By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog
Remember the name “Sohail Mohammed” going forward, Save Jerseyans. Rightly or wrongly, the Indian-American Muslim serving as a New Jersey state trial judge is going to remain a hot topic for as long as Governor Chris Christie remains a 2016 GOP primary contender.
I’d submit “wrongly.” There isn’t much legitimate reason for concern. None, actually. Criticism of Judge Mohammed centers around the fact that, in private practice, he defended some pretty shady people in the aftermath of 9/11. Critics, many of whom love quoting their pocket constitutions, conveniently (and ironically) forget the Sixth Amendment’s right to assistance of counsel for criminal defendants.
Most importantly, Mohammed in his capacity as a family court jurist hasn’t issued any rulings which suggest that he’d ever substitute fealty to the Constitution and state law for Sharia.
But good luck relying on facts and logic, folks, when the scrutinized party’s patron is a candidate for president…
Governor Christie was forced to once again defend his nomination of Mohammed during his weekend trip to Las Vegas for Sheldon Adelson’s “primary” showcase:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ-XBqnJaYQ
This isn’t the first time that Governor Christie used uniquely-Christie vocabulary to defend Mohammed.
In the immediate aftermath of his nomination to the Superior Court, Christie angrily deflected critics with another popular variation of the term BS:
“Ignorance is behind the criticism of Sohail Mohammed,” he told a reporter asking about the complaints that he may be inadequate to be a judge because he defended Muslim Americans who were wrongly arrested post-9/11. “He is an extraordinary American who is an outstanding lawyer and played an integral role in the post-September 11th period in building bridges between the Muslim American community in this state and law enforcement,” Gov. Christie argued, adding that he was “disgusted, candidly, by some of the questions he was asked… at the Senate judiciary committee.”
But it was a follow-up question on the fear of Sharia Law that set the governor off. “Sharia Law has nothing to do with this at all, it’s crazy!” he cried. “The guy is an American citizen!” He concluded that the “Sharia Law business is just crap… and I’m tried of dealing with the crazies,” adding with disgust and frustration that “it’s just unnecessary to be accusing this guy of things just because of his religious background.”
You can watch the video here.
Somehow, despite the Governor’s strongly-worded protests, I don’t think it’ll be the last time he needs to come to this particular’s nominee’s defense. To be continued…
My two cents? Governor Christie very much deserves some of the criticism coming his way over the past year from blogs, including our own.
This isn’t one of those occasions.
Side note: Judge Mohammed, for his part, made national headlines recently for a ruling that had nothing to do with Sharia law; citing Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, he controversially ruled that a biological father had no right to be in the delivery room if the mother didn’t want him there.
Not very Sharia-y at all…
Quick, everyone! Look here! A distraction! Keep talking about the bridge, and ignoring five counts of election law violations. Surely we should pay attention to the ethnicity of a judge in this ridiculous story. No one – NO ONE – believes CC didn’t know. The important question is, does it even matter? He’s a bully. A majority elected him. What else he has done wrong is now able to be ignored while the press chews this meatless bone.
No matter – we’re still in court, and he, Kimmy, Donna, and the 21 Clerks are far from safe.
People who believe that there is a .01% chance of Sharia law in America have probably the intelligence of a 4 year old. OK I’m sorry, that’s inflammatory, it’s mean of me to suggest that 4 year old would be hateful and ignorant enough to foster such a ridiculously stupid and inexplicably reasoned thought. And these kids eat crayons.