No one was seriously injured, and at least two people were taken into custody.

Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly Jr. blamed Jones.

“Even though we said, ‘Please don’t go to the barricades,’ he just ignored it,” said the mayor. “My assessment is this is a man without character.”

Jones, who is pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., said he approached the protesters so they could recite the Pledge of Allegiance together. But witnesses said the preacher appeared to egg them on.

“They were going to kill us,” Jones said, who denied being told not to approach the barricade.

Jones returned to Dearborn one week after he was briefly jailed — and incited a First Amendment debate — for threatening to protest at the Islamic Center of America, one of the nation’s largest mosques.

He got his platform Friday, but Jones said afterward he was frustrated the crowd didn’t listen. His 90-minute rally criticized Islamic fundamentalists and President Barack Obama and continued to claim that Shariah, or Islamic law, is practiced in the United States.

The speech was difficult to hear because of the sound system, the jeering of protesters and the blaring of car horns by drivers passing by.

Jones cut short his planned three-hour rally, but said he was undeterred by the cold reception.

“We’re definitely coming back,” said Jones, who wore sunglasses, blue jeans and a leather jacket and carried a sign reading “I will not submit” in English and Arabic.

He didn’t say when. He’s due to return to Florida today.

O’Reilly said Jones had his say and would only be grandstanding if he returns. “This is not (a) man of great depth,” O’Reilly said. “We saw the extent of his knowledge today.”

Crowd shows anger

Jones is reviled by many for threatening to burn a Quran to protest a planned Islamic cultural center in Manhattan last year. He is blamed for more than a dozen deaths in Afghanistan after footage of his church burning a Quran in March was posted on the Internet.

He didn’t burn a Quran on Friday — but criticized Islam repeatedly during his speech.

“Islam … the Quran does not recognize human rights and civil rights,” he said as the words broke up over the loudspeaker.

Despite pleas from city and community leaders to stay away, crowds began to swell along Michigan Avenue about 45 minutes before Jones began speaking at 5:15 p.m. They were separated by the four-lane street, barricades and a large police contingent.

As the rally progressed, the crowd across the street continued to grow.

Some people shouted. Others waved shoes at the pastor, an act of disrespect in Arab cultures. One held a sign reading “Unite Against Bigotry and Racism.”

A bus of public school students drove past, with teenagers yelling “go back home” to Jones. Others made obscene gestures.

Tensions boiled over when Jones left the dais and tried to engage the crowd by speaking through a wireless microphone.

A mostly younger group moved a police barricade and spilled onto Michigan Avenue; water bottles and shoes flew and police in riot gear quickly descended onto the street.

Imad Hamad and other community leaders appeared to calm the crowd. He came to City Hall about an hour before the protest to ask people to ignore the event. He returned when he heard tensions were running high.

“What happened is unfortunate,” said Hamad, regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

“(Jones) played a game of dare with them.”

Group director backs court

Hamad said the fracas proves Wayne County prosecutors were right. Last week, they moved to stop Jones’ protest at the Islamic Center by arguing his appearance might cause a riot.

A 19th District Court jury last Friday agreed, and Jones was barred from the mosque for three years by a judge. He was jailed for about an hour after refusing to pay a $1 peace bond. Several civil liberties groups condemned the action, and Jones’ attorneys have since filed notice of an appeal.

Jones, though, said the crowd was looking for trouble.

“I don’t think what we said was that bad, that evil,” he said.

The court case — and controversy — drew out throngs of the curious, angry and concerned, including Frank Godek of Dearborn.

“He’s a Bible-carrying hypocrite,” Godek said. “He wants to burn someone else’s holy book. I’m a Polish Catholic and I have a lot of Arab and Muslim friends. They are good people.”

Community leaders for days urged residents to stay away, but Roxanne McDonald, 45, of Dearborn came wearing American flag earrings and carried a sign that stated knowledge and respect would conquer bigotry.

“The best thing would be to ignore him,” she said. “But I couldn’t just stay home.”

Rabih Elkadri, 41, of Dearborn stood among protesters across the street from City Hall, holding a Quran in one hand and a Bible in the other.

“I respect the holy book,” Elkadri said, referring to the Quran. “And I respect the other holy book. We’re united: the Bible and Quran.”

Jones, though, did have a more than a dozen supporters.

Randy Davis, 57, rode his Kawasaki Vulcan 900 up from his hometown of Maybee, near Monroe, to support the pastor’s constitutional right to speak.

“I’m not here because of his beliefs or what he’s saying,” said Davis, who served more than 20 years in the Marine Corps. “I’m here because they violated his First Amendment rights and he needs my support.”

Carolyn Van Zorge, 59, drove in from New York to hear Jones.

“Many people are well aware that there is radical Islam, and I do support him with that message,” she said.