The predictable charges of discrimination and claims that the accused — Al-Timimi in this case — is a saint. “Prosecution Called ‘Overzealous’: Guilty Verdict in Terror Case Angers Muslims Who Know Lecturer,” from the Washington Post, :
Ali al-Timimi is a native Washingtonian, a prolific reader with about 4,000 books in his personal library who grew up among Irish Catholics. His parents worked at the Iraqi Embassy and sent him to a Jewish school known for strong academics.
He had little Islamic education until he parents moved to Saudi Arabia when he was 15. Inspired by a teacher there, he began a lifelong study of Islam. He returned to Washington when he was 17 to attend college, receiving degrees from George Washington University and the University of Maryland, and late last year, a doctorate from George Mason University in computational biology with a focus on cancer and genes.
Yesterday, after he was found guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria on charges that he encouraged followers to join the Taliban and fight U.S. troops, members of the Muslim community said Timimi was a victim of “overzealous prosecution.”
“Ali never opened a weapon or fired a shot,” said Shaker El Sayed, a member of the executive committee of the Dar Al Hijra mosque in Falls Church, “and he is going to get life imprisonment for talking. What kind of country are we turning the United States into today?”
Sayed said that the jury must not have been able to distinguish between the lectures Ali delivered and charges against him. “The government alleged Ali incited people to buy arms and take them overseas to fire against people, but they never presented anything at the trial to show any facts relevant to any evidence. They only relied on Ali’s lectures.”
Timimi was a frequent lecturer at the Center for Islamic Information and Education, also known as Dar Al-Arqam, in Falls Church. He recorded more than 500 hours of his lectures and seminars, according to the biography of him posted on a Web site founded by his supporters….
Khwaja Hasan testified that in a meeting five days after the attacks, Timimi ordered the window blinds drawn and the house phone turned off in the event that it was being used by the government as a listening device. Hasan said Timimi urged the men at the meeting to join the Taliban and fight the United States….
Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, said that Timimi’s conviction “bodes ill” for the First Amendment.
“What he said was perhaps repugnant and inflammatory, but was it really his intent to have people go and take his words and translate that into going and killing other human beings, specifically Americans?” Bray asked.
If that was not his intent, what was? Mahdi Bray calls himself just a poor old country Muslim from Norfolk, Virginia, but he is a master at clouding issues and creating confusion. This is a prime example. The First Amendment has never protected sedition.