Dawud Walid, executive director for the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, takes exception to defenders who say burning a Quran and placing it on the steps of a mosque is an expression of free speech protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
East Lansing police say a burned Quran was found early Saturday on the doorsteps of a local mosque. Authorities initially believed the religious text was covered with feces, but Capt. Kim Johnson tells the Detroit News they no longer believe that to be true.
Regardless, Walid says authorities should treat the case as a hate crime.
Writing on his blog Monday, Walid compared the incident to burning crosses used to intimidate African Americans.
Sept. 13: The Supreme Court ruled in 2003 relating to cross burnings that acts that are meant to intimidate persons (minorities in particular) on their private properties are not protected under the 1st Amendment. Therefore, it is illegal to burn a cross in the yard of a Black man, for instance, or at a Black church because this is a clear act of intimidation. Likewise, to paint a swastika in the parking lot of a Jewish Temple would not be protected speech besides it also being trespassing.
And to burn the foundation of the religion of Islam, the Qur’an, at the entrance of a mosque on mosque property is also an act of religious hatred and intimidation.
...In short, if persons burn a cross or the Qur’an on their own private properties, that’s their right to freely express themselves. However, if persons go to others’ private properties or houses of worship and do such while trespassing, this goes outside the bounds of responsible free speech.
The East Lansing incident occurred shortly after Rev. Terry Jones backed off plans to hold a Koran burning in Florida. Jones' statements and Saturday's discovery of the burned Quran in East Lansing sparked outrage from Muslims around the world.
Here in Metro Detroit, a group of Dearborn Muslims led by attorney Majed Moughni on Friday burned effigies of pastor Jones and Osama bin Laden. Moughni, a Republican who lost his primary bid to take on Rep. John Dingell in November, held the rally on his own lawn and said the event was designed to show that "Islam is against terrorism."
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