Posted on 03/15/2012 12:15:54 PM PDT by Pyro7480
The recent exchange between an atheist and a judge in a small courtroom in rural Pennsylvania could have come out of a Dickens novel. Magisterial District Judge Mark Martin was hearing a case in which an irate Muslim stood accused of attacking an atheist, Ernest Perce, because he was wearing a "Zombie Mohammed" costume on Halloween. Although the judge had "no doubt that the incident occurred," he dismissed the charge of criminal harassment against the Muslim and proceeded to browbeat Perce. Martin explained that such a costume would have led to Perce's execution in many countries under sharia, or Islamic law, and added that Perce's conduct fell "way outside your bounds of 1st Amendment rights."
...Western nations appear to have fallen out of love with free speech and are criminalizing more and more kinds of speech through the passage of laws banning hate speech, blasphemy and discriminatory language. Ironically, these laws are defended as fighting for tolerance and pluralism....Last year, on the Isle of Wight, musician Simon Ledger was arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated harassment after a passing person of Chinese descent was offended by Ledger's singing 'Kung Fu Fighting.' Although the charges were eventually dropped, the arrest sends a chilling message that such songs are voiced at one's own risk....
Where governments once punished to achieve obedience, they now punish to achieve tolerance. As free speech recedes in the West, it is...silence that is following in its wake
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Yeah. If you didn’t want to get raped I guess you shouldn’t have worn a bathing suit at the beach.
What many girls and women wear to the gym or the mall in the summer could get them killed in Muslim countries, but that doesn’t make it against the law here.
Scary.
There is no free speech today. These days, you can be sued, fired, arrested for voicing an opinion and that is besides yelling fire in a theater or slandering a given person !
On that judge, I wonder that his background is like education, upbringing, what part of the US is he from, etc.
The judge’s appeal to Sharia normalizes intolerance, especially murderous intolerance. Had the Muslim killed his antagonist would the judge have demurred?
As free speech recedes in the West, it is...sharia that is following in its wake.
There, fixed it.
This judge should be disbarred.
I read elsewhere the judge is a mohammedan.
Those of you who live in the judge's district can do your part by starting a campaign to vote him out when he comes up for re-election.
Debunked long ago with actual transcript of what he said, versus what was thought to have been heard. Case of not ‘hearing’ or ‘saying’ NOT clearly. Still bothered by his decision.
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