Muslim Woman In Head Scarf Barred From Atlanta Court Room: 'Homeland Security' Concerns

[babylonsister]

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/07/11/america/NA-GEN-US-Muslim-Head-Scarf.php

U.S. Muslim group meets with city officials about woman barred from court over head scarf
The Associated Press
Published: July 11, 2007


ATLANTA: Members of a national Muslim advocacy group met Wednesday with local officials from Valdosta, Georgia, about a policy that barred a Muslim woman from wearing a traditional head scarf in a city courtroom because of "homeland security" concerns.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington, D.C., said no resolution was reached in the case of 20-year-old Aniisa Karim, who said she was banned from entering the Valdosta municipal court building on June 26 unless she took off the scarf.

"There's no definitive change thus far, but we have agreed to further discussions," said Ahmed Bedier, director of CAIR's Tampa, Florida, branch. "There was a cooperative spirit, a healthy spirit, and everyone agreed from the beginning we were all cooperating together to achieve the same goal."

Karim, a Baltimore, Maryland, native who works for a Valdosta radio station, was attempting to contest a speeding ticket when she was stopped by a security officer. She said she explained that she wore the traditional garment for religious reasons, but was told she could not enter because of "homeland security" concerns.

more...

[HCE SuiGeneris]

1. Someone had a "gut" feeling...

like a prejudicial, racist gut feeling :grr:

[liberal N proud]

2. Homeland Security is an excuse for bigotry

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Yes it is

[Madspirit]

40. Indeed....n/t

[burythehatchet]

46. I have flown for 30 years and I am treated like an ex-con with a scarlet letter

when I go through the Atlanta airport

[bryant69]

4. I heard that Muslim Women have eeirie mental powers

and use those scarves to focus those powers. So you see that security guard had every right to bar the scarf.

Course the guy who told me that was pretty drunk at the time. And might have been a hallucination.

Actually I feel kind of sorry for this woman; if this case goes national, we'll get to hear again and again how she was acting unusually and what not - wahoos will call into Hannity and Rush to defame her by the dozens.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Chovexani]

23. They're secretly Bene Gesserits

:crazy:

I was attending Brooklyn College during 9/11 and there was a Muslim girl in my Western Religions class who was just the sweetest person you'd ever want to meet. She wore the traditional hijab (her parents were immigrants from Pakistan that owned an awesome little video store).

The first day we came back after classes resumed, our entire session was devoted to talking about religious hatred and intolerance. I walked her home that day because some "patriotic" right wing asshole slashed her tires and vandalized her car with anti-Muslim epithets. She was so afraid.

When I read this story I thought about her.

[Xipe Totec]

5. If scarves pose a security risk, skirts may be dangerous too

and blouses, pants, socks shoes...

:shrug:

[Marrah_G]

6. Was it veiled or just a hajib (sp?)

Because if it was not covering her face then they had no right to ask her to remove it.

[Bridget Burke]

8. Repeatedly, the word used is "scarf"

Which is the hijab. (Both of us are spelling it incorrectly--we aren't using Arabic characters!)

Women used to wear scarves over hair rollers all the time. Women use to wear hats all the time. A few traditional nuns still cover their hair. Orthodox Jewish married ladies cover their hair--sometimes with a scarf, sometimes a wig. Ladies undergoing chemotherapy often cover their heads--with wigs, scarves or cute hats.

Even if she had been wearing a veil--since when is that a security concern? Most courthouses require you to go through metal detectors. A piece of fabric is not a weapon.

[Paulie]

11. But but but! She can use it as a garrote!

Since the guard said it was a homeland security issue, then it must have been as big as Rhode Island! Don't you see the danger? Oh the humanity!!!

Walking in a court room with a couple "brazilian" square miles of "scarf"! She must be quite muscular, with large thighs to intimidate that guard as she would have to carry the dangerous "scarf" on her head but hold ID in one hand and the ticket in the other.

I'm hiding under my desk now.

:sarcasm:

[Paulie]

13. I'm back... glad it was a scarf and not a turban

Turbans worn by Sikh's sure do look like Persians... that would be much scarier.

:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[shain from kane]

17. They look scary, especially with that sword between their teeth.

[Marrah_G]

19. The only issue with a veil is it is like wearing a mask and could pose a danger

Obviously a headscarf should never be an issue since it isn't concealing an identity.

[shain from kane]

30. Make-up, hair coloring, false eyelashes, etc. can conceal an identity. Should they be banned?

[Marrah_G]

32. You can still identify a person with makeup on

I would suggest if someone went to court in clown makeup that hid their identity they would be asked to leave until they removed it.

[shain from kane]

33. There are pictures all over the internets of Hollywood stars without make-up. Some are hard to

recognize.

[shain from kane]

7. Should Homeland Security set up checkpoints outside of Catholic churches and arrest every woman

wearing a scarf?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

12. yes, that would be on par with this bs n/t

[bdamomma]

34. Yes, Lady Liberty is really hiding her face.

I guess there is no such thing as "tolerance".

[Iris]

29. Not many Catholic women still wear head scarves to church anymore.

I guess they could fill up half the paddy-wagon with some 80 yr old grandmas.

[tonkatoy57]

9. Okay, I've got nothing original to add

This is just fucked up. It's like an ill tempered Barney Fife is running Homeland Security.

What ever happened to common sense? What ever happened to thinking more that one step ahead?

What didn't someone's supervisor or boss have the sense to speak up and say, "Barney, don't be a fuckin' idiot. It's just a woman with a scarf over her head, just like what your grandmamma wears when it's windy out and she's just been to the beauty shop".

Secondly, why didn't someone think ahead and realize that doing something this ignorant was really going to piss off the guys down at the Valdosta Chamber of Commerce. No community wants to be made a laughing stock of.

[deadmessengers]

10. Valdosta is not anywhere near Atlanta

Those cities are 250 miles apart.

[Iris]

25. yeah, but as you know here at DU, everything Southern is red and bad. n/t

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[AndreaCG]

15. As if she's going to be hiding plastique under the scarf!

What morans!

[Sequoia]

16. Dumb Georgia.

I can recall a time in my childhood when women wore scarves and hats. Having a bad hair day? Just cover it up, no problem. A person in Atlanta told me that her friends were talking about leaving that city because "the quality of life has gone downhill" since all those people (what those carpet bagging Yankees?) have moved in. I said, tell them not to move here (N. Cal) because we are making room for the Iraq refugees. Not only that, you still can't buy beer on Sunday unless you're in a restaurant. I went there once and it was after midnight when I picked up a six-pack of Dos Equis Special Lager and the clerk said I couldn't buy it. I was, like, what are you talking about. She said, it's the law. I said, what! It's 1992 and you still have that blue law!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ah, Sherman, you should've flattened that city...wait, you did. Thanks!

[Iris]

27. the "people" moving into Atlanta that you refer to are probabl suburbanites

who are coming into the city and tearing down beautiful old homes so they can build McMansions while still having an "urban lifestyle." Of course, they also complain of the homeless and vagrants and vote
Republican, so the people the are running of are probably people you'd acutally WANT as your neighbors. (In other words, the inner part of Atlanta used to be quite blue but is now becoming redder every day.)

[Sequoia]

31. Maybe so...but from the inference it seemed it was illegal immigrants.

However, I do know what you mean about the McMansions....like in the Buckhead area?

[Iris]

35. Well, Atlanta would not be where you find illegal immigrants.

They cannot afford to live in the inner city. They must be talking about the suburbs. No part of the city of Atlanta is a suburb. In fact, new high rises every day remove the affordable housing for the immigrants as well as poor citizens and the working class.

[Sequoia]

36. Oh believe me, there are immigrants in Atlanta.

The people I know who live there tell me that there's some group that's going around to business places to check up on their workers.

[Iris]

37. You are talking about the Atlanta metropolitan area.

I am talking about Atlanta-proper. People tend to lump them together.

Believe me, I know there are immigrants from all over the world in the Atlanta area. I work with them daily and have done so for the past 10 years. But most of them live in counties surrounding the city of Atlanta.

[Sequoia]

38. Rather like Los Angeles, so huge you know

I getcha. Have a good weekend. I don't do DU on the weekends...no computer.

[treestar]

48. Story about this very town, Valdosta

A friend of mine said they were stopped by the cops for stopping at a green light and acting goofy. The driver was arrested for drunk driving. This was in the 60s, but whatever tests were available showed the driver wasn't drunk. Neither were the passengers. The cop let them go.

They were stoned on marijuana. But they weren't drunk, so the cop didn't know what else to do with them.

[Totally Committed]

18. Makes you wonder exactly how many exploding head scarfs

it took to blow up the Twin Towers, doesn't it?

Maybe someone should EXPLAIN (slowly and clearly...) what a WMD actually IS and/or looks like.

TC

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

20. "home of the BRAVE and land of the FREE". Bwahahahahahaahha.

EEEEEEKKK!! A woman wearing a scarf!!! Pass the smelling salts!!

[Subdivisions]

21. And the absurdity that is the American fabric continues. *Sigh* n/t

[sutz12]

22. It was obviously concealing a Wig of Mass Destruction...

:evilgrin:

I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

[Iris]

24. This did not happen in an Atlanta courtroom. Valdosta is located at the very

southern part of the state.

[mitchum]

42. Valdosta is indeed not Atlanta; I spent a year in Valdosta one week

[EstimatedProphet]

26. Enough is enough!

I have had it with these motherfucking snakes in this motherfucking government! Why can't these people grow up?

[AspenRose]

28. Asshats

x(

[Richard Steele]

39. That security guard is a racist dumbass, beyond a reasonable doubt.

I know, because I'm a reasonable man and I have no doubt
that he's a racist dumbass.

[derby378]

41. It's official - thanks to Fatherland Security, "Muslim" is the new "N_____"

We tried to stop this from happening. We really tried. But that doesn't matter anymore, because apparently we have failed.

[pingzing58]

43. You'd think that these Homeland Security guards receive the best training available. They don't.

[nini]

44. I wonder if this will work for getting out of jury duty

hmmm

seriously. this is stupid. Doesn't everyone have to go through a metal detector - scarf or not?

[Tom Joad]

45. since it is men, more often than not, who do violence, bar all men who wear clothes.

wouldn't that speed up those pesky lines at the airport?

[rucky]

47. CLEARLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL n/t

[treestar]

49. The way these people think

Well, if you want to call it thinking -

Their propaganda has informed them that it is a part of Islam to want to kill all the infidels. Thus merely being Muslim makes her dangerous.

RW nuts will go on about how the Muslims are taught from childhood that the infidel is evil and must be killed. They use this concept to try to smear all Muslims as terrorists.

Therefore if this Muslim girl wanted to come into a courtroom, it must have been to do harm. :sarcasm: