I would see this being no different if it were on the other foot....the Muslims exercising their rights while being assaulted by another mob. The problem I noticed was the lack of police presence in either video (although it's easy to play Monday morning QB) in such an explosive situation. Another huge issue IMO was the protesters being removed from the area at the end of one of the videos....which doesn't make much sense because it looks like the city of Dearborn lost a lawsuit in a similar situation last year to the tune of 100K. Were the Christians instigating? Probably....but they still didn't deserve to be assaulted by an angry mob.
In a general sense I agree with everything you said. Dearborn MI has the largest concentration of Muslims of any city in the USA. The Christians, by their very presence and proselytizing at an "Arab" gathering, probably made the Muslims uneasy. It was an event for "Arabs", and Arabs are
primarily Muslims. In the narrow-minded Islamic countries, Christian proselytizing is not just unwelcome, it is
illegal, hence their display of anger toward the Christian demonstrators. That's just my way of seeing the background of the confrontation, not an attempt to excuse the Muslim's assaults on the Christians. Activists of
any kind, not just religious fanatics, must understand that they take, and
accept, certain risks by their activism. There will frequently be counter-demonstrators, who feel just as passionately about their position as the activists do about their position. For example, there are the nutters at the Westboro Baptist Church who demean the funerals of our returning fallen military personnel, and they often find themselves faced with the Patriot Guard Riders. The PGR is a loose affiliation of motorcyclists with one but goal... to
honor our fallen soldiers, and make the Westboro Baptist Church's efforts to disrupt the proceedings as unrewarding as they possibly can - within the legal boundaries. The PGR is often supported by the American Legion Riders as well, and sometimes even some of the "outlaw bikers" are in attendance. I have never heard of Westboro trying to get violent with a bunch of bikers, and the bikers haven't (to the best of my recollection) ever assaulted the nut-jobs. This example is one where violence
isn't involved, but the
potential for violence is generally very nearby - because of the passions of each side vs the other. I'm sure you can determine who the "good guys" and the "bad guys" are yourself. Pax...