Innocent until proven Muslim  Judging people by their actions rather than what they may or may not have been thinking is a fairly fundamental tenet of liberty and seems to have been thrown aside with casual disregard in this case [i] . There needs to have been a goal in place for this to meaningfully be described as a conspiracy, there was not; and demonstrably not a goal of murdering Americans overseas, which he didn’t even mention.  Instead the court has conflated expressing an opinion about national policy – an entirely legitimate activity according to both the first amendment (“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”) [ii] and both statute and case law. As Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, declared: “It’s official. There is a Muslim exception to the First Amendment.” [iii]  A huge amount of the commentary on this verdict, and the subsequent sentence, has focused on the belief that Mehanna was found guilty because of his religion [iv] [v] [vi] . Whatever the case serious concern has been expressed by jurors, Islamic groups and civil liberties organisations.  Tarek Mehanna did not justify, take part in, orchestrate, fund, supply, encourage or plan an attack on US personnel. There is no case to answer.  [i] This has not just been the case in the US. Attempts to mark online comment as seditious is a global phenomenon. Here’s an example from India .  [ii] ‘Amendment I’, Cornell University Law School,   [iii] Vennochi, Joan, ‘Tarek Mehanna case puts First Amendment on trial’, The Boston Globe, 19 April 2012,   [iv] Truth Dig. Chris Hedges. First They Came For The Muslims. 16 April 2012.  [v] Information Clearing House. Roqayah Chamseddin. And Then They Came For The Muslims. April 15 2012.  [vi] The Huffington Post. Rachel Levinson-Waldman. The Narrowing of Tarek Mehanna’s Liberties has Consequences for Us All. 15 May 2012.