US Justice Department sues Chicago school for discrimination against Muslim teacher

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The U.S. government is suing a suburban Chicago school district for refusing to grant a Muslim teacher unpaid leave to go on a Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Attending the annual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca once in a lifetime is one of the five central tenets of the Islamic faith. Safoorah Khan, a middle school teacher in the Berkeley school district, about 15 miles west of Chicago, applied for an unpaid leave of absence in 2008 to go on the Hajj, but her request was denied.

She ultimately quit her job to attend and later filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint Monday in a Chicago federal court alleging that the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by refusing Khan’s time-off request and failing to accommodate her religious practice.

Khan began teaching math at the district’s McArthur Middle School in 2007. According to court documents, she wrote to the school superintendent in August 2008, asking for an unpaid leave from Dec. 1-19 that year to travel to Mecca on the pilgrimage.

The district denied her request, noting that the “purpose of her leave was not related to her professional duties,” the Justice Department said. The legal challenge filed Monday states that “because Berkeley School District denied her a religious accommodation, the district compelled Ms. Khan to choose between her job and her religious beliefs, and thus forced her discharge.”

The lawsuit aims to prevent school districts from discriminating against teachers on the basis of religion. Khan also wants her job back, along with back pay and other damages for pain and suffering, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.

AOL News, 14 December 2010

Pig’s head sent to Helsinki offices of Somali League

Posted on by Bob Pitt

A pig’s head was delivered to the Helsinki offices of the Somali League on Monday, according to League Chairman Abdirashid Awad Dirie. Police have opened a criminal investigation into the incident as a case of defamation.

Most Somalis are Muslims and do not eat pork. The pig’s head sent to the Somali League office from Tampere was accompanied by a note wishing a Merry Christmas. The sender of the parcel was marked as ”free thinkers.” As of Tuesday, police had no further information on who posted the package.

The Helsinki office of the Somali League has been the target of vandalism in the past. It has had windows broken, oil poured through its post slot and been pelted with eggs.

YLE, 14 December 2010

Woman arrested for wearing hijab sues Georgia city

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lisa_ValentineDOUGLASVILLE, Ga. — A Muslim woman who was arrested after she refused to remove her headscarf in a west Georgia courthouse filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Douglasville and the officers who arrested her, contending they violated her constitutional rights.

Lisa Valentine said authorities trampled on her First Amendment rights in December 2008 when she was ordered to serve 10 days in jail for contempt of court after she refused to remove her hijab at a courtroom. She was released in less than a day, but her arrest infuriated Muslim rights activists and prompted changes in Georgia’s courtroom policy.

“I hope that no person of faith will ever have to experience the type of egregious treatment I suffered at any Georgia courthouse because of the expression of my beliefs,” said Valentine, whose lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Georgia chapter.

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French court annuls fine for driver in Muslim veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Lies Hebbadj, Sandrine MouleresNANTES, France — A French court has annulled a fine given to a woman driver wearing an Islamic face veil, months before a ban on wearing the garments goes into effect.

Traffic police in the city of Nantes fined 31-year-old Sandrine Mouleres €22  in April, saying she did not have a clear field of vision, but the court quashed the fine Monday.

Jean-Michel Pollono, Mouleres’ attorney, said the court in Nantes had ruled “we are in a free country, and as a result, everything that isn’t forbidden is allowed.”

The initial fine drew widespread attention amid a nationwide debate over the place of Islamic veils. In September, the French parliament agreed to a ban on face-covering veils – such as the niqab or burqa – from being worn in public. The ban goes into effect in spring.

Associated Press, 13 December 2010

French court rules against hijab wearer

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Baby LoupA French court has ruled against a woman who sued a private child-care centre that fired her for wearing an Islamic headscarf and cloak to work. The case has become a symbol of the debate over religious freedom in France.

The Baby Loup nursery, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is located in a poor housing project in the town of Chanteloup-les-Vignes, northwest of Paris. Fatima Afif was fired for wearing a hijab, an Islamic headscarf and a full-length dark cloak. It was not the burqa or niqab, which are face-covering veils.

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CNN’s Fareed Zakaria blasts Glenn Beck’s claim that 10 per cent of Muslims are terrorists

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Glenn Beck and Fareed Zakaria are best known as political pundits, but this week the two are locked head-to-head in a battle over math.

Beck launched the feud by claiming on his radio show last week that 10% of Muslims are terrorists. “What is the number of Islamic terrorists? 1 percent? I think it’s closer to 10%, but the rest of the P.C. world will tell you, ‘Oh no, it’s minuscule,'” the Fox host said.

Beck first made the claim in his 2003 book The Real America, in which he said “Ninety percent of Islam is peaceful. Ten percent of Islam wants us dead.”

Fareed Zakaria, an Indian-born journalist and the former editor ofNewsweek International, fired back at Beck’s claims on his CNN show “GPS” on Sunday night.

“Let’s do a bit of math here,” said Zakaria, demonstrating his calculations on a chalkboard. “There are 1,570,000,000 Muslims worldwide. Take ten percent of those Muslims and you get 157,000,000. That’s how many Muslim terrorists Glenn Beck is suggesting there are in the world.”

He went on to attack Beck’s math, and his methods. “Beck wondered why ‘Oh why this wasn’t receiving any media coverage?'” Zakaria continued. “Well let me suggest one reason. It is total nonsense. A figure made up by Glenn Beck with absolutely no basis in fact.”

New York Daily News, 13 December 2010