Muslim Can’t Sue the Dove World Outreach Center That Burned the Quran
3 August 2011
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By MARIMER MATOS
(CN) – A federal judge refused to let a Muslim file a third amended complaint that claims a Christian church in Florida violated the First Amendment with its ultimately successful, highly publicized attempts to burn the Quran last year.
Terry Jones
Though the Dove World Outreach Center did not burn the Muslim holy book on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as it planned , the church ultimately set fire to the book in April 2011 after finding it guilty of having caused “murder, rape and terrorism” in a mock trial.
Syed Mohammed Iqtidar Haider, a Muslim, filed for an injunction against the Rev. Terry D. Jones, who publicized a Quran book burning on Sept. 11, 2010, at his church, the Dove Church Outreach Center.
The motion was denied the day it was filed because Haider neither served the motion on Jones nor filed an affidavit as required. After attracting international criticism for his demonstration, Jones ultimately canceled the event .
By March, however, Jones announced plans to judge the Quran in a mock March 2011 trial. Signs outside of the Dove Church read: “Burn it. Drown it. Shred it. Shoot it.”
Haider filed a second amended complaint, which was again dismissed because it not state a cause for relief. It also exceeded the maximum page limit and was not filed on the standard complaint form.
Jones announced that his church found the Quran guilty of murder, rape and terrorism, and that his church subsequently burned it.
In April 2011, Haider moved to file a third amended complaint, claiming Jones violated his First Amendment rights by all the aforementioned actions and others, including posting a sign at Dove Church in July 2009 that read “Islam is of the Devil.” Haider also challenged the church’s July 2010 protest at the Islamic Center of Gainesville in which Dove congregants wore shirts saying “Islam is of the Devil” and carried signs that related Islam to terrorism. Haider said Jones’ propaganda caused the deaths of two people and injured four others during Afghanistan protests.
Haider sought to have the city manager, sheriff, police chief and fire chief of Gainesville release any records they have on the Dove Church. He also sought a hearing at which he could “explain the First Amendment in the light of the verses of Qur’an”.
Haider went on to say that if the court accepted his explanation of the First Amendment, he wanted to submit additional claims for relief.
U.S. District Judge Gary Jones in Gainesville rejected the motion on July 15.
Although complaints may be amended more than once with leave of court, such a leave can be denied if the amendment is deemed futile, the nine-page ruling states.
“Plaintiff’s complaint falls squarely within the definition of frivolous,” Jones wrote. “Plaintiff appears to allege not that his own First Amendment rights were violated, but that Jones, in the course of exercising his First Amendment rights, expressed himself in ways that plaintiff contends are outside the scope of First Amendment protection. The First Amendment grants rights and cannot be invoked by a private citizen to curtail speech he finds disagreeable.”
“A plaintiff must allege facts supporting a violation of plaintiff’s federal constitutional rights,” he added. “The third amended complaint contains absolutely no mention that any of plaintiff’s constitutional rights were violated.
“Because the flaws in plaintiff’s complaints are so numerous and so fundamental, the court concludes that granting plaintiff a further opportunity to amend would be futile and would simply be a further waste of scarce and valuable judicial resources,” Jones concluded.
Original post: Muslim Can’t Sue Church That Burned the Quran
A better route would be to:
1. Highlight how the “free speech” has resulted in provocations that has lead to security issues in places like Afghanistan. For his “free speech rights” Jones actions have caused deaths. We now have some effects of this “free speech” in Norway.
2. Continue to point out that people like Jones actually have more “free speech rights” than others, especially Muslims and Leftists. note how these people are capable of writing hateful and threatening language that has now provoke terrorism in Norway.
If Geert Wilders as a Muslim iman, he would be labeled a radical and thrown out of the country.
The issue he is RESPONSIBLE free speech. Jone, like Geller, Spencer. believe that they can say what they want (while others would be put on watchlists). These bad speech actors like Jones must be called out as the very ones that have provoked violence in Norway and perhaps in attacks against. This is now happening…
Social sanctions, like the one for anti-Semites and racists, are the best method to deal with these bad speech actors!
3 August 2011 at 4:29 pm