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Saudi Webmaster Acquitted of Terrorism Charges
terrymr writes "Saudi Student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen was found not guilty on charges that he 'rendered techical assistance to terrorists' by acting as the webmaster for an Islamic charity. Said one juror: 'The part that surprised me was when I read the First Amendment instructions. I was surprised to learn that people could say whatever they want... providing it would not cause imminent action.'" You might remember our previous coverage of this story. In addition, the AP (via CNN) has more information as well.
I actually went to school with the guy and he didn't seem so bad. Just goes to show what assumptions will get ya.
FuckTheFuckingFuckers.com - Post your th
I sometimes browse around some so called "islamic" webistes to see what they are talking about, some of them are genuinly religious with moderate tone and basically teaching ppl. about Islam or offering services like prayer times and Qura'an lessons and other usefull/intresting stuff.
HOWEVER, recently I've witnessed the influx of HATE sites claiming to be "islamic" sites. The preech hate and praise desruction. I'm all for free speech, but the freedom of a group or indivduals aren't absolute, and it shouldn't infringe or in anyway threaten the freedoms of others. In these sites they are calling for attacks on western intrests everywhere. They cheer for teh killing of westerners and/or Chrstians and calling for more acts like teh ones we saw in Saudi. I think the freedom of speech those ppl. have should be revoked because they very grossly abused.
bare in mind I'm a Muslim, and I'm not flaming Islam or have any hidden agenda.
Won't somebody please think of the Karma!
Seriously. I got a bit curious a while back. I know that Republicans are strong among religious conservatives and major industry, and Democrats among skilled professionals and academics (the sort of people who are most commonly on the Internet). Possibly as a result, there are a fair number of liberal forums out there.
So, just out of curiosity, I decided to track down a couple of conservative forums. I was curious as to some conservative viewpoints on a couple things.
And I couldn't *find* any. Liberal forums are all over the place, but conservative forums are *damned* hard to find. Finally, I ran across freerepublic.com and took a look. Freerepublic was the *only* active conservative forum that I ran across, and it seemed to be quite small, incredibly amateurish, with rampant misspellings and grammatical errors, and boasted an absolute horde of *dumb* users. If people made the kind of logic errors they do on freerepublic on kuro5hin, they'd get immediately called out.
May we never see th
According to the CNN article, he faces deportation after his trial, win or lose. His family is already back in Saudi Arabia, and he expects to join them. However, no details as to why he is being deported. He did face several counts of visa fraud, but he was acquitted on those counts! Why is he still being shipped out?
What kind of legal circus has been set up, when you either spend time in jail or get kicked out of the country? Was he really here illegally, or is the government just deporting him because they know he doesn't have the resources to fight TWO legal battles back to back? Neat way to get rid of the problem, from a Dept of Homeland Security asshat point of view.
Let's try an experimental viewpoint out:
They're about 600 years, developmentally, behind you guys.
They're right now in the "temper tantrum" stage. The Christians embarked on the Crusades at this point in their development.
"Muslim moderates aren't obligated to feel outrage over the extremists, especially not for your benefit."
Right, just like I'm not obligated to feel outrage over the prisoner abuse in Iraq.
Except that I do. Beacause I'm a person who wants to stand by my principles and who opposes torture, even if it is done by US soldiers.
Sorry, but if moderate Muslims are against terrorism, then why *aren't* they outraged. If you aren't outraged, then you are essentially condoning the terrorism.
I don't believe in a black-and-white world. It is perfectly acceptable for others to hate the United States. We have done a lot of things that are not acceptable. I am outraged at what we are doing right now.
But terrorism is unacceptable. Just is it's not OK for the Isrelis to bomb apartments, it's not acceptable for Palestinains to bomb Isreli restaurants. It's not OK for you to kill another human except in extremely limited circumstances (and, yes, I am against capital punishment).
If you cannot take a stand against torture and murder, then what do you stand for? If you cannot feel outraged that your people are killing innocent people, if you cannot feel outraged at the decapitation of an American soldier, then what do you stand for?
Muslim moderates *ARE* obligated to take a stand against extremism. It is *NOT* acceptable to stand quietly while such unacceptable acts are commited. Just as I am obligated to take a stand against the actions of US soldiers (and to take a stand against US policy), Muslims are obligated to take a stand against murder.
Unless, of course, they believe it is acceptable.
Sidenote:
I agree that Christians aren't exactly clean either. Religous extremeists are dangerous whatever their belif system is. Conservative Christians scare me as well - I, for one, believe that religion and politics should stay distinctly seperate.
That's interesting that you say it is a new McCarthyism. I had come to the same conclusion. We are seeing a general social breakdown in the United States. Consider the Enron fraud and the WorldCom fraud and the Tyco fraud, for example. Large companies are self-destructing.
The U.S. government is another example: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government
McCarthyism cannot be blamed on McCarthy. He was just one crazy person. There are always crazy people. It was the people who participated and didn't speak up that changed McCarthy from one crazy man to a social movement called McCarthyism.
QOTD: Said one juror: 'The part that surprised me was when I read the First Amendment instructions. I was surprised to learn that people could say whatever they want... providing it would not cause imminent action.'"
Sweet fscking Jesus! This is seriously scary stuff. You Americans are always on about Freedom, Democracy and Human Rights. But it seems to me that what this illustrates more than anything is that the average American simply doesn't know and/or care, when it can come as a surprise, that your constitution gives you these rights. No wonder that the GWB can get away with anything!
Now, to look at this from another angle. You know, when people are starving, all they think about is food, and when they are thirsty, nothing seems more attractive than water. So why are subjects like 'freedom', 'democracy' and 'human rights' so important to Americans?
"The guy was complicit in the most heinous ongoing crime since the 1940s..."
What about the U.S. government killing 2,000,000 Vietnamese? Where does that fit in?
What about the fact that the U.S. government has bombed 24 countries since the Second World War: History surrounding the U.S. war with Iraq: Four short stories. Where does that fit in?
"The media down plays the fact that thousands of Muslims ARE living in our Country!" - SheLion
Perhaps nobody has explained to everyone yet that Muslim is not a synonym for terrorist. It's extremely disheartening to see Americans who hold this belief so readily and elicits memories of Japanese concentration camps in America during World War II.
Have we really learned anything from past mistakes?