Reply #9: I think you all missed the real problem with this post...

[tortoise1956]

First of all, the Koran does NOT require women to wear the hijab. custom and law differs on this from one country to another, and between major divisions of Islam as well. With this in mind, I hold that removing it for security reasons is not a substantial burden in the religious sense, just as taking a rosary from a devout Catholic would not be a substantial burden.

Now on to the truly troubling part of this story. She and her husband were convicted of a misdemeanor crime (receiving welfare over payments) and sentenced to probation and community service. When they went to court to request an extension on the time limit for doing the community service, their probation was revoked and they were thrown in jail for "most of the day". When they were finally brought back into court, the extension was granted and they were released.

:wtf: !?!?!?!

Obviously their request was not unreasonable, or it wouldn't have been granted in the end. So why did they have to sit in jail? Was this some type of piss-poor attempt at teaching them a lesson about not finishing their community service on time? If so, it was pretty idiotic.

This is a clear abuse of judicial power, one that is much more profound than the hijab issue. How is it that no one is kicking this judge's ass? Am I the only one that finds this reprehensible and scary?