Eighteen year-old David Huffman says he “tapped” a Muslim woman on the head, nearly dislodging her headscarf, as a “prank.” He was charged with battery, and pleaded guilty.

But instead of fining him or sentencing him to jail, the judge ordered Huffman to undergo “sensitivity training” from the foremost radical Islamic front group in the United States, at the notorious Bridgeview Mosque:
‘Prank’ gets teen lesson in tolerance from CAIR. (Hat tip: Jim C.)

David Huffman told police it was just a prank gone wrong: On April 22, at a McDonald’s in Tinley Park, he tapped a Muslim woman on the head, nearly pulling off her headscarf.

The woman, a young mother with her children, didn’t see it as harmless. She was scared and embarrassed; her faith had been attacked. She told police, and they called it battery.

But in a surprising twist, a Cook County circuit judge did not fine or jail Huffman, who pleaded guilty. He was instead ordered to undergo sensitivity training at the downtown Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization.

During the past three months, Huffman, 18, has spent 40 hours listening to and talking with Muslims across Chicagoland. He has completed required tasks that seemed ripped from reality television: watching Muslim youths play basketball, attending a 9/11 event and visiting area mosques, which Huffman called “synagogues” at the beginning of his training.

But what exactly did David Huffman learn?

When Huffman first arrived Aug. 4 at the Muslim civil rights organization’s office, his hands were shaking from nervousness, and he appeared as though he’d rather have been anywhere else. He was late, for starters. He arrived with his shoes untied and a patchy stubble, looking more like he had just stumbled out of bed than spent the better part of an hour commuting from Tinley Park.

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Huffman said of the April incident, soon after arriving. “I want to forget it.”

He eventually told his version of the events. He said he knew he was wrong, but he was confused why the woman had become so upset.

“I understood immediately after I did it. But even after I apologized, she was still so angry,” he said. “I didn’t understand that.”

Explaining that to him would be the responsibility of Veronica Zapata, the organization’s sensitivity training coordinator.