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U.S. Muslim Woman Loses Child, Another Allowed To Wear Hijab While on Duty
WASHINGTON,
July 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Many U.S. based Muslim
and Arab organizations criticized a discriminatory court verdict
depriving a mother from her child after she became a Muslim, just
after the same organizations praised the decision of the Cook County
police department in Illinois which allowed a Muslim deputy
commissioner to wear hijab (veil) while on duty.
A
South Dakota court ruled that a child be taken from his mother because
she converted to Islam.
The
parents of the woman filed a lawsuit against their daughter accusing
her of “adopting abnormal conduct, including wearing a Muslim outfit
and declaring that she became a Muslim”. They also presented to the
court a photo of the mother wearing hijab.
She
married an Egyptian man and was preparing to travel to Egypt with her
son. The court ruled that the child’s custody goes to the mother’s
parents.
The
file of this case contains many anti- Muslim sentences, which indicate
that the decision may not be taken depending on the best interest of
the child, but rather it is based on discrimination, said Jachua
Sallam, civil rights official at the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR).
Meanwhile,
in Illinois, a Muslim policewoman was able to win her fight with the
police department she works in, when they allowed her to wear the
hijab while on duty after their initial refusal.
“The
American Muslims welcome that the department has accepted to give the
policewomen her religious freedom,” said Ibrahim Hoper, head of the
media department in CAIR.
This
case proves that that any conflicts that may appear in places where
there are religious diversity can be solved if good intensions and the
will to solve the problem exist, he added.
According
to article 7 in the human rights law of 1964, it is illegal that
business owners discriminate between their employees on the basis of
their beliefs or religious activities.
The
law also dictate that business owners should accept their employees
religious practices if they are acceptable and are not a burden on the
owner.
Many
Muslim organizations in the U.S. have demanded at the beginning of the
month of July that public and media pressure be imposed on the police
department for its refusal to allow the policewomen to wear the hijab
after she became a Muslim in January 2002.
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