In the first of a series of lectures relating to the legal and religious rights of Muslims worldwide, KARAMAH hosted a talk by Eric Treene, Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination at the U.S. Department of Justice, on current challenges and responses to issues affecting the religious liberty of Muslim women in America.

In his remarks, Mr. Treene discussed the growing civil rights debate regarding the religious freedoms of Muslim women in America, including the recent case of a Muslim boy and girl attacked on a school bus last month. The girl's attackers pulled her headscarf off. The Department of Justice is now looking into the case, he said.

"Since 9/11, there has been a dramatic increase int he number of hate crimes against Muslims," said Mr. Treene. "We've seen recent cases of students being attacked because of their religion."

Singled Out by the Courts
The talk occurs in the wake of a series of cases in which Muslim women are increasingly struggling to adhere to their religious beliefs in the workplace and other public spaces, including:

• A ruling by the Michigan Supreme Court upholding a ban on women from testifying in court while wearing the veil
• The punishment of a female police officer in Philadelphia by her department for wearing a hijab - a move that was upheld in court
• Proposed legislation in Oklahoma and Minnesota that would prohibit women from wearing a hijab for drivers-license photos
• A new law affirmed by the state legislature in Oregon prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religious garb
  

Other civil rights cases for Muslims relate to prayer times and leave for Hajj, said Mr. Treene.

"These are [...] rights that inhere in us as human rights, that we all enjoy, [...] that the government should recognize, " said Mr. Treene, who prosecutes cases in which individuals have had their rights violated. "These are not cases that are necessarily easy to win. Courts come down differently on different cases. Some win; some lose."

About the speaker
Eric Treene serves as Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination for the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. He coordinates the prosecution of cases that protect individuals from religion-based discrimination in areas such as education, housing, and employment, and he has authored a number of articles relating to First-Amendment liberties.