All Hat and No Cattle

I see where a Dearborn attorney, Majed Moughni, who is Muslim, has written a letter to the Press & Guide criticizing CAIR-MI’s recent federal lawsuit over a woman being ordered by a Wayne County judge to remove her headscarf in court as “frivolous.” (“Disappointed with CAIR”).

According to Moughni, the judge, William Callahan, “is one of the most respected, knowledgeable, and fairest judges,” and “has never shown any discrimination and he has never requested that any Muslim women remove their hijab.”

Further, Moughni described the woman’s, Raneen Albaghdady’s, overall dress as “not the religious hijab” but “more of a fashion statement.”

From the video, it appeared most of Mrs. Albagdady’s hair was exposed. She had a scarf placed on top of her well-styled hairdo. This is not hijab in any way, shape or form. Hijab is the covering of body parts, (including the hair, neck, arms, legs, and private parts) so as not to attract the attention of men.Mrs. Albagdady’s dress is in contradiction to hijab as it attracts attention and is more of a fashion statement as opposed to a religious garb.

Moughini, who describes CAIR as an organization of “high caliber,” (Eek!), thinks this whole thing makes the Muslim community look bad.

Dawud Walid, CAIR-MI’s fearless leader, responded with a letter of his own (“CAIR-MI director rejects label of 'frivolous' in regard to suit over hijab”), saying that Moughini isn’t the “hijab police.”

Besides, writes Dawud, how can you call this lawsuit “frivolous” when “Michigan Civil Rights Commissioner Attorney Nabih Ayad” is the one who filed it? You may remember Ayad as one of the lawyers who sued to keep the government from wiretapping international calls from terrorists.

It doesn’t matter. This lawsuit was DOA as soon as Ayad filed it. Ms. Albagdady willingly removed her headscarf when ordered to by Judge Callahan, stating “OK, it doesn't matter.” Callahan's office quite reasonably claimed he had no idea there was any religious purpose in the headscarf.

Not that this stopped Ms. Albagdady, who came to America from Saddam’s Iraq, from declaring a few weeks later that the whole experience left her “terrified” and “humiliated.”

She told a news conference in August “she was intimidated by Callahan and feared she would be arrested if she refused to remove her hijab. 'I come from a country where you can't say no to a judge in a courtroom,' she said. "

Moughni says Ms. Albagdady didn’t look so intimidated later in the hearing when she was arguing with the judge about the cost of filing her case. (“Dearborn attorney backs judge in woman's suit over hijab”)

Nor is it a sign of intimidation to drop a lawsuit on the circuit court judge you claim to be so scared of.

I don’t know if it’s the leopard print hair wrap or the Mediterranean cougar ‘tude but I know I'd think twice about cutting off this lady’s cart at Wal-Mart.

Ayad practically admitted that this whole thing is just for show, anyway, a tactic in a battle to force the Michigan Supreme Court to relent on its ruling that allows judges to order women to remove face veils in court.

Albaghdady appeared before Callahan the day before the state Supreme Court approved the rule. Her lawsuit does not challenge it or address the issue of face veils, said her attorney, Nabih Ayad.

"That's for a later case," he said.

Right.

No-risk Nevada Gamble Pays Jackpot

At least when you play the slots it costs you a quarter. A Nevada school district just shelled out $400,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a Muslim student who claimed other students threatened to kill her because she wore a headscarf. Here's free money:

The Washoe County School District in the Reno area will give Egyptian former student Jana Elhifny $350,000 and her non-Muslim friend and supporter Stephanie Hart $50,000 as part of the civil settlement.

Elhifny and her family came to Reno from Egypt in 2003, and the girl enrolled as a freshman at North Valleys High School.

She didn't finish the year after she told teachers and administrators that someone had threatened to kill her in the stairwell because of her Muslim hijab or head scarf, the district's independent attorney in the case, Robert Cox, told FOXNews.com.

Shortly afterwards, Cox said, Elhifny filed the lawsuit and returned to Egypt, Stephanie Hart, who had nothing to do with any of this and has since dropped out of high school to have a baby. (“Muslim Girl Gets $400G From Nevada School District in Head Scarf Bully Case”).

$350,000 isn’t a bad dowry in Egypt. (The other $50K went to Elhifny’s BFF, who had nothing to do with any of this, except for being friends with the Muslim girl, and allegedly being ostracized. (Hey kids, the joke's on us for getting bullied, being ostracized, and befriending weirdos for free!) Hart was so upset she dropped out, moved to California, and had a baby).

This one doesn’t pass the smell test. Sure there are bullies in high school. And I’ll bet anybody who ever got hassled by one--or ganged up on by multiple bullies--can give you very particular details about the SOBs--even decades later. (If you don't remember any bullies, you were one of them). Yet according to the school district’s attorney, the Muslim victim “was unable to give any description of her tormenter — including his or her gender, size and tone of voice.”

Really? Not even the gender? (Or, as we used to say in English, "not even the sex"?) Must make her flashbacks kind of bland.

This stinks for about fifty reasons. Maybe if she’d dropped out and gone into therapy or transferred schools. But move back to Egypt and marry her fiancé? That almost makes it sound as if coming to America was a quick way to accumulate the downpayment on an Egyptian bungalow that doesn’t have a tunnel to Gaza under it . (DU has been unable to confirm that Elhifny was unable to identify her fiancé by gender, size and tone of voice.)

And filing a lawsuit and moving back to Egypt? Okay, so she’s disappointed in America because a short-tall-medium boy-girl high-low-voice threatened to kill her for wearing hijab. But going back to Egypt also protects her from ever being cross-examined, or otherwise haled into court to answer for any of her allegations, even if they turn out to be phony.

Nothing to do but sit and wait for the check to come. And enjoy your marital bliss Egyptian-style.

Just like the Somali meat processing case, the defendants caved in only “to end lengthy and ‘expensive litigation.’” Elhifny's alleged death threat was in 2003, six years ago, when she was a freshman.

This is a case of bullying for the textbooks. The only question is: which party here is the bully?