Court Orders Christian Minister to 'Learn Islam' After Pushing Muslim Down Stairs
A Christian pastor has been ordered by a Massachusetts court to take lessons and learn about Islam following the pastor's conviction of pushing her Muslim tenant down a flight of stairs.
"I want you to learn about the Muslim faith," Judge Paul Yee Jr. told Daisy Obi, a 73-year-old ordained minister and pastor of Adonai Bible Center in Somerville. "I want you to enroll and attend an introductory course on Islam."
"I do want you to understand people of the Muslim faith, and they need to be respected. They may worship Allah ... but they need to be respected," Yee Jr. added.
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Obi was sentenced to two years in prison on assault and battery charges, but is only required to serve six months, with 18 months suspended. But the pastor was also told she must get educated about the Islamic faith.
The Associated Press reported on Sunday that the Supreme Judicial Court is going to be hearing arguments in January whether the judge violated Obi's constitutional rights, however.
Obi's attorney Kimberly Peterson argued that the probation condition to learn about the Islamic faith goes against the "free exercise of religion," noting that the Constitution guarantees that "the government may not coerce anyone to support or participate in religion or its exercise."
The defendant is said to have rented out an apartment in her multi-family home to a Muslim family back in April 2012, but experienced problems with the tenant, Gihan Suliman.
Suliman apparently had complained about the heat and electricity not always working, while the landlord accused the Muslim family of having between 12 to 15 people living in the apartment at one point.
Suliman further accused Obi of yelling anti-Muslim sentiments at her on a number of occasions, which escalated in an incident where the pastor pushed her tenant down a flight of 15 to 20 stars. The Muslim woman sustained facial injuries and tore a ligament in her shoulder due to the incident.
Throughout the trial, Obi has denied pushing Suliman or making any kind of ant-Muslim remarks, claiming that the tenant has a vendetta against her, because she refused to allow any more people to live inside the rented apartment.
"I've never, ever made a rude remark against her," Obi claimed.
"Why would I do that? I have three Muslims living in the house now."
There has been some major push-back in the United States in the past year concerning cases of enforced education about Islam. In November, the chairman of the State Board of Education for Tennessee agreed to review the social studies curriculum two years earlier than scheduled, due to concerns from conservative groups and parents about what they called Islamic indoctrination.
"When public middle school students are required to recite Muslim prayers and statements of belief, to write those statements as though they are fact, and to memorize historically inaccurate information about the background of the Islamic religion, someone must cry foul," the American Center for Law and Justice said in a statement.
The ACLJ revealed in October that as many as 7,000 Tennessee residents had called it to complain about directives given to students, such as being required to learn the Five Pillars of Islam.
Some educators, such as Wilson County Schools Director Donna Wright, insisted, however, that teaching about Islam is not the same as indoctrinating students.
"No one in any Wilson County School is teaching any indoctrination of Islam or of any world religion for that matter," Wright said at the time. "To imply or state otherwise shows a lack of knowledge about the standards used in our schools."
