Weekly Terrorism Spotlight

Volume 1, Issue 2 (March 24)

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Landmark free speech decision mulled in Virginia

Virginia Judge takes free speech argument under advisement in case challenging state’s litter law

According to Christian Action Network president Martin Mawyer’s free-speech argument against an aerial leafleting charge Thursday, March 20, to a Virginia judge, literature warning residents of a dangerous local pro-terrorist compound trumps an ambiguous law against littering.

Mawyer explained to General District Judge Joel Cunningham that he has broken no law in Virginia, but he must protest the idea of being charged under the littering law stating the drop of literature from an airplane was illegal.

Mawyer said his and everyone’s U.S. Constitutional protections are threatened if Virginia’s littering law is used that way.

The law is so “vaguely worded,” Mawyer’s Rustburg attorney David Hawkins said, that anyone could be charged for any kind of literature distribution that any one person believes is “unsightly.”

Hawkins argued for Mawyer’s right to “warn” Charlotte County, Virginia, neighborhoods about a Muslim closed-community compound that Mawyer said is linked to international terrorism.

The case against Mawyer alleges he acted inappropriately – that he dropped leaflets aimed for the compound area and residents in it who might be unaware of the terrorist connection.

Mawyer said in time the case is destined to fall on the grounds that he did not do any such literature drop, but for now, he is arguing for the right to distribute what the law deems “political information” or “speech” in creative ways when other contacts are not available.

Charlotte County Commonwealth’s Attorney William Green said the leaflets fell on private property, and the littering statute protects them from the inconvenience of having to clean up.

Hawkins said the vagueness of the statute should be addressed in Richmond before it restricts completely all possible communication of political ideas using an airplane to drop leaflets.

“The public convenience of the cleanliness of the streets is not justification to prohibit political literature,” Hawkins said, adding context from prior court rulings elsewhere as precedent.

“The court held that because this was political speech, it was the more sacred from of protected speech,” and should include aerial leaflet dropping, “as applied in this case,” he added.

Green countered the precedent cases dealt with handing out literature, “person-to-person, in one-on-one handouts…or distributed to individual vehicles,” which is different from Mawyer’s case.

About 50 leaflets fell “on the lawn and in the trees” of a rural-area property, Green added.

“The argument by defense falls short in this matter…when these items end up falling on private property,” Green said. “The littering statute protects you as a property owner.”

Hawkins said it is reasonable for leaflet dropping to be regulated by Virginia lawmakers, but not banned – and there are no current regulations.

Judge Cunningham asked Green if a few leaflets would be okay - Green said it would. When asked if hundreds is too much, Hawkins said, “not according to the statute as it is now worded.”

Mawyer, in comments outside the courtroom, said the compound is run by Muslims of America, linked to a Pakistani cleric he identified as an international terrorist, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani.

He said he has sent in the mail and handed out in person hundreds of fliers to expose the Muslims of America compound and to protest a street named after Gilani, its founder.

He added, in hypothetical terms – if – a person wanted to warn residents of the compound, a closed community, the U.S. mail and literature handouts wouldn’t work.

He compared the situation to the Peoples Temple community run by Jim Jones in 1978 – hundreds of followers were tricked into a suicide pact, drinking poisoned Cool-Aid.

“Was the urgency of warning those people more important than the inconvenience of picking up leaflets?” he said.

Mawyer contends Muslims of America is run by Sheikh Gilani - its history includes FBI findings of terrorist activities led by Gilani under the guise of an organization called Jamaat al-Fuqra.

He asked that background about Muslims of America, including what Mawyer said was footage excerpts from a terrorist training video made by Muslims of America and featuring Gilani, be admitted in the case as context for Mawyer’s claim to political speech.

Sherman Sharp, a spokesman for Muslims of America at the Charlotte County compound, said Mawyer’s information was fabricated.

“I don’t think it’s free speech, I think it’s hate,” he said in a statement reported by local media. “You know, it’s one thing if you’re going to speak, speak the truth.”

The Muslims of America information is being reviewed by Green at the prosecutor’s office incase he has an objection to it being included in material for Judge Cunningham’s review.

Cunningham’s decision is expected before an April scheduled trial date on the littering charge.