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Fired Islamic School Principal Wins Suit
Agreeing there was sex discrimination in her firing, jurors awarded $788,000 to a principal at an elementary school run by an Islamic group.Zakiyyah Muhammad, a convert to Islam, was fired two years ago as principal of the Orange Crescent School in Garden Grove, run by the Islamic Society of Orange County. Her lawyer, Ed Connor, said she challenged male superiors, and gender bias led to her dismissal. "Our case was she did not fit stereotypical notions held by Muslim men of how Muslim women should act," Connor said. Jurors said there was no evidence to support a separate allegation of racial bias by Muhammad, who is black. Muhammad, 60, said her case showed the cultural schism that can exist between U.S.-born Islamic women who believe they are equal to men. Defense attorney Barbara Fitzgerald called the verdict "erroneous" and predicted it would be overturned on appeal. Jurors deliberated two days before deciding late Friday that the Islamic Society, school board president Fazal Mirza and board treasurer Refat Abodia should pay Muhammad $788,000, which included punitive damages of $130,000. Besides discrimination, jurors convicted the defendants of intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud, negligence and conspiracy to defraud. Posted by: Groluns Snoluter6338 2005-09-14 |
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