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Court Rejects Jewish Man's Anti-Muslim Conspiracy Charges

By Howard M. Friedman

In Hummasti v. Ali, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25433 (D OR, March 23, 2009), an Oregon federal district court rejected, largely for lack of evidence, a rather outlandish set of RICO, conspiracy and discrimination allegations by a former Portland State University student who was operating an unlicensed food kiosk outside the courthouse in Portland, Oregon. Filing the lawsuit pro se, John Hummasti, who is Jewish, alleged, among other things, that the county health inspector who told him he needed a license for his food kiosk was attempting to impose Islamic law on him and was conspiring to prevent him from collecting charity for the Jewish community in Portland. He alleged that various Islamic groups in Portland had conspired to deny him the right of free speech on public campuses, and that police officers violated his 1st Amendment rights when they arrested him for assaulting a Muslim man who was stopped at a red light near where Hummasti was carrying signs opposing Islamic terrorism in Gaza.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on April 01, 2009 (boomark / email).