6 August 2011, 7:31 pm
A Seattle-area Muslim man is suing his former employer, claiming he was fired as a security guard for refusing to shave the beard he wears for religious reasons. According to the lawsuit, Omar was hired by a local manager of the security company in May 2009 and earned $9 an hour guarding a FedEx warehouse in Kent, Wash. He said he started the same day he was hired, and was not told about the clean-shaven policy. In November 2009, a supervisor from headquarters told him he had to shave his beard because of company policy. Omar responded that his beard is part of his religious beliefs and refused. He was suspended, and then fired the following spring, the lawsuit said. Omar filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found that he was wrongfully terminated and had the right to sue, according to a press release by the Council for American-Islamic Relations. "There's no policy that can go against the law of the land," said Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of the Washington state chapter of CAIR. "Civil Rights Act trumps any (company) policy." Bukhari said companies need to accommodate someone's religious beliefs unless it's an "undue burden." Mary Fan, a law professor at the University of Washington, said that there are very limited exceptions to the protections provided by the Civil Rights Act against employers impinging on a person's religious grooming. "If the company is worried about customers who don't like people who have beards and look Muslim — that's exactly what the law is set to protect against," she said. http://news.yahoo.com/muslim-man-sues-wa-employer-firing-over-beard-221450280.html What you think??? Add stars!!!!... Read More »
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