Muslims paid fine for a person who vandalized mosque

[srh]

Muslims in Arkansas have paid a $1,700 fine to keep a vandal who defaced their mosque with a swastika out of jail.

Abraham Davis scrawled swastikas and spray-painted the words “go home” on the windows and doors of a mosque in Fort Smith, Arkansas, in 2016.

He was caught on a security camera and ordered by a judge to perform community service and pay a fine. But Davis couldn’t find the money and faced a six-year jail term.

Now help and forgiveness has come from an unexpected source—with the mosque Davis vandalized stepping in to help keep him out of jail.

"It shouldn't be hanging over him for the rest of his life," president of the Fort Smith Al Salam mosque, Louay Nassri, told ArkansasMatters.com.

“We heard he was having financial problems,” Nassri said. “Now if you don’t pay your fine, that’s an automatic six years in jail. Well, we didn’t want him to go to jail for six years.”

The money had originally been put aside for mosque renovations—but Nassri said that it was important that Davis didn’t have the financial burden of the fine hanging over him.

"After all that he had been through, we didn't want him sitting on the severe financial stress," Nassri said. "And like I told him, we want him to have a much better future."

"We thought this was the right thing to do," Nassri continued. "We thought if someone does something bad and came and apologized, you just forgive them. That should be the natural thing.”

He explained that the name of the mosque, Al Salam, means “peace” in Arabic.

"If he would've known who we are, he wouldn't of done this," Nassri said. "If we would've known his troubles with us, we would've tried to help him. Communication is extremely important. Education is extremely important."

As President Donald Trump rose to power on a wave of anti-Muslim rhetoric, a sharp increase in Islamophobic hate crimes has been recorded in the U.S.

Between January and September 2017, the Council on American-Islamic Relations recorded 1,656 so-called “bias incidents” and 195 hate crimes. That represented a 9 percent increase in bias incidents and a 20 percent rise in hate crimes compared to 2016.

http://www.newsweek.com/racist-defa...uslims-paid-his-fine-keep-him-out-jail-767691

Respect.

 

[kingusama92]

They would seriously put a person in prison for six years because he didn't pay a $1,700 fine?

 

[Saeed]

Good. Hopefully it changes his life for better.

 

[Square Drive]

May Allah guide him to the right path.

 

[srh]

May Allah guide him to the right path.

May Allah guide all of us to the right path and allow us to die as a muslim. Ameen.

 

[Square Drive]

May Allah guide all of us to the right path and allow us to die as a muslim. Ameen.

Ameen.

 

[Yossarian]

They would seriously put a person in prison for six years because he didn't pay a $1,700 fine?

Some states will put you in prison for what seems like almost nothing reasons. For example, in some states, there is the 3 strike rule, where you can automatically get sent to prison for something very minor if it was your 3rd offence.

Here read this (yes, I know it's a very extreme example).

Thanks to a brand-new, get-tough-on-crime state law, Wilkerson would soon be sentenced to life in prison for stealing a pair of plain white tube socks worth $2.50.


"No, sir, I was not expecting that one," he says now, laughing darkly. Because Wilkerson had two prior convictions, both dating back to 1981, the shoplifting charge counted as a third strike against him. He was sentenced to 25 years to life, meaning that his first chance for a parole hearing would be in 25 years.

And given that around 80 percent of parole applications are rejected by parole boards, and governors override parole boards in about 50 percent of the instances where parole is granted, it was a near certainty that Wilkerson would never see the outside of a prison again.

The state also fined him $2,500 – restitution for the stolen socks. He works that off by putting in four to five hours a day in the prison cafeteria, for which he gets paid $20 a month, of which the state takes $11. At this rate, he will be in his nineties before he's paid the state off for that one pair of socks.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...ment-the-shame-of-three-strikes-laws-20130327

 

[kingusama92]

Some states will put you in prison for what seems like almost nothing reasons. For example, in some states, there is the 3 strike rule, where you can automatically get sent to prison for something very minor if it was your 3rd offence.

Here read this (yes, I know it's a very extreme example).

Shocking.

I'd imagine being a judge is mighty difficult in such cases. You know it's an absurdly unreasonable punishment but you're required to apply it.

 

[Madplayer]

Shocking.

I'd imagine being a judge is mighty difficult in such cases. You know it's an absurdly unreasonable punishment but you're required to apply it.

Whats more astonishing is that people still commit the crime 3 times. Or is it that they dont even know about the worse consequences?

 

[Gabbar Singh]

An amazing gesture.

 

[Arham_PakFan]

Masha Allah.Nice to see.