US Sues School for Denying Teacher Leave for Muslim Pilgrimage
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.
The district did not return a message left by The Associated Press seeking
comment, the news agency said.