Oslo: Girl fined for Koran fight

Oslo: Girl fined for Koran fight

I'm not sure why this even got to court. I doubt the judges really want to start dealing with every schoolyard fight in the country.

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A court in the Follo suburb of Oslo (Norway) sentenced a Muslim girl to pay 10,000 kroner in fines and 1,500 in court costs for having hit a fellow student for something she said.

The two former students at Ås secondary school disagree on what was said and by whom on that April day in 2008.

The Muslim girl was eating with a friend in the classroom. The other girl supposedly turned and said "I will piss on the Koran".

In court the other girl denied she'd said that, and that she had said that if it had been a graduation celebration prank-assignment to piss on the Koran, she would have done it.

The two disagree on what happened next as well. The non-Muslim girl says that the Muslim girl said "I will piss on the Bible".

The Muslim girl denies that and says she answered "It's not allowed to say something like that - it's a holy book". Later she admitted to the court that she said "I'll piss on you."

After recess that two went into the classroom. At the end of class the teacher noticed that the Muslim girl was crying. After hearing the story the teacher said that they won't make more out of it.

The two girls had no contact with each other during class. Right after class, the Muslim girl went up to the other girl and hit her in the face. The court didn't get a clear answer on how many punches there were and whether it was with a fist or not. The victim got a red mark on her cheek.

The Follo court says that the Muslim girl saw the statement about pissing on the Koran as both insulting and hurtful, but that the statement couldn't be considered defamation. Therefore, the girl's anger can't be justified by the law.

According to the non-Muslim student, they sat together and spoke in the classroom about the graduation festivities and then she said it. It wasn't meant to be insulting. When she came home crying with a red mark on her cheek, the father contacted the police.

The Muslim student will not appeal the decision, but she thinks it's unjust.

"Regardless of which county I was in, I wouldn't have done anything of what she did. I don't want somebody saying 'I will piss on the Koran'. When we read in the Koran, we wash our hands and cover parts of the body before we take the book, since it's a holy book. I have nothing against the Bible. I said that I respect her. Please resepct me," says the girl.

She thinks she did nothing wrong. "I didn't hit so hard, but so that she'll learn a lesson. I had warned her several times. I've lived in Norway for six years, I have never done anything wrong and followed all the laws in the country. But when somebody says they will piss on the Koran, I will hit," she says.

Yet she doesn't blame her 18-year old fellow student. "It isn't her fault, but (rather) her parents who should have raised her properly.

According to the principal, he had spoken to each girl separately and then they both met in his office together with a teacher to speak about it. They didn't want to be in the same class, but he couldn't accept that. He also got each one to apologize to the other, and as far as he knew, the case was closed.

Source: Østlandets Blad 1, 2, 3 (Norwegian)