Slander and "connections" are different
Reader comment on item: Middle East Studies on Trial

Submitted by Ted Volckhausen (United States), Jun 24, 2004 at 06:33

Fahwah Damra was charged with lying on his application for U.S. citizenship. These lies, according to the article, had to do with his connections to terrorist organizations. But hatred and slander of Jews, though they certainly stain your character, don't prove you have connections with terrorist organizations. After all, the expression of such sentiments is pretty widespread where Damra comes from, and by people who are not terrorists nor members of terrorist organizations. So why was evidence of these statements admitted into the proceedings at all? They would seem (so far as the article tells us) to be legally irrelevant and quite prejudicial.

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