Guess the religion of assaulter
(WHTM) It almost sounds like the makings of a joke: an atheist, a Muslim and the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade. But non-believers aren’t laughing about an attack and insist what’s really frightening is the way a district judge ruled on it.
The Atheists of Central Pennsylvania decided to walk in the Mechanicsburg Halloween parade. There was a zombie Pope and a zombie Muhammed. On YouTube, you can catch a scary moment. It’s dark and distorted, but a Muslim man comes off the curb extremely offended at Muhammed being depicted in this way.
“He grabbed me, choked me from the back, and spun me around to try to get my sign off that was wrapped around my neck,” said Ernie Perce, who donned the costume.
Both men called the police: one because he had been assaulted, the other because he thought it was against the law to profane Muhammed.
Talaag Elbayomy was charged with harassment, but District Judge Mark Martin threw it out after criticizing Perce, the victim, and even calling him a “doofus.” The audio is also on YouTube. Martin, who has done several tours of duty in the Middle East, said Perce would be put to death in those societies for his crime, but Perce wonders why that’s relevant in this country.
“He let a man who is Muslim, because of his preference of his culture and his way of life, walk free from an attack,” Perce said.
How to respond? Is this a case of a growing use of Sharia law in our courts? Is this a case of a Dhimmi on the bench? Who knows? What we do know is that Judge Martin blatantly dismissed assault charges for an absurd reason. I wonder how he would have ruled had the attacker been a Christian on zombie-Pope?
Friday update: apparently, Judge Martin stated in court that he was offended by zombie Muhammad because he’s a Muslim. Ace has the 411.
Looks like this getting a bit more coverage now in the blogosphere : story up at National Review, and plenty of links at Memeorandum, including The Jawa Report, Verum Serum, and Sister Toldjah.
