David Huffman told police that 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 twist that surprised everybody, a Cook County judge ordered the teen to undergo sensitivity training at the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights organization.

During the past three months, Mr. Huffman, 18, has spent 40 hours listening to and talking with Muslims across Chicago. He has completed required tasks that, at times, seemed ripped from reality television: watching Muslim youths play basketball, attending a 9/11 event and visiting area mosques. [Link]