DEARBORN, MI (ANS) -- Four Christian missionaries who were arrested at Dearborn's Arab American Festival last month were arraigned Monday on misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace.

According to www.clickondetroit.com , charged were Negeen Mayel, Dr. Nabeel Qureshi, Paul Rezkalla and David Wood Mayel, all members of a group called "Acts 17 Apologetics."

The website says Negeen Mayel faces an additional charge of disobeying an officer.

All four defendants pleaded not guilty.

The four were arrested on June 18 while handing out Christian literature and videotaping themselves.

The website reports the group said they were arrested over religion, but police insist that it's not true, and continue to stand behind their arrest.

The website also stated that Dearborn Mayor Jack O'Reilly defends his police department's arrest, saying he saw the video police confiscated from them and he believes the missionaries came into town to cause trouble.

The website article says Reilly believes the video shows the group's ulterior motive, which was to seek out Arabs in the crowd and try to rile them up by preaching to them.

"They look for a mark. They look for someone they know is going to be agitated with, for someone who is going to be engaged in a very heated way, and use that to draw a crowd," said Reilly.

The website goes on to state that Reilly said they use the videotape of the angry Arabs to solicit donations from other Christians to fund their missionary operation around the country.

"That is absolutely not true. We were not looking for a confrontation. We were looking for dialogue and discussion," said Qureshi, one of the accused.

The four missionaries, from California, New York and Virginia, apparently came into town especially for the festival.

The Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the four were not arrested for religious reasons, but because they did not follow the festival's rules, which were that religious groups could only hand out material in designated areas after paying for booth space.

Defense attorneys argued in court Monday that the group did nothing wrong and their arrest violates their constitutional rights of freedom of speech and religion.

"The people are offended by the fact that they are preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Muslims and trying to covert Muslims, well guess what, we have a First Amendment," said Robert Muise of Ann Arbor, who wants a breakdown of the charges against the accused missionaries.

The website account of the arraignment says the videotapes are being used as evidence, but city attorneys said the cameras and videos would be returned to the missionaries this week.

The defendants will be in court again on Aug. 3 for a motion hearing, and the trial is set to begin Sept. 20

When one of the accused, Negeen Mayel, was asked if she was afraid of going to trial she said no, "because God is with me."

** Michael Ireland, Chief Correspondent of ANS, is an international British freelance journalist who was formerly a reporter with a London (United Kingdom) newspaper and has been a frequent contributor to UCB Europe, a British Christian radio station. While in the UK, Michael traveled to Canada and the United States, Albania,Yugoslavia, Holland, Germany,and Czechoslovakia. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China,and Russia. Michael's volunteer involvement with ASSIST News Service is a sponsored ministry department -- 'Michael Ireland Media Missionary' (MIMM) -- of A.C.T. International of P.O.Box 1649, Brentwood, TN 37024-1649,at: Artists in Christian Testimony (A.C.T.) International where you can donate online to support his stated mission of 'Truth Through Christian Journalism.' If you have a news or feature story idea for Michael, please contact him at: ANS Chief Reporter