Please. The nuts and bolts of this case have nothing to do with Freeman's right to worship, freely or diversely, and everything to do with her responsibility to drive lawfully. On the highway, she is a driver first, not a Muslim. As such, she is subject to the same rules and regulations that govern every other driver -- Catholic, Jew or Jesse James. As a licensing body, the state is hardly chipping away at religious liberties; on the contrary, Freeman's religion-based plaint may be seen as an attempt to chip away at the legal tradition of conducting state affairs without regard to religion.

So what to do? Both sides have Islamic experts on the case. Maybe one of them will pull a fatwa out of a hijab and rule that Muslim women may remain in good religious standing, with or without the veil.

Oddly enough, just such a fatwa, sort of, came down this week from Sheik Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, world renowned Islamic "moderate," scholar, and Al Jazeera tele-imam. (The late Daniel Pearl flagged Mr. Qaradawi early on as a centrist; just this past spring the Christian Science Monitor identified him as a "moderate Egyptian cleric," and, more significant, Noah Feldman, the chief U.S. adviser on the Iraqi constitution, has labeled him an "Islamic democrat.") Such positive PR stems from the cleric's condemnation of the Sept. 11 attacks; nothing subsequently -- not his sanctions of suicide "operations"; his pronouncement that shaking hands with Israeli government official Shimon Peres requires washing hands seven times (once with dirt); or his rulings against the war in Iraq -- has altered this reputation.

Qaradawi's latest religious ruling, reported by the Jerusalem Post, not only permits women to venture out alone in public without wearing a hijab, but also to do so without their husband's permission. This sounds downright liberating, not just for Freeman, but for all Muslim women (not to mention the Florida DMV). But there's a catch: The free dress fatwa is restricted to the Muslim woman who is about to blow herself up "for the cause of Allah" in a suicide bombing -- an act of mass murder Sheik Qaradawi calls "one of the most praised acts of worship."

Suffice it to say that if this is the face of moderation unveiled, Sultanna Freeman will just have to do without a driver's license.