The first story was sent to me by Glenda in Seattle & Kangaroo in Australia had the perfect image to use with it. While tracking media coverage (minimal so far), I came across the second story, and found the juxtaposition rather ironic ..
Police Arrest Anti-War Protester, 80, at Mall Newsday.com (later: DailyKos Diary)
An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War. Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt, which had what they described as "graphic anti-war images." Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words "Dead" and "Enough." The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.
Police said in a release last night that Zirkel was handing out anti-war pamphlets to mallgoers and that mall security told him to stop and turn his shirt inside out. Zirkel refused to turn his shirt inside out and wouldn't leave, police said. Security placed him on "civilian arrest" and called police. When police arrived, Zirkel passively resisted attempts to bring him to a police car, the release said. But Zirkel said he was sitting in the food court drinking coffee with his wife Marie, 77, and several others when police and mall security officers approached and demanded they remove their anti-war T-shirts. The others complied, but Zirkel said he refused, and when he wouldn't stand up to be removed and arrested, authorities brought over a wheelchair. "They forcibly picked me up and put me in the wheelchair," said Zirkel, a deacon at one of the poorest Catholic parishes on Long Island, where a devastating fire recently destroyed the rectory and storage areas.
Zirkel was charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest. He was released on bail. A spokeswoman for mall owner Simon Property Group did not immediately return calls seeking comment. Generally speaking, a mall has the right to control what happens on its property, said John McEntee, a Uniondale commercial litigation lawyer. Activists with dueling opinions had gathered to support and oppose America's five-year campaign. As Zirkel was being wheeled to the police car, the crowd chanted "We shall not be moved!" Moments later, they moved; police and mall security had ordered them off the property. Many joined a larger anti-war crowd assembled by the mall's entrance, off mall property, on Veterans Memorial Highway. They were complemented nearby by protesters saying the Iraq war is vital for security.
80 Year Old Man Arrested for "Blasphemy"
... Meanwhile, in Pakistan, an 80 year old man, Altaf Harain, was arrested and accused of "blasphemy" when he allegedly ripped and threw pages of the Qur'an to the ground. He can be put in prison for life for desecration. He belongs to the Ahmadiyya, a Muslim religious movement condemned as heretical in 1974. According to police, a student saw Altaf Husain rip pages out of a Qur‘an last Monday and throw them on the ground. When he shouted at him to stop, the old Ahmadi ran off.
Conversely, members of the Ahmadi community said that Altaf Husain was just reading the power meter outside his home when a madrassa student warned him that he was stepping on a page of the Qur‘an. The 80-year-old man failed to understand what the boy was saying when the latter began shouting, accusing him of blasphemy. Police arrived soon after and arrested the alleged offender. The spokesman for the Ahmadiyya community, Saleem Ud-Din, told AsiaNews that the charges are baseless, that they are just a way to persecute Ahmadis. For Ud-Din no one in the community could desecrate the holy text. What the community wants instead is for the government to put a stop to such incidents which are sowing hatred against the Ahmadi community.
NOTE: Simon Property Group own property all over the country - and there are certainly other places to do business! For example, they own Northgate Mall in Seattle, the closest Mall to my house. The story has now been picked up by USA Today, who requested comment from a PR company that represents Simon Property Group.
Saw this at DailyKos: FWIW-The Simon brothers are long-time Democrats headquartered in Indianapolis, IN. I would be surprised if they sanction this kind of thing.
Apparently, this picture is what the shirt looked like that the man arrested in the mall was wearing.
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