There was a hostile welcome Friday afternoon in Dearborn for controversial Florida Pastor Terry Jones. You could say he was pushed to his brink.
Jones led a rally against radical Islam at city hall before trying to continue his protest at the nearby Arab International Festival, but he never made it there.
Protesters got physical with Jones as he tried to head for the festival. He barely made it off the corner of Michigan and Schaefer.
Dearborn police made several arrests after urging the pastor to take a car instead of trying to walk the two miles to the festival.
People in the crowd yelled back and then they pushed back, prompting police to put Jones in a police car for his own safety. The pastor decided not to go to the festival after all.
Tensions were high after a highly inflammatory rally during which Jones and fellow speakers sometimes insulted the crowd and Islam, at times holding up the Koran for emphasis.
“I actually expected them to let us walk along the sidewalk and just continue to yell. I did not expect for them to actually get physical,” Jones told reporters. “We should not be intimidated. We should not react in fear, but at the same time, we do want to use a certain amount of wisdom and we feel like now pushing it now further after what we have seen and what has happened would just be uncalled for and it would be counterproductive.”
Jones told us he was going to go back to his hotel room and then back to Florida on Saturday. However, he said he will be returning to Dearborn.