US Feds Sue over Muslim Skullcap

by Jordan Yerman | March 16, 2007 at 09:54 am

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This seems to be a growing trend. This time, though, the one being forced to remove religious headwear is a corrections officer, and not a soccer kid. This officer has the feds on his side, so we'll see how it all goes down.

The feds have lobbed a civil-rights lawsuit at the state Correction Department for barring Muslim officers from wearing a religious skullcap on the job.

Abdus Samad Haqq, 53, claims he was forbidden from wearing his knitted cap, or kufi, in 2005, despite having worn the religious headdress while working at the Lincoln Correctional Facility on West 110th Street in Manhattan for the previous nine years.

Haqq, of Brooklyn, sued his bosses last year, and now the feds have backed his claims.

Federal prosecutors claim the state's uniform policy discriminates against employees by infringing on their right to freedom of religion.

"Americans are not required to abandon their religious beliefs when they report for work," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Wan Kim said in a statement timed with the filing of the lawsuit in Manhattan federal court yesterday.