Here’s an interesting test case. According to this story, Youssif Z. Omar, a native of Libya, physically dragged his 14 year old niece from a Columbia, Missouri high school on the grounds that she was not wearing a hijab.
My take: that is not our custom. Men do not drag little girls around by their hair for any reeason least of all for not wearing a veil. If the facts are as reported and he is not a U. S. citizen, his visa should be cancelled (regardless of its nature) and that should be handled administratively to the greatest degree possible. I’m afraid that would run into 14th Amendment issues but it’s my opinion.
He’s clearly a guy who doesn’t care to comport himself according to the rules of his host country. I’m against banning the wearing of hijabs but I can see the argument for doing so which involves guys like this.
I don’t see where the Fourteenth Amendment countenances physical assault and battery in the name of religion.
The issue is my desire to handle the cancellation administratively (the same way it was issued) rather than being something you can take to a court. That raises due process issues.
Basically, I think that the facts of the case should be verified and a couple of agents should go to the guy’s residence, pick him up, take him to the airport, and put him on the next flight out of the country.
If he is still on a visa, that is fine. If not, then a trial.
Steve
I agree with that. But it’s something that needs to be acted on quickly.
If he’s not her legal guardian I don’t see how a kidnapping charge wouldn’t also be justified.
Send him back to Benghazi via air drop. Parachute optional.
Some of Omar’s writings from the school culture journal he edited:
“It is very hard for some people to be away from their own culture because they find themselves confined to the deep-rooted beliefs and customs they acquired and learned from the communities in which they were born and raised,” he wrote.
“Such people see themselves as fish taken away from the water.”
New Daily News
Except, of course, that he wasn’t “taken away from the water”. He’s more like a fish who thought being a bicyclist looked fun. My prescription: back to the water for him. It’s an act of mercy.