When one of his children brought home a flyer from his elementary school that advertised an Easter Egg hunt at a local Presbyterian church in Dearborn, Michigan, and then asked why was it OK to promote a religious event in a public school, Majed Moughni, a Muslim and well-known personal injury lawyer in the Greater Detroit Area, decided to do something about it. He complained about the distribution of the flyers on his Facebook page, and the Detroit Free Press decided to write a story about it. Under U.S. law, and the separation of church and state, a public school and its employees and teachers are not allowed to promote any religion or religious event to school students. "My son, who was studying the Constitution, stated that he felt that schools and churches shouldn't be mixed," Moughni told the Arab Daily News about his nine year-old son, who attended one of the schools were the flyers were distributed. "I asked them [he also has a seven-year old daughter] if they wanted me to do something about it and they both said yes. So I did. I used my First Amendment right and freedom of speech to convey my displeasure with the school distributing flyers for events being held at a church. I used my Facebook page and found out that I wasn't the only parent that felt it was wrong." But that story has apparently ignited a firestorm in the larger community. Dearborn has the largest Arab American – and particularly Muslim-American - population of any city in the U.S. Moughni was criticized for his position, not by the Christian community, but other Muslims who thought that his protests would paint other them as anti-Christian. Muslims have also attacked Moughni for "grandstanding", and organized an Easter Egg hunt of their own in support of the local Christian community. "Once again, local attorney Majed Moughni stuck his foot in his mouth. But this time the Muslim community is paying heavily in bad publicity for Moughni's few seconds of media extravaganza," Osama Siblani, the publisher of the widely respected Arab American News wrote in a posting on his Facebook Page. Siblani in particular cited the headline in the Detroit Free Press - "Muslim parents upset over school flyer promoting local church's Easter egg hunt" - which incorrectly labelled Moughli's protest as one promoted by a number of Muslim parents, when that was not in fact, the situation. The paper has since corrected the headline, but the damage was done. "The Free Press quotes only Moughni to justify the headline, bringing thousands of angry comments against Muslims in a matter of few minutes after it was posted on the paper's website and Facebook," Siblani also wrote on his Facebook page. "Moughni's hunt for brief fame is reckless, dangerous and irresponsible. He only represents himself and doesn't speak on behalf of the thousands of Muslims in Dearborn. Let it be known that Dearborn's Muslims are not rioting or angry over such a flyer." That mistaken headline was picked up by conservative media, such as Fox News, across America and used, once again, to show that Muslims were anti-American and anti-Christian. "Manufacturing a conflict like this in Dearborn interfaith community is irresponsible and dangerous," ran an editorial on Siblani's ArabAmerican News. "Harmful comments like, 'Muslim plead for understanding and acceptance from Christians...but yet can't or won't offer the same in return', were published on the Free Press' Facebook page, raising negative feelings against the Muslim community, which is already suffering bigotry and discrimination." But Mouhni seems to have reason to be concerned, according to Greg Lipper, the senior litigation counsel at Americans United for Separation of Church and State. "It would be one thing if this were an Easter egg hunt in an otherwise secular setting," he told the Detroit Free Press. "But this invitation was for an Easter egg hunt at a Christian church — and so the event has much clearer religious connotations. Context matters." "The younger the children, the greater the concern," Lipper added. "Children are more impressionable than adults, and elementary schoolchildren are more impressionable than any other students. And so the school district has to be especially careful about appearing to endorse ... a particular religion."
