and sovereign United States of America.  The Law Center accomplishes its mission through litigation, education, and related activities.  It does not charge for its services.  The Law Center is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations, and is recognized by the IRS as a section 501(c)(3) organization.  You may reach the Thomas More Law Center at (734) 827-2001 or visit our website at www.thomasmore.org.