DOJ Finds A Cause

By Dorothy Rabinowitz in The Wall Street Journal

In the end it couldn't have come as any great shock when the Department of Justice intervened on behalf of a Muslim school teacher who claimed that the board of her Illinois school district was guilty of religious bias. Nor could it have come as any surprise that the Board of Education, Berkeley School District 87 Cook Country Illinois, was finally forced to settle the case brought against it by the DOJ. Still, even Americans accustomed to the relentless -- more precisely the relentlessly selective -- political correctness of the Obama Justice Department had to have been startled at the facts of this case and the deranged notions of equity that had impelled Eric Holder's DOJ to go rushing into battle against the school district.

The school teacher in question, Safoorah Khan, a middle school math lab instructor, had worked at the school for barely a year when she applied for some 19 days unpaid leave so that she could make a pilgrimage to Mecca. The school district denied the request: She was the only math lab instructor the school had, her absence would come just at the period before exams, and furthermore, the leave she wanted was outside the bounds set for all teachers under their union contract.

Charging religious discrimination, Ms. Khan resigned and filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Justice Department took it from there, filing a lawsuit in December 2010, claiming the teacher's civil rights had been violated. Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez noted at the time that a great wave of intolerance was being visited on Muslims in America, and this was one of the reasons for taking the case.

In Mr. Perez's view and that of the DOJ apparently, the school district's refusal of 19 days leave for Ms. Khan at a time when her presence was vitally needed -- a leave available to no other teacher under the union contract -- sufficed as proof that the district was guilty of bias against Muslims, and of violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Last week the terms of the settlement were announced. The Berkeley School District was to pay the teacher $75, 000 for her trouble -- back pay and lawyers fees. The District is now also required to establish mandatory training in religious accommodation for all personnel.

One of the more impassioned responses to this bizarre affair comes from Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, devout Muslim and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy. "Lamentable" is how he describes the involvement of the DOJ and "their choir of Islamist groups" and this lawsuit which he says, so lowers "the threshold for what merits action for civil rights abuse."

It will be left to a federal court to approve of the settlement. With any luck, that court will take note of just what it is they are approving.