US Muslim advocacy group complain over Columbus police hijab ban

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Sunday 23 Aug 2015 - 12:40 Makkah mean time-8-11-1436 (File image) Ohio, US (IINA) - A leading US Muslim advocacy group has filed a complaint over the Columbus Police Division’s refusal to allow women officers to wear hijab, calling the decision a discriminatory one, OnIslam reported. "CAIR-Ohio brings this complaint to end the discriminatory ban on the hiring of Muslim women who wear a religious headscarf by CPD," Romin Iqbal, a Staff Attorney in the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, wrote in a complaint filed with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission and cited in a statement sent to OnIslam. "The ban by CPD on hiring Muslim women who wear their religiously mandated headscarf discriminates against religious Muslim women who want to join the Columbus police force, and is a violation of Chapter 4112 of the Ohio Revised Code under which employers are required to provide reasonable accommodation for sincerely held religious belief of employees and prospective employees." The complaint followed a decision in which the Columbus police department refused to hire Muslim women officers who wear hijab. CAIR-Ohio filed the complaint after Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman recently told the Columbus Dispatch that he supports the hijab ban. “When officers go out into the community, they should be identified as Columbus police officers, not Muslim police officers, not Christian police officers, not Jewish, not Hindus, Baptists or anything else,” Coleman told The Columbus Dispatch. Police Chief Kim Jacobs was quoted warning against hijab-wearing officers "turning anyone off" and stating, "If it's a head scarf next week, it might be a burqa the next week." In March, 2015 a Muslim American woman recruit at the Columbus Police Academy was forced to drop out after that Columbus Police refused to grant her a religious accommodation for her hijab. SM/IINA