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Justice Department Asked To Investigate Georgia Courthouse Exclusion of Hijabs

By Howard M. Friedman

According to a a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Georgia-Muslims-Barred-From-Court/story.aspx?guid=%7BDFBBC2B7-B26F-40BA-902E-F4217C4F7367%7D"release /ayesterday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the group has asked the U.S. Justice Department to look into a series of incidents in Georgia in which Muslim women were prevented from entering courtrooms wearing Islamic headscarves (a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijab"hijabs/a). The latest incident took place yesterday in Douglasville, Georgia. Apparently a woman wearing her hijab wanted to enter the courtroom in connection with a matter related to her nephew's traffic citation. A bailiff in the security area told her she could not do so. She responded by uttering an expletive as she attempted to leave. Reportedly, the bailiff then handcuffed her and took her to the judge's chambers where she was sentenced to jail for 10 days for "contempt." Local Muslims say there have been at least two other incidents of Muslims being excluded from that courthouse because of their clothing.

Full post as published by Religion Clause on December 17, 2008 (boomark / email).