Thread: I Am Fuming Over This, Please Call This Jerk..

Please read and send around the country for others to call our stupid Offical.


PLEASE Call and Email This IDIOT!!! 1-207-774-1444
Let the fool know the rest of the country is not going to take this!



The Cumberland County Jail and state courts modify rules on head coverings to reflect Muslim and other religions.
By DAVID HENCH, Staff Writer March 8, 2009
WHETHER TO ALLOW religious head coverings is an issue finding its way into other spheres of life as well.

AT MAINE MEDICAL CENTER, employees who choose to wear a head covering are asked to have it match the color of their uniform.

IN MINNESOTA AND OKLAHOMA, officials have banned wearing head coverings when having driver's license photographs taken, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

THE MAINE BUREAU OF MOTOR VEHICLES does not allow people to wear hats or head coverings when having driver's license photos taken, but Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said he has heard of only one complaint. A man in the Lewiston area refused to take his baseball cap off, and staff almost called security on him, Dunlap said.

DUNLAP STOOD BY the requirement for having an exposed head when getting a driver's license photo because a license is such an important form of identification.

"PEOPLE DO LOOK DIFFERENT when they're wearing a hat. That's one of the reasons we try to discourage that," Dunlap said. "We want people to look as they would in any kind of emergency situation where they weren't wearing a head covering."

DUNLAP SAID the photographs are usually taken in an isolated section of the motor vehicle registry office.

ABDULLAHI AHMED, of the Islamic Society of Portland, believes Muslim women have not objected to removing their head covering for license photos because it is a necessity if they want to drive and because they come from countries where people comply with what the government says, or face dire consequences.

For many Muslim women, being seen in public with one's head uncovered is a violation of religious tenets as well as an embarrassing display of immodesty.

Head coverings also can be, to varying degrees, important to Jews, Sikhs and people of other faiths.

But that obligation has collided with security concerns and cultural standards prevalent in American courts and prisons, where removing hats and head coverings is a sign of respect and consistent with long-standing security practices.

Now, Maine's court system and the Cumberland County Jail will no longer require defendants, inmates and visitors to remove head coverings that are required by religious custom.(Good Let Them Hang Themselves and Then Sue us YU SPINELESS Rednecks Here!)

"What we were looking at was not just the question of hats, but apparel that is directly related to religious beliefs," said Chief Justice Leigh Saufley, the state's highest court official.

As Muslim communities in this country grow larger, pressure to allow religious head coverings has increased – some other states and the federal justice system have already modified their rules.(Screw THEM!)

The Cumberland County Jail, in Portland, had already started revising its religious practices policy to reflect the importance of head coverings when Sheriff Mark Dion met recently with Saufley, Islamic community leaders, the NAACP and the Maine Civil Liberties Union.

"Up to this point, the policy seemed to be more directed at dietary issues and access by religious staff – chaplains or imams or sufis," Dion said. To meet federal and constitutional mandates prohibiting interference with religious practice usually meant providing time and a location for such practices, he said.

"I think what the hijab (head covering) presented to us is that being a Muslim is a 24-7 issue; therefore, we had to find a way to accommodate that," Dion said.

In Islam, hijab is a term meaning "religiously dictated modesty," but it also can describe the head coverings worn by some Muslim women, often the most obvious aspect of that modesty. The head covering specifically is called a "khimar" in the Quran.

Women who observe the requirement must have their head covered whenever in public or in the presence of men who are not family members.

But hats have historically been forbidden inside the jail, where inmates are issued pants and shirts of yellow, orange or blue depending on the security risk they present. To address corrections officers' concerns about security, the jail has contracted with a vendor to provide head coverings that meet jail security standards, Dion said.

When a female inmate who adheres to the head-covering requirement is brought to jail, she is taken into a private room where a female corrections officer has the woman remove her own head covering and replace it with a jail-issued one.

Religious modesty can extend beyond the head covering, and for some women, it means wearing clothing that does not show the outline of the body. In such cases, the jail will issue uniforms one or two sizes larger than typical, so the clothing hangs loose.


FEDERAL CHANGES ANTICIPATED

Dion said the new policy anticipates similar requirements at the federal level. Federal law allows government institutions to restrict such religious observances only for a compelling governmental interest and requires them to be as unrestrictive as possible.

The federal Bureau of Prisons, and state prisons in Kentucky and New York, have policies to accommodate women inmates who cover their heads. At the other end of the spectrum, several women have been barred from courtrooms in Georgia because they failed to remove their head coverings.

The San Bernardino County Jail, in California, was compelled to accommodate religious head coverings in addition to paying a monetary settlement after being sued by a female inmate barred from wearing her head covering. The American-born woman was arrested for allegedly having an invalid train pass and was not prosecuted.

Many of the jail inmates have not been convicted of a crime. Punishing them by denying their religious freedom would be wrong and could lead to expensive litigation, Dion said.

Since 2005, the Portland jail has detained 538 declared Muslims who were either arrested locally or held for federal authorities such as the U.S. Marshals Service or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The Maine Department of Corrections has not had to address the issue at the state's prisons, said Associate Commissioner Denise Lord. If an inmate did ask to be allowed to wear a religious head covering, the department would consider it, she said.

Dion said that his counterparts in other counties have not been eager to explore the issue, though he will make Cumberland County's policy available to them. (Because your a dickhead Dion!)

Abdullahi Ahmed applauds the sheriff and the court system for making the changes. Ahmed was one of the leaders of the Islamic Society of Portland who met with court officials after a Muslim woman complained to them that she had suffered humiliation when brought into court with her head exposed.

"It's very important, something inherent in our religion, that women cover their bodies," he said. "Some people never even had unveiled themselves in front of strangers ever."

Ahmed said it can be a hard concept to convey to Westerners unfamiliar with it, and his wife, who is a nurse, has difficulty explaining it to her co-workers.


OLD RULES SEEN AS BIASED

Other religious traditions also dictate head coverings. JAIL in not a god damn summer camp!

Some Orthodox Jews must cover their heads, said Rabbi Moshe Wilansky, who believes that religious head coverings should be allowed in jail and other government institutions.

"We are always wearing a yarmulke, even when we sleep ... a covering over my head to show God is always above us," the Orthodox rabbi said. "Just because somebody did something wrong doesn't mean they should have their religious beliefs taken away."

Rachel Talbot Ross, (MCLU Honors Rachel Talbot Ross (1/20/2009)
president of the Portland chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said government institutions must find ways to accommodate people's cultural differences.

"This is not anyone asking for special treatment," she said. "People do understand there is an issue of security and safety. But in the case of being in a courtroom or even incarcerated, you've got other ways of being able to determine if someone is hiding something or if there's an issue of security."

She noted that in one instance, a local Muslim man observing a court proceeding was compelled to remove his kufi, a cap worn during Friday prayers or to signify the wearer has made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

"We question whether or not they would ask a nun to remove her habit. I question whether or not a yarmulke would be asked to be removed," Talbot Ross said. "I think there are some stereotypes about the kufi and hijab that relate to our ignorance about Islam and the way we equate that with terrorism and people not being legal citizens."

Saufley said better education can reduce cultural conflicts.

She noted that customarily, Americans take off their hats as a sign of respect when they enter a courtroom. But that is not a global custom. Now, people wearing religious head coverings will be allowed to keep them on when attending Maine courts as observers, she said.

"The same kind of courtesies and respect that are shown, for example, to a Catholic nun or a person with a yarmulke will be shown to all persons in a courthouse," she said.

For defendants, Saufley hopes to avoid situations such as one that occurred recently in a Portland court where a woman who had worn a head covering since childhood was brought to court with her head exposed.

"For a person for who that has been part of her life... and religion for decades, to be put through that type of public exposure, was just a terribly difficult story to hear," she said. "We wanted to make sure it didn't happen again, and I think we have."

Did our Military, or did we NOT follow their customs in the Gulf War???

Yes We Did!

************************************************** ******
Obama is the only Muslim that LOVES his Pork!!!

These groups need to accomodate our culture not the other was around.

Originally Posted by ELE

These groups need to accomodate our culture not the other was around.

EXACTLY!!! I WISH we could get someone in charge here like the PM of Australia!!!! He's said time and again YOU adjust to OUR ways, or you are welcome to LEAVE.

"They're coming to America"...yearning to be free, NOT to force their culture of bondage on a free people with open arms! This corruption is rotting America bit by bit. Use your freedoms or lose your freedoms. United We Stand.