Walid: Religious accommodation for all

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http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2015/09/11/dawud-walid-religious-accommodation/72023714/

Dawud Walid12:05 a.m. EDT September 11, 2015

An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) discrimination complaint was filed last week on behalf of an American Muslim who was placed on unpaid leave after having a religious accommodation revoked. Previously she had been excused from serving alcohol as a flight attendant on ExpressJet Airlines based upon her sincerely held religious beliefs. With the national hoopla surrounding Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis refusing to issue marriage licenses for same sex couples based upon her beliefs as a Christian, some have made false comparisons with this and the ExpressJet issue.

Charee Stanley began working for ExpressJet prior to converting to Islam. After becoming Muslim, she later accepted the majority opinion within Islamic teachings that Muslims are prohibited from serving alcoholic beverages. Upon bringing her sincerely held beliefs to the attention of ExpressJet, airline reportedly stated that her co-flight attendants could serve alcoholic beverages upon request to both accommodate passengers and Stanley given their Detroit hub flights always have two flight attendants. Stanley welcomed and followed these directions by the airline.

This accommodation reportedly took place without any issues for approximately two months until a co-worker who returned from maternity leave launched a complaint containing Islamophobic overtones about Stanley not serving alcohol as well as referring to Stanley wearing a head scarf and possessing a book with “foreign writings.” The accommodation which the airline gave to Stanley was subsequently revoked before she was placed on unpaid leave which could lead to her eventual termination.

Stanley accepted the religious accommodation to not serve alcohol which also had a provision for passengers to still procure alcoholic beverages. Davis, in contrast, invoked her Christian beliefs to deny marriage licenses, which is an essential part of her job as an elected county clerk. Thus the issue of Davis using her positional power to deny marriage licenses at the expense of others and Stanley who did not oppose passengers’ choices to consume alcohol are quite different.

Ultimately the EEOC will investigate Stanley’s case and make a determination. What we do know is that our courts uphold the general principle of reasonable religious accommodations for workers that do not impede the essential functions of their jobs. Fellow co-workers serving alcohol instead of Stanley clearly did not impede in her primary functioning as a flight attendant. The bottom line is no American should have a religious accommodation revoked by their employer due to a complaint by a co-worker with apparently bigoted views.

Dawud Walid is executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Michigan.

DawudWalid

Dawud Walid is currently the Executive Director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MI), which is a chapter of America's largest advocacy and civil liberties organization for American Muslims and is a member of the Michigan Muslim Community Council (MMCC) Imams Committee. Walid has been interviewed and quoted in approximately 150 media outlets ranging from the New York Times, Wall St Journal, National Public Radio, CNN, BBC, FOX News and Al-Jazeera. Furthermore, Walid was a political blogger for the Detroit News from January 2014 to January 2016, has had essays published in the 2012 book All-American: 45 American Men on Being Muslim, the 2014 book Qur'an in Conversation and was quoted as an expert in 13 additional books and academic dissertations. He was also a featured character in the 2013 HBO documentary "The Education of Mohammad Hussein." Walid has lectured at over 50 institutions of higher learning about Islam, interfaith dialogue and social justice including at Harvard University, DePaul University and the University of the Virgin Islands - St. Thomas and St. Croix campuses as well as spoken at the 2008 and 2011 Congressional Black Caucus Conventions alongside prominent speakers such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Congressman Keith Ellison. In 2008, Walid delivered the closing benediction at the historic 52nd Michigan Electoral College in the Michigan State Senate chambers and gave the Baccalaureate speech for graduates of the prestigious Cranbrook-Kingswood Academy located in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Walid was also a featured speaker at the 2009 and 2010 Malian Peace and Tolerance Conferences at the University of Bamako in Mali, West Africa. He has also given testimony at hearings and briefings in front of Michigan state legislators and U.S. congressional representatives, including speaking before members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, D.C. Walid has studied under qualified scholars the disciplines of Arabic grammar and morphology, foundations of Islamic jurisprudence, sciences of the exegesis of the Qur’an, and Islamic history during the era of Prophet Muhammad through the governments of the first 5 caliphs. He previously served as an imam at Masjid Wali Muhammad in Detroit and the Bosnian American Islamic Center in Hamtramck, Michigan, and continues to deliver sermons and lectures at Islamic centers across the United States and Canada. Walid was a 2011 - 2012 fellow of the University of Southern California (USC) American Muslim Civil Leadership Institute (AMCLI) and a 2014 - 2015 fellow of the Wayne State Law School Detroit Action Equity Lab (DEAL). Walid served in the United States Navy under honorable conditions earning two United States Navy & Marine Corp Achievement medals while deployed abroad. He has also received awards of recognition from the city councils of Detroit and Hamtramck and from the Mayor of Lansing as well as a number of other religious and community organizations.

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