Posted on 07/13/2002 5:28:05 AM PDT by Sweet_Sunflower29
More than 50 Muslims and community leaders gathered in front of the Justice Center yesterday to protest the jail's refusal to let an Islamic woman wear a head covering in court.
Depriving Aisha Samad of her hijab, an object with social, religious and sexual implications, was akin to demanding that a non-Muslim woman strip to the waist in public, one protester said.
Rufus Sims, an attorney for the family, said he will ask county officials to meet with him to establish a new policy.
Some Muslims believe women should cover their hair in public and at home in front of those who are not family members. Samad has stringently followed the religious practice for all of her adult life, family members said.
The protest stems from a request Samad made on June 27 to wear a head covering for her appearance before Common Pleas Judge Ronald Suster. Samad, 47, of East Cleveland, was there on charges stemming from a child custody feud.
When Cuyahoga County Jail corrections officers denied her request, she asked if she could wear a small cap to cover her hair, her family and attorney said. Officers also wouldn't allow that.
Kenneth Kochevar, Cuyahoga County's director of corrections, said the officers followed standard security procedures.
"A person cannot cover their identity," he said. "We have to make sure something is not hidden away."
Regardless, Samad, her family and other Muslims saw it as an affront to their religious beliefs.
Samad's husband, Muhammad, said she has fallen victim to the "Islamphobia that's permeating in this country."
She is suffering from post-traumatic stress and didn't want to speak to the media, relatives said. She also didn't attend the rally.
Before appearing in court last month, Samad and her three grown sons - Kareem, Rashad and Khalil - spent the night in the county jail.
Samad's scarf and other belongings were taken as part of standard procedure.
Because of miscommunication and a change in lawyers, the family said, the four arrived at the Justice Center a week after their scheduled pretrial hearing.
A warrant had been issued, and they were arrested when they arrived June 26.
They were released after a plea bargain. The sons were convicted of two misdemeanor charges and Samad's case was dismissed. The case originated in August 2001 when Samad's daughter-in-law called police about the custody of her young children.
While in Cuyahoga County Jail, Muslim men are permitted to wear small caps covering the tops of their heads. But women's scarves are not allowed, said the Rev. Beverly Johnson, head chaplain of the jail.
Female inmates, she said, are "not allowed to wear anything on their heads that would be considered contraband or a security risk."
The scarf, she said, is long, and "anything can transpire" in jail and while inmates are in a holding cell waiting to appear in court.
That policy, she said yesterday, will not change.
"We have not denied or prevented her from practicing her religious beliefs," she said. "We just prevented her from wearing her religious garb for security reasons."
ISLAM is...well, you know the rest.
I will personally donate enough money to transport some of this waste back to where they'll feel more comfortable.
What is wrong with just coming right out and telling these sand fleas if they don't like our rules leave. This also applies to all the other minority dirt bags that don't like the way America is run.
We were ATTACKED by Islamic terrorists last September, Muhammad. I'm sick to death of this everyone-is-a-victim mentality.
Keep your family under control, and your wife won't ever have to enter a courtroom again.
Gitmo detainees can wear turbans; why can't this woman wear her scarf, if searched before entering the courtroom?
Individual liberty is in sad shape as all this petty vengefulness is displayed by angry Americans. I am angry too... but you're advocating a policy that chips away our First Amendment rights...
And it's idiocy caused by foreign policy pressures that allows that. Why allow another place for concealing contraband? As far as I am concerned, underwear and an orange jumpsuit should be it, and they should be observed stripping naked before showering, and their clothes searched while they are doing so.
This ain't no party. This ain't no disco. This ain't no foolin' around! I don't give a tinker's damn what European "human rights" activists think about our treatment of detainees. I do care greatly about the safety of their military guards.
Regarding the woman in this case, and the "religious expression" aspect, where do you draw the line? What about full-on burqas in driver's license photos? Is that OK?
We have a fundamental problem in that the framers of the Constitution did not expect and foresee a tyrannical dictatorial political system masquerading as a religion, using the 1st Amendment so effectively against us. I guess they expected people to have more intelligence than to be brainwashed by this hateful nonsense.
Here's the root of the problem. Muslims feel they do not have to abide by secular law. IMHO the U.S. needs to consistently remind them that our secular law does, indeed, apply to them.
Then, if they find this too difficult to live with, they should be given a list of nations where they won't have this problem.
She has. And there is a good reason for this Islamphobia. The September 11 Massacre, to begin with.
Americans have good reason to mistrust Muslims.
Muslims claim that Islam is "a religion of peace"; that it forbids murder, suicide, terror, and revenge; that Muslims who commit such acts are heretics; that to commit them in the name of God is blasphemy; and that such things are forbidden by "Allah".
Their actions belie their words.
Muslim fatwas call for the death of those who "insult Islam" and for apostates.
Furthermore, this much is obvious:
If Islam is a religion of peace,
If murder, suicide, terror, revenge, and death are not tenets of Islam,
If those who claim that they are are heretics,
If those who commit such acts in the name of God are blasphemers,
If such acts are an affront to "Allah", then
"Where are the fatwas condemning Bin Laden, al Qaeda and their Muslim supporters around the world?"--Maceman
East Cleveland is a planet unto itself - a (another) pocket of virulent anti-Americanism.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.