Georgia judge jails Muslim woman for wearing headscarf to court

• Two women barred from entering courtroom in recent days
• Sabreen Abdulrahmaan sentenced to 10 days in jail





A city judge in Georgia has in the past eight days barred two Muslim women wearing Islamic headscarves from entering his courtroom, jailing one, and prompting an inquiry from the civil rights office at the US department of justice.

Judge Keith Rollins of Douglasville, Georgia, yesterday ordered Lisa Valentine, 41, to jail after she refused to remove her scarf before entering the courtroom, citing rules governing appropriate dress. Last week, Sabreen Abdulrahmaan was forced to leave Rollins's court before her son's probation hearing because she would not remove her scarf.

"It's a religious right," Valentine said. "It's our constitutional right that we can have our religious practices, no matter if it's a courtroom or not. He's supposed to be handing out justice, not taking away civil rights."

Valentine said she sought to accompany her nephew to a traffic hearing yesterday but was told by a court security officer that she could not enter the courtroom with her headscarf on. She said she refused to remove it and turned to leave, saying, "This is bullshit".

Security officers handcuffed her and brought her before Rollins, who sentenced her to 10 days in jail when she declined to defend her actions at the security checkpoint, her husband Omar Hall said. Valentine, an insurance underwriter, was forced to take off the scarf and don an orange jumpsuit, chained and put aboard a jail bus with men and women.

"It felt like I was naked, because that's how I feel without my hijab," Valentine said. "You could have taken off my clothes and it would have felt the same way."

Her husband phoned an Islamic civil rights organisation and sought an attorney, and she was released without explanation after about seven hours.

"Judge Keith Rollins has inexplicably, blatantly usurped our innate human rights as American citizens," Hall said.

Douglasville police told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that Valentine was jailed for violating a policy barring headgear in the court. Neither court officials nor the police department returned calls seeking comment. Reached by the Associated Press, Rollins declined to comment on Valentine's case.

"It's an issue of religious freedom, it's an issue of access to the American legal system," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Islamic civil rights advocacy group, which advised Valentine and Hall on the case. "There are all kinds of implications that you can take form this troubling incident."

The US department of justice is reviewing the matter, according to spokesman Jamie Hais. Hooper said that Eric Treene, special council for religious discrimination at the justice department's civil rights division, was examining the case.

Valentine's case was Rollins's second dispute with a hijab-clad woman in a week. Last week, Abdulrahmaan, a 55-year-old community organiser, went to Douglasville municipal court to observe her son's probation hearing. Security officers outside the courtroom initially denied her entry, saying Rollins does not allow scarves in the courtroom. She made it into the courtroom, but once inside a bailiff motioned for her to remove her scarf. She told him she was a Muslim, but then left when he started to approach her.

"There are a lot of prejudices here," Abdulrahmaan said. News of Valentine's case, "just sent my blood pressure all the way up".

Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said the matter does not merely affect Muslims.

"What if you're a Jewish man wearing a skull cap? What if you're a Catholic nun wearing a habit?" Hooper asked. "All would be denied access to this judge's courtroom. We need to know what's going here and why this has apparently been going on for so long."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/dec/17/georgia-headscarf-courtroom-rollins

Good job the Queen with her much favoured headscarf doesn't have to attend.

Hmmmm. If the judge asks to to do something you do it, surely?
It's not a necessity to wear a headscarf.

She should've removed it and done as she was told to be fair.

FGS, so you would tell a Jew to take his skull cap off, or a Sikh to take his turban off, or a nun to take her habit off?

The US department of justice is reviewing the matter, according to spokesman Jamie Hais. Hooper said that Eric Treene, special council for religious discrimination at the justice department's civil rights division, was examining the case.

Do you think they would be doing that if they could just say the Judge was within his right?

eddie wrote:Hmmmm. If the judge asks to to do something you do it, surely?
It's not a necessity to wear a headscarf.

She should've removed it and done as she was told to be fair.

She left she wasn't in the court room.

Her Crime was saying "this is bullshit" while walking away.

The Judge and security ALL need to be sacked.
in the USA they have the right to wear the head scarf it is not a Face covering they can asked to remove it for identification but it is not a reason to deny them entry once they have been identified.
If the USA allows this sort of human rights abuses by their 'justice' then they can't blame anyone but themselves when they get attacked back.
If You are a black Muslim in the USA if it pretty obvious the Justice system views you as a second class citizen and police can murder you with little to no recourse, your constitutional rights are completely ignored...

risingsun wrote:FGS, so you would tell a Jew to take his skull cap off, or a Sikh to take his turban off, or a nun to take her habit off?  

The US department of justice is reviewing the matter, according to spokesman Jamie Hais. Hooper said that Eric Treene, special council for religious discrimination at the justice department's civil rights division, was examining the case.

Do you think they would be doing that if they could just say the Judge was within his right?

Well let's be honest here, everyone tiptoes around everyone's "rights" and "feelings" these days.
All I'm saying is, if a judge tells you to do something, you do it.
What happened to people being in charge and others' having respect?

for the record? I don't care about hijabs and headscarves, skull caps and habits, and Ive always defended people's rights to wear what they like.

veya_victaous wrote:

eddie wrote:Hmmmm. If the judge asks to to do something you do it, surely?
It's not a necessity to wear a headscarf.

She should've removed it and done as she was told to be fair.

She left she wasn't in the court room.

Her Crime was saying "this is bullshit" while walking away.

The Judge and security ALL need to be sacked.
in the USA they have the right to wear the head scarf it is not a Face covering they can asked to remove it for identification but it is not a reason to deny them entry once they have been identified.
If the USA allows this sort of human rights abuses by their 'justice' then they can't blame anyone but themselves when they get attacked back.
If You are a black Muslim in the USA if it pretty obvious the Justice system views you as a second class citizen and police can murder you with little to no recourse, your constitutional rights are completely ignored...  

No you're missing the point.
This isn't about the headscarf or religion tbh.

This is about a courtroom and a judge who rules the courtroom.

This is why there's no respect for authority nowadays. People are too challenging.
The judge says do it, you do it.

Surely?

Do what you are told and be walked over by someone who is completely wrong just because they call themselves a Judge - not on your nelly, I don't believe in bowing and scrapping to people who have set themselves up in authority and then misuse that authority. I'd have told him to fuck off.

eddie wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:

She left she wasn't in the court room.

Her Crime was saying "this is bullshit" while walking away.

The Judge and security ALL need to be sacked.
in the USA they have the right to wear the head scarf it is not a Face covering they can asked to remove it for identification but it is not a reason to deny them entry once they have been identified.
If the USA allows this sort of human rights abuses by their 'justice' then they can't blame anyone but themselves when they get attacked back.
If You are a black Muslim in the USA if it pretty obvious the Justice system views you as a second class citizen and police can murder you with little to no recourse, your constitutional rights are completely ignored...  

No you're missing the point.
This isn't about the headscarf or religion tbh.

This is about a courtroom and a judge who rules the courtroom.

This is why there's no respect for authority nowadays. People are too challenging.
The judge says do it, you do it.

Surely?

You are kidding me right? So you'd do something you consider wrong just because your were told to? No wonder apathy reigns.

risingsun wrote:Do what you are told and be walked over by someone who is completely wrong just because they call themselves a Judge - not on your nelly, I don't believe in bowing and scrapping to people who have set themselves up in authority and then misuse that authority.  I'd have told him to fuck off.

I understand what you're saying - if someone tells you,to do something you want a proper expanation as to why - but isn't that the massive problem nowadays?? People just have no respect for authority - it's like a judges words or a policemans actions mean nothing and people just challenge, challenge, challenge all the time!

Do,you not get what I mean??

Sod respect for authority, when most of authority is biased, self serving and bigotted in the extreme.  Roll over and play dead and say 'yes sir no sir', no way - ever.

People SHOULD challenge every damn thing that is wrong in the world, every single injustice and wrong decision should be held up to the light and stopped.

Well it's a good job you're not a teacher then, becasue if you had some smart arse kid say that to you when you were trying to control a class of moody, hormonal and often angry 14 year olds, you'd be wondering where in the world, the world had gone wrong!

Really, or would the kids be thankful that someone was standing up and saying what was wrong in the world and not kowtowing to authorities who are getting away with blue murder. And in any case, those kids when they grow up need a decent world to live in, not the crap that is going on now with the rich getting richer and richer at the expense of kids like them.

risingsun wrote:Really, or would the kids be thankful that someone was standing up and saying what was wrong in the world and not kowtowing to authorities who are getting away with blue murder.   And in any case, those kids when they grow up need a decent world to live in, not the crap that is going on now with the rich getting richer and richer at the expense of kids like them.

You have a pint but I also have a point sassy: there is little respect being shown for authority from youngsters anymore, hence why teachers are being hit, shouted at and knifed to death.

That's why police officers hold no swag anymore tbh, as teens aren't scared of them!
Hell, kids arent even scared of their own parents!!

Are you telling me that's a good thing?

And btw? If you had that lax attitude with teens you'd be walked all over!

What authority would you like me to respect Eddie?  The Royal Family, with a son accused of sex crimes?   Banks who have money laundered for drugs cartels and advised people how to avoid paying billions of pounds in tax?  Or how about MPs - with a Chancellor of the Exchequer filmed off his face on something in Parliament, called out in the House of Commons as a cokehead and his adviser has just been filmed in a drugs den out of his skull?  Or how about the police?  You know, the people who lied about Hillsborough and were so racist they didn't investigate the Steven Lawrence murder until they were forced to, who have been found to have had their finger in the pie of so many things etc.   Or how about the Church who have so many paedophiles amoungst them.  Or the Home Secretary who promised thousands of people who had been abused as children in childrens homes and by and places like Elm House by Member of Parliament and the great and good of this land, that they would have a big inquiry to bring it all out, but so far has put it off as long as possible.   Or the fact that the Government is doing it's best to sell of the Health Service - OUR health service, not theirs, to make a packet for it's mates, who already have more money than they know what to do with.

You think kids don't notice all of that?  You think kids don't realise that at the moment 'authority' doesn't give a damn about them and we have returned to survival of the richest.

Maybe that is the reason kids don't trust authority, because they see those at the top end of the scale, moraless, not giving a damn about anyone else and doing exactly what they like.

risingsun wrote:What authority would you like me to respect Eddie?  The Royal Family, with a son accused of sex crimes?   Banks who have money laundered for drugs cartels and advised people how to avoid paying billions of pounds in tax?  Or how about MPs - with a Chancellor of the Exchequer filmed off his face on something in Parliament, called out in the House of Commons as a cokehead and his adviser has just been filmed in a drugs den out of his skull?  Or how about the police?  You know, the people who lied about Hillsborough and were so racist they didn't investigate the Steven Lawrence murder until they were forced to, who have been found to have had their finger in the pie of so many things etc.   Or how about the Church who have so many paedophiles amoungst them.  Or the Home Secretary who promised thousands of people who had been abused as children in childrens homes and by and places like Elm House by Member of Parliament and the great and good of this land, that they would have a big inquiry to bring it all out, but so far has put it off as long as possible.   Or the fact that the Government is doing it's best to sell of the Health Service - OUR health service, not theirs, to make a packet for it's mates, who already have more money than they know what to do with.

You think kids don't notice all of that?  You think kids don't realise that at the moment 'authority' doesn't give a damn about them and we have returned to survival of the richest.

Maybe that is the reason kids don't trust authority, because they see those at the top end of the scale, moraless, not giving a damn about anyone else and doing exactly what they like.

All very good points sassy, and ones I wouldn't argue with as people who abuse their authority are just scum...

BUT.
It isn't ALL MPs, police, priests, bankers or Muslims that are bad, is it?
Now you sound like the right-wingers who hate ALL Muslims for the few!

As a society we still need to instil respect for authority or where will it lead to sassy?

I don't hate any of them.  I don't respect them until they prove worthy of respect.

risingsun wrote:I don't hate any of them.  I don't respect them until they prove worthy of respect.

Fair enough.
But we are still back to this: where are we, as a society, without respect for authority?

No we are not back to that, because if authority is screwing us, giving it respect will just keep a corrupt system going.   Challenge the authority, don't let it get away with anything until we have authorites that answer to us and are not corrupt and then they will be worth respect and people will have something to trust and respect.

Don't try and teach children to respect systems that are corrupt, ever.

risingsun wrote:No we are not back to that, because if authority is screwing us, giving it respect will just keep a corrupt system going.   Challenge the authority, don't let it get away with anything until we have authorites that answer to us and are not corrupt and then they will be worth respect and people will have something to trust and respect.

Don't try and teach children to respect systems that are corrupt, ever.

I'm not suggesting we teach children to respect a system that is corrupt, im saying we should, tecach them to respect authoriry until it proves itself un-respectable (is that a word?)

eddie wrote:

veya_victaous wrote:

eddie wrote:Hmmmm. If the judge asks to to do something you do it, surely?
It's not a necessity to wear a headscarf.

She should've removed it and done as she was told to be fair.

She left she wasn't in the court room.

Her Crime was saying "this is bullshit" while walking away.

The Judge and security ALL need to be sacked.
in the USA they have the right to wear the head scarf it is not a Face covering they can asked to remove it for identification but it is not a reason to deny them entry once they have been identified.
If the USA allows this sort of human rights abuses by their 'justice' then they can't blame anyone but themselves when they get attacked back.
If You are a black Muslim in the USA if it pretty obvious the Justice system views you as a second class citizen and police can murder you with little to no recourse, your constitutional rights are completely ignored...  

No you're missing the point.
This isn't about the headscarf or religion tbh.

This is about a courtroom and a judge who rules the courtroom.

This is why there's no respect for authority nowadays. People are too challenging.
The judge says do it, you do it.

Surely?

NO you missed the Detail the One that went to Jail WAS NOT IN THE COURTROOM
she was denied entry willing left and muttered "this is bullshit" while walking away.


AND No the judge Follows the law or goes to guillotine..
Fuck that... I obey him when HE IS BREAKING THE LAWS HE IS MEANT TO PROTECT..
SOCIETY is Broken Because the JUDGE IS BREAKING THE LAW!!!
he should not be respected he should be fought against since he is BREAKING THE LAW!!
Should the homosexual in Iran Respect the judge and go to death meekly???? he is judge with exact same level of legitimacy as the US judge!


SOCIETY DOES NOT NEED RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY!!!
Australia Was doing Much better before such stupid concepts were forced on us by US television/cultural exports.

Authority should never be trusted.
Authority should be HELD TO ACCOUNT and Constantly made to Legitimise their right to Authority By their exemplary actions.

+1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!