Posted on 10/18/2002 10:45:50 AM PDT by marshmallow
An Austell man who refused to remove his fez in court was released Thursday after two days in jail.
Richard Morris Haines Bey was released by Douglas County Superior Court Judge Donald Howe after the American Civil Liberties Union lodged a challenge.
Bey, a member of the Moorish Science Temple, had been in court Tuesday for a child support hearing. Howe told him to remove the fez for security reasons. Bey declined on religious grounds. Ordered by Howe to leave court, Bey was subsequently jailed for failing to appear when his case was called, according to his lawyer.
Kathryn Jaconetti, Bey's lawyer, gave this version of events about her client: Bey left the courtroom after the judge told him to leave or remove his fez.
Bey was standing outside the courtroom visible through a window when his case was called. Bey still refused to enter the courtroom without his fez.
Douglas Assistant District Attorney Lee O'Brien, who was handling the child support case and who said he was unaware that Bey had been asked to leave the courtroom, then asked the judge to issue a bench warrant for Bey's arrest. Howe complied and Bey was brought into the courtroom handcuffed. Told by Howe to remove his fez or go to jail, Bey again refused and was taken to jail.
A representative of Bey's temple sat in court Thursday wearing a red fez with a black tassel. Rashim Barael Bey, chairman of the 18-member First Afro-Centric Temple in Atlanta, was not challenged by Howe.
"I came today to lend support to a brother falsely imprisoned because of our way of life," said Bey, who is not related to Richard Bey. Members of the Moorish Science Temple of America must cover their heads when away from home, he said.
"It is a symbol given to us by the prophet to show our obedience to God," Bey said. "It represents the crown of stars we will receive in Heaven."
The Moorish Science Temple of America, which has headquarters in Baltimore, was founded by a black man from North Carolina named Timothy Drew who believed black people were descendants of the ancient Moabites and that their homeland was Morocco, according to the Encyclopedia of American Religions. The church teaches that only Islam can unite the black man and that Moorish Americans must be united under Allah and his holy prophet.
Islamic religious attire sometimes causes conflict in legal settings, according to a spokeswoman with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. But, problems have mostly been limited to court or jail employees whose apparel ran afoul of dress codes or prison visitors who have been required to remove scarves and headdresses for security screening, said Hodan Hassan.
"This would seem to be a rare occurrence," Hassan said.
Jaconetti said Bey's family is considering filing a civil rights lawsuit against Howe and O'Brien.
O'Brien said Thursday that he was not involved in the interaction between Howe and Bey. "It is up to the judge how he handles decorum in his court," O'Brien said. "People routinely are asked to remove their hats."
O'Brien said he didn't remember if the judge told Bey to remove the hat or go to jail.
"I was aware that there was some colloquy between the judge and some man, but I didn't even know that was the defendant in my child support case."
Howe did not mention the fez incident Thursday when he granted Bey bond over O'Brien's objection. Howe set another hearing on Bey's child support charges for next month. A woman who answered the phone in Howe's office said the judge had instructed her to tell reporters that he would not speak about the incident
FMCDH
Can members of the KKK claim the same right to wear their hoods and robes in court?
Amazing!!! fathering children outside of marriage and then failing to support them is ok...but taking of that stupid little clown hat is against his religion. Aamazing.
Yeah. So's islam. What's your point?
Moorish Science Temple has little or nothing to do with Islam. It's a cult, about 80 years old, with similar roots to the American Black Muslim movement, whose adherents (all of them American blacks) are told that, although born here, they are not US citizens but citizens of the non-existent Moorish Nation and are immune to US laws and taxes.
Unlike a yarmalka or a skullcap, a fez has considerable space to hide a weapon. So the judge had good reason to ask that the fez be removed.
About two years ago a bunch of Moorish Temple people who were supposedly making religious-oriented visits to jail inmates were found to be smuggling drugs into the jail.
That little symbolic dagger can be quite real. There is nothing preventing a muslim from temporarily removing their head covering except their determination to screw with prudential courtroom security measures.
How many nuns have blown up airplanes with C4? Not all possibilities need be treated equally except by the loonitarians.
Strictly speaking the KKK is not a religion. But this is not an apples to oranges comparison. The KKK adopted intolerance to Jews and Catholics in the early 1900's. See http://www.altered.com/dengue/kkk/history.htm for a brief history.
I see no operational difference between Muslims and the KKK. Both despise Jews and Catholics. Both use violance as a means. Both are hate groups.
I don't know about that, but it sounds like something an airport screener would do.
Some would say the same about Islam. Who decides which organizations are vile? You?
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