My last blog was about my disappointment in the Supreme
Court decision against Abercrombie & Fitch and in favor of a Hijab wearing
Muslim woman.
Today an article in the Detroit Free Press titled: IT’S NOT
JUST ABERCROMBIE: WE’RE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR PROMOTING INCLUSION by Fatina
Abdrabboh of the American-Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee, Michigan Office.
She mentioned that the Supreme Court case rested on Title
VII of the Civil Rights Act which prohibits employers from the ability to fail
or refuse to hire or discharge any individual…because of such individual’s
race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
She further stated that the Supreme Court victory supported
the rights of Americans to religious accommodation.
Number 1, the hijab wearing woman in the case NEVER asked
Abercrombie to “accommodate” her religion’s practice therefore Abercrombie
NEVER discriminated against her because of her religion.
Secondly, wearing a hijab is not a Muslim religious
practice. Nowhere in the Quran is it stipulated that a woman MUST wear a hijab
or even a burkha. In fact, Muslim women either wear a head scarf (hijab) or
they do not; either is acceptable. Some non- Muslim women also like to wear
scarfs as in the Polish “babuszka”.
If it is not mandatory for Muslim women to wear a hijab
(only to dress modestly) the wearing of a hijab is a personal choice of the
woman and/or a cultural habit depending on which Islamic culture they belong to,
than the case of discrimination because of religious grounds is baseless.
Since Abercrombie originally did not hire the woman in
question because she did not comply with their “dress code” and since their
dress code has nothing to do with religion and the hijab is not a religious
requirement, the case against Abercrombie was a miscarriage of justice.
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