Freedom Fighter?: Attorney Argues Teen Had ‘Religious Freedom’ Right To Join ISIS

[Panich52]

Americans United

Charges against a Chicago teenager accused of plotting to join ISIS should be dismissed, his lawyer argued, because the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) allows him to act upon his religious beliefs – even if they’re a potential threat to the United States.

Thomas Anthony Durkin told U.S. District Judge John J. Tharp Jr. that the federal government had no right to interfere with Mohammed Hamzah Khan’s intentions to flee to Syria.

“While it is easy to disagree with Mr. Khan’s unpopular religious beliefs and label them misguided, simplistic, or even fundamentalist, it cannot be said that [they] were not sincerely held — and that is all that must be shown,” he wrote in a recent motion.

The FBI arrested Khan and two of his siblings at O’Hare Airport in October as they prepared to board a plane for Syria. The trio left a letter for their parents that explained their intentions.

More
https://www.au.org/blogs/wall-of-separation/freedom-fighter-attorney-argues-teen-had-religious-freedom-right-to-join

[FBaggins]

1. He has a right to join islam

ISIS is either a terrorist group (our perspective) or a foreign state (their perspective). He has no religious freedom right to join either.

[jberryhill]

2. Good argument

If the Christians want a free pass for laws of general applicability, then they aren't the only ones who get to do that.

[geek tragedy]

4. except he's admitting that the charges of true, not a wise legal strategy

as much as it is a kamikaze stunt.

[jberryhill]

9. One assumes the evidence is pretty solid

...such that some form of affirmative defense is the best option.

Aside from which, it is a great opportunity to trim back some of these pathological RFRA cases.

[geek tragedy]

3. Frivolous argument nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. Americans have been going off to fight in other people's wars since...forever.

Abraham Lincoln Brigade, anyone?

There were a few who fought with the FMLN and the Sandinistas in the 1980s.

I remember reading in the New York Times in the 1990s about Albanian-Americans raising money, sending guns, and going off to fight the Serbs.

And I've seen very recent reports of Americans fighting with the Kurdish pershmerga.

...

I wonder if we're arresting the ones who want to go fight with secular, or at least non-ISIS Syrian rebels.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. It likely comes down to an official designation at the State Department

If X group is officially designated as a terrorist organization (a real legal designation), then Y consequences happen if you attempt to join with or fund that group. Otherwise, Z or no consequences happen.

Plenty of Americans go abroad every year to serve out military duty for foreign governments, most notably Israel, where they may even be in combat capacity. These are different cases because the State Department hasn't designated the Israeli government as a terrorist organization.

There are specific criteria and procedures for the designation. This is how governments work. It is not a jam session in a pot-filled dorm room for sophomores: "But what about X? Isn't that inconsistent, man?"

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. We actually have policy and law here...these aren't merely philosophical questions

If the United States Department of State designates a particular collective in a particular way, it becomes illegal to fund, join, or mingle within that collective. This isn't a philosophical question. It's a particular mechanism understood and recognized by our laws.

[brooklynite]

8. The legal question might be: "what constitutes joining"?

Getting on a plane in Chicago? Transfering to a plane to rural Turkey? Crossing the border into Syria?

[gratuitous]

10. How curious

Another young person of a certain age. It's almost like people in their late teens and early 20s have some sort of deficit in their cognitive development that makes them susceptible to the blandishments of certain unscrupulous groups that would have these young people think they can single-handedly change the world or something.

Oh look: Two ladies of the evening fighting it out over who is entitled to the west side of the street.