CAIR: Limiting Access Of Muslim Employees To Visiting Israeli Officials Could Be Descrimination

The Government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with HLF [Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development], the Islamic Association for Palestine (“IAP”), and with Hamas.
U.S. District Court Judge Jorge Solis, July 1, 2009

CAIR is considering a claim that Muslim hotel employees were discriminated against when Israeli officials visited.

Muslim employees of the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington said they felt discriminated against after being barred over the weekend from floors where an Israeli delegation was staying, a Muslim advocacy group said.


One hotel worker whose duties involve going to all the hotel's floors said he was preparing for his shift Friday when his supervisor told him to steer clear of the eighth and ninth floors, where Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and his delegation had booked rooms.

"I said, 'Why?'" said the worker, who is Muslim and wanted to remain unidentified to protect his job. He said his supervisor told him, "They're Israelis there, and they don't want no face-to-face with Muslims."

While it appears that the request came from the State Department and not from Israeli officials themselves, it is not clear whether the State Department was doing this on their own, or at Israel's request.

In any case, it is clear that the request was not made without reason:

The hotel's general manager, Amanda Hyndman, said the hotel rearranged some shifts and told some workers not to come in after a routine State Department background check found "irregularities" in the checks of 12 employees.

"We don't know the reasons why," Hyndman said, adding that not all the people on the list were Muslim. She said she did not know whether any Muslim employees were allowed to work on the eighth and ninth floors over the weekend.

But none of that is going to stop CAIR--an unindicted co-conspirator with associations with the terrorist group Hamas--from getting involved:

Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR, said that the organization was waiting for a formal response from the hotel and that it might consider litigation. "We need to determine what criteria were used to remove these people from their positions," he said. "It's of concern to us that there's at least a perception that they were singled out because they were Muslim or Middle Eastern."

Apparently the Washington Post did not see the irony of the situation.

By the same token, recall that during Operation Desert Storm, Saudi Arabia had no problem placing restrictions on the US army personnel that were there to defend them.

Jewish men were restricted from opening showing they were Jewish:

He explained that he was an Army combat helicopter pilot for 12 years and he fought in Operation Desert Storm -- the Persian Gulf War of 1991. While he was in Saudi Arabia, he was prohibited by military order from outwardly showing that he was Jewish. That meant, he could not wear a Star of David, a mezuzah or a Chai pendant. He was even advised to remove the word Jewish from his dog tags!

Jewish Women faced restrictions on both accounts:

Deployed to Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield in 1990, Lisa discovered that the Saudis opposed the presence of both women and Jews. For diplomatic reasons, American women were asked to wear traditional black gowns and cover their hair. Military officials also asked Jewish soldiers to "use discretion" when practicing their religion in Saudi Arabia.

If indeed the army was expected to respect the religious customs of the Saudis, why exactly is it suddenly so outlandish to respect the security concerns of visiting Israeli officials?

Technorati Tag: CAIR.