You know it’s going to be interesting when you have the US federal government and FOX News lined up on the same side of an argument!
Here, as reported in this Associated Press piece carried in The Washington Post, the US Dept. of Justice is suing a school district in Illinois over the district’s refusal to grant a Muslim teacher leave to take part in the Haj. The case is, as they say, ‘fact specific’. US law requires employers, including state employers, to ‘reasonably accommodate’ employees’ religious obligations. Here, that means the teacher’s request for leave to fulfill her duty to perform Haj. The core of the matter is that the school district’s contract with its teachers union requires accommodation for many reasons, but not religious reasons. The DOJ (and FOX News) want to see that changed.
The case itself is a bit messy, though. The teacher was asking for 19 days of leave. That’s a significant amount of time and perhaps beyond what could be considered ‘reasonable’. Haj itself is only a five-day event. Finding a substitute teacher for that period is not trivial, but it may (or may not) be considered ‘reasonable’. That’s what the court will have to decide.
US sues school over denial of Muslim pilgrimage
PETE YOSTWASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion.
In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on grounds that her requested leave was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the school district and the teachers union. In doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate her religious practices, the government said.
…
As is often the case, Volokh Conspiracy, notes the case. The comments to the post are a mixed bag. A little Islamophobia, a lot of ignorance about Haj, and some very acute observations about the law. Some do point out that whether one attends Haj in a particular year is also determined by the Saudi government, in its issuing of visas. Eugene Volokh, in the post itself, notes that religious accommodation laws have benefited Christians far more than any other religious group in the US.
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December:16:2010 - 11:37
I think the federal government has floating holidays, and school districts can give a teacher off for extended amount of time if h/she has carried over unused personal/sick days. A former co-worker got two weeks off to sit by her father in hospice. From what she told me, she given those days because, in the 30 years of teaching, not once did she have a sick day.
…Just depends on the district and local unions I think.
December:16:2010 - 21:47
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the Haj a once in a lifetime thing? So reasonably this was the one time she was requesting this time off? Perhaps they were objecting to the length of time she requested and thus denied the whole request.
Last year when we went to Saudi my husband had only accrued 4 vacation days with the district as he’d only been there 2 1/2 years. But this for us was a once in a lifetime trip with his parents paying most of our way. He needed 10 days off. The district allowed him to take the rest of the time off without pay because of it being a once in a lifetime thing.
Another teacher friend of mine was granted the same kind of leave for a trip to Israel last year that took her out of school for about 8 days.
I think in many cases it’s up to the districts and they’re just being sticky for denying this.
Of course the districts reasonably expect you to take your vacations in the summer or on school holidays. But when things like this come up that are time specific they can make exceptions and I definitely think they should have for this one.
December:17:2010 - 01:45
The fact is, John, that Muslims do absolutely nothing to accommodate other religions – it is a one way street. Until Muslims change, and I doubt they can or will, every demand must be considered an agenda. In fact, Muslims do not just not accommodate, they actively persecute and discriminate against others. If a Muslim wants to go bow down to their favorite rock, let them take a vacation. If they don’t have time, let them wait and accrue days. This is just another of the many cases of Muslims using the courts to impose their agenda.
I personally feel that when it comes to Islam, not an inch is to be given. To every demand, we must respond with careful consideration so that a Muslim receives nothing beyond what others receive. No special favors for people that do not respect others. Oh yes, it is also necessary to show them we understand their religion and know more about it then them (not that hard!)
It is necessary to stand up to these people because our government, media and academia have little regard for honesty and morals and are very willing to throw away our rights and trample liberties because of political correctness and ignorance about this ideology.
If standing up to a religion that seems to not just accommodate but promote bombing of markets, crowds, churches, mosques, weddings, airplanes and so on is islamophobia, so be it. To me islamophobia is what people do who are afraid of offending Muslims, their god and dear prophet. True islamophobes put Muslims above others, aboive morality and honesty.
December:17:2010 - 07:58
If the reporting is to be trusted, the school board didn’t even get that far into the process. They looked at the contract. The contract said nothing about leave for religious holidays. So, the board denied her leave. That–secular leave, but no religious leave–is why the DOJ is involved, I think.
I think the woman made a good effort to wait for an alignment of school holidays and Haj, but she is not ultimately in control of all factors. The 19-day request, though, may be excessive and may lead to her losing her case.
December:17:2010 - 08:04
Again, Jay, “which Muslims?” The Syrian government, run predominantly by Alawi Shi’a, make accommodation for their Christian employees for Christmas and Easter (actually, two of each: Roman and Orthodox). While they don’t do a very good job of it, Egypt also makes accommodation for Copts and Jews.
If you read the Volokh piece, you’ll see that these religious accommodations in the US are not a tool of the Muslims, but one that has benefited Christians, Jews, and heterodox religions in the US for going on two hundred years. I think you didn’t notice this history because it didn’t involve your boogyman of the year.
BTW, did you notice the building of Christian churches in Qatar and the UAE? Or that the UAE has made the ruins of a Portuguese church a national historic monument? Not all Muslims are at war with Christianity or the West.
December:19:2010 - 08:54
I think the 19 days is extreme. I do understand what mess granting leave can be,especially when contracts are involved. I worked in a unionized office 20 years ago and one employee was granted leave by a manager to visit Israel (he had just finished his masters degree). The outcry after that from others who weren’t granted leave was incredible.
People can be very petty and those in management don’t want to make a wrong decisions. Saying no, is easier than granting exceptions. If the employee had asked for a shorter stay he would have had a better case.
December:19:2010 - 11:52
I agree. Nineteen days is pushing it. Ten days would have been more reasonable. The school board’s problem is that because the contract didn’t explicitly say ‘religious reasons’, they found it easy to say ‘no’ to the request. That’s just mechanical thinking, not what’s called for in the law whether or not the teacher ultimately gets the leave.
December:21:2010 - 21:52
The fact is, John, that Muslims do absolutely nothing to accommodate other religions – it is a one way street. Until Muslims change, and I doubt they can or will, every demand must be considered an agenda. In fact, Muslims do not just not accommodate, they actively persecute and discriminate against others. If a Muslim wants to go bow down to their favorite rock, let them take a vacation. If they don’t have time, let them wait and accrue days. This is just another of the many cases of Muslims using the courts to impose their agenda. I personally feel that when it comes to Islam, not an inch is to be given. To every demand, we must respond with careful consideration so that a Muslim receives nothing beyond what others receive. No special favors for people that do not respect others. Oh yes, it is also necessary to show them we understand their religion and know more about it then them (not that hard!) It is necessary to stand up to these people because our government, media and academia have little regard for honesty and morals and are very willing to throw away our rights and trample liberties because of political correctness and ignorance about this ideology. If standing up to a religion that seems to not just accommodate but promote bombing of markets, crowds, churches, mosques, weddings, airplanes and so on is islamophobia, so be it. To me islamophobia is what people do who are afraid of offending Muslims, their god and dear prophet. True islamophobes put Muslims above others, aboive morality and honesty.
December:23:2010 - 12:32
Sorry, an unqualified ‘Muslims’ doesn’t work. Some Muslims do; others don’t. Some Muslim states do; other Muslim states do not. Yes, many Muslims do need to change their attitudes, their schools need to change their lessons, their governments need to loosen up. I’m all for it. But to categorically describe Muslims as enemies of other religions is simply and factually wrong.
I’m all for ‘no special favors’, too. But religious accommodations reach all religions–though in different ways. Christians in the US have taken advantage of and profited from religious accommodation laws far more than any other religious group. To not apply the same standards to other religions is, at best, bigotry.