Fake muslim convict causes a stir in Boulder, Colorado.

Maria Hardman, 19 years old, was sentenced to two days in the Boulder Jail and slated to serve those two days this past week-end. However, upon arriving at the jail, she appeared wearing a hijab, or muslim headscarf, and refused to take it off for the booking photo. She claims to have converted to islam three years ago when she was 16 years old, and is now holding herself out as some sort of victim and also a crusader on behalf of muslims everywhere. In her own video, which she's posted to Youtube, she speaks of how she's reached out to both the ACLU and CAIR, the Washington, DC-based lobbying organization/terrorist front-group, requesting their help. And like so many other privileged and sheltered little Boulderites, she claims that the problem here is a "lack of education" on the part of everyone else around her. She's so worldly at 19, and all of the adults with actual life experience are ignorant, at least in her view.

Well maybe the ACLU and CAIR can help her explain how she can really be a devout muslim when she engages in the activities that she boasted about on her public Facebook page (which she's now taken down and changed). On facebook, this "devout muslim" (and underage teenager) describes her favorite activities as:

"Activities: Running, Traveling, Hiking, Scootering, Reading, Cooking, Skiing, Horseback Riding, Hookahing, Partying and Lovin', Camping, Drinking, and 1 more"

"Interests: Traveling, Partying, Ummm See Above"

The page was also filled with gratuitous, casual profanity and self-authored references to "crazy/awesome nights" and partying. At one point, she even listed her status as: "permadrinkin ;)" with a self-reply of "Supposed to say 'permadrunkin'".

She sure sounds like a devout muslim to me...what do you think?

Oh--and the crime for which she was sentenced to the jail...Operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol. Predictably, she has a defense to this one as well. She claims that she was given alcohol without her knowledge when, at a party, she sipped a glass of punch from a bowl that she did not know was spiked. Of course her credibility was further demolished by her BAC, which was 0.19, or over twice the legal limit of 0.08. To reach such a limit, she would have had to have consumed the equivalent of at least 10 shots, bottles of beer, or glasses of wine. That's not something that you can get from one cup of punch. But she's playing that down now, too. She laughingly tells everyone in her "feel sorry for me" video that she was sentenced to jail for "a bunch of traffic violations." She can't even be honest about her DWI when it's a matter of public knowledge.

Now the muslim community is trying to decide how to handle this hand grenade. Thanks to little Maria publicizing her little affair, they now have to rush in and defend a female who claims to observe their religion yet drinks, operates motor vehicles, and casually associates with non-family-member males.

Meanwhile, Maria has to go back before the judge to explain her non-cooperation. Here's hoping that the judge increases her sentence and gives her more time in jail just for being a self-absorbed drama queen and twit. In a perfect world, her over-indulgent parents would be forced to join her on the work crew for letting her get so screwed up.

Related news stories:

Denver Post
CBS Denver
London Muslim blog