Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Right to pray in Arabic

The gist, the Ft. Hood guy (Hasan) who allegedly killed 13 people is restricted, pretrial restrictions from his command, from talking in Arabic to anyone unless there is a translator around. He was recently on the phone praying in Arabic with his brother and his conversation was cut short. No translator was present. His attorney is arguing "it's illegal and a violation of his religious rights." The catch, Hasan is currently under military control, not the civil criminal justice system. While I'm not sure I understand why there is a difference, there is. Challenges of this nature in the civilian world usually are typically successful. But based on Hasan's previous actions, the military can label Hasan a threat and limit his actions based on security reasons. When I was talking about this to Darr, his response was "why not just tape him?" That seems a reasonable solution. Odds are they are taping the guy anyway, right? Then, if a translator later determines he's not praying but helping plot another such event, we can restrict his rights with actual proof that by not doing so we're putting others at risk.

Hat tip: Volokh Conspiracy

3 comments:

Dr. A said...

?

Dr. A said...

Oh.

The question mark was when, earlier, I clicked to see this post and it was blank.

Yeah. If they tape him and he does say something stupid, like his plans for future nefarious acts,
then they have it on tape. Ya think they'd want him to talk.

Megan said...

I would guess it has more to do with exerting their control over his every move than it has to do with what he may be saying in Arabic.