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Patrick Poole asks the question and marshals the evidence in "Are Muslim Defendants Getting Special Treatment in Court?" at Pajamas Media, July 16 (thanks to Isabella the Crusader):
An otherwise unremarkable hearing in the Fairfax County, Virginia, general district court last Thursday marked an ominous trend with respect to the cherished American judicial principles of the rule of law and equality before the law. The hearing on four misdemeanor charges against Dr. Mustafa Ahmed Abbasi featured all of the usual players — judge, bailiff, clerks, prosecutors, police officers, criminal attorneys, and defendant — but with one notable addition to the judicial drama, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).CAIR’s intervention in the Abbasi case is a manifestation of a larger campaign against law enforcement to use political alliances and legal threats to intimidate police in cases involving Muslim defendants and to establish separate and preferable treatment for Muslims in the American legal system.
The circumstances concerning the charges against Dr. Abbasi are as unremarkable as last Thursday’s hearing. On February 9, Abassi committed an improper turn which prompted a traffic stop by Fairfax County police. After consent for a search of the vehicle was given, police discovered loose pills, needles, and prescriptions written to other individuals in the trunk of the car, violations of Virginia law. Dr. Abbasi admitted that he treated members of his mosque out of his vehicle, also a violation of Virginia medical rules (it should be noted that he is also a U.S. Customs and Immigration Service-approved immigration doctor). Abbasi received a summons for unlawfully prescribing drugs and three others for possession of controlled substances, and was allowed to leave the scene on his own recognizance.
More than two months later, a letter was sent from CAIR national legal counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili to Colonel David Rohrer, chief of the Fairfax County Police Department, claiming that the traffic stop was made on the basis of profiling and that Dr. Abassi’s consent to the vehicle search was never given. She also claimed that Abbasi’s arrest was part of a pattern of “religious discrimination” by the department.
The CAIR letter made a series of demands, including an internal affairs investigation of the incident, a reprimand for the officer who made the stop, a written apology for Dr. Abbasi, a dash-cam video of the traffic stop, audio of the related police radio transmissions, and the institution of CAIR’s workplace sensitivity and diversity training for the entire Fairfax County Police.
An important fact to note is that CAIR’s narrative was derived entirely from Dr. Abbasi’s own self-serving account. Al-Khalili’s letter admitted that they had not even attempted to review any factual evidence that might exist in the case (dash-cam video and police radio transmissions), which could have been easily obtained through an open records request before making their accusations of religious discrimination. Before then, she had not asked for any evidence. It seems that CAIR’s demands were clearly aimed at having their “diversity” training instituted by the police department, as there was no indication that Al-Khalili was acting as counsel for Abbasi (she did not appear at last week’s hearing), but was rather acting in CAIR’s own organizational interests.
CAIR’s hysterical claims in this case — Al-Khalili’s letter raises the specter of “the Fairfax County Police Department’s repeated and relentless attacks on American Muslims” — are belied when reviewing the special relationship between CAIR and Fairfax County officials, including the chief of police, Col. David Rohrer, and the County Board of Supervisors chairman, Gerry Connelly.
Read it all.
Posted by Robert at July 21, 2008 8:20 AM
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21/07/08
Does the police department in USA take all these letters seriously? In Hindu India, it will consigned to the dustbin.
Posted by: Thiagan![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.jihadwatch.org/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 21, 2008 8:40 AM
Does a bear sh-t in the woods?
http://www.bravenewsworld.com
at July 21, 2008 8:46 AM
I don't know how much this varies from state to state, but I thought if you get stopped for a traffic violation, it automatically gives the cops the right to search your car. The article says Dr. Abassi gave his consent to a search.
In Florida, you see it often enough, on the Turnpike, and the Interstates--vehicles pulled off to the side of the road, with troopers pulling things out of trunk and cargo areas. I've seen it happening to drivers of every ethnic description, even (gasp) caucasians.
Dr. Abassi admitted to treating people "out of his car", so where's the beef? He's wrong, and in violation of the law.
CAIR's knee-jerk reaction to every Muslim who gets busted for something is going to "humiliate" the organization one day. But, of course that, as everything else, will be the fault of us najis kaffirs.
Posted by: Abscedere at July 21, 2008 9:11 AM
To the two questions above:
Yes, they do take them seriously and seek the opportunities (even when none exist) to grovel at the feet of muslims.
Yes, bears do those things in the woods and sometimes you have to watch where you step or you will be scrapping bear doo-doo from your boots.
The CAIR letter made a series of demands, including an internal affairs investigation of the incident, a reprimand for the officer who made the stop, a written apology for Dr. Abbasi, a dash-cam video of the traffic stop, audio of the related police radio transmissions, and the institution of CAIR’s workplace sensitivity and diversity training for the entire Fairfax County Police.
No doubt the charges will eventually be dropped; a formal appology will be instituted; the offending officer will be reprimanded -- how dare he enforce the law against muslims; and the Fairfax County affair will be consumated with a multi-million dollar settlement to the agrieved and outraged Abbasi.
As to CAIR's college of sensitivity knowledge?
No doubt this will be instituted post-haste. The only question is whether or not Fairfax County can get a pricing discount if they act quickly enough!
Classes are filling up fast; so they had better hurry as seating is limited!
Posted by: witness at July 21, 2008 9:20 AM
"She[Nadhira Al-Khalili] also claimed that Abbasi’s arrest was part of a pattern of “religious discrimination” by the department."
"May I see your license and registration, sir? Are you a Muslim, sir? Please step out of the car, sir--I have to follow the pattern and search your car, sir."
Bullcrap! Has this Al-Khalili broad presented any evidence that proves a "pattern"? No? Will she be able to produce such evidence, should it be called for? No.
at July 21, 2008 9:31 AM
Bullcrap! Has this Al-Khalili broad presented any evidence that proves a "pattern"? No? Will she be able to produce such evidence, should it be called for? No.
When you enjoy the exalted muslim status, you need not prove anything. You merely accuse and pretend to be "outraged," and the political world is your oyster.
If "proof" is ever required for some unforseen reason, the Fairfax County Police will manufacture it upon demand.
Hope I'm wrong; I really do -- but the fact that this is happening in the first place is disturbing.
at July 21, 2008 9:51 AM
CAIR?...Is CAIR still around? I thought it died.
Hooper must be keeping it alive by artificial respiration. CAIR is like crabgrass, you can knock it down and beat it back, but you can't kill it.
As long as there is even a quarter inch piece of live crabgrass left, it will morph into lots of crabgrass.
At the moment all CAIR can do is send letters. That's cheap, it's expensive to sue everyone.
If I were the chief (city attorney maybe?) I would send CAIR a return letter reminding them to be careful how they word these demands lest they be considered terrorist threats to a law enforcement agency...
at July 21, 2008 12:03 PM
No, the charges will not be dropped and the officer will not apologize. The good doctor was convicted and now has a criminal record. CAIR's case against the officer lost all it's steam the minute the judge agreed that Dr. Abbasi had consented to have his car searched, several times, and did not buy into the doctor's testimony that he was scared and intimidated by the officer. Luckily for that officer, he had followed procedure and called for back up the day of the incident and another officer was able to corroborate the first officer's testimony.
What was interesting about this case was how the defense attorney spent most of his time trying to get the case thrown out of court based on illegal search, and the other half of the time he spent laying the groundwork so that CAIR could come back and sue the officer for discrimination. It backfired when the judge turned out to have a brain, along with commonsense, and to have been well read in the Constitution. The doctor's testimony was so diametrically opposed to what the officer had testified to that it was obvious that one of them was lying. When the judge wouldn't allow the case to be thrown out, the doctor copped a plea. I don't think he was expecting that outcome at all.
The officer was very detail oriented and meticulous in his testimony. He described the precautions he takes to protect himself when pulling someone over. He repeatedly asked the doctor if it was okay to search his car and the doctor said yes, in fact the officer said the doctor was overly cooperative which made him suspicious. He said that when he asked the doctor to step out of the car and told him he was going to search him, the doctor went over and leaned over the front of the squad car with his hands on the hood. The officer said he started to chuckle and told the doctor he had been watching too much TV, that that wasn't how the officer searched people. He told the doctor to put his hands behind his head and the officer used one hand to hold his thumbs while he patted down one side of the doctor and then he switched hands and patted the doctor down the other side. He again asked the doctor if he could search his car and the doctor said yes. When the officer got to the trunk he asked the doctor if he had any thing that could hurt the officer in the trunk, guns, knives, needles and the officer said no. when the officer opened the trunk and found seven syringes along with loose pills and cotaniers of pills rolling around, he said, "I thought you said there weren't any needles in here," to which the doctor said nothing.
The good doctor was caught red handed. That is why CAIR filed the lawsuit, to intimidate the officer into backing down. Unfortunately for CAIR, they picked on the wrong guy.
Posted by: Isabellathecrusader at July 21, 2008 12:54 PM
BTW guys, buy Brad Thor's book The Last Patriot, read it and pass it on to everyone you know. It will blow your mind if you've been a faithful student here at Jihad Watch U because Thor describes in great detail in his book, all the things we've been reading about here since JW started. It is probably the most concise yet informative description of the games CAIR plays on a daily basis that we here have all come to understand. And it's the coolest book; you will not be able to put it down. Anyone who works in the intelligence or national security fields will appreciate it's dead on accuracy.
CAIR is not winning guys, it's losing, but it still has it's smoke machine, along with all it's mirrors, working on full blast. But anyone with determination and a lung full of air or a good ceiling fan, can blow them away. It just takes getting off our asses and doing it.
Posted by: Isabellathecrusader at July 21, 2008 1:04 PM
I'm white and have been pulled over plenty of times for "speeding". Since I am German I shouldn't have to drive so slow since in my native countries we have Autobahns.
/sarc off
PS. I never run red lights or stupid stuff like that. Try and drive the speed limit and you will see how fast you are tailgated by all kinds of big rigs, by the way.
Posted by: Ummah Gummah at July 21, 2008 2:39 PM
Isabellathecrusader
I hope you are correct; I would like to see the officer sue CAIR for harassment and file additional charges for trying to fix a ticket.
Posted by: witness at July 21, 2008 4:10 PM
Witness,
I doubt that he will sue but he certainly has learned a lot about CAIR since then and, let's just say, they will not be doing lunch together anytime soon.
Posted by: Isabellathecrusader at July 21, 2008 5:17 PM
In the past, prisoners would create their own fony religions so they could file meaningless law suits. If Muslims use their religion to file fony law suits, I would not be a bit surprised. Traffic ticket complaints are only the beginning of what our legal system could face in the future if such behavior is not stopped.
Posted by: Christian at July 21, 2008 6:09 PM
An Act To Protect First Responders Fighting Terrorism
http://www.newenglishreview.org/custpage.cfm/frm/23242/sec_id/23242
Posted by: Isabellathecrusader at July 21, 2008 7:48 PM
"Is CAIR using political alliances and legal threats to get special treatment for Muslims from courts?"
Of course they are, and, given time, they'll be a protected class, just as other minorities are.
And it'll probably happen after Obama gets in.
at July 21, 2008 10:36 PM
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