The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a lawsuit against a diner in New Mexico for firing a woman allegedly because she is Muslim.
The EEOC’s suit against the Blue Moon Diner in Farmington, New Mexico, filed Tuesday, alleged that managers would not allow employee Samantha Bandy to wear a hijab while she worked and that management ultimately fired Bandy because of her professed Islamic beliefs, according to the Associated Press. The EEOC claimed that diner management “violated federal law by subjecting a Muslim woman to religious discrimination.” (RELATED: Leftists Aren’t Happy With This Religious Freedom Ad On YouTube [VIDEO])
“We will vigorously prosecute cases of religious discrimination throughout our district, including claims that involve the employer’s refusal to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee’s religious beliefs,” said Mary Jo O’Neill, regional attorney of the EEOC’s Phoenix District Office, in a press release. “We are particularly concerned when the accommodation requested is easy to provide and the employer appears to have reacted to myths or stereotypes about a religion.”
The lawsuit urged the court to rule that the diner must pay Bandy relief in the form of compensatory and punitive damages and back wages, and then issue a permanent injunction against the diner preventing it from discriminating against employees on the basis of their religious beliefs in the future.
The Blue Moon Diner did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment by the time of publication.
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