DETROIT — The Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan has said it is concerned about the security of metro Detroit mosques during a Nov. 11 and 12 vigil at Detroit’s Ford Field stadium.

A group known as Transformation Michigan and right-wing activist Lou Engle organized the event which is expected to draw thousands of Christians who will gather, fast, and pray for, among other things, the conversion of Muslims. 

CAIR has said that the group has posted strong anti-Muslim rhetoric on their website. One speaker at the vigil, Jerry Boykin, is a former lieutenant general who was forced to step down in 2003 after he told a church group, while wearing his uniform, that the U.S. was engaged in a Christian war against Islam, according to The Michigan Messenger. 

In response to the event, Rev. Charles Williams II, Pastor of Detroit’s King Solomon Baptist Church  and a member of People For the American Way’s African American Ministers in Action, has come out on behalf of his organization and asked local Christian leaders to reconsider. 

“All of us in Detroit have been praying hard for the future of our city and everyone in it,” said Rev. Williams. “We need to keep on praying and we need to keep on working hard for economic and social justice that lifts up every person, rich and poor. What we don’t need is more divisiveness and fear.

“Religious leaders who support this event should really take a look at what its undertones are all about. As a Christian pastor I support prayer, but not to bash another religion, nor to hide behind the subterfuge of political gamesmanship.”