Posted on 03/22/2011 7:56:07 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
BERKELEY, Ill. — Safoorah Khan had taught middle school math for only nine months in this tiny Chicago suburb when she made an unusual request. She wanted three weeks off for a pilgrimage to Mecca.
The school district, faced with losing its only math lab instructor during the critical end-of-semester marking period, said no. Khan, a devout Muslim, resigned and made the trip anyway.
Justice Department lawyers examined the same set of facts and reached a different conclusion: that the school district’s decision amounted to outright discrimination against Khan. They filed an unusual lawsuit, accusing the district of violating her civil rights by forcing her to choose between her job and her faith.
As the case moves forward in federal court in Chicago, it has triggered debate over whether the Justice Department was following a purely legal path or whether suing on Khan’s behalf was part of a broader Obama administration campaign to reach out to Muslims.
The decision to take on a small-town school board has drawn criticism from conservatives and Berkeley officials, who say the government should not be standing behind a teacher who wanted to leave her students.
The lawsuit, filed in December, may well test the boundaries of how far employers must go to accommodate workers’ religious practices — a key issue as the nation grows more multicultural and the Muslim population increases. But it is also raising legal questions. Experts say the government might have difficulty prevailing because the 19-day leave Khan requested goes beyond what courts have considered.
“It sounds like a very dubious judgment and a real legal reach,” said Michael B. Mukasey, who was attorney general in the George W. Bush administration. “The upper reaches of the Justice Department should be calling people to account for this.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
This entire situation smells highly of a total set up. Oh wait. This DOJ wouldn’t do that, now would they? Enough of this already.
What was it Nancy Reagan used to say? “Just Say NO”.
It does smell planned!
This is a lie .Plenty of Muslims never make a haij. Plus if she feel conscience stricken, Islam law allows her to hire a substitute.
We can’t get these unAmerican scumbags out soon enough. This means Eric Holder and his racist Justice Department. Get Obama out in 2012 or this country is gone
The Feds are sending a message that we will bankrupt your small town via litigation. Therefore don’t defy us on Muslim stuff or anything else.
Muslims are the chosen people of these black racists — Obama and Eric Holder.
The Haj is on a lunar calendar, the school work year is on a solar one. Wait a few years and the Haj wil fall during school vacation. A math teacher should be able to figure out when. Go then.
She gets the summers off right? Can’t she actually fit in her religous duties in her copious time off like the rest of us?
Give me a break, there’s nothing that says you have to go during a particular year, just some time during her life!
She can easily go after she retires.
The pendulum is swinging far to the left at this point...
It’s a test run...kind of like the 6 Muslims on the airlines...
Like she didn’t know she wanted to go on a haji prior to taking the teaching job...this was an all of a sudden, I have to go now moment. Muslims are required to make one trip some point in their life..
The government is seeking back pay, damages and reinstatement for Khan, and a court order requiring Berkeley schools to find ways to accommodate religious practices.
A trial date has not been set.
Of course, since when do trivial things like the law mean anything to this regime.
That’s crazy. 3 weeks? What other job could you just leave for 3 weeks during a critical time for a vacation. How does the fact that it is a religious inspired vacation change anything?
Could a Catholic get three weeks off to go tour the Vatican? Could a Scientologist take three weeks off at a peak time to go do whatever it is they do?
You can do a lot of strange and weird things when you’re spending other peoples money.
How about letting her go to Mecca and don’t come back? Got news for you, “we can find many fine Christains to fill in and teach.”
By the way not being reported... on 21 March Pastor Wayne Sapp burned the Koran and Pastor Terry Jones witnessed the event.
So does that mean as a Catholic I can go to the Vatican for lent?
How many Christians in retail are forced to work on Christmas to keep their jobs? This is something the government doesn’t want to get involved in; we’ve already seen how relegating employers to the status of social service agencies makes them employ people elsewhere instead.
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