20150630 Deine E-Books können gegen dich verwendet werden

30.06.2015 Deine E-Books können gegen dich verwendet werden

Accused of Terrorism Based on Book Collection

The U.S. government had produced “snippets of information from various sources, out of context, to weave together a narrative of terrorist ideation,” a Florida judge said Friday, ordering the release of Marcus Dwayne Robertson, an Orlando-based Islamic scholar who stood accused of supporting terrorism.

Robertson’s case attracted national attention after prosecutors attempted to argue earlier this year that the contents of his book collection constituted evidence of his connection to terrorism. Prosecutors singled out roughly 20 titles from the more than 10,000 e-books Robertson owned, highlighted a selection of controversial passages, and used that to argue that he should be sentenced as though he were a terrorist.

“The government has never disputed Robertson’s claim of being an Islamic scholar,” the judge continued. “It is not at all remarkable for an Islamic scholar to study, among many, many others, the writings of Islamic extremists.”

In his closing remarks at Friday’s sentencing hearing, Presnell also stated that he had received “hundreds of emails” in the past few weeks from anti-Muslim activists urging him to impose a harsh sentence on Robertson, an unprecedented experience in his judicial career.

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