An American Judge Puts Islam Above the U.S. Constitution

by Bob Johnson

This past Halloween an Atheist was in a Halloween parade held in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania dressed as a zombie Mohammad. This upset an Islamic immigrant who attacked the Atheist and tried to remove the sign he was wearing around his neck which read, “Mohammed of Islam.” The attacker, Talaag Elbayomy, thought it was illegal in America to make fun of Mohammad as it is in Islamic countries.

Elbayomy was charged with harassment instead of assault. The case went to District Judge Mark Martin. Martin threw the case out and lectured the Atheist/victim, Ernie Perce, on showing respect for “revealed” religions, including Islam. He said he was a Muslim himself, although he later denied saying that even though he said it on an audio tape (here is a link to an excellent well written article about this case which makes clear he did say he was a Muslim). Unfortunately, the established media has not done a very good job at broadcasting this attack on the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. (Please forward links to this article and use the social networking icons above to help correct this problem.)

Martin made a statement that shows he should never have become a judge in anything other than a Sharia court. Judge Martin told Perce “you are way outside your bounds of First Amendment rights.” To the Islamic attacker he said, “Allah bless you.”

Since when is it illegal in the United States to parade as a zombie Mohammad??? America’s biggest positive is the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. There is nothing above the Bill of Rights and its guarantees of freedom of speech. (This is why nations based on religion, like Israel, don’t have a constitution – there can be no law higher than religious laws. This is one of the complaints Osama bin Laden listed against America in his open letter to the American people, that Americans put more importance on the U.S. Constitution than they do on God’s law, which to him was the Koran.) Once you limit free speech, you limit true progress. America’s founders, many of whom were Deists, knew this.

Thomas Paine called for a revolution in religion based on God-given reason and Deism in his monumental work, The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition. With judges like Martin and the growing number of dogmatic intolerant competing “revealed” religions spreading across the U.S. and the world, Deists and freethinkers need to take action now to bring about the revolution in religion while we still can.

Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson is a freelance writer in the Tampa area of Florida. He was raised Roman Catholic, but after a stint in Marine Corps infantry and reading Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason he became a Deist.

In 1993 he founded the World Union of Deists, and in 1996 he launched the first website devoted to Deism. He is the author of God Gave Us Reason, Not Religion, Deism: A Revolution in Religion, A Revolution in You and An Answer to C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity. He has also written the introduction to Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition and Principles of Nature by Elihu Palmer.