There is yet another brouhaha brewing in Pennsylvania on religion. Last month, it was the Year of the Bible incident, which clearly violated the 1st Amendment and a little known principle known as the Separation of Church and State.
This week’s brouhaha was Zombie Mohammed. Atheist Ernie Perce choose to dress as Z. M. for the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade along with Zombie Pope and Zombie Jesus. As can be seen on his YouTube report, Ernie was attacked by parade spectator, Talaag Elbayomy, who is Muslim and took great offense at the costume. Ernie brought charges. Talaag should have been fined and reminded that, no matter how offensive the costume was to him personally, you don’t attack parade marchers.
Unfortunately, to Ernie’s surprise the judge, Mark Martin, was very supportive of Islam and also took offense. He not only did he throw out the case, but ridiculed Ernie as a doofus. Here are the Judge’s very words:
Well, having had the benefit of having spent over two-and-a-half years in predominantly Muslim countries, I think I know a little bit about the faith of Islam. In fact, I have a copy of the Quran here, and I would challenge you, Sir, to show me where it says in the Quran that Muhammad arose and walked among the dead. I think you misinterpreted a couple of things. So before you start mocking somebody else’s religion, you might want to find out a little more about it. It kind of makes you look like a doofus. …
In many other Muslim-speaking countries, err, excuse me, many Arabic-speaking countries, predominantly Muslim, something like this is definitely against the law there, in their society. In fact, it could be punished by death, and frequently is, in their society.
Here in our society, we have a Constitution that gives us many rights, specifically First Amendment rights. It’s unfortunate that some people use the First Amendment to deliberately provoke others. I don’t think that’s what our forefathers intended. I think our forefathers intended to use the First Amendment so we can speak with our mind, not to piss off other people and cultures – which is what you did.
Actually, the First Amendment is exactly that: The right to piss off other people and cultures. Ok, the forefathers did not use quite those words (although my 1st Amendment rights allow me to say that is what they meant, whether they did nor did not). The NY Times put more eloquently at “Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech“
The not-so-good Judge goes on:
I don’t think you’re aware, Sir, there’s a big difference between how Americans practice Christianity – I understand you’re an atheist – but see Islam is not just a religion. It’s their culture, their culture, their very essence, their very being. They pray five times a day toward Mecca. To be a good Muslim before you die, you have to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, unless you’re otherwise told you cannot because you’re too ill, too elderly, whatever, but you must make the attempt. Their greeting is ‘Salam alaikum, wa-laikum as-Salam,’ uh, ‘May God be with you.’
Whenever it is very common, their language, when they’re speaking to each other, it’s very common for them to say, uh, Allah willing, this will happen. It’s, they’re so immersed in it. And what you’ve done is, you’ve completely trashed their essence, their being. They find it very, very, very offensive. I’m a Muslim. I find it offensive. I find what’s on the other side of this [sign] very offensive. But you have that right, but you are way outside your bounds of First Amendment rights. …
I’ve spent about seven years living in other countries. When we go to other countries, it’s not uncommon for people to refer to us as ‘ugly Americans.’ This is why we hear it referred to as ‘ugly Americans,’ because we’re so concerned about our own rights, we don’t care about other people’s rights. As long as we get our say, but we don’t care about the other people’s say.
If we want to talk about offensive behavior, let’s start with the Westboro Bapist Church, which to the chagrin of many, is protected under the 1st Amendment. As has been said many times, you don’t need the 1st Amendment to protect speech you agree with. It is only the speech you abhor that is in need of protection. Judge Martin is so far off base, I look forward to his censure or dismissal from the bench.
The weird twist on this story in that not only are the atheist blogs upset, but the right-wing is aghast. The National Review Online referred to it the “The Sharia Court of Pennsylvania.” The World Net Daily wrote “Judge Martin dismissed the charges and purportedly belittled the atheist victim.” This is the very same blog that in December wrote lines like:
Atheists and “free-thinkers” sue cities into submission; Atheists attack nativity; Atheists are forcing their beliefs on the community.
Now WND talks about the “atheist victim”. Should I be impressed? Not quite yet. The reason we can’t give Islam special status is the exact same reason we shouldn’t elevate Christianity to special place. We need to keep religion out of government and we need to honor all parts of the 1st Amendment.
Unfortunately, Judge Martin Doofus is not even close.
