Joe Soucheray
Sunday, October 09, 2011
In the middle of last week, Amina Farah Ali decided to stand in court when she heard the words "all rise.'' It was the third day of her trial in Minneapolis. She and Hawo Mohamed Hassan, both of Rochester, are accused of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Shabaab, a terrorist gang in Somalia.
Ali had racked up 100 days in jail for contempt of court before deciding, apparently, that standing wasn't so out of the realm of possibility after all. She had told Chief U.S. District Judge Michael Davis that her religious beliefs didn't require her to stand for anybody, not even the Prophet Muhammad, citing Hadith, or supplements to the Quran that provide examples of how Muslims are expected to act in daily life.
Davis wasn't buying it, and pointed out that in this country standing in court has nothing to do with religion. Standing is what we do to exhibit a decorum and civility for a serious process. Well, she still wasn't standing for anybody, but after two nights in jail, she changed her mind.
Here is what I don't understand. Well, there are many things I don't understand, but here is what I don't understand about this woman's behavior. Somehow, she has been fortunate enough to have left Somalia and now lives in Minnesota. How she could go from a country of abject ruin to the green idyll of Rochester, Minn., and not have it occur to her to act graciously at a simple instruction to stand in court is beyond my comprehension.
Children are dying in their mothers' arms in Somalia. Food and water are problematic. There is no government. There are only warring factions. The streets are not safe. There is little if any civic order. How lucky, how blessed, for Ali to have escaped that.
And not only did Ali escape Somalia, she landed on her feet in one of the most pleasant places on Earth, a city that a variety of magazines always list in those ubiquitous top-10-places-to-live stories. In Rochester, children are not dying in their mothers' arms. There is food and water. Why, there are markets with, I would think, unimaginable stores of food to someone from Somalia. There is a government. There is civic order. The streets are safe. There are no warring factions.
Everything works! Telephones work and televisions work and radios work, and there are computers and newspapers and automobiles and the utter freedom to stand outside after a meal and breathe in the pleasant air without fear of getting shot.
The small price - if it can even be considered a price - is that Ali is expected to stand when the words "all rise'' are heard in a courtroom. She is, in fact, a citizen of the United States. She had to pass a test. She had to understand, however vaguely, during the process of gaining citizenship, that the genius of our founders was the distinct separation of church and state.
At home, Ali can refuse to stand for anybody. But in courtrooms, for example, we all come together to settle our differences, and we follow the rules.
Now, I realize that Ali is accused of a serious crime, and I am not suggesting that she come into the courtroom singing and dancing and blowing kisses to the jury. No, a trial is a sobering experience, but why she would have behaved so churlishly and with such contempt when she is, in so many ways, so fortunate to even be here is what I don't understand.
Or, more accurately, why wouldn't Muhammad want her to be, if not gracious, at least grateful? Would she prefer to be on trial for something, anything, in Somalia?
Joe Soucheray can be reached at [email protected] or 651-228-5474. Soucheray is heard from 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays on 1500ESPN.