Freedom Secured

The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.

It appears that once again our pesky security measures are getting in the way of a Muslim’s freedom. The Muslim in question is a young woman named Lisa Valentine and the freedom she was deprived of was wearing a head scarf in an Atlanta courthouse.

According to reports, Ms. Valentine was accompanying a family member to traffic court and was stopped at the courthouse security checkpoint. She was informed that no head gear of any kind was allowed in the court and instructed that if she wished to proceed she would need to remove her full headscarf. But Ms. Valentine, being the devout religious follower she is, decided that the rules don’t apply to her. She informed the security team that she had previously been allowed in court with a head scarf when she lived in Connecticut. She then directed several very non-religious curse words at the guard and attempted to proceed with her scarf still in place. It was at that moment that Ms. Valentine discovered the difference between being in a New Haven, Connecticut courthouse and an Atlanta, Georgia courthouse. She was handcuffed by county sheriffs and taken before a judge who sentenced this devout follower to 10 days of meditation time in the county lock up for contempt. Somehow the Council for Islamic-American Relations was notified (surprise) and arranged for her release. They went on to urge the federal government to investigate this incident and others involving Muslims in Georgia.

We have been down this religious freedom road before. It was about 2 years ago in Florida when a Muslim woman sued the state, once again for denying her the ability to practice her religious freedom, by not allowing her to wear a full head scarf and face veil while posing for her driver’s license photo. That case was heard in several courts each saying the state was within its rights, making its way all the way to the Florida Supreme Court which ruled that the state does indeed have the right to refuse to take a photo ID picture when the only ID is your eyebrows.

In both of these cases the Muslims being oppressed were American born citizens that knew the rules. But even that doesn’t matter. Nobody was denying Ms. Valentine her right to worship God as she chooses. These security measures are in place for everybody to protect everybody. But Ms. Valentine is adamant that her civil and human rights were violated. The excess of her claims and the speed with which the Council for Islamic-American Relations was brought in might make one suspect that the whole thing was contrived and set up to ring the legal cash register.

It is important for us to put this in perspective. Nobody in Georgia is putting Muslims in internment camps even though it is Muslims that have declared a holy war on America. Secondly, if anyone of any religion is told to do something at a security checkpoint anywhere in the country and they choose to ignore the instructions, curse at the security personnel and attempt to proceed, it will not end well for that person. Did you hear the one about the priest, the rabbi and the minister who all refused to take their shoes off at the airport? Needless to say they missed their plane.

The U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights are in place to protect all people’s rights to practice their freedom of religion as well as their freedom to practice no religion at all. However, while the minority view is always given equal consideration, it does not allow anybody the freedom to use their religion to put anybody else at risk.

If Ms. Valentine thinks her civil and human rights were violated because she is a Muslim I suggest she make a visit to a "Muslim" country like Iran. I doubt cursing at security personnel there and ignoring their instructions would have gotten her ten days in a Tehran pokey. But it probably would have been a beautiful funeral.

I think it is commendable that Muslims wear headscarves to pay honor to God. Unfortunately some of them blow people up to do the same thing.