Posted on 04/02/2004 4:41:25 PM PST by knak
Amish Man Who Refused Photographs in Immigation Proceedings Sues Government
The Associated Press
PITTSBURGH April 2 — A Canadian Amish man whose immigration application was rejected when he refused to be photographed sued the government Friday, accusing federal officials of violating his religious rights. The man is a member of the Old Order Amish, a sect that takes literally the Bible's prohibition against graven images. The man's wife, who is also Amish, is American. They are not identified in the lawsuit.
The couple, who have a daughter, want a judge to throw out federal rules requiring photographs to be submitted with a residency petition. They also ask that the man be allowed to return to the United States as a permanent resident, said their attorney, Mark Knapp.
The man first came to the United States in July 2001 as a nonimmigrant visitor after he married his wife the month before. His wife petitioned for his permanent residency, according to the lawsuit.
The couple were interviewed by immigration officials in June 2002 and told they would have to submit their photographs, according to the lawsuit. The couple refused and the petition was later denied.
According to the lawsuit, similar requests for religious exemptions have been accepted in the past.
Officials with the U.S. Attorney's office in Pittsburgh declined to comment, saying they hadn't seen the lawsuit.
In January, after the family visited Canada to see the man's sick father, the man was stopped at the border and told he could not return because he didn't have a photo ID.
The man was allowed back into the United States on Thursday so he can attend an April 21 removal proceeding. Knapp said he will ask the courts to delay that hearing until the lawsuit is heard.
Yeeah, you're probably right. Terrorists will just have to content themselves with walking across the border from Mexico.
What planet are you living on?
Ever since the inception of the 'religion' of Islam, it has been a movement of warfare and aggression. It was used to forcefully unite the warring Arab tribes and then to hurl that united force against its neighbors to begin carving out the Islamic empire. In 624, Mohammed led his first raids for material gain and to expand power. By 632 when Mohammed died, dozens of brutal Muslim invasions and bloodthirsty conquests under Mohammed's leadership and direction had conquered most of Arabia and southern Palestine. These were holy wars to bring all that the Muslims surveyed under their fierce rule.
After Mohammed died, the new caliph, Abu Bakr, launched Islam into 1400 years of continual imperialist aggression and conquest. The bloody process of subjugation of all not Islam has been almost unbroken to the current war. In 637, Muslim forces subjugated the rest of Palestine - attacked the Eastern Roman Empire along its border at all points possible. After enslaving the native population, the Muslim forces continued in an unbroken series of wars to subjugate North Africa. The thousand years war continued until Spain and Portugal were enslaved and much of eastern Europe.
It was then that the Europeans finally united before their final destruction and began the first Crusades - a defensive war to regain the territory lost in war which had as a sole cause that the people attacked were not Muslim!
The dhimmi in Muslim ruled lands are absolute slaves - they do not have a right to even exist. No agreement with infidels is ever binding, they are less alive than animals, and no peace can ever be reached with non-Islam peoples because Islamic peace is only a ten year truce at most. A pause before continuing the attack.
This conduct is willed by Allah and in the commands of Mohammed. There are two house of the world - those of Islam and those who are not. Islam demands the death or utter enslavement of those who are not.
That is the "religion of peace" and that is how the war started - not the PC, revisionist crap of Islam is Peace and everything was fine until those mean old Christians and Jews attacked.
Bull - a psychopathic, savage rage of genocide blessed by divine will began the war over a thousand years ago.
Oh give me a break! Have I wandered into DUmmy land?
When was there ever an Amish Trail of Tears? Did the US Cavalry round up stray Amish and herd the back to the reservation? Did I miss the last great campaign of Geronimo the Amish?
The Amish made a deliberate choice in life and belief to remain in a arbitrary semi-technical world of extremely slow change of a devotion through simplicity in life in the face of an ever complex world. There is no "forced to live in our society." They have communities from Pennsylvania to Kentucky and Illinois, some 22 states as well as Canada and Europe - and guess what, like any community, these communities have neighbors. No community is isolated and the Amish have never wanted to be isolated on their own secluded island. If anything, it would kill the tourist business.
They need to litigate to be able to keep their schools, farms, and way of life.
Past tense - they did go to court to essentially home school. They won. Game over. There's no big dramatic battle of oppression.
Why don't you think a little harder about our sub-societies.
There are no "sub-societies" except in the Leftist goal to Balkanize and destroy the one American society. In that society, one can find groups of people freely associating with each other as they see fit. No big force issues.
Perhaps you should think away from the Left and these little PC melodramas.
There does seem something not quite right with the claim. How is it ok for Amish to be photographed, even the old order, and have those pictures in ads and on their promotional websites but not be ok for an application. Is there a matching mugshot in police files somewhere?
I also like the part about - "In January, after the family visited Canada to see the man's sick father, the man was stopped at the border and told he could not return because he didn't have a photo ID.
The man was allowed back into the United States on Thursday so he can attend an April 21 removal proceeding.
Sounds like the government let him back in so they could kick him out.
If we let him get away with this all the terrorists will claim it's against their religion to be photographed, fingerprinted, etc.
And claim that we are infringing upon their religious freedom by preventing them from blowing up Jews and Christians.
No; same principle.
It always seemed pretty clear to me that the prohibition against "graven images" was in regards to making them an idol and bowing down to worship them. I suppose that the Old Order Amish may feel that it is best to go one step further and remove any chance of accidentally making an idol, but, as I said, that seems pretty legalistic and not really what the spirit of the Word is trying teach.
I could be wrong on this, but that's just my two cents worth.
I guess I can't argue with that!
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