Source: Courthouse News

Clothing

NYC agrees to $17.5 million settlement over forced removal of hijabs for mugshot photos Men and women who were forced to remove any religious head coverings for NYPD photographs are eligible for approximately $7,000 to $13,000 in settlement payments from the city.

April 5, 2024   

(Courthouse News) New York City agreed on Friday to pay a $17.5 million settlement to resolve a class-action civil rights lawsuit brought by New York women who were forced to remove their religious headscarves in NYPD mugshot photos for the department’s facial […]

Arts & Entertainment

Danish gallery set to auction off controversial Muhammad drawings The satirical drawings infuriated the Muslim world and pushed Denmark to the forefront of the discussion on freedom of expression.

February 20, 2024   

(Courthouse News) Original satirical drawings and sketches of the Prophet Muhammad that threw Denmark into a diplomatic crisis in the 2000s are now set for sale. On Tuesday, gallery KW ICONS auctioned 21 creations by cartoonist Kurt Westergaard including his controversial drawing […]

Animals

Top European rights court upholds ban on ritual animal slaughter After losing their case at the EU’s top court in Luxembourg, a coalition of Muslims and Jews turned to the European Court of Human Rights.

February 13, 2024   

(Courthouse News) Europe’s top rights court upheld a ban on killing livestock without first stunning them, finding on Tuesday that animal welfare could trump religious practice. A mixed-faith group of people and organizations brought the complaint to the European Court of Human […]

Legal

Unrepentant Islamic State group acolyte handed 10-year sentence Warren Clark is one of more than 245 people, 90% of them men, charged in the U.S. with crimes related to the Islamic State group since 2014.

February 8, 2024   

(Courthouse News) A Texan who joined the Islamic State group to teach English to its soldiers accused the United States of war crimes at his sentencing hearing Thursday, saying it reminded him of white supremacist bombings in the South when he saw […]

Crime

Court convicts first pro-Assad war crimes defendant in Netherlands While the Dutch have brought several Syrians to trial for crimes committed during their country’s civil war, previous defendants were all members of opposition forces.

January 22, 2024   

(Courthouse News) Dutch judges sentenced a former militia commander to 12 years in prison for complicity in torture and illegal detention on Monday, marking the first conviction of a pro-government Syrian defendant in the Netherlands. The 35-year-old, identified only as Mustafa A., […]

Government & Politics

Foreign fighter loses bid to prove he worked for Danish intelligence services Ahmed Samsam hoped to reopen his case after he was found guilty of joining the Islamic State group in Syria. He said he was working as an agent for Denmark's spy services, but today the Danish Eastern High Court declined to take up his case.

November 8, 2023   

(Courthouse News) One of Denmark’s most spectacular spy court cases came to a preliminary end Wednesday, as the Eastern High Court declined to take up Ahmed Samsam’s lawsuit against the Danish domestic and foreign intelligence services. Samsam, convicted of being an Islamic […]

Legal

Soccer star tied to al-Qaida begins terror trial in US Jailed since 2001, Nizar Trabelsi goes to trial here on charges related to ones he faced abroad: the plot to attack a NATO airbase in Belgium.

May 15, 2023   

(Courthouse News) A former professional European soccer player convicted in Belgium 20 years ago of planning a suicide bombing attack on Americans in Europe appeared in U.S. federal court on Monday to begin his jury trial. Opening arguments began with the prosecution […]

Legal

NYC bike path attacker spared death penalty in rare trial The same jurors who convicted Sayfullo Saipov of eight murder counts eligible for the death penalty needed to agree on the penalty unanimously for him to face capital punishment.

March 13, 2023   

(Courthouse News) The Uzbek immigrant who carried out a truck attack on a lower Manhattan bike path in 2017, killing eight, will spend the rest of his life in a U.S. federal prison after a federal jury was divided on whether he […]

Legal

Family of truck terrorist testify in his defense at NYC death penalty trial The penalty phase of a trial underway since January hurtled toward its end with emotional testimony from the mother and the youngest sister of the Uzbek man convicted of a deadly 2017 truck attack in Manhattan.

March 1, 2023   

(Courthouse News) Two family members of Sayfullo Saipov spoke in his defense Wednesday, giving jurors a tearful composite of the man they knew before he became radicalized by the Islamic State group and went on to kill eight people as they spent […]

Government & Politics

Justices parse Twitter’s role in Islamic State attacks The case is the second one before the high court in as many days that concerns the extent to which the tech industry is shielded for the content their users publish.

February 22, 2023   

(Courthouse News) The Supreme Court spent nearly three hours Wednesday on the question of whether the ability of the Islamic State group to post on Twitter amounts to aiding and abetting. Spending most of the arguments waffling through various hypotheticals, the justices […]

Law Enforcement

European rights court hears yearlong house arrest case A French man suspected of supporting radial Islam is challenging an onerous police house arrest order imposed on him following the 2015 Paris terror attacks.

October 18, 2022   

(Courthouse News) Europe’s top rights court heard arguments on Tuesday over whether a 13-month house arrest order imposed on a French man for alleged extremist views violated his human rights. Lawyers for David Pagerie argued before the European Court of Human Rights […]

Legal

Canadian man gets 20 years for helping six to join ISIS in Syria The former San Diego resident helped six U.S. and Canadian men to travel to Syria where they died fighting for the Islamic State group.

October 17, 2022   

(Courthouse News) A Canadian man was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for helping six U.S. and Canadian citizens, including four of his cousins, travel to Syria and join the Islamic State group. Abdullahi Ahmed Abdullahi, 37, of Edmonton, Alberta, had […]

Clothing

EU high court upholds workplace headscarf ban The ruling marks the second time in as many years that the European Union’s top court has sided against women who want to wear an Islamic head covering at work.

October 13, 2022   

(Courthouse News) Bans on head coverings are allowed in European Union workplaces as long as they apply to all employees, the bloc’s top court ruled Thursday. The European Court of Justice sided with Belgian housing organization SCRL, which refused to move forward […]

Legal

Rights court tells France to reconsider repatriation of Islamic State wives Europe’s top rights court found that Paris’ decision about which of its nationals it accepted back from camps in northern Syria was arbitrary and should be reviewed by an independent body.

September 14, 2022   

(Courthouse News) The European Court of Human Rights on Wednesday found France was in the wrong for refusing to repatriate two French women who joined the Islamic State terrorist group, ruling the process is too arbitrary. Paris violated a clause in the […]

Clerics & Preachers

Muslim men grilled by US customs agents about their faith sue feds On numerous occasions, customs and border patrol agents asked the men — all U.S. citizens — unnecessarily probing questions about their Muslim faith.

March 24, 2022   

(Courthouse News) In 2017, Imam Abdirahman Aden Kariye returned to the United States from Saudi Arabia after participating in the hajj — the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca. When he entered the United States at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Customs and Border Protection agents […]

Government & Politics

Appeals court revives Muslim family’s case over airport searches Calling it 'heartless,' a three-judge panel blasted the government’s suggestion that the Jibril family book another flight and face additional invasive searches to find out if they are on the terror watch list.

December 21, 2021   

(Courthouse News) The D.C. Circuit gave a Muslim family a second chance Tuesday in their lawsuit claiming they were wrongly placed on the federal terrorist watch list and subjected to unconstitutional searches on a religious trip. Mohammed Jibril, a U.S. citizen of […]

Children & Teens

Somali refugee wins second case against Norway over forced adoption Mariya Abdi Ibrahim won another case at Europe’s human rights court in 2019 over the forced adoption of her son, which resulted in Norway changing some of its regulations around adoption.

December 10, 2021   

(Courthouse News) Norway violated the human rights of a Muslim refugee from Somalia when authorities removed her child from her care and placed him with a Christian family, Europe’s top rights court held Friday. The European Court of Human Rights found that […]

Government & Politics

Top EU court returns Hamas to terror list after 3-year break The group with majority control of the Palestinian National Authority has been fighting the European Union over its designation as a terrorist group for over a decade.

November 23, 2021   

(Courthouse News) A lower EU court was wrong to strike Hamas from the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations, the union’s highest court found on Tuesday. Founded in 1987, following the First Intifada, Hamas is the de facto governing authority of the […]

Government & Politics

Austria must give gay refugee another shot at asylum, EU court rules Austria is known for taking a hardline approach to refugees, most recently refusing to take in Afghan refugees after that country fell to the Taliban.

September 9, 2021   

(Courthouse News) Austria was wrong to not give an Iraqi refugee a second chance at asylum after he revealed he was gay, the European Union’s highest court held Thursday. The European Court of Justice found that an Iraqi man who applied for […]

Legal

Second Circuit orders tougher sentence for Islamic State supporter A three-judge panel agreed with federal prosecutors that Sinmyah Amera Ceasar’s two-year sentence for supporting the Islamic State terrorist group was too lenient.

August 18, 2021   

(Courthouse News) A federal appeals court vacated the sentence of an Islamic State supporter on Wednesday after federal prosecutors argued she got off too easy. Sinmyah Amera Ceasar, a U.S. citizen also known by her online nom de guerre Umm Nutella — […]

Law Enforcement

Lebanese sleeper agent loses challenge to 40-year sentence The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld the terrorism conviction of man who claimed FBI agents had tricked him into incriminating himself while proffering evidence as a cooperator.

July 27, 2021   

(Courthouse News) A Hezbollah-trained sleeper agent who scouted New York City buildings for possible targets of terrorism failed to secure a reversal of his 40-year prison sentence Tuesday. At oral arguments back in April, attorneys for Lebanon-born Ali Kourani [said he] only […]

Clothing

Employers can ban Muslim veils at work, top EU court rules Right-wing politicians across the European Union are cheering the Thursday morning decision against religious insignia.

July 15, 2021   

(Courthouse News) The EU’s top court ruled on Thursday that companies can ban their employees from wearing headscarves and other religious symbols while on the clock. “An internal rule of an undertaking, prohibiting workers from wearing any visible sign of political, philosophical […]

Legal

Former Department of Defense linguist sentenced for aiding Hezbollah The contractor pleaded guilty to sending classified information to a romantic interest connected to the Lebanese terrorist organization.

June 23, 2021   

(Courthouse News) Mariam Taha Thompson, a 62-year-old contract linguist who worked for the Pentagon, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison Wednesday for transmitting highly sensitive information to the Lebanese terrorist organization Hezbollah. “Thompson’s sentence reflects the seriousness of her violation […]

Law Enforcement

Mosque sting operation will get Supreme Court treatment The FBI had to pull the plug on the operation when someone called the police on its informant disguised as a Muslim advocating violence against the United States.

June 7, 2021   

(Courthouse News) Wading into a decade-old class action, the Supreme Court agreed Monday to look at the FBI’s use of an informant to collect information from several Los Angeles and Orange County mosques for more than a year. The FBI petitioned the […]

Law Enforcement

Hezbollah sleeper agent looks to beat 40-year sentence Ali Kourani said the FBI tricked him into incriminating himself, landing him a sentence nearly three times longer than those handed down for more serious terrorism charges.

April 13, 2021   

(Courthouse News) A Lebanese man who told the FBI he planned to become a suicide bomber for the terrorist group Hezbollah fought to overturn his 40-year sentence at the Second Circuit on Tuesday, saying agents led him to believe the information he […]

Clothing

EU companies can ban workers from wearing headscarves, magistrate says The court adviser found that small-scale religious displays can be allowed at work, but it’s up to national courts to determine what falls in that category.

February 25, 2021   

(Courthouse News) In a consolidated case involving a drug store clerk and a day care center employee, a magistrate for the European Union’s high court held that employers can ban Islamic headscarves on neutrality grounds. In a nonbinding legal opinion for the […]

Children & Teens

Forced adoption case against Norway hits European rights court A Muslim woman whose son was adopted against her wishes claims Norway violated her right to religious freedom by putting him in the care of a Christian family.

January 27, 2021   

(Courthouse News) The European Court of Human Rights heard arguments Wednesday over whether Norway violated the religious rights of a Muslim woman whose child was forcibly adopted by Christians. During a remote hearing before the ECHR, lawyers for Mariya Ibrahim argued the […]

Government & Politics

Judge: Italy illegally expels asylum seekers An Italian judge ordered the Interior Ministry to assess a gay Pakistani man’s claim for asylum after he was forcefully and immediately expelled from Italy last summer.

January 22, 2021   

(Courthouse News) Italy is illegally sending asylum seekers who cross its borders back into the Balkans, where they are routinely beaten and mistreated by police, according to an Italian judge. In a ruling this week, Judge Silvia Albano with the Court of […]

Government & Politics

Supreme Court receptive to damages battle over no-fly list Forecasting a win for four men whom the FBI put on the no-fly list after they refused to spy on fellow Muslims, several U.S. Supreme Court justices saw an implication of private damages in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

October 6, 2020   

(Courthouse News) Several justices with the U.S. Supreme Court hinted Tuesday that a law protecting religious freedoms includes a subtext that would allow individuals to sue government agents for money damages. In the underlying 2013 suit, Muhammad Tanvir accused FBI agents of violating […]

Animals

European magistrate backs ritual slaughter for halal and kosher meat Muslim and Jewish leaders argue their religions require animals to be fully healthy and conscious when they are slaughtered.

September 10, 2020   

(Courthouse News) In a legal test case pitting animal rights advocates and far-right politicians against Muslim and Jewish religious leaders seeking to protect halal and kosher meats, a magistrate for Europe’s highest court on Thursday said bans on the ritual slaughtering of […]

Animals

Ban on religious animal slaughter fought at EU high court Belgium has joined Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Slovenia in not allowing for any religious exemptions to EU slaughter regulations.

July 8, 2020   

(Courthouse News) Religious groups argued their case against a Belgian law banning ritual animal slaughter before the European Union’s highest court on Wednesday, while Belgium denied the law infringes on religious freedom. The law, which requires that animals be stunned before being […]

Islamic Law

Rights court orders Greece to pay widow in Sharia law case The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Greece must pay a Muslim widow damages for applying Islamic religious law to a dispute over inheritance from her late husband.

June 18, 2020   

(Courthouse News) Chatitze Molla Sali already knew that she’d won the right to inherit her Muslim husband’s full estate two years ago but she had to wait until Thursday to find out just how much the Greek government would have to pay […]