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Ex-Marine sues to display anti-Islamic car decals
Asserts constituional right to anti-Muslim stickers
Ex-Marine sues to display anti-Islamic car decals
DUBAI (Courtney C. Radsch)
The ex-Marine’s car left little doubt that he despised Islam and equated it with terrorism.
“ISLAM = TERRORISM” read one decal. Another showed a cartoon boy urinating on a man wearing a turban. Two featured a stop symbol over “The KORAN” and another over the star and crescent symbol. Yet another said disgrace my flag and I will (defecate) on your Quran.
Jesse Nieto was angry over the death of his son in the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S.-Cole in Yemen by Islamist militants. But officials at the military base where he worked told him he could not display the anti-Islamic decals on federal property.
Top
The lawsuit
" I don’t think anyone is saying he can’t be an anti-Muslim bigot in public but we're talking about military sites "
Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR
The 25-year veteran has filed a federal lawsuit accusing base officials of violating his constitutional rights by requiring he remove them and preventing him from driving on federal installations.
Nieto’s youngest son Marc, 24, one of 17 U.S. Navy troops killed in the terrorist attacks, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington D.C. The ban on driving the offending car in federal installations blocks him from visiting his son’s grave, the lawsuit alleges, though public transportation is readily available.
In July, Nieto’s supervisor at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he worked as a civilian in an electrical shop, threatened to fire him if he did not remove the stickers and police issued him a ticket for displaying “offensive material.”
Though he removed a few of the stickers he refused to remove the “Islamic Terrorist” one and the ones with the stop symbol.
The lawsuit argues that the Commander in Chief, President George W. Bush, himself used the terms inscribed on the offending decals, including “Islamic terrorists” and “Islamic militants” and that therefore Nieto has the right to express the same sentiment.
Top
Offensive material
Jesse Nieto is buried at Arlington National Cemetery (Courtesy of Arlington National Cemetery)
But since the ban does not prohibit speech in public areas, but rather restricted speech in a military location, it is not a free speech issue, said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“I think it’s up to the military to decide what constitutes good order and discipline on military sites. I don’t think anyone is saying he can’t be an anti-Muslim bigot in public but we're talking about military sites,” Hooper told
AlArabiya.net.
" I don't think he would have blamed all of Islam "
Sharon Pripke, mother of Marc Nieto
Marc’s mother, Sharon Pripke, told The Virginian-Pilot she did not like her son being associated with his father’s message because he was not intolerant.
"I don't think he would have blamed all of Islam," she said. "He'd have wanted to get those that did it, those that were responsible."
The base received several complaints about Nieto’s “offensive” decals, according to a written statement by base spokesman Maj. Nat Fahy.
Top
Free speech
" Our troops are being killed by Islamic terrorists, 9/11 was caused by Islamic terrorists, these terrorists want to destroy America, the Islamic countries persecute Christians, and now the military is victimizing a father whose son was killed by Islamic terrorists while serving our nation "
Richard Thompson, Thomas More Law Center
The plaintiff argues that the base order prohibiting displaying “extremist, indecent, sexist, or racist messages” on vehicles in Camp Lejeune has not been enforced in the past five years despite cars decorated with stickers of “Darwin” fish mocking Christianity, confederate flags, naked women and anti-liberal sentiments.
"The banning of these decals is political correctness run amok in the military," an ENC (East North Carolina) Today article quoted Richard Thompson, chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Nieto for free, as saying.
"Our troops are being killed by Islamic terrorists, 9/11 was caused by Islamic terrorists, these terrorists want to destroy America, the Islamic countries persecute Christians, and now the military is victimizing a father whose son was killed by Islamic terrorists while serving our nation," he said.
The center, which describes itself as “The Sword and Shield for People of Faith,” is devoted to defending Christians and preserving “America's Christian heritage through litigation and education,” according to its website.
The base is home to nearly 50,000 military personnel, and at least 90 Muslim marines are serving at three North Carolina bases, according to a statement by Fahy published in Hampton Roads,
Asserts constituional right to anti-Muslim stickers
Ex-Marine sues to display anti-Islamic car decals
DUBAI (Courtney C. Radsch)
The ex-Marine’s car left little doubt that he despised Islam and equated it with terrorism.
“ISLAM = TERRORISM” read one decal. Another showed a cartoon boy urinating on a man wearing a turban. Two featured a stop symbol over “The KORAN” and another over the star and crescent symbol. Yet another said disgrace my flag and I will (defecate) on your Quran.
Jesse Nieto was angry over the death of his son in the 2000 bombing of the U.S.S.-Cole in Yemen by Islamist militants. But officials at the military base where he worked told him he could not display the anti-Islamic decals on federal property.
Top
The lawsuit
" I don’t think anyone is saying he can’t be an anti-Muslim bigot in public but we're talking about military sites "
Ibrahim Hooper, CAIR
The 25-year veteran has filed a federal lawsuit accusing base officials of violating his constitutional rights by requiring he remove them and preventing him from driving on federal installations.
Nieto’s youngest son Marc, 24, one of 17 U.S. Navy troops killed in the terrorist attacks, is buried at Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington D.C. The ban on driving the offending car in federal installations blocks him from visiting his son’s grave, the lawsuit alleges, though public transportation is readily available.
In July, Nieto’s supervisor at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, where he worked as a civilian in an electrical shop, threatened to fire him if he did not remove the stickers and police issued him a ticket for displaying “offensive material.”
Though he removed a few of the stickers he refused to remove the “Islamic Terrorist” one and the ones with the stop symbol.
The lawsuit argues that the Commander in Chief, President George W. Bush, himself used the terms inscribed on the offending decals, including “Islamic terrorists” and “Islamic militants” and that therefore Nieto has the right to express the same sentiment.
Top
Offensive material
Jesse Nieto is buried at Arlington National Cemetery (Courtesy of Arlington National Cemetery)
But since the ban does not prohibit speech in public areas, but rather restricted speech in a military location, it is not a free speech issue, said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“I think it’s up to the military to decide what constitutes good order and discipline on military sites. I don’t think anyone is saying he can’t be an anti-Muslim bigot in public but we're talking about military sites,” Hooper told
AlArabiya.net.
" I don't think he would have blamed all of Islam "
Sharon Pripke, mother of Marc Nieto
Marc’s mother, Sharon Pripke, told The Virginian-Pilot she did not like her son being associated with his father’s message because he was not intolerant.
"I don't think he would have blamed all of Islam," she said. "He'd have wanted to get those that did it, those that were responsible."
The base received several complaints about Nieto’s “offensive” decals, according to a written statement by base spokesman Maj. Nat Fahy.
Top
Free speech
" Our troops are being killed by Islamic terrorists, 9/11 was caused by Islamic terrorists, these terrorists want to destroy America, the Islamic countries persecute Christians, and now the military is victimizing a father whose son was killed by Islamic terrorists while serving our nation "
Richard Thompson, Thomas More Law Center
The plaintiff argues that the base order prohibiting displaying “extremist, indecent, sexist, or racist messages” on vehicles in Camp Lejeune has not been enforced in the past five years despite cars decorated with stickers of “Darwin” fish mocking Christianity, confederate flags, naked women and anti-liberal sentiments.
"The banning of these decals is political correctness run amok in the military," an ENC (East North Carolina) Today article quoted Richard Thompson, chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, which is representing Nieto for free, as saying.
"Our troops are being killed by Islamic terrorists, 9/11 was caused by Islamic terrorists, these terrorists want to destroy America, the Islamic countries persecute Christians, and now the military is victimizing a father whose son was killed by Islamic terrorists while serving our nation," he said.
The center, which describes itself as “The Sword and Shield for People of Faith,” is devoted to defending Christians and preserving “America's Christian heritage through litigation and education,” according to its website.
The base is home to nearly 50,000 military personnel, and at least 90 Muslim marines are serving at three North Carolina bases, according to a statement by Fahy published in Hampton Roads,
