Organizers Cancel 2013 Arab International Festival

In an effort to refocus the Arab International Festival, organizers announced on Friday that the event has been postponed for 2013.

The festival was scheduled to take place June 14 to 17 at Ford Woods Park. In previous years the event was held along Warren Avenue.

The one-year hiatus will allow organizers to work with Dearborn city officials and better plan for the festival, the Arab American Chamber of Commerce said in a press release.

"With the move to a new location, Ford Woods Park, we needed more time to ensure we provide a quality event that the community has come to expect from us. The purpose of the 18-year-old annual celebration has been to enhance economic vitality of the region, cultural awareness and promotion of business along Warren Avenue in Dearborn and other members of the American Arab Chamber of Commerce which sponsors the free, family-friendly event," chamber director Fay Beydoun said.

Earlier this year, the city asked the chamber to move the festival off Warren Avenue and into the park, where it would be in a fenced-off area, and admission would be charged in order to have a more structured and secure environment.

In Friday's press release, Mayor John B. O'Reilly, Jr. said Dearborn remains supportive of the Arab International Festival and the American Arab Chamber of Commerce.

"We look forward to its continued success promoting businesses that help drive the city's economy and that make the community a cultural destination for visitors," he said.

Several anti-Islam demonstrators were scheduled to attend the event next month, including Quran-burning Pastor Terry Jones, and members of the Christian missionary group known as the Bible Believers.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by the missionaries against the Wayne County Sheriff's Office this month. The group claimed their free speech rights were violated when they brought a pig's head on a stick to the festival in 2012 and denounced Islam while being pelted with debris by angry festival attendees.

Beydoun thanked chamber members, residents, visitors, vendors and sponsors for their support of the Arab International Festival over the last 18 years, stating: "The future direction of the Arab International Festival is still the same. This break will allow us to focus on improving the festival and further highlight the American-Arab Culture which is celebrated year in and year out with this wonderful event."