Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Bismillah wal?amdulillah. To begin, I am an attorney licensed in both Texas and California, but I am not a specialist in family law, and I am not submitting this post as legal advice nor as a substitute for legal advice.

Rather I have come across some very useful and (sadly) necessary information for people — let's be frank, usually women — who have to seek the assistance of law enforcement to restrain a violent or abusive spouse (or former spouse).

The following information is from the website: www.texaslawhelp.org, and was provided to that site by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

PERSONAL SAFETY PLANNING-Information provided by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid

SAFETY DURING AN EXPLOSIVE INCIDENT

• If there is an argument, try to be in a place that has an exit. Avoid the bathroom, kitchen or any room that may contain weapons.
• Practice how to get out safely. Know what doors, windows, elevators, stairwells, or fire escapes you would use.
• Keep purse and car keys readily available.
• Identify a friend or neighbor you can tell about the violence and ask them to call 911 if they hear a disturbance coming from your house.
• Arrange a code word to alert your children, friends and family that you need help.
• Plan where you will go if you have to leave home & a back-up place (even if you don't think you are going to need it).
• In a dangerous situation, appease the abuser if possible to keep him or her calm. You have the right to protect yourself until you are out of danger.

Remember: You don't deserve to be hit or threatened!

SAFETY FOR YOUR CHILDREN

• Talk to your children about a safety plan when you are not with them.
• Tell your children's school and/or daycare who has permission to pick up the children.
• Teach your children how to dial 911 for police and fire assistance.
• Practice your escape plan with the children, if appropriate.

SAFETY WHEN YOU ARE PREPARING TO LEAVE

• Abusers are more violent when they believe that the person they have abused is leaving the relationship. This is the time to be most cautious.
• Get your own post office box so that you can receive checks and mail.
• Open a checking or savings account in your own name at a different bank and try to get a credit card in your own name, to increase your independence.
• Leave money, an extra set of keys, copies of important papers, extra clothes and medicine with someone you can trust so you can leave quickly.
• Keep change for phone calls on you at all times. Using a calling card is not safe!
• You can seek shelter and help by calling 1-800-799-SAFE. Figure out who would be able to let you stay with them or lend you some money.
• If you have pets, make arrangements for them to be cared for in a safe place.
• Review your personal safety plan often.

SAFETY AND YOUR EMOTIONAL HEALTH

• The experience of being battered and verbally degraded by partners is usually exhausting and emotionally draining.
• If you are thinking about going back to your abusive partner, talk to someone you trust about your options.
• Have positive thoughts about yourself and be assertive about what you need.
• Plan to attend a support group.
• If you have to communicate with your partner, take someone with you for moral support & meet in a public place.

SAFETY IN THE HOME

• Use different banks, grocery stores and shopping malls. Shop at hours different from those you used when residing with the abuser. Change your routine!
• If you stay in your home:

• Change the locks. Buy additional locks for the windows, and don't forget the patio door.
• Tell your neighbors that the batterer no longer lives there, and to call the police if they see the batterer near your home.
• Screen your calls.
• If you move:
• Never call the abuser from your home, or tell them where you live.
• Request an unlisted number from the phone company.

SAFETY AT WORK OR IN PUBLIC

• Carefully decide who you will inform at work about your situation.
• Inform your supervisor, building security officers, and/or co-workers of your situation. If possible, provide them with a photograph of your abuser.
• Arrange to have someone screen your calls, whether it is the receptionist, voicemail or a co-worker.
• Have a safety plan to use when you leave work:
• Ask someone to escort you to and from your vehicle or bus.
• Park in a secure, well-lit area.
• Use a variety of routes to come and go from home.
• Think of what you would do if something happened on the way home.
• Avoid isolated roads.

CHECKLIST: ITEMS TO TAKE WITH YOU

IDENTIFICATION

• Driver's license
• Birth Certificate
• Children's birth certificates
• Social Security cards
• Welfare Card
• Health Insurance/HMO cards

FINANCIAL

• Money/Credit/ATM cards (in your name)
• Checking/ Savings account books

LEGAL PAPERS

• Protective Order
• Lease, rental agreement, house deed
• Car registration and insurance papers
• Health and life insurance papers
• Medical records for your family
• School/vaccination records
• Work permits / Green Cards
• Income Tax / IRA's
• Passport / Visa
• Divorce and custody papers
• Marriage license
• Mortgage / Loan payment books

OTHER

• Medications
• House, car, and office keys
• Jewelry
• Address book
• Pictures of you, children & abuser
• Sentimental items
• Change of clothes
• Children's favorite toys/blanket
• Toiletries/diapers

REMEMBER: DON'T RISK YOUR LIFE OR YOUR CHILDREN'S LIVES FOR ANY OF THESE ITEMS. MATERIAL THINGS ARE REPLACEABLE… LIVES ARE NOT!

If you or the person you wish to advise are in the State of Texas, I highly recommend the pdf file from which the above information was copied. It is a succinct description of the law and legal avenues available to women who have reason to fear the actions of their spouses or former spouses. Also, it has fill-in forms that should be compatible with most computers.

But again, the information I copied and pasted is good for a person in many parts of the world, but the form itself will only help you in Texas, and Allāh knows best.

If your spouse beats you, or threatens you or your children or other loved ones with physical violence, or makes you afraid constantly, then please seek help. But a woman should not have to be beaten or physically hurt before she has access to help. You have a right to feel safe. If you are in doubt about whether your situation is abusive, you still have every right to ask for help. And if you are not being abused, but you know someone in such a situation, please do not wait until some terrible act takes place.

On July 11, Allāh gave me tawfeeq through an online article to find new respect for my profession, and specifically for that segment of the profession in which I have been toiling since I took the leap and joined the ranks of practicing attorneys in the US.

Shortly after the capture of Ratko Mladic we wrote a short piece on the political/legal issues surrounding “the G-word”: genocide.  But there is a fascinating e-discovery element to these war crimes proceedings, and how the United Nations faces the need to manage the accumulation, organization, and access to evidence relating to war crimes.  The UN team that is responsible for gathering and handling the information to be used in such trials faces the challenge of making millions of documents in many formats and many languages available to prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and other court stakeholders.  This war crimes evidence originates in multiple formats from disparate sources, for example — TV program tapes, radio broadcasts, news and military photographs, home movies, home photos, recorded telephone communications, and other rich media formats in addition to masses of paper documents and the standard electronic text of emails and other natively electronic documents.

The article by “Project Counsel” is very well written, māshā'Allāh: “Prosecuting the unspeakable: how e-discovery aids war crimes trials.” Given that many readers of MM will have NO CLUE what e-discovery means, please allow me to offer a different explanatory title: “Prosecuting the unspeakable: how one of the least glamorous sides of the legal profession aids war crimes trials.”

And not just any war crimes — the article is about how attorneys are using advanced technology to analyze vast amounts of evidence, in some 13 languages, to help bring to justice the war criminals responsible for the atrocities committed in the Balkans, including the attempted extermination of all Bosnian Muslims, mostly by Serb-nationalists.

A video embedded in the article has subtitles in many languages, including Arabic and English.  Worth reading and watching!

Note: All excerpts and links used with permission of Project Counsel.

*** UPDATE: May 3 ***

I regret to inform you that the May 7 mobilization has been postponed indefinitely for logistical reasons. Please continue to pray for the relief of Dr. Aafia and her family.

If you have doubts about whether Dr. Aafia needs your support, please read below, watch the youtube video, and read the comments.

And keep checking MM for new articles as further information becomes available. Jazak Allāh khayr, especially to those people who joined the Facebook event from this page.

*** /UPDATE ***

Alhamdolillah, the excerpt above is from a message received by the organizers of the April 9, event.

On April 30, 2011, I got this inquiry from someone in Pakistan via Facebook:

Assalamoalaikum
Can i ask you a question?
Why the muslim community from Pakistan is silent on Aafia?
Are they scared?
Is it not their religious duty to raise voice for this mazloom khatoon – qom ki beti – Dr. Aafia Siddiqui? Thanks

Here's my reply:

Akhee, I agree with you that it must be fear. People have told me they do not even want to mention her name in khutbahs or even post anything about her on Facebook! They tell me it would be “too political.”

But for sure that is just a way of saying they are afraid of the consequences. And how sad that those consequences include the fear of what other Muslims would say about them for speaking up on her behalf.

May the love of Allāh fill the hearts of our brothers and sisters until courage rises in their limbs and their tongues, and they stand for justice and mercy for all innocents and all those being tortured, and especially for our sister, Dr. Aafia.

Please spread the word of 'Īd=195872927122314">this event on her behalf.

If you and your friends do not live close enough to join us on May 7, then exhort every person you know to ask themselves who could travel there to stand with us. And may Allāh make our efforts to help her bear fruit for her in this life and in the next, and make them a cause for shifa for each of us in the next life.

Please say, “āmīn.”

If you are troubled by doubts over issues surrounding the case, watch this very brief video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Only Allāh Knows how much of a difference any of us can make in this world, but I ask you to continue to support justice for Dr. Aafia with your duas and by inviting others to attend the next mobilization which will take place on May 7, inshā'Allāh. And if you can attend, too, even better!

May Allāh make this event a relief for this sister who has undergone torment upon torment since the beginning of this odyssey of injustice.

May Allāh give you khayr for all you do and pray on her behalf. Āmīn.

Justice for Aafia Coalition: http://bit.ly/f2aMKt

Please find below a sample of the FB supporters of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. The graphic is not hyperlinked to those FB pages, and they are not listed here in any particular order. Listing (or not listing) a group does not endorse it or its actions (sorry for the lawyer-speak) but this graphic is meant to show how easily any of us can find Muslims and other good people who want to stand up against injustice.

Please support this muslimah by sharing the information with everyone you know who can be in the Dallas-Fort Worth area tomorrow. And if you can attend, too, even better!

May Allāh make this event a relief for this sister who has undergone torment upon torment since the beginning of this odyssey of injustice.

May Allāh give you khayr for all you do and pray on her behalf. Āmīn.

When:
Saturday, April 9 · 11:00am – 2:00pm

Where:
FMC Carswell across from the Quik Trip Service Station
6301 Westworth Blvd, Westworth, TX

Facebook event: http://on.fb.me/he5qIr
Justice for Aafia Coalition: http://bit.ly/f2aMKt

\\Added April 11, 2011//
Please find below a sample of the FB supporters of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Māshā'Allāh, there were so many that I limited myself to those groups of 500+ supporters. The graphic is not hyperlinked to those FB pages, and they are not listed here in any particular order. Listing a group does not endorse it or its actions (sorry for the lawyer-speak) but it is meant to show how easily any of us can find Muslims and other good people who want to stand up against injustice.

Bismillah walhamdolillah. To begin, I am an attorney licensed in both Texas and California, but I am not a specialist in family law, and I am not submitting this post as legal advice nor as a substitute for legal advice.

Rather I have come across some very useful and (sadly) necessary information for people — let's be frank, usually women — who have to seek the assistance of law enforcement to restrain a violent or abusive spouse (or former spouse).

The following information is from the website: www.texaslawhelp.org, and was provided to that site by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid.

PERSONAL SAFETY PLANNING
Information provided by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid

SAFETY DURING AN EXPLOSIVE INCIDENT

• If there is an argument, try to be in a place that has an exit. Avoid the bathroom, kitchen or any room that may contain weapons.
• Practice how to get out safely. Know what doors, windows, elevators, stairwells, or fire escapes you would use.
• Keep purse and car keys readily available.
• Identify a friend or neighbor you can tell about the violence and ask them to call 911 if they hear a disturbance coming from your house.
• Arrange a code word to alert your children, friends and family that you need help.
• Plan where you will go if you have to leave home & a back-up place (even if you don’t think you are going to need it).
• In a dangerous situation, appease the abuser if possible to keep him or her calm. You have the right to protect yourself until you are out of danger.
Remember: You don’t deserve to be hit or threatened!

SAFETY FOR YOUR CHILDREN

• Talk to your children about a safety plan when you are not with them.
• Tell your children’s school and/or daycare who has permission to pick up the children.
• Teach your children how to dial 911 for police and fire assistance.
• Practice your escape plan with the children, if appropriate.

SAFETY WHEN YOU ARE PREPARING TO LEAVE

• Abusers are more violent when they believe that the person they have abused is leaving the relationship. This is the time to be most cautious.
• Get your own post office box so that you can receive checks and mail.
• Open a checking or savings account in your own name at a different bank and try to get a credit card in your own name, to increase your independence.
• Leave money, an extra set of keys, copies of important papers, extra clothes and medicine with someone you can trust so you can leave quickly.
• Keep change for phone calls on you at all times. Using a calling card is not safe!
• You can seek shelter and help by calling 1-800-799-SAFE. Figure out who would be able to let you stay with them or lend you some money.
• If you have pets, make arrangements for them to be cared for in a safe place.
• Review your personal safety plan often.

SAFETY AND YOUR EMOTIONAL HEALTH

• The experience of being battered and verbally degraded by partners is usually exhausting and emotionally draining.
• If you are thinking about going back to your abusive partner, talk to someone you trust about your options.
• Have positive thoughts about yourself and be assertive about what you need.
• Plan to attend a support group.
• If you have to communicate with your partner, take someone with you for moral support & meet in a public place.

SAFETY IN THE HOME

• Use different banks, grocery stores and shopping malls. Shop at hours different from those you used when residing with the abuser. Change your routine!
• If you stay in your home:
o Change the locks. Buy additional locks for the windows, and don’t forget the patio door.
o Tell your neighbors that the batterer no longer lives there, and to call the police if they see the batterer near your home.
o Screen your calls.
• If you move:
o Never call the abuser from your home, or tell them where you live.
o Request an unlisted number from the phone company.

SAFETY AT WORK OR IN PUBLIC

• Carefully decide who you will inform at work about your situation.
• Inform your supervisor, building security officers, and/or co-workers of your situation. If possible, provide them with a photograph of your abuser.
• Arrange to have someone screen your calls, whether it is the receptionist, voicemail or a co-worker.
• Have a safety plan to use when you leave work:
o Ask someone to escort you to and from your vehicle or bus.
o Park in a secure, well-lit area.
o Use a variety of routes to come and go from home.
o Think of what you would do if something happened on the way home.
o Avoid isolated roads.

CHECKLIST: ITEMS TO TAKE WITH YOU

IDENTIFICATION
‰ Driver’s license
‰ Birth Certificate
‰ Children’s birth certificates
‰ Social Security cards
‰ Welfare Card
‰ Health Insurance/HMO cards
FINANCIAL
‰ Money/Credit/ATM cards (in your name)
‰ Checking/ Savings account books
LEGAL PAPERS
‰ Protective Order
‰ Lease, rental agreement, house deed
‰ Car registration and insurance papers
‰ Health and life insurance papers
‰ Medical records for your family
‰ School/vaccination records
‰ Work permits / Green Cards
‰ Income Tax / IRA’s
‰ Passport / Visa
‰ Divorce and custody papers
‰ Marriage license
‰ Mortgage / Loan payment books
OTHER
‰ Medications
‰ House, car, and office keys
‰ Jewelry
‰ Address book
‰ Pictures of you, children & abuser
‰ Sentimental items
‰ Change of clothes
‰ Children’s favorite toys/blankets
‰ Toiletries/diapers
REMEMBER: DON’T RISK YOUR LIFE OR YOUR CHILDREN’S LIVES FOR ANY OF THESE ITEMS. MATERIAL THINGS ARE REPLACEABLE… LIVES ARE NOT!!

If you or the person you wish to advise are in the State of Texas, I highly recommend the pdf file from which the above information was copied. It is a succinct description of the law and legal avenues available to women who have reason to fear the actions of their spouses or former spouses. Also, it has fill-in forms that should be compatible with most computers.

But again, the information I copied and pasted is good for a person in many parts of the world, but the form itself will only help you in Texas, wAllaho''ālim.

If your spouse beats you, or threatens you or your children or other loved ones with physical violence, or makes you afraid constantly, then please seek help. But a woman should not have to be beaten or physically hurt before she has access to help. You have a right to feel safe. If you are in doubt about whether your situation is abusive, you still have every right to ask for help. And if you are not being abused, but you know someone in such a situation, please do not wait until some terrible act takes place.

Yes, score one for the NYT:

Homeland Blather

It is disturbing to listen to Representative Peter King, the incoming chairman of the Homeland Security Committee. He has announced plans to hold a hearing next month into what he calls the “radicalization of the American Muslim community.” Mr. King, a New York Republican, is no stranger to bluster, but his sweeping slur on Muslim citizens is unacceptable.

The new chairman, of course, acknowledges “the great majority of Muslims in our country are hardworking, dedicated Americans.” At the same time he claims, with no evidence, that the hearing is urgently needed because “law enforcement officials throughout the country told me they received little or — in most cases — no cooperation from Muslim leaders and imams” in tracking domestic threats, according to his essay in Newsday.

We hope that if Mr. King insists on going ahead, he at least calls a true cross section of law enforcement officials, who we are sure will rebut that hype.

We agree with Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the nation’s first Muslim elected to the House, who called Mr. King’s words “very scary.” It is worthwhile to try to fathom “what turns somebody from a normal citizen into a violent radical,” Mr. Ellison says, but not by vilifying an entire community for openers.

It is all the more perplexing because Mr. King was one of the few Republicans to back the Clinton administration’s interventions in the Balkans to protect Muslims. He has popped off far too often in recent years, claiming, among other things, that President George W. Bush “deserves a medal” for authorizing waterboarding.

He had better recall his role as a gifted intermediary in helping to settle Ireland’s sectarian troubles. He would have bristled at any simplistic talk about the “radicalization” of the Irish Catholic or Protestant communities. Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security is a very serious job. Mr. King needs to get serious.

Margaret Nance was, to put it mildly, a difficult case. Agitated, combative, often reluctant to eat, she would hit staff members and fellow residents at nursing homes, several of which kicked her out. But when Beatitudes nursing home agreed to an urgent plea to accept her, all that changed.

Disregarding typical nursing-home rules, Beatitudes allowed Ms. Nance, 96 and afflicted with Alzheimer’s, to sleep, be bathed and dine whenever she wanted, even at 2 a.m. She could eat anything, too, no matter how unhealthy, including unlimited chocolate.

It is an unusual posture for a nursing home, but Beatitudes is actually following some of the latest science. Research suggests that creating positive emotional experiences for Alzheimer’s patients diminishes distress and behavior problems. From the New York Times.

It's a beautiful article revealing how important it is to be deferential to our elders especially when they are at their least independent. Revealing that even if an elderly person has proven-diminished faculties from Alzheimer's or other causes of dementia, that the best treatment is not to force them to conform strictly to what a caregiver deems appropriate.

Rather what is appropriate is kindness and deference. Alhamdolillah my parents are well, and I pray the same for your parents. Yet I am reminded that such care is exactly what Allāh subhanahu wata ala enjoins upon all of us regardless of our parents' condition:

And We have enjoined upon man [care] for his parents. His mother carried him, [increasing her] in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years. Be grateful to Me and to your parents; to Me is the [final] destination.

But if they endeavor to make you associate with Me that of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them but accompany them in [this] world with appropriate kindness and follow the way of those who turn back to Me [in repentance]. Then to Me will be your return, and I will inform you about what you used to do.(Sahih International translation of Surah Luqman ayat 14-15)

O Allāh care for our parents as they used to care for us, and make us pleasing to you and to them in our manners. O Allāh, Who taught our parents so much love and forgiveness for us, open our hearts to our parents and forgive us whenever we forget or err. Āmīn.

As reported in the New York Times

JERUSALEM — An Israeli court convicted the country’s former president, Moshe Katsav, on two counts of forcible rape on Thursday, a verdict that many Israelis described as a low point in the nation’s history but also redemptive, in that it upheld the value of equality before the law.

“There are no two states of Israel, just one state,” said Shimon Peres, Mr. Katsav’s successor as president. “There are no two kinds of citizens here, citizens of only one kind exist in Israel — and all are equal in the eyes of law.”

The verdict capped an unusual four-year spectacle that began with accusations of sexual offenses against Mr. Katsav while he was still the head of state.

“Never before has a president in the democratic world been found guilty of such deeds;” wrote Zeev Segal, the legal commentator of the Haaretz newspaper and a Tel Aviv University professor of law.

A panel of three district court judges in Tel Aviv convicted Mr. Katsav of raping an employee — identified only by her first initial, A. — on two separate occasions while he was minister of tourism in 1998. The court also convicted Mr. Katsav of sexually abusing and harassing another complainant and of harassing a third while he was serving as president — an exalted, if mostly ceremonial, position that Mr. Katsav held from 2000 until 2007.

Mr. Katsav has consistently denied any wrongdoing, and his lawyers said it was possible he would appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. One of them, Avigdor Feldman, said that the district court had set aside the doubts of the prosecution “with unfortunate lightness” given, he said, that the prosecution had considered the chances of a rape conviction “very borderline.”

Still, Thursday’s verdict was unequivocal, finding Mr. Katsav guilty of what Ronit Amiel, a state prosecutor in the case, described as “the most serious and heinous sexual crimes.”

Mr. Katsav, looking ashen, made no comment as he left the court accompanied by his lawyers. His son, Boaz, said that the family was steadfast in its support of Mr. Katsav and that they remained convinced he was innocent.

Sentencing is expected in January, and legal commentators said that rape verdicts usually carry a a minimum sentence of four years and a maximum of 16.

Reading from a 29-page summary of the verdict, the presiding judge, George Kara, said that Mr. Katsav’s testimony was “strewn with lies, small and large,” that the court was convinced that the sexual relations were non-consensual and that the rape had involved the use of force.

The verdict sheet included quotes from the testimony of the rape victim in which she said she had struggled against Mr. Katsav as he tried to undress her in his office, and then she found herself on the floor.

“I struggled all the time and said, ‘Enough, I do not want this,’” she was quoted as saying.

Inside the packed, wood-paneled courtroom Mr. Katsav sat expressionless for most of the hour and 20 minutes it took for the judge to read out the summary. When the judge read the details of his guilty verdict on the two rape charges Mr. Katsav shook his head and gave a bitter half-smile in the direction of his lawyers.

No television cameras or radio microphones were allowed in the courtroom; most of the trial took place behind closed doors.

Mr. Katsav had argued that the rape accusation was all a plot by the former Tourism Ministry employee, who he said was seeking revenge after she was fired from her job. The judges detailed evidence that contradicted Mr. Katsav’s testimony, including telephone call logs and testimony from other witnesses that corroborated that of the victims. The judges said they found the rape victim’s testimony “completely credible” and Mr. Katsav’s “false.”

The case has riveted Israel for years. Mr. Katsav resigned from the presidency in disgrace in 2007, two weeks before the end of his seven-year term, to a chorus of public criticism over a deal he had reached with state prosecutors. According to its terms, the rape charges against him were to be dropped in exchange for an admission of guilt for lesser offenses. Mr. Katsav was to serve no jail time, but received a one-year suspended sentence and agreed to pay compensation to two women.

In a dramatic courtroom twist in April 2008, Mr. Katsav backed out of the plea agreement, saying that he wished to fight for his innocence in court — a gamble that appears to have ended disastrously for the former president.

Israeli women’s groups hailed the verdict. “Finally, victims in Israel feel validated,” said Miriam Schler, director of the Tel Aviv Rape Crisis Center, who was among a hundred or so women’s rights activists gathered outside the court. “It is an extremely historic day.”

Currently, Ms. Schler added, fewer than 20 percent of women who contact Israel’s rape crisis centers file complaints, and that of those cases that are filed, 64 percent end without an indictment.

“There is a culture of machismo here where men of privilege, especially those in power feel that they can do what they want,” said Ms. Schler, who immigrated to Israel from Oceanside, N.Y. She said of the verdict, “This is an important message that they will be held accountable for their acts.”

Ronit Erenfroind-Cohen, who leads the Department for the Advancement of Women at the Women’s International Zionist Organization, and other women’s rights advocates here say there is a large gap between the country’s relatively advanced laws in areas like rape and sexual harassment and their enforcement in a society where macho culture is still strong.

Mr. Katsav, a father of five, was born in Iran in 1945 and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1951. His political career took off when he became the mayor of his home town, Kiryat Malachi, near the port city of Ashkelon, at the age of 24. He first became a parliamentarian for the conservative Likud Party in 1977, and has served as a minister in various governments.

Mr. Katsav was allowed to go home on Thursday, but the court ordered him to deposit his passport with the authorities. His wife, Gila, who accompanied him at earlier stages of his legal battle, was not present for the verdict.

No one there and no one here is accusing Judaism of fostering such an evil man, even though his Jewishness would have been vetted before he could rise to become the President of Israel. But just let some fool anywhere call himself a Muslim and commit a crime against a woman. Think Islam would get justice in that case?

Click here to view the embedded video.

U.S. Ordered to Pay Group of Muslims
By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ordered the government on Tuesday to pay nearly $2.6 million in lawyers’ fees and damages to officials with a shuttered Islamic charity in Oregon who the judge said were wiretapped without a court order under the surveillance program approved by President George W. Bush after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The ruling by Vaughn R. Walker, the chief federal judge in San Francisco, punctuates a years-long lawsuit that tested the balance between civil liberties and the president’s authority.

The Justice Department did not immediately say whether it would appeal the ruling.

The dollar amount of damages is relatively insignificant for the government. But the principle the judge first laid out in a March ruling and expanded on Tuesday was critical to all parties.

For charity officials and their lawyers, the ruling offered vindication in a case that the Justice Department fought largely by relying on the president’s executive power and the government’s claim to keep certain “state secrets” out of the judiciary.

“We brought this case to try and get a declaration from the judiciary that the executive branch is bound by the law,” said Jon Eisenberg, a lawyer who represented the charity, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation.

The judge awarded more than $2.5 million in legal expenses accrued by lawyers for Asim Ghafoor and Wendell Belew, officials with Al-Haramain’s Oregon affiliate who the judge said were wiretapped, and he awarded the two officials each $20,400 in damages.

Judge Walker refused to grant punitive damages based on the claim that the wiretapping under the National Security Agency program showed “reckless or callous indifference” to the plaintiffs’ rights. Judge Walker said that the government “had reason to believe” that Al-Haramain supported acts of terrorism.

However, he criticized the way that Bush officials went about approving in secret a wiretapping program that operated outside the bounds of judicial scrutiny and in conflict with surveillance rules set by Congress. (from the New York Times website)

As the article points out, the victory is not in the amount of the ruling. Rather the ruling testifies to the Bush Administration's lack of respect for US law.

This case involved one charity, but wiretapping use was widespread. Still this victory will only have meaning if the US abandons not only specific outlawed practice(s) but also the hubris and outlaw-mentality that condoned these injustices in the first place.