Obama Justice Department Sues to Protect Islamic Ritual

Earlier the Obama Justice Department dropped charges against the Black Panthers who were convicted of voter intimidation. Several DOJ insiders reported the order came from top department bosses who were political appointees of Obama. Now the DOJ files charges against a Chicago school who refused a teachers leave request to travel to Mecca to perform the Islamic Hajj.

WASHINGTON – The federal government sued a suburban Chicago school district Monday for denying a Muslim middle school teacher unpaid leave to make a pilgrimage to Mecca that is a central part of her religion.

In a civil rights case, the department said the school district in Berkeley, Ill., denied the request of Safoorah Khan on grounds that her requested leave was unrelated to her professional duties and was not set forth in the contract between the school district and the teachers union. In doing so the school district violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to reasonably accommodate her religious practices, the government said.

Khan wanted to perform the Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia which every adult Muslim is supposed to make at least once in a lifetime if they are physically and financially able to. Millions go each year.

Khan started as a middle school teacher for Berkeley School District 87 — about 15 miles west of Chicago — in 2007. In 2008, she asked for almost three weeks of unpaid leave to perform the Hajj. After the district twice denied her request, Khan wrote the board that "based on her religious beliefs, she could not justify delaying performing hajj," and resigned shortly thereafter, according to the lawsuit filed in federal court in Chicago.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that in California...

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- An Orange County inmate who disliked salami got special meals after declaring his religious belief in the Festivus holiday celebrated on the television show "Seinfeld."

The Orange County Register reports Monday that 38-year-old convicted drug dealer Malcolm Alarmo King asked for kosher meals at the Theo Lacy jail to maintain his healthy physique.

But sheriff's officials reserve kosher meals for inmates with a religious need.

Judge Derek G. Johnson demanded a religious reason for King to receive the meals and defense attorney Fred Thiagarajah cited his client's devotion to Festivus -- a holiday celebrated on "Seinfeld" with an aluminum pole and the airing of grievances.