Liberty Place Says Racist, Sexist Religious Protests Are Hurting Its Business

Courthouse News Service reports that the operators of The Shops at Liberty Place have asked a state court to bar the Israelite School of Universal Practical Knowledge from conducting its religious protests outside the tower’s Chestnut Street entrance.

It claims that since November 2012 the group has met on Friday afternoons near its 16th and Chestnut Street entrance, using a loudspeaker to “take turns preaching hate toward whites, homosexuals and women.”

According to the complaint, the defendants’ comments have included: “You hate the white man? So do I;” “The white man is the devil,” “A faggot doing what he’s doing to another faggot is not marriage according to the Bible;” “A man putting his rod inside a woman is marriage according to the Bible;” “A woman need to shut her damn mouth;” and, to a white person, “You deserve to be hated.”

Unsurprisingly, such protests have discouraged shopping at the mall, but the operators—Liberty Place Retail Associates—say the property being used by the ISUPK is actually owned by Liberty Place, and thus the protesters have no right to be there. They ask that the ISUPK be prohibited from further demonstrations and trespasses at that location.