Jury sides with Muslim guard in harassment case

[Douglas Carpenter]

Jury sides with Muslim guard in harassment case

A San Francisco jury has awarded $465,400 to a Muslim of African descent who quit his job as a security guard after a co-worker called him a "goddamn terrorist," supervisors made racist comments and a top company official endorsed a statement that "Muslims kill people."

The Superior Court jury found Thursday that Abas Idris' employer, Andrews International, was responsible for harassment and a hostile work environment that forced Idris to resign, and awarded him $65,400 for lost wages and emotional distress. On Monday, the jury added $400,000 in punitive damages.

Idris, 27, said today he's had other security jobs both before and after his 2 1/2-year stint with Andrews, but none in which "co-workers and superiors were referring to me as a terrorist or referring to me as al Qaeda."

He said the court case allowed him to stand up for his rights and to make it clear that "Islam is a religion of peace."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/24/BA361MTPF5.DTL

[Violet_Crumble]

1. I saw this posted in LBN and was going to cross-post it here, but you beat me to it...

Gotta love the response from the attorney for the company: '"Andrews does not condone discrimination or harassment of any kind," Herman said in a statement. She said the company promoted Idris to a supervisory position and accommodated his requests for schedule changes.'

Well, clearly they did condone it, and being accommodating to schedule changes doesn't make condoning harassment and racism acceptable...

[ellisonz]

2. Clear cut...

...The final two paragraphs put to rest any doubt that this was in fact a hostile work environment and that he was harassed.

The wheels of justice do turn!