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I was for him till I read this: In one recent letter to the court, he said he wanted Muslims “excluded from the jury” because he was Jewish and “Islam
by ajays 16y ago
I was for him till I read this:
In one recent letter to the court, he said he wanted
Muslims “excluded from the jury” because he was Jewish and
“Islam preaches death to Jews.”
Now he comes off as some old racist, cranky dude.
[Edit: I still do think what he's doing is admirable and very noteworthy. I was just saying that that single quote makes it easy for people to dismiss him and why he's doing what he's doing.]
- CWuestefeld 16y agoJulian is cranky, and I've occasionally disagreed with some of the details of his claims. But that doesn't invalidate the core truth of what he's fighting for.
- rorrr 16y agoRacist? Which race is he against?
- ajays 16y agoYou're right. I guess there's no comparable word for someone who's biased against followers of a particular religion, as there is one for someone who's biased against a race. So I used 'racist' as a proxy. Does my use of that word somehow take away from the point?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- burgerbrain 16y agoConsider the following. If I were an atheist on trial for what I considered to be a freedom of expression issue, would I be out of line to call for self-pronounced Southern Baptists to be removed from the jury? If a citizen on trial has concerns that the jury of their peers might not be as disinterested as initially assumed, they have an obligation to voice their concerns. And I think we all dislike sweeping generalizations, but lets be honest here. Lawyers make far more offensive generalizations during jury selection as standard practice.
- nowarninglabel 16y agoThe word you are looking for is bigoted, and yes the word take away from it, though the point still stands fairly.
- billpg 16y agoBeing critical of a religion is a bit like being critical of a political philosophy, like how I'm critical of communism. I've never been called racist for that. Being critical of someone's race is different, as that's something inherant to an individual. I can't just decide to be Korean but I can become or stop being a communist anytime I want to.
- ajays 16y agoHe is not being critical of Islam; he's being biased against all followers of Islam. He is saying that a Muslim cannot be an impartial jury member at a trial for a Jew. For the record: I think all religions suck (some more than others).
- ahi 16y agoThis may or may not have been taken out of context. The way it was tacked on to the end of the article makes me wonder about the source. How did the writer get that quote? The writer definitely wasn't digging through court filings. Likely from the prosecutor or opponent of the professor. It's not hard to imagine a context where he uses that in a reductio ad absurdum argument that a judge/prosecutor intentionally misrepresents.
- thailandstartup 16y agoWhen I read that at first, I though he meant that he thought Muslims should be excluded from all juries. However I think his correspondence with the court is in relation to his own trial - so he was talking about one specific jury. It might be moot point though - Ironically, I have read that he is not likely to get a jury for his trial.
- burgerbrain 16y ago"Ironically, I have read that he is not likely to get a jury for his trial." How does that legally work? Surely if he wants one, he is entitled to one.
- dpatru 16y agoThe right to a jury trial in criminal cases is only available for serious offenses (possibility of six months in jail.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_jury_in_the_United_States#Availability_of_jury_trial_in_criminal_and_similar_cases http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_jury_in_the_United_Sta...