Muslim Who Threatened Christians in Facebook Live Video Won't Be Charged
The Muslim man who went live on his Facebook page with disturbing threats towards attendees of a Christian conference will not face criminal charges.
"He had a lot of guns with him, but he wasn't breaking any laws," KDLT quoted Sioux Falls Police Officer Sam Clemens.
"He didn't threaten anybody directly. He didn't threaten any groups of people, anything like that, and it's not illegal to carry guns or have guns with you," he explained.
The infamous Facebook Live video shows Ehab Jaber holding up a copy of the Koran before scanning a crowd of believers at the Worldview Weekend rally in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. An estimated 500 men, women, and children attended the event, not realizing they were secretly being recorded by Jaber.
One of the event's off duty police officers noticed Jaber's actions and asked him to abide by event rules and stop filming the conference. When the officer asks for his name, Jaber lied, calling himself "John Smith, the Muslim John Smith."
Jaber eventually left the event, but the Facebook saga was far from over. He later posted two more Facebook live videos of himself sitting in a car parked outside the conference. He pulled out several weapons and repeatedly told the camera "be scared" and "be terrified." He taunted the Christians in a speech laced with profanity.
When asked why he filmed the event, Jaber replied, "Because I can. Because I am an American citizen."
"There's a lot of people out there who are going to think that because I'm Muslim I shouldn't have that right, but tough," he said. "Build a time machine, go back in time and change the Constitution and we'll talk about it then."
But the conference organizer, Brannon Howse, views the matter differently.
"With each brandishing of the five weapons, including two assault riffles, he would say 'be scared' or 'be terrified,' " Howse wrote in a Facebook post. "Ask yourself if a white 'Christian' did this at a Muslim conference would he be arrested or charged?"
