Justice Department sues Chicago school district for refusing to OK three weeks of leave for Muslim teacher's pilgrimage to Mecca

I wonder if I could get the US Government to back me up on an issue that I need a paid vacation to the vatican for my christian religion.....hmmmmm! I don't think soooo! Only muslim appeasement is the norm nowadays. I just don't understand this total appeasement thing. It is so frustrating to read articles like this. (Bang my head on the wall again. We are doomed if we don't wake up!!

Eric Holder in action again. Action Jackson, he is.

*** 33:21 ***

He's got aces in the hole, what with the crooked judges sitting on the Supreme Court. Asses in the hole, I should say.

Hmmm... this article makes clear that hiring Muslims in the workplace, public or private, entails certain risks. Also, certainly the Obama administration is causing irreversible damage to the USA, exemplified by idiotic cases such as this one.

Can one, in their wildest imagination, imagine the Saudi Arabian government suing on behalf of a Roman Catholic who, during the work year, requests to go on pilgrimmage to the Vatican or Lourdes for three weeks because the Islamic School Board of Riyadh might not immediately grant the request? *** PREPOSTEROUS! ***

What government and people is OBama working for???

Give 3000 weeks...

The Muslim administration of America going to bat for Muslims, again!!! How long before islam is adopted as staet religion???? This is how the Muslims work. They continuously increase their demands for accommodating their religious "beliefs" in our lives. When are their demands going to stop???

If they want to follow their religion in public, they should go to Islamic paradise countries such as Saudia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Somalia, etc. Who is stopping them. We can even provide one way ticket to get rid of them!!!

Just another reason to never ever hire a muslim.

"Berkeley School District compelled Khan to choose between her job and her religious beliefs, the lawsuit said."

BSD did no such thing. At every turn Muslims attempt to portray their aggressiveness into some sort of victimhood. If anything it was she who placed herself into a position of having to choose.

"If you don't do exactly what I [as a Muslim] demand, then you are practicing religious discrimination." With a "You must hate Islam" thrown in for good measure.

As others have said, DO NOT HIRE MUSLIMS. Trouble is CERTAIN to follow.

The government asked the court to order the school district to adopt policies that reasonably accommodate its employees' religious practices and beliefs...

Hmm then since the government can't define any religious beliefs, I want to take time off for a pilgrimage to Las Vegas, the gamblers Mecca, so I can worship the great god 'Al-Casino'...If Las Vegas is out, Reno would do...

Litigation jihad

This is scary. A person can demand 3 weeks off "just because". Sure, it is her obligation to her religion to make this trek. However, she had only been at this school for less than two years. And there was no imminent reason why she had to make the pilgrimmage now.

I think that whoever brought the lawsuit should be nominated for a dhimmi award.

This is really scary. The justice department personnel involved in this have no idea about the precedent they are setting.

This is a WOMAN making a hajj? She can't even get close to the petrified dungheap.

She could have watched the thing on a webcam and saved everybody time and money. But grievance mongering demands otherwise: flying imans, bombers who are really victims, clerks who won't scan bacon--when will the U.S. turn the tables on these jihadists--stealth and otherwise?

So she is essentially demanding to keep her job despite being away for nearly a tenth of the time during which the job is to be performed.
..............................

Not only that, but she demanded this time off when she had worked there *less than a year*.

Of course, better not to have her teaching the Kuffar children of Berkeley, but I realize that is hardly the point here.

More:

...the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan...[i]n doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate her religious practices, the government said....
..............................

Her "civil rights"—good grief. And Obama wonders why so many people are starting to suspect he's a "stealth Muslim"...

"In 2008,... Khan ... res
igned shortly thereafter, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago."

So: [1] is Ms. Khan working now?
....[a] if not, is she (or has she been) collecting unemployment comp?
....[i] if not collecting, did she apply and get turned down? She should have been, since she quit the job rather than being laid off.
[b] if not, is she (or has she been) collecting any other public aid?
[2] did she ever "perform the Hajj"?
[a] if "yes", before or after getting other employment?
[b] if "after", did she perform it using her regular vacation weeks, or did her new employer give her leave?

Also note that Ms. Khan only started work there in 2007, and the very next year, she asked for the leave. Now, when I was teaching --admittedly many years ago -- teachers' contracts included a number of sick leave days each year. Unused days could be carried over, and accumulated up to a certain maximum. It was a common practice for teachers who had accumulated the maximum to begin using their new sick days each year, whether sick or not. This was called "keeping the sick leave current." So all Ms. Khan had to do was wait a couple of years until she had accumulated the required number of "sick" days.

Berkeley School District compelled Khan to choose between her job and her religious beliefs, the lawsuit said.

Nonsense, it is only insisting that she must choose a vacation period for the Hajj. This attempt at special accommodations for Muslims is a form of stealth jihad. It's disgusting & very decisive that our Justice Dept. is so pandering to Muslims. I trust the courts will see this excessive accommodation as well beyond requirements of law.

Obama has got to go!

Logic fails me - AND I’m confused, all that is why I make no sense:

A life-long Muslim just found out about the necessity to do a Haj?
And now that that detail was revealed to her, she needs “three weeks” to walk around a black box?

I don’t completely understand the U.S. court system, but why is it necessary for the Federal Justice Department to intervene? Are there no lower courts, or other processes?

I may be a natural skeptic however maybe she simply doesn’t want to work anymore – just retire on state funds for life to free herself and her husband to make lots and lots of baby Muslims?

Did the school allow her time and a place to pray eleventy-seven times a day? Who works for her while she prays?

Presumably she attended some sort of school to qualify as a teacher. Did her teachers work the entire school year to her benefit?

The school at least deserves credit for not falling prostrate before the mantle of Muslimas.
The students are better off without her.

Did she actually go to Mecca? Or was she soooo distraught she didn’t go?

Also, if she wins this case how many non-Muslim teachers will be needed to backfill all those Haj attenees positions?

Why did it take her from 2008 to-date to find CAIR or some other org? Wasn’t there an MSA on her campus?

Yes, I know: ‘A fool can ask more questions than wise people can answer . . . ‘ My head hurts – again!

WE ARE AT WAR!

The obligation to perform the hajj if one is physically and financially able only applies to MEN! For women it is entirely optional. Such are the wonders of institutionalized Islamic misogyny.

The keys words are "reasonably accommodate"...

In the muslim mind, "reasonably accommodate" means whatever is demanded if the one demanding is a muslim, but means 'if we happen to feel charitable and only on our terms' if the person making the request is non-muslim.

Just like other words in the English language - words such as "honor", "respect", "innocent" - the word "reasonable" has a distinctive and sometimes contradictory definition when applied to muslims.

In the event she prevails I intend to announce a conversion to Islam and demand my own three week hajj to Las Vegas.

This reminds me of a company I used to work here in Canada, a few of my fellow workers were Muslim and they got about an hour every Friday for their prayers in a local mosque every week!!!!

Plus in Ramadan, they used to pray in the lunch room area all together every day for the two or three prayers that fall in the work hours.

Dunno what in the world are we heading to.....

Why, I can't think of any other minority religion that requires accommodations based on a lunar calendar and their religious observances... I mean, wait... what's this... Jewish parents in California demand the public school system move the entire start date of the school calendar based on Rosh Hashanah?

http://articles.latimes.com/1994-09-07/local/me-35677_1_school-districts

Ok, just a one off thing from like two decades ago, there absolutely couldn't be a desire for "halakhic supremacism" or... ah dang Broward County schools have a Hebrew language charter school? On the public dime? Teaching Jewish religion? Gee, where have heard complaints about this before?

http://www.aclu.org/religion-belief/broward-county-school-board-keeping-things-kosher-ben-gamla-charter-school

Well gosh, I suppose that a mere 2% of the population would not require that we take school days off for their holidays... Oh wait! They do!

http://www.forward.com/articles/130008/

The more I see of your ridiculous double standard when it comes to Islam and Judaism, the more I laugh. Spencer, do any of these qualify as a means by which the Jews are attempting to covertly change the United States into a halakhic state? Of course not, they are a minority faith trying to fight for their rights in the United States. When Muslims do the same thing (unpaid in this instance, you're REALLY complaining about this?) as a mere 1% of the population, you get your feathers in a ruffle. WHY? Oh, right, the belief that we're universally devoted to changing the character of the United States.

People complained, in the past, of Jews doing the same thing. It happened, everybody got over it and they quit caring that 1 in 3 products in their grocer is certified kosher (at your trivial expense) or that kids and teachers took off for High Holy Days.Today, only a few conspiracy nutter loons believe that a secret cabal of Jews meets at Cantor's deli to discuss world take over plans. Now we have conspiracy nutters suggesting that Muslims under "taqiyya" (instead of "kol nidre") have a conspiracy to alter Europe and America.

It's not a big deal, neither is this.

Teachers get the summer off. Take your haji then.

How silly Islam is, with all it's do's and don't's. There is no power to transform lives from within by God's Spirit as in Christianity, so one is stuck with a rigid works righteousness that in its behavior can be only described as ODD. The circling the kaaba counter clock wise (or is clock wise) so many times, wiping ones behind with the left hand not the right, the obessive/compulssion to add pbuh after every time Mohammed's name is used etc. It is truly sad for them that the true God is NOT impressed by such outward displays of "piety" (see Jesus reaction to phariseeism in the Bible) but wants us to LOVE Him above all else and to LOVE our neighbors (and our enemies) as our selves!

The difference between Jewish and Christian Holy days and the phony, invented Islamic ones is that ours are REAL, and the Muslim ones are fake.

Just like festivas and kwanzaa, going on a hajj or gorging yourself after sundown can be observed any time. So guzzle some camel piss and get a grip. You people refuse to be bounded by your limitations.

OT

Three killed in firing at Peshawar shrine
http://www.dawn.com/2010/12/14/three-killed-in-firing-at-peshawar-shrine.html

PESHAWAR: Three people were killed on Tuesday when unknown gunmen opened fire inside the Ghazi Baba shrine in Peshawar.

According to the police, the three people who were killed were caretakers of the shrine and lived inside the premises, which is located on Kohat Road in Peshawar.

Also look at how she was hired and working less than a year before she started up her lawfare/litigation bonanza. Where if she wins she gets back pay plus damages. Someone has been coaching her on this scam

Also she has no legal expenses. The USG sues on her behalf.

Ghazi Baba shrine in Peshawar>>>>>

Ghazi was a murderous Sufi Jihadi.
http://www.globaljihad.net/view_page.asp?id=540

GerbilTea

I am just so thankful for you explaining it all to me. How all religions are equally absurd. I am so impressed by someone who has no dog in the fight. Visit your nearest Muslim recruiting station. They love people like you

"Those who believe in nothing are liable to believe anything" -- Chesterton
"You gotta serve somebody" -- BD

The UK Mail site has posted this piece and the commentors cannot believe the US has reached this level.

The cavalry will arrive in Washington come January. Eric Holder, the same man who refused to prosecute BPP thugs at a poliing place, may have some new laws he is under oath to enforce.

gerbilTea

OK you are Muslim but you are getting absurd here. Muslims act out the Koran's dictates, kill and bomb and then cite the Koran to justify this. Did Timothy McVeigh ever cite the Bible? Nope

I welcome you to give me examples of today's Christians and Jews who are mass killing Muslims or anyone else. Who then justify such actions with citations from religions texts. I am talking about today. Christian barbarism is in the past. Hebrew killing of pagan tribes is in the old Testament. Only Muslim barbarism remains. So grow up.

And all you nice and rational Muslims...such as you. We know what the deal is. You cherry pick the earlier Meccan verses when Muhammad was a nice preacher man. While your Jihadis are guided by and cite the later Medina verses where Muhammad was a mass killer and mass murderer. Where Muslims claim all Muhammad's wars were defensive. What a joke and massive lie.
Plus everyone here knows the later Medina warmonger verses are superior to and overrule the Koran's earlier verses

Give up your false prophet. Nothing can be dumber than investing in a false prophet. Don't waste your life. Good luck you are halfway rational so there is hope.

"...although since a Muslim has his or her entire lifetime to perform the hajj, it's unclear what would have made it impossible for her to justify delaying doing so -- was she in imminent danger of death?"

btw did anyone check to see if she had already done this trip once before, thereby satifying her religious obligation...And I agree with others..teachers have a 3 month break between school years...why not go then when you have time...and I further agree if she insists on 3 weeks unpaid leave...give her 3000 weeks....

THis is just another Islamic scam to force the religion of Islam upon you...

Death by one thousand cuts...

And is Islam really just a religion?

I AM a Muslim. What is different about myself from a number of other Muslims is that I'm not a wacko religious fundamentalist.

HEY THIS IS GRATE WE FINALLY FOUND OUR UNICORN! Damn that was easy. Only took 9 yrs and 3 months to get her done, but dagnabit here we are, looking at the Unicorn of Moslem lore.

*** 33:21 ***

Or not. Given the anonymity under which Gerbil has appeared to us.

"What is different about myself from a number of other Muslims is that I'm not a wacko religious fundamentalist."

But there's the rub, Gerbs. Still trying to straddle the fence, I see. While your personal brand of "hip" islam has an appealing sound, it's hardly a representation of the islam we've come to know and loathe. You've heard of RINO's (Republicans In Name Only)? You're a MINO--Muslim In Name Only. Which means that anything you say on behalf of islam can't be taken seriously.

Oh, but I love this one:

"They all need to accept that people, regardless of their religion, have an equal right to believe as they want to. Most Muslims can not and will not accept this and that's a problem."

Yeah, a little "problem," there, eh? Ya' think?

OT? In the same bending over backwards concept:

"Health providers called on to be sensitive to patients' cultural needs"

(Having read the title you all are already reaching for either aspirin or a drink.)

http://beta.ca.news.yahoo.com/health-providers-called-sensitive-patients-cultural-needs-20101213-121014-792.html

Sensitive? Au contraire! I'm becoming complely insensitive. Hey muzzie, don't want Doctors to see your hair messed up? Die!

WE ARE AT WAR!

Why is the "Justice Department" itself suing in behalf of this woman? This is clearly a case of "Muslim favoritism" and an intimidation tactic. It's also absurd.

The woman herself or some other Muslim organization could sue on her behalf. Why should the Justice Dept itself represent her? Isn't that an obvious conflict of interest? The Justice Dept sues and the Justice Dept decides the outcome? That is so flagrantly ridiculous, absurd and unjust!

A few simple questions for GerbilTea:

1. Do you hope that someday the United States and all of its citizens will be ruled by a Muslim and that all of its citizens, Muslims and non-believers, shall be subject to shariah?

2. If yes, would a non-believer like me enjoy rights guaranteed by law equal to Muslim citizens?

I am curious to know if you have the courage to answer these two questions truthfully and directly.

"Islam is deeply, fundamentally flawed, a true opponent of liberty, and it generates thousands upon thousands of barbarians who are prepared to kill or maim to spread their warped faith."

Well said...

@ Gerbil Tea

You wrote: 'Today, only a few conspiracy nutter loons believe that a secret cabal of Jews meets at Cantor's deli to discuss world take over plans.'

And the reason why they would be conspiracy nutters is because there is absolutely nothing in Hebraic scripture that says the Jews should take over the world by force.

But that's not the case with Islam. Numerous Muslims have said quite openly (Anjem Chowdery, for example) that Al Qur'an states that Muslims should 'fight (them) until persecution is no more, and religion is all for Allah.' Qur'an:9:19
So, that's the end of any religion except Islam.

You don't have to be a conspiracy nutter to understand Islam's intentions. Just read Al Qur'an. Just read about the latest suicide attacks inspired by Al Qur'an.

You accuse others of double standards. You haven't got any standards at all!

You're a clown!

I don't think Gerbiltea is really a Muslim, but that doesn't matter. He's a troublemaker, starting fights about nothing, picking on this or that little detail, pushing people's buttons. It's not good, what he does. He's introducing today a theory that monotheism inevitably causes totalitarian political systems. This theory is a favorite lately among neo-fascist intellectuals. I'm not saying that's what gerbiltea is. He's nothing. He's like dog feces on the sidewalk. Just step around it. Life is too precious to waste.

How about this for a deal: If you go on the Hajj, you don't come back.

Gerbil sez... I AM a Muslim. What is different about myself from a number of other Muslims is that I'm not a wacko religious fundamentalist.

Then you are not a Mahoundian, you are an apostate in the closet. Wacko religious fundamentalism is part of the package of Shahada... You identified the problem, but then you try and exempt yourself from it...
How many is a 'number of other Mahoundians', who are wacko religious fundamentalists, and how would that be defined in Islam?

About Muslims wanting sharia law or not in our countries: they say they don't...definitely not, they say. But keep talking to them, and it looks as if they do. They think, for instance, there should be laws against insulting the "prophet". Yep, that sounds fair, they think. But Muslim girls marrying non-Muslim men? Apostasy?
I was talking to a few Muslim men yesterday. No-one wants sharia law here. I am going to compile a list of questions for them to find out what they really think, and get them to admit it. Because really, many of them have not worked out what they really think. All they know is, they are glad to get away from the "government" in their country, and of course, as we all know, their former government did not represent "true Islam".
Any ideas? I will be seeing them again soon. I don't want to fight with them, just make them think (although I have no problem with telling Muslims that there will probably be civil war here eventually.)

It would be beneficial if whoever has to defend this case knew that this person has their lifetime to make this pilgrimge, which means it could be done during summer, which wouldn't effect the employer or her wages. But like 99% of the replies I agree that if it was anyone else but a Muslim it would be a non-issue.

One can assume she could have waited until the Hajj occurred during a year when it overlapped with her school vacation. The urgency, as noted above, makes no sense.

My own analysis suggests, however, that a Muslim's odds of EVER being able to perform the Hajj are about 10% given Mecca's carrying capacity.

Maybe Khan is a math teacher and figured her odds weren't too good the longer she waited.

Yet, the fact that 90% of Muslims will NEVER be able to fulfill one of the five "pillars" of Islam suggests that Islam as a religion is a poisonous sham.

The government asked the court to order the school district to adopt policies that reasonably accommodate...

I've been teaching for nearly 40 years. Asking for three weeks off is not reasonable -- whether or not the request is for religious reasons.

I have managed to take unpaid leave due to the deaths of my parents. However, I took off less than two weeks. And the students did get shortchanged in that they had a series of substitutes.

Substitute teachers often do their best, but the students know that subs have very little power, particularly when the regular teacher is returning to the classroom.

I wonder if I could get the US Government to back me up on an issue that I need a paid vacation to the vatican for my christian religion.....hmmmmm! I don't think soooo!

Actually, as Eugene Volokh points out at The Volokh Conspiracy:

"[I]t turns out that requests for weeks-long leaves (as opposed to the more common Sabbatarian requests to have each Saturday and Friday night off) have been made before by members of another religious group — and supported by the U.S. government. That group is the Worldwide Church of God, the adherents of which apparently feel obligated to take eight to ten days off every year to observe a holiday (the Feast of Tabernacles).

"The EEOC and the Justice Department have on several occasions sued on behalf of Worldwide Church of God members, claiming they have a right to religious accommodation. . . .

"Would we condemn these cases on the grounds that the courts, the EEOC, or the Department of Justice was 'enforcing the Worldwide Church of God’s religious law'? No — the courts and the government were asking what the U.S. Congress’s statutory enactments mandate. The same is so in the hajj case."

See http://volokh.com/2010/12/14/department-of-justice-enforces-the-sharia-sues-illinois-school-district-for-muslim-teacher-hajj/

That isn't literally the same thing as "a paid vacation to the vatican," but it certainly refutes the claim that the DOJ is calling for accommodations for Mohammedans that it would never ask for for Christians.

With regard to the urgency of her desire to perform the hajj, the next year in which the hajj would likely fall within her summer vacation (I don't know the vacation schedule for her school district), is 2017. So, if she isn't too old, she still has a fair amount of time in which to do it, but 2017 is nine years from 2008, so one can see that she might feel that it was a bit far off.

"Cao Moo" said: "Just another reason to never ever hire a muslim."

Or ever elect a democrat.

If we roll for the haj teacher then America bows to allah!

Oh, and it always seems to go back
to Chicago - his kind of town!

All this is doing is showing the power that this looney muslim has or wants, by doing it she is showing that muslims can do what they want, an inch at a time. And they are giving it to her. This should be thrown out of court. This is just how sharia law gets it's power in a government, play the pitty card, poor muslim can't go and kiss a black box. Why didn't she get a teaching job at a muslim school? Can't have a power trip if she did..Peace to all non-muslims

All religions have the potential for evil. Most religions in the past have gone through their evil period. Now it is Islam's turn. As a pendulum swings any religion can revert to evil. All it takes is a silver tongued devil to persuade others that their form of religion is the right way and all others are wrong. We came close to seeing christianity revert with Falwell. Fortunately he self destructed. Let's face it religion is a frontal lobotomy without the surgery. They all rely on circular logic. The (bible,koran or whatever take your pick) is true because they say it's true, and it must be true because it is the (bible, koran or whatever take your pick. That type of circular logic never holds up in any other academia save religion. Everyone knows that a right angle is 90 degrees, yet using circular logic it can be proved that it is not. Let us face it religion is a destructive force on humanity and all of it needs to be placed in the garbage heap of mankind

The Mulim Hejirah calendar is 11 days shorter per year than the Gregorian calendar that the West uses. This year the month of Haj fell between 7 Nov.-6 Dec. 2010(1-30 Dhu'l-Hijja 1431).

So, I don't know when the school year starts where she works, but she could have planned to do this once in a lifetime trip to Haj in about 8-9 years in the future when the month of Haj falls in the summertime, and the timing wouldn't conflict with her teaching duties.

She could also go any time of any year (including all summer long) if she wanted to do Umrah, which is the same as doing the Haj, but just not during the actual Haj month.

So her argument sounds very bogus. It is just one more indication of making us always accomodate them, no matter how unreasonable. Why didn't she think about this when she applied for her teaching job?

The Mulim Hejirah calendar is 11 days shorter per year than the Gregorian calendar that the West uses. This year the month of Haj fell between 7 Nov.-6 Dec. 2010(1-30 Dhu'l-Hijja 1431).

So, I don't know when the school year starts where she works, but she could have planned to do this once in a lifetime trip to Haj in about 8-9 years in the future when the month of Haj falls in the summertime, and the timing wouldn't conflict with her teaching duties.

She could also go any time of any year (including all summer long) if she wanted to do Umrah, which is the same as doing the Haj, but just not during the actual Haj month.

So her argument sounds very bogus. It is just one more indication of making us always accomodate them, no matter how unreasonable. Why didn't she think about this when she applied for her teaching job?