… if you are a Muslim.
Judge rules against atheist attacked in costume
Short form: during a Halloween parade in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania (yes, that’s in the USA), an atheist was dressed as “Zombie Muhammed.” This offended a Muslim immigrant, who not only thought that it was illegal to dis Mo, but also took it upon himself to assault Zombie Mohammad. This was caught on crappy YouTube video. The assaulter was sent before a Judge… who ruled that the atheist was a “doofus” and sent the assaulter on his way, no conviction, case dropped.
A while back one of the trolls hereabouts was arguing that it was wrong to have a judge come before his employers and explain his decisions. Here is a case where a judge *really* has some ‘splainin’ to do. Unless something really good comes out, I’d say that he might need to be given an opportunity to explore a new career in fast food preparation or entry level data entry. Because it certainly looks like he sorta missed out on the whole “rule of law” thing.
There is, however, another aspect to the story: the Judge, one Mark Martin, is himself a Muslim. The victim of the assault posted a YouTube video with the audio of the trial (a little over half a hour); at the 31:28 point you hear the Judge mention that he’s a Muslim and offended by the “Zombie Muhammed” costume. Right after that he tells the victim “You have that right [to dress up as Zombie Muhammed], but you’re way outside your bounds of first amendment rights” (go ahead and try to figure THAT out).
[youtube Sv9IyrpOnbs]