Jonathon Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, wrote on a disturbing case in which a state judge in Pennsylvania threw out an assault case involving a Muslim attacking an atheist for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
Judge Mark Martin, an Iraq war veteran, threw the case out after
ruling that there was insufficient evidence. But then he berated the
plaintiff in what appears to be an invocation of Sharia law.
The incident occurred at the Mechanicsburg, Pa., Halloween parade
where Ernie Perce, an atheist activist, marched as a zombie Muhammad.
Talaag Elbayomy, a Muslim, was accused of attacking Perce. He was
arrested by police.
Judge Martin threw the case out on the grounds that there was
insufficient evidence, refusing to allow a grainy video of the incident
to be entered in. But then he suggested to Perce that Elbayomy was
obligated to attack Perce because of his culture and religion. Judge
Martin stated that the First Amendment of the Constitution does not
permit people to provoke other people. He also called Perce, the
plaintiff in the case, a "doofus." In effect, Perce was the perpetrator
of the alleged assault, in Judge Martin's view, and Elbayomy the
innocent. The Sharia law that the Muslim attacker followed trumped the
First Amendment.
Words almost fail!!!!!
The Washington Post recently reported
on an appeals court decision to maintain an injunction to stop the
implementation of an amendment to the Oklahoma state constitution that
bans the use of Sharia law in state courts. The excuse the court gave
was that there was no documented case of Sharia law being invoked in an
American court. Judge Martin would seem to have provided that example,
which should provide fodder for the argument as the case goes through
the federal courts.
The text of the First Amendment
could not be clearer. "Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof-" It
does not say "unless somebody, especially a Muslim, is angered." Indeed
Judge Martin specifically decided to respect the establishment of a
religion, in this case Islam.
That Judge Martin should be removed from the bench and severely
sanctioned goes almost without saying. He clearly had no business
hearing the case in the first place, since he seems to carry an
emotional bias. He also needs to retake a constitutional law course.
Otherwise, a real can of worms has been opened up, permitting violence
against people exercising free speech.
It should be noted that another atheist, dressed as a Zombie Pope, was
marching beside the Zombie Muhammad. No outraged Catholics attacked
him.
