Religious Discrimination Lawsuit is Implemented after Circuit Court Ruling

Gaithersburg, MDA religious discrimination lawsuit has been implemented for a second time following a ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A former employee of Sunbelt Rentals Inc., Clinton Ingram, has accused the company of neglecting his reports of religious discrimination by former co-workers.

It's alleged that Mr. Ingram had racial slurs pointed in his direction by co-workers such as being called "Taliban" and "towel head." Also, some co-workers had allegedly made problems for him in the work place by calling him a terrorist inciting discrimination from other co-workers. He reports that his co-workers brought into question his loyalty to America as well. Other remarks were reportedly made to Mr. Ingram by his co-workers that indicated they were accusing him of being a terrorist. Mr. Ingram is an American that converted to Islam while he was serving in the United States military.

The lawsuit was originally dismissed in December, 2006. The purported harassment in the court's eyes at that time was not considered to be of a high enough degree to consider the work environment religiously hostile. In the first attempt of the lawsuit the court believed many of the reported incidents did not have a direct correlation with religion. Also, the court stated that Sunbelt made attempts to rectify Mr. Ingram's concerns.

Upon further review of the lawsuit by the 4th Circuit this week they believe that the harassment Mr. Ingram suffered definitely should be deemed a hostile working environment for him. The court believes that it is impossible to separate the reported actions of the co-workers from Mr. Ingram's religious affiliation. The reported abuse by Mr. Ingram took place after the attack of 9/11.

Sunbelt maintains its innocence by saying the allegations of harassment is false. Also, the company purports that it provided a space in an upstairs room for Mr. Ingram to pray. Sunbelt says it gave Mr. Ingram time away from the job to attend Friday prayer meetings on a weekly basis. Mr. Ingram maintains that Sunbelt did not address his complaints to them surrounding the harassment he endured from co-workers. Mr. Ingram reports that the harassment never let up until his termination in February of 2003.

The court stated that not all workplace comments can fall under the protection of Title VII. However, the comments Mr. Ingram endured were found to be protected under Title VII. The court's review states that most reasonable jurors sitting on a panel or jurors would deem the treatment Mr. Ingram suffered at Sunbelt Rentals, Inc. to be religious discrimination and part of a hostile work environment. The court is taking the comments as being more than just offensive. The court said that "constant and repetitive abused founded on the idea that all Muslims have hostile plans for the United States and that all support jihad is not true. Title VII protects the religious rights of any religion and any person observing that religion.

By Delsia Hartford