The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has just upheld a lower court’s ruling that the Rev. Daisy Obi, a 73-year-old pastor originally from Nigeria, and a Somerville landlord, must not only serve six months in jail for pushing a Muslim tenant, but must “enroll and attend an introductory course on Islam.”
The original story was posted at Jihad Watch last December. “Landlord ordered to learn about Islam after pushing Muslim tenant; did judge go too far?,” Associated Press, December 13, 2015:
BOSTON – After a landlord was convicted of pushing her Muslim tenant down a flight of stairs, a judge ordered her to respect the rights of all Muslims and to take an introductory course on Islam. Now the highest court in Massachusetts is being asked to decide whether the judge violated the landlord’s constitutional rights.
The Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments next month in a case that poses interesting legal questions at a time when the country is grappling with anti-Muslim backlash following deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, both allegedly carried out by radical Muslims.
The case centers on Daisy Obi, a 73-year-old ordained minister from Nigeria who is the pastor of the Adonai Bible Center in Somerville, just north of Boston. In April 2012, Obi rented an apartment in her multi-family home to Gihan Suliman, her husband and five young children.
Suliman complained about the heat and electricity not always working, while Obi complained Suliman appeared to have 12 to 15 people living in the apartment at one point.
Suliman testified that about a month after she moved in, Obi stood on the stairs outside Suliman’s apartment screaming anti-Muslim insults.
The following month, while Suliman was taking her baby out of the car, she said Obi yelled anti-Muslim sentiments at her other children.
Then, about a month later, Suliman said Obi accused her of ringing her doorbell, shouted at her and pushed her. Suliman said she fell backward down 15 to 20 stairs, hitting her face on the banister, cutting her lip and tearing a ligament in her shoulder.
“While sentencing Obi last year, Judge Paul Yee Jr. called Obi “the landlord from hell” after pointing out that she had harassment prevention orders issued against her by two other tenants.
These were not Muslim tenants.
He sentenced her to two years in jail on the assault and battery charge for pushing Suliman but required her to serve only six months, with the remaining 18 months suspended if she complied with certain probation conditions.
“I want you to learn about the Muslim faith,” he said. “I want you to enroll and attend an introductory course on Islam,”
“I do want you to understand people of the Muslim faith, and they need to be respected. They may worship Allah … but they need to be respected.”
Obi vehemently denied making any anti-Muslim statements to Suliman or pushing her. She testified she was inside her apartment praying when she heard a knock at the door from the police, who arrested her.
Obi said in a phone interview that she believes Suliman had a vendetta against her because she refused to allow her to let more people live in her apartment.
“I’ve never, ever made a rude remark against her,” she said.
“Why would I do that? I have three Muslims living in the house now.”
Obi also said she believes Suliman hates her because she is a Christian.
Suliman did not respond to messages left at her home and workplace.
As to previous signs of anti-Muslim bias: Rev. Daisy Obi’s property is in one of the tightest rental markets in the country, and she would have had no trouble finding tenants. Her willingness to rent to Muslims is a reasonable indication of lack of bias when there were so many non-Muslims she might have taken instead. And even now she has three Muslim tenants. And there has been no suggestion that those Muslim tenants have had any problem with Rev. Obi.
Surely the chief grievance Rev. Obi had with the Sulimans has to do not with their being Muslims, but with those 15 people living in the apartment that Rev. Obi thought she was renting to a family of seven. Apparently Gihan Suliman had no response – none is reported – to Rev. Obi’s claim about those 15 people. Wouldn’t she have denied it if it were false?
Anecdotal evidence suggests that Rev. Obi’s charge is plausible. My own mother-in-law rented an apartment in her home to what appeared to be a quiet Pakistani couple. It was only when, several months into the rental, that she smelled smoke and went upstairs to see what was going on, that she discovered 15 people had been living there all along – never mind the gas burners that were spread out on the living room floor in violation of every relevant code. I’ve told that story to others, and have been surprised at how many people have had similar experiences with Muslim tenants.
We hear of Gihan Suliman’s complaint about intermittent heat and electricity, but not what likely caused the problem. Fifteen people make a larger demand on heat and electricity than seven, perhaps more than the systems – or the fuses – could bear. Nothing is said about whether Rev. Obi fixed the problems in a timely fashion once alerted. Did she? Are there utilities bills that might show unusually large usage of heat and electricity? Were utilities included in the rent? Why did Judge Yee not address this aspect of the case, to either confirm or deny Rev. Obi’s claim about the 15 people crammed into that apartment?
And then there are the two episodes, a month apart, of “anti-Muslim statements” that Gihan Suliman accuses her landlord of making. The landlord flatly denies having made them. It’s one person’s word against another. The Judge chose to believe Gihan Suliman. Does Suliman remember those “anti-Muslim” statements? What were the exact words that expressed “anti-Muslim” bias? Why does the opinion not include any of them, so we might judge for ourselves? Is it possible that Suliman was quick to perceive as an “anti-Muslim” sentiment what was merely anti-Suliman, or that, keenly aware of the usefulness of Muslim victimhood, she chose to hear, or might have thought she heard, or even, recollecting those words in tranquility later on, decided to claim she considered expressions of frustration by the landlord (who might, for example, have excoriated “you people”), as “anti-Muslim statements. Was Rev. Obi really the “landlord from hell,” or was it perhaps just as likely in this case that the Sulimans were “tenants from hell”?
There is the claim by Suliman that Rev. Obi pushed her down the stairs. Obi flatly denies it. How likely is it that a split lip and a torn ligament would be the only result of a violent and direct shove down many stairs?
Finally, Obi claims that Suliman hates her because “she is Christian.” Is that charge so outlandish? Obi comes from Nigeria, where almost two million Christian civilians were killed by Muslims during the Biafra War, a war that came about after pogroms against the Christian Ibos by the Muslim Hausa and Fulani led the Ibos to declare their independent state of Biafra. Rev. Obi has a certain amount of personal experience of being on the receiving end of Islam, which no course assigned by Judge Yee can provide. And if we look around the world today, do we not see many examples of Muslims displaying hatred, even murderous hatred, for Christians, as they have been doing for 1,400 years?
But let’s say, for the sake of argument, we agree with Judge Yee’s findings. We accept completely Gihan Suliman’s version of events. Yes, we believe she was shoved down those stairs by Rev. Obi. We believe that the landlord twice expressed (still unspecified) anti-Muslim sentiments. Let’s pretend that we find it preposterous that Gihan Suliman might have had 15 people in her apartment, and ludicrous to think that as a Muslim she could possibly hate Rev.Obi, and want to take advantage of her, merely “because she is a Christian.”
What worries is not so much Judge Yee’s finding, unfair as that may be, but the remedy he has ready. Not the six months in jail, onerous for a 73-year-old. It’s the Re-Education Camp aspect of all this: in sentencing Rev. Obi, Judge Yee said that “I want you to learn about the Muslim faith. I want you to enroll and attend an introductory course on Islam.
“I do want you to understand people of the Muslim faith, and they need to be respected. They may worship Allah … but they need to be respected.”
What does this forced re-education mean? It means that Judge Yee is sure that if only Rev. Obi learns about the faith of Islam, she will of course realize the error of having thought ill of Muslims (but she didn’t think ill of Muslims, to whom she is even now renting – she thought ill of Gihan Suliman). Possibly Judge Yee does not realize that Rev. Obi has had plenty of experience with Muslims in her native Nigeria, and hardly needs to be lectured on learning “about the Muslim faith.” But because Muslims “need” respect, it’s up to Rev. Obi to get with the program, learn just enough in some “introductory” class about Islam to see the faith, and its adherents, in a new light, and offer them, like so many pitiful rodney-dangerfields, the respect not that they “deserve” but, rather, “need.” Also sprach Judge Yee.
Rev. Obi has been ordered to “enroll” in a course on “introductory Islam.” Where? Taught by whom? On whose recommendation? Will Judge Yee be making that decision? Surely he will have to, for he can’t expect Rev. Obi to know what course is suitable for what she needs; she’s the one being “re-educated.”
And to whom will he turn to for advice? Will he rely on the local chapter of CAIR, that samaritan “civil rights organization for Muslims,” which is no doubt eager to recommend whatever course offers the most sanitized version of the Qur’an and Hadith? Or will Judge Yee turn to a certified Objective Authority on Islam, such as Professor Noah Feldman, who teaches at Harvard Law School (the Stamp of Quality), who surely must know whereof he speaks, else why would he be at Harvard? Or will Judge Yee reach out for advice to similar Leading Experts on Islam across the country, such as John Esposito, and Reza Aslan (“World’s Greatest Authority”), or even consult that Leading Writer on World Religions, the eminently fair-minded Karen Armstrong?
Let’s assume there is an “introductory course on Islam” for non-Muslims given at some community center or outreach program attached to a mosque in Somerville. And assume further, as is likely, the reading list for this course consists of a carefully abridged version of the Qur’an, leaving out all the most anti-kuffar bits (no 9:5 or 9:29 or 2:191-193), but giving a lot of attention to 2:256 and 5:32 without 5:33. Will Rev. Obi, or her lawyer, be allowed to object to the course she is assigned to take, to show in what ways the course is misleading, before the farce begins? Will we even be allowed to find out what is on the syllabus for the course, and to post it online for public discussion, so everyone can see what is being force-fed, as part of the re-education of Rev. Obi?
Since it is hard to make sense of much of the Qur’an (this “wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite, endless iterations, long windedness, entanglement,” as Carlyle called it), Rev. Obi would undoubtedly want to have on hand a commentary, or tafsir, to elucidate the many obscure passages. Now what commentary on the Qur’an will she be allowed to use? Would it be alright if she consulted a relentlessly straightforward exegesis, verse by verse, that is to say, Robert Spencer’s lucid exposition, “Blogging the Qur’an”? No? Why not? On what basis would Judge Yee claim that that such a commentary would “not be helpful” in understanding the Qur’an? Because it won’t lead to the “respect” for Muslims that is the whole point of this absurd and insidious exercise?
Will this “introductory course” include not just an expurgated Qur’an, but a similarly abridged Hadith? What will Rev. Obi be allowed to learn about Muhammad’s life? Will she learn, do you think, about Muhammad and little Aisha? Or about the murders of Asma bint Marwan and Abu ‘Afak? What about Muhammad’s raid on the Khaybar oasis? Or his watching with evident satisfaction the beheading of the bound prisoners of the Banu Qurayza? What will be allowed, and what will be carefully kept out, from the handful of Hadith Rev. Obi will be assigned to read? Will she dare, in the privacy of her home, to read a little more of the Qur’an and Hadith than is assigned, or is there going to be a strict limit on just how much she will be allowed to learn, lest she start feeling less rather than more respect for Muslims, thus fatally vitiating the whole point of Judge Yee’s force-feeding of an “introductory course” on Islam? Or has Rev. Obi, having grown up in a country split between Muslims and Christians, already read the Qur’an, as well as experienced the Living Qur’an?
It is clear that Judge Yee believes that the more Dr. Obi learns about Islam, the more she will be disabused of whatever anti-Muslim feelings she may, so unfairly, have somewhere acquired. And then she will give Muslims the “respect” Judge Yee says they need (“I do want you to understand the Muslim faith…and they need to be respected”). The If P, then Q here is most doubtful: If you understand the Muslim faith, then you will give them the respect they deserve. Sez who? But the good judge seems to think it is simply impermissible for Rev. Obi to be allowed to think otherwise.
What kind of person believes that the more you find out about Islam, the more you will find in it to like? Oh, the kind of person who knows nothing at all about Islam, but doesn’t think he needs to take an “introductory course” himself, for his mind is made up, and he refuses to entertain the frightening possibility that, just maybe, the more one finds out about Islam, the less impressed, and the more appalled, any person of sense will become. Someone like Judge Yee.
It will be fascinating to follow this case further. Wouldn’t we all like to know what course Rev. Obi ends up taking, and whether she has had to receive the approval of Judge Yee? We’d like to see the syllabus, the topics covered, the readings assigned, as part of the Re-education of Rev. Obi. And after it’s been given, can we please see a copy of the final exam? It would be useful if everything about that course could be posted on the Internet, so those of us who take a keen interest in how Islam is presented in the West will be able to follow along. Why should anyone object? Certainly not Judge Yee. If such a course does wonders for Rev. Obi, why not allow many others to be “re-educated” at the same time?
And whoever is teaching the course will be put on notice that he now has a much larger audience than he may have bargained for, and certainly not the kind of submissive audience he was hoping for. Let’s see if it cramps his style.
Is this case worth this attention? Yes, because for the first time an American judge has assigned, as part of a defendant’s punishment for assault and battery, a course of “re-education” about Islam. And while this may be the first such punishment, it looks like the face of things to come. How long before many others will be forced to endure this kind of sinister “re-education,” until we are all parroting a party line on Islam, making sure to give Muslims the respect that some judge insists not that they deserve but that they “need,” and ready to tug at our forelocks as they pass, just like dhimmis of old, and all shall be well, all manner of things shall be well.

Sam says
Muslims are the first privileged, protected and disgusting cult members of Islam. The judge himself needs an education (the right one) from Robert.
I came from a Muslim culture, Turkey. I would have never imagined Islam would play any role in America. It is amazing that we have to deal with this sick ideology called Islam now on a daily basis. WHY?
Bob says
Because western governments are weak, & afraid to confront islam – slaves to political correctness, which’ll be the downfall of civilisation in the west, unless you class shari’a as civilisation!
boocat says
Because it is exciting to belong to a massive, bullying cult? (Americans seem to enjoy their cheap thrills.) Or perhaps stupidity has something to do with it?
Now she gets to learn about the pirate cult founded by one of history’s greatest mass-murderers. Just what we need here in “the land of the free”.
Troybeam says
If I was sentenced to Islamic classes i would educate myself before and question the teacher on the actual verse quotes and bring them with me to counter his Islam is peaceful BS.
Len Vaness says
You would be wise to study first, and have the instructor put the responses in writing to show the judge!
Michael Copeland says
There is the risk that after finding out about the muslim faith the learner will, indeed, give muslims the respect they need.
Len Vaness says
That sounds as if you haven’t studied about Islam.
Michael Copeland says
“Not even a gram of respect” is still respect.
Greyhound Fancier says
Do you mean that after learning about the fear, oppression, horror, murder, rape, and genocide conducted by Islam, that Rev. Obi would agree that Mohammedans should receive “respect” (or rather, worry and fear by non-Mohammedans) ?
Michael Copeland says
“We Muslims have not even a gram of respect for you infidels.”
Sharia4Belgium spokesman
See “Tariq Ramadan: Respect” at Liberty GB
http://www.libertygb.org.uk/news/tariq-ramadan-respect
utis says
If this isn’t cruel and unusual punishment, I don’t know what is. I hope she can find a course teaching Islam from the viewpoint of Sikhs or Hindus, or Armenians. This case had better get to the Supreme Court. And where’s that ACLgoddamnU?
Wait. On second thought, let’s just start having Muslim criminals who prey on non-Muslims take a course on whatever religion the victim has. Let’s see how well CAIR swallows that!
Manneke Cis says
Wow, creepy precedent. As a European, I do not envy your social climate at the moment. Difference is, you will be able to rectify a lot of what has been going wrong with your next elections. What really surprised me, following your media more closely these last couple of months, is how left-, globalist-leaning they really are. Still, you have influential media outlets like breitbart, fox (business), this site and many others, which are non-existent in most eu-countries. I myself am from the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, where we – for decades now – have a nationalist anti-Islamisation party, Vlaams Belang, that has effectively been banned from joining coalitions -one needs coalitions to form a government in Belgium- by every other party- even the ones ideologically close to them, because, you guessed it, they are racists. The party was even sued for racism -and lost – which is why they had to change names from Vlaams Blok to Vlaams Belang. I’m not defending all their political views btw. Point is, we in Europe think we live in a free democracy, while over in the US I believe you still really do. I also believe that most Americans are smart, freedom-loving people who can now see more clearly their present leader for what he really always was and won’t be fooled by Social Justice PC crap again. Show the world that you are still willing to be that beacon of light, from which people of good will take guidance. Vote Trump!
Sandra Lee Smith says
Would that all those things were still true of America. Sadly, they are not. Only a minority see PC and it’s purveyors for what they are. We are no longer free, truly, to openly speak on many issues, or to practice our faiths freely without interference, except Muslims. I seriously doubt we will “right” our ship of state.
Kepha says
@Manneke:
Nice to make your acquaintance.
I’m frankly starting to feel that what we have in the USA is too little and too late. I agree that Donald Trump probably stands head and shoulders above Shrillary Shrooooooo (Mevrouwe Gieren Liegen Mussolini-houding Ezeltje in your language, I believe). But being better than Shrillary Shroooooooooo is a very low bar for anyone. I am of the mind that it is a national disgrace that such a woman is even considered a possible candidate for municipal dogcatcher, let alone President. It would probably be better if a number of federal judges could be investigated, impeached, removed, and barred for life from practicing law (if it isn’t possible to have them publicly hanged).
Being something of a “not-all-the-way-white” myself, I admit I’m a little wary of some of the parties on the European Right. But I suppose that I can understand the mistrust and anger that a lot of you over there feel towards the current officially-encouraged invasion.
Manneke Cis says
Thank you for your replies and warm welcome. I agree with your assessment of some of our right-wing parties. There certainly is an odour of racism, implicit and sometimes plain in sight. What a lot of people, in the EU as well as in the US, are tired of, however, is being called racist, a-social, sexist, and phobic,…for disagreeing with leftist, globalist policies.
Off topic, a bit; Only today I was scoffed by some dude in a bar, I’ll spare you the details, but bottom line was that his brother had to convert to Islam to marry his Malaysian bride, and he never even bothered to read one page of the Koran. It ended with him ridiculing me for having read the Koran and Ahadith in 4 different, Moslem approved English translations. Somehow, in his tiny mind, because I didn’t read it in Arabic, I know less of the F&@ing Koran than he does, even though he never read it in any language. that’s the kind of bull we face in everyday life. With no paper left to report what really happened, but happy to just name the source-huffpo, buzzfeed et al, yes here in Belgium, our local papers. Not one bad word about Hillary, only bad stuff about Trump who is simply ridiculed over here and portrayed, even by so-called conservatives, as an idiot. They literally call him an idiot.
I’m not saying he is a genius, but I will say he is the right man at the right time. No other traditional conservative republican could, in my mind, garner so much support amongst different ethnic and even political groups. I wouldn’t be confident of a republican win with any other candidate, but with Trump, yeah. He speaks to people. people who are tired of this bullshit, and want to see the US as a strong nation, among others, ok, but not as part of a global enterprise. You are number one. Be proud.
Manneke Cis says
In plain sight of course, sorry. And I want to apologise for coming aross as a trump-troll. I really am not. I’m just a Belgian dude, and in the full knowledge that what you people over there in the us decide come November, will have a huge impact. I’m confused though. How is it possible that with Hillary as only other possible next president, there’s still such a reservation against voting for Trump? I mean, I get it a little bit, but really people, you have to stick together.
Angemon says
So it seems it’s just another instance where focusing in one characteristic of the perceived victim (in this case, religion) makes it the defining feature and apparent damning evidence – Suliman is a muslim, therefore islamophobia.
Guest says
I would like some actual evidence and not just testimony.
Paul says
The judge is a fool. Period.
Kay says
Agreed. He should lose his job.
But was there a jury?
eduardo odraude says
Great work by Mr. Fitzgerald. I so hope he follows this story and we can get inside that classroom! I want to learn about the religion of peace!!!
One day maybe another judge will sentence Judge Yee to re-education. If anybody needs it, it is he. However good he may be on aspects of the law, he can only be an appalling ignoramus on Islam, or a coward. He is also an appalling ignoramus with respect freedom of thought. As far as Islam goes, Judge Yee is perhaps one of those useful idiots the communists used to refer to. Maybe he read Karen Armstrong or some other expurgated version of Islam. Or maybe he cares more about “social harmony” than about spiritual freedom.
One thing a knowledge of Islam teaches: how much BS comes out of the mouths of the cognoscenti. and how unreliable intellectual “authorities” often are.
eduardo odraude says
After all, think of all the intellectual authorities, like Judge Yee, who say or imply that Islam is more or less morally equivalent with the other major religions, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity. Think of all the ignorant nonsense that comes out of the mouths of “leaders” and “intellectuals” about Islam. These people either 1) don’t care about freedom of speech, thought and religion and hear no alarm bells when those freedoms are threatened or 2) are cowards or 3) are ignoramuses or morons.
t. says
” These people either 1) don’t care about freedom of speech, thought and religion and hear no alarm bells when those freedoms are threatened or 2) are cowards or 3) are ignoramuses or morons.”
How about all three of them, e. o.?
theAcefromSpace says
Note to the judge: Do the words “cruel or unusual punishment” ring a bell? Would the judge have the minerals to sentence a Muslim to religious indoctrination?
Mark Spahn (West Seneca, NY) says
This case is legally interesting. If I beat up a Scientologist, may the judge require me, as part of my punishment, to take a course in Dianetics? Are there any precedents? What if I beat up a left-hander? A phrenologist? A phlogistonist? A boustrophedonist? An orthodontist? What theory of law and penology is this judge following?
Tom Davis says
There is a precedent, thought I don’t think it was in Massachusetts. A man convicted of drunk driving was sentenced to attend Alcoholics Anonymous. He claimed that the sentence violated his First Amendment rights, since AA requires belief in a “higher power”, and an appellate court agreed.
Kay says
Is that really a precedent?
That judge must have believed AA could cure the drunkenness., though in reality people have to first admit they have a problem.
But can Islam cure pushing?
An appeal may be a precedent though, if Obi can win.
I don’t believe the guilty verdict here is accurate but even if it were, the punishment is bizarre.
For various offenses, I’ve heard of anger management or community service or education on the dangers of one’s own choices (e.g. breaking driving laws) as punishment —
but not learning about an ideology.
Seems more and more people are afraid to stand up to Mohammedens committing crimes (my hunch is that Obi is truthful and Suliman broke rental agreements). Casting blame is a Mohammeden specialty.
Paul Clark says
Because of this unconstitutional, judicial insanity is why I cry out: Where have all the Christians gone. Have you fled the cross? Pick up your cross and start the process of removing this judge and supporters from the bench and their offices. There are millions of you with millions of resources to accomplish this.
Paul Clark says
How do you respect a religion that thrives on domination via murder and hate? Read the Koran, it is without any redemption, respect or regard for human life. It teaches you how to be a demon.
Neville J. Angove says
Nothing will be believed until random killings escalate into larger terror attacks.
Oops. Isn’t that already happening?
Joe says
The course is pretty easy. It is the same one that has been used for 1400 years (maybe 1100 years). It is “convert or die”.
Crusades Were Right! says
Islam For Dhimmi-Dummies Course (Final Exam):
Q. Underline the answer below which best describes Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah:
A. He was the greatest man who ever lived B. He never existed but was invented in an attempt to justify Arab aggression, invasions and conquests of Christian and other lands C. He was a deceiver, rapist, bandit, slave-trader, mass-murderer who wrote a handbook for villainy on a vast scale
If you underlined “A” – congratulations! You are now qualified for high political and/or judicial office in the USA or any other Western country.
If you answered “B” or “C”, you need to take a practical course in Islam in an Islamic country. (Please make sure your affairs are in order before you go; and make sure you don’t bring with you any bibles, crucifixes, religious pictures, etc.)
t. says
Right to the point and creative, C. W. R.!
John says
Why isn’t this case and the sentence being appealed?
What am I missing?
steve says
WHAT! ‘ she must attend an introductory course on Islam’ ?????? THE WORLD GOT AN INTRODUCTORY COURSE ON ISLAM ON 9/11.
Islam the religion of killers says
This is very interesting, and worth watching (if that’s possible), considering this has been dished out by a judge that would assume it would have to be “legally correct”,, so that means the “introductory course” holders will have to serve up the truth, or the whole thing will be a farce..
The “introductory course” holders should be made to “educate people” with the truth
I’m sure CAIR will be all over this distorting the truth and crying wolf at every “victimised” corner ….
Please Hugh keep all your followers up with how this progresses ..
TheBuffster says
Yes, Hugh! Please do keep us up to date on this. I agree that it is a very important case – on many levels. News media reporting being slack as it is, I’d like to find out things like *was* there anything better than “she said / she said” assertions used as evidence? Did this judge actually sentence Rev. Obi on the basis of a PC preference for the Muslim accuser? And I really would like for all the questions you asked about the prescribed course on Islam to be answered.
And, of course, if Rev. Obi did push the Muslima down the stairs and it wasn’t a necessary act of physical self-defense, *that* is the only fact the court should take into consideration. The perpetrator should be told that she’s being punished for violating her victim’s right to be free from initiated physical violence. The punishment should be for allowing her feelings to overcome her legal duty to respect rights. Her feelings and the reason for them are beside the legal point.
Carolyne says
And IMO, the Judge violated Rev. Obi’s First Amendment rights. We do not have a law such as “Hate Speech” in our country. Our Constitution forbids it. There is a reason that “Freedom of Speech” was the First Amendment and not to be tampered with by ignorant judges. I also question the judge sending Rev. for “Reeducation.” Sounds like Cambodia’s “Reeducation Camps.”
uran says
the reverend OBI is lucky the judge did not order her to get genitalia mutilation, so she could truly appreciate the ISLAMIC world and its sick culture. someone needs to find out what MOSQUE this judge attends. he probably reads the QURAN daily.
Stanton Lore says
Well written article, except it went on forever. My eyelids got heavy less than halfway through while absorbing minutia over and over. I promise you this should have been edited down to about 4 paragraphs. Plain to conclude that the judge is an asshole whose objectivity is nil. Educate the Reverend about Muslims? She came here from Nigeria for Christ sake. Take the Muslims word over the Christian’s? With three other Muslim tenants? Someone should have held the judge’s hand and helped him fashion a decision more in line with the facts.
Charlie in NY says
If the facts mentioned were not presented to the judge, then the case would be one of bad lawyering. If there were really 15 people in the apartment, she should have commenced eviction proceedings against them. It may be that the threat was what started the anti-Muslim claims to begin with. The news articles just don’t allow a clear picture of events to be drawn.
The appeals court recently upheld the sentence finding that, as no objection to the requirement of taking an introductory class in Islam was made before the trial judge, the issue of forced learning about Islam could not be raised for the first time on appeal. Generally, that waiver rule is followed, where issues of constitutional dimension are implicated, it is sometimes ignored. So the appellate court chose the easy way out and decided to avoid the merits. It upheld the six month sentence on the grounds that it did not “shock the conscience.”
It may be that this judge was looking to do some virtue signaling by finding some counter example to the Boston Marathon attack and took it out on this landlord. To call her, a minister, a “landlord from hell” certainly suggests at a minimum a lack of respect for the woman and at worst some sort of bias. Certainly there was a lack of judicial temperament.
Let’s just hope that she does not become radicalized by her re-education. In reality, based on her experiences in Nigeria, she no doubt already knows far more about Islam than this judge ever will..
Larry says
Could the injuries the tenant acquired during ‘fall down the stairs’ have been caused by the woman’s husband in a fit of discipline against a disobedient wife?
Beagle says
One would have to struggle mightily to conceive of a more textbook example of the establishment of religion than a court-ordered class pushing a positive view of a particular faith. But Islam, so the ACLU could not care less.
dave says
hope rev obi records all her classes & takes photos of everyone in the class. obtain multi copies of lesson guides and handouts. she will be rich some day, after her case is reviewed by an unbiased judge and court. on the other hand, she might be lucky the judge did not order COMMUNITY SERVICE down at teh local MOSQUE.
solange silverman says
Islam is an ideology, and, as an ideology, we are not required to automatically respect it, especially when it demands hatred, violence and murder of all non-believers in its maniacal rantings. It is a cult and certainly NOT a religion. It is this judge who need some “re-education.”
dave says
this judge is just doing what he has been told to do by the POLITICALLY CORRECT directors. they control our schools, courts & governments at all levels.
Kepha says
Disclaimer: this is someone who thinks that ordaining female clergy was one of the worst things that a combination of Quaker-esque fanaticism and modern theological liberalism ever foisted on Christian churches.
However, as a teacher in a high school with a visible Nigerian immigrant population, I really dont have a thing against Yoruba and Igbo Christian immigrants. They seem to have an ethos not all that different from the European and Asian immigrants of times past.
As for Ms. Obi’s need for re-education about Islam, I think that given the history of troubles in her own country, His Dishonor Yee could stand to get some re-education about Islam from her–and, if that fails, he should get it from being parachuted into a camp of Uighur separatists training with the Taliban (he’d probably pass for a Kufr Han in such a place).
I am of the mind that there should be a concentrated, organized free speech and free thought movement that nonviolently takes to the streets to urge the removal of all “re-education” laws, the firing of so-called “civil rights commissions”, and the impeachment and removal of judges like His Dishonor Yee.
You call me an ass, I have the right to call you a swine. What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, UCal Berkeley.
Champ says
Kepha wrote:
“Disclaimer: this is someone who thinks that ordaining female clergy was one of the worst things that a combination of Quaker-esque fanaticism and modern theological liberalism ever foisted on Christian churches.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kepha, as a woman I actually agree with you, and here’s why:
Question: “Women pastors / preachers? Can a woman be a pastor or preacher?”
http://www.gotquestions.org/women-pastors.html
Kepha says
I’ve known lots of biblically literate sisters who have questioned women’s ordination; and lots of rock-ribbed brothers who don’t fit the caricature by which the scoffers denigrate “patriarchy” (Gee: if only I could be someone like old Abraham, who provided for such a large household while not having any permanent abode!). Peace to you, and keep the faith!
Kepha says
While we’re at it, why wasn’t this originally landlord-tenant tiff looked into by the proper police and housing authorities? If Ms. Obi was guilty of shoving her tenant, why not apply our good old-fashioned anti-assault laws? Do we really want to prove that American liberals do re-ed better than the Stalinists from whom they learned it?
gbdz_2 says
Using Islamic studies as a part of a punishment sounds a bit too crazy to be true.
Now, if the victim would have been a Neo-Nazi, would there be lessons of Mein Kampf?
Pushing people down the staris is not legal but was it even intentional? Did it actually happen?
There is a strong smell of CAIR intervention here.
uran says
this whole story has a SMELL of PC POLICE. is it possible that the tenant went nuts, when the reverend OBI told her/him 15 people living with them, cooking stoves on the floor, & camels in the parking lot, violates his rental contract. maybe the reverend OBI was attacked and defended herself which resulted in the tenant falling down the stairs. i agree CAIR probably had a say in the outcome. the judge should be charged with abuse of power & disbarred.
dave says
our courts have been compromised by ISLAM
Troybeam says
The best way to use this situation in forced Islamic studies: learn much and turn the tables on Islam. Yes, our court system has been compromised by Islam and judges not willing to uphold Constitutional law, time to get rid of these judges.
Islam is not a victim, it is the provoker, sadly few have noticed that allowing Islam to make great strides in having non Muslims learn Islam in false teachings.
dave says
guess the threats made by the MUSLIM tenant were not admissible as evidence for self defense. she should have kicked the tenant between the legs first. then the judge would have sent her to study mens health issues.