PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge ruled that the city’s police department did not violate the civil rights of a Muslim officer when it forbade her from wearing a head
scarf on the job. Kimberlie Webb, 44, who has been on the force more than 10 years, filed a discrimination lawsuit in October 2005 after the department said she could not wear a khimar at work because the religious symbol violated uniform regulations.
U.S. District Judge Harvey Bartle III on Tuesday sided with the city and dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that the police department did not discriminate or retaliate against Webb. “Prohibiting religious symbols and attire helps to prevent any divisiveness on the basis of religion within the force itself and when it encounters the diverse population of Philadelphia,” Bartle wrote. “Under the circumstances, it would clearly cause the city an undue hardship if it had to allow (Webb) to wear a khimar.”
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RELATED: “And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes, and to guard their private parts, and not to display their ornaments except what is apparent of it, and to draw their scarves
(khimars) over their bosoms (jaybs), and not to display their ornaments except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband’s fathers, or their sons, or their husband’s sons, or their brothers, or their brothers’ sons, or their sisters’ sons, or their womenfolk, or what their right hands rule, or the followers from the men who do not feel sexual desire, or the small children to whom the nakedness of women is not apparent, and not to strike their feet (on the ground) so as to make known what they hide of their ornaments. And turn in repentance to Allah together, O you the faithful, in order that you are successful.” — an-Nur ayah 31, The Holy Qur’an [via WIKIPEDIA]