Man rubbed ham on Quran, cartoons of Muslim prophet he hung at Wichita Islamic sites
A local man who took a gun to a Wichita mosque and yelled Islamophobic comments at a Muslim man pleaded guilty late last month to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct over the incident where he also rubbed ham on cartoonish posters of the Prophet Muhammad and a copy of the Quran.
Dustin Arterburn was immediately sentenced to probation with an underlying jail term of 90 days after he entered the plea on May 25, Sedgwick County District Court records show. The plea came ahead of a bench trial scheduled for June 9.
In addition to following certain rules while he’s on probation — such as staying out of legal trouble and holding a full-time job — Arterburn has to write letters to the Islamic Society of Wichita and a Muslim man, apologizing for his actions and “any fear he caused or disrespect shown” when he went to the Masjid An Noor Mosque and the Islamic Society of Wichita on Oct. 30, 2020, court documents show.
Wichita police last year announced that Arterburn had been arrested after shouting at a 53-year-old Muslim man who was at the mosque, near 17th and Hillside, and hanging “concerning posters” depicting a cartoonish drawing of the Prophet Muhammad at the Islamic Society of Wichita property near Woodlawn and K-96.
Arterburn’s actions caused a local Islamic leader to call for peace during and after the 2020 election, a time when racial and religious tensions were especially high, The Eagle previously reported.
Arterburn’s defense lawyer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Posters were French satire
An arrest affidavit released by the court earlier this year gives more details about what transpired the day Arterburn drove to the society building and mosque:
Asked by a Wichita police detective to describe what he did on Oct. 30, 2020, Arterburn told the cop he got off of work and went home around 3 p.m. that day, the affidavit says. He immediately printed off around 15 copies of a cover of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo featuring a caricature of the Islamic prophet, then headed to a local bookstore around 3:30 p.m., the affidavit says he told the detective.
When he got to Barnes & Noble, Arterburn said he went inside and bought a copy of the Quran, Islam’s central religious text, according to the affidavit.
He used his phone to look up the Islamic Society’s address. He drove to the location, 6655 E. 34th St. North, parked in the parking lot and put copies of the cartoon on vehicles and the building’s door because he was upset over killings carried out by Islamic terrorists abroad, the affidavit says.
He told the detective he “rubbed ham on the papers because ham is against the Islamic religion.” (Consuming pork is forbidden, or taboo, for Muslims.)
Arterburn told the detective he wanted to “exercise his freedom of speech by placing the flyers on the doors” of the building and didn’t see any “no trespassing” signs so he thought he was free to do so because he “believed the Islamic Society of Wichita to be a public place.”
A witness told police “he was flipped off” by the man who hung the posters as the man left the parking lot in a black car.
In his police interview, Arterburn told the detective he left the Islamic Society property and went to the mosque, at 3102 E. 17th St., where he also planned to post the cartoons on the doors, the affidavit says.
But while he was driving, Arterburn said he saw a Muslim man closing the mosque’s gates. So he parked nearby, got out of his vehicle and held up and shook his newly purchased copy of the Quran, the affidavit says he told the detective.
Arterburn told the detective he lowered the Quran to put “a piece of ham into it” and then “held it back up” toward the man closing the gate.
The Muslim man told police when he saw Arterburn waving the holy book around, he thought Arterburn was trying to signal that “he needed another Quran.”
The man told police when he approached Arterburn to talk to him, Arterburn immediately began cursing about the book’s contents and demanded Muslims leave “our country.”
Arterburn had a gun that caused him to “fear for his life,” the man told police. He copied down the tag number of Arterburn’s car and called 911.
Arterburn said in his police interview that he didn’t pay any attention to what the Muslim man had said to him, but that they talked for about 50 seconds and he held up one of the posters before driving off. He said the gun stayed in his car and was unloaded inside of a gun case while he was at the Islamic locations but that he put the case into his lap and unlatched its clasps when the Muslim man approached him.
Surveillance video from the Islamic Society showed Arterburn hanging the posters at the location. A police officer found some on the building’s front entrance “with ham rubbed onto them,” the affidavit says.
This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 2:26 PM.
