Judge convicts all 3 defendants in paintball case

Judge Brinkema announced the verdict on the Virginia Paintball Case at the Virginia Eastern District Court, finding all three defendants – Masoud Khan, Seifullah Chapman and Hammad Abdur-Raheem – guilty on multiple charges including conspiracy and the use of firearms with connection to a crime of violence. Following the announcement of the verdict, the Maryland office of the Council on American Islamic Relations and the Muslim Affairs Council held a press conference with the defendants’ attorneys issuing statements.

The following statements were made by Seyed Rizwan Mowlana, Executive Director of CAIR-MD:

Since the 9/11 terror attacks, there has been a general perception within the American Muslim community that the law enforcement and judicial systems are unfairly targeting Muslims, Arabs and South Asians.

There have been numerous incidents where our community has perceived the selective enforcement of laws and disparate sentencing treatments when the accused happens to be a Muslim or Arab.

All Americans must remember that we live in a land where justice is designed to be blind in regard to race, religion or socioeconomic status. Although we pride our legal system on the theory of ‘presumption of innocence,’ the perception within the American Muslim community is that Muslims and Arabs are automatically considered guilty until proven innocent.

Today, as Americans and as Muslims, we hope that our judges and law enforcement officials around the country will remember that regardless of whether our nation is at war or in peace, we are a society embedded in the rule of law and that the principles of true justice can never be set aside.

Judge Brinkema’s 75 page memorandum opinion for these cases can be found at www.vaed.uscourts.gov.

CAIR, America’s largest Islamic civil liberties group, is headquartered in Washington DC, and has 25 regional offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada.

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