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Muslim civil liberties group asks for probe of face-covering ban

E-mail|Link|Comments () January 6, 2010 06:46 PM

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

A Muslim civil liberties group has asked the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to investigate whether it is illegal for a Massachusetts pharmacy college to ban face coverings, including the veils worn by some Muslim women.

A veil that would not pass muster -- AFP/Getty Images

The Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote today to the EEOC's Boston office, asking for the probe of the policy, which went into effect on Jan. 1 at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

"We believe this policy has a disproportionate impact on the religious rights of Muslim employees," the group said in its letter.

Ibrahim Hooper, a CAIR spokesman, said that under federal employment discrimination law, the college is obliged to offer employees "reasonable accommodations for religious practices."

College spokesman Michael Ratty had no comment this afternoon. An EEOC spokesman didn't immediately return a message seeking comment.

The college has said it was implementing the policy for students, faculty, and staff on its three campuses, as a safety measure that would allow college public safety officials to identify who was in college buildings.

The college said the policy had no connection to the arrest last year of a 2008 graduate of the school, Tarek Mehanna, on terrorism charges.