9/11 Defendants Impose Their Religious Views While Disrupting Court Proceedings

Last week, the arraignment of the five 9/11 defendants took place in a military courtroom at our Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. These five Muslim men have been charged with various crimes, including 2,976 counts of murder, for their role in the terrorist attacks on this country eleven years ago.

At the arraignment, a female attorney for one of the defendants wore a traditional Islamic hijab (head covering) and abaya (long black robe) and, thus, was clothed from head to toe except for her face and hands.

The attorney is not Muslim. She has no religious reason to wear a hijab and abaya.

She claimed, however, that she was wearing the outfit out of respect for her Muslim client, who insists that she dress in such a manner when she is around him. She told the judge that her client demands that the other women in the courtroom wear similar outfits out of respect for the Muslim defendants’ religious views.

There is absolutely no legal reason for the judge to grant this request. The defendants have a right to a fair trial, but they have no right to impose their religious views on the others in that courtroom.

But the request was not surprising. Just as it was not surprising for the defendants to engage in other improper behavior in court, such as refusing to answer the judge’s questions and displaying a paper airplane, obviously done to remind everyone of the planes used during the 9/11 attacks.

All told, the obstructionist tactics of the defendants turned a fairly simple proceeding, which should have taken one or two hours to complete, into a circus that lasted close to thirteen hours before it ended.

Based on what took place during the arraignment, expect the defendants to cause more disruptions, especially when the trial begins next year, because of their disrespect for our system of justice and to distract us from the main issue at hand—the murder of 2,976 people.

Also, expect additional demands, such as how women should dress in court, and additional intimidating acts, such as the display of the paper airplane, to remind us that Islamic fascists want everyone, at all times, to submit to their religious views, the same views that caused them to attack us on September 11, 2001.