EEOC Charges Auto Store With Harassing Sikh Employee

By Whitney Jones
Religion News Service

WASHINGTON (RNS) AutoZone harassed a Sikh employee for wearing a turban and eventually fired him, according to a lawsuit announced Tuesday (Sept. 28) by the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission.

The suit said employee Frank Mahoney-Burroughs was treated like any other employee at the store in Everett, Mass., until he converted to Sikhism.

"For years, our client was a model employee," Sandeep Kaur, a staff attorney for the Sikh Coalition said in a statement. "Things changed as soon as he converted to Sikhism and started wearing a turban. Then, AutoZone managers called him a terrorist, told him that he was offending customers and terminated him."

When customers made terrorist jokes or called Mahoney-Burroughs "Bin Laden," none of his co-workers stepped up and intervened, the EEOC claims.

"I spent more time with AutoZone staff than with my own family and friends," said Mahoney-Burroughs. "It was very painful to be humiliated and insulted by them. They made me feel as though I had no right to practice my faith."

In addition to name-calling at the auto parts store, he was not permitted to wear a turban or the kara, a religious bracelet, both of which are articles of faith for Sikhs.

When Mahoney-Burroughs complained about the discrimination, he was fired. "When I complained, I was discarded like a piece of trash," he said.

Religious harassment and discrimination violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the Sikh Coalition filed charges against AutoZone on Mahoney-Burroughs' behalf last March.

The Boston Bar Association's Lawyer's Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is also representing Mahoney-Burroughs. The Lawyer's Committee has defended victims of racial and national origin discrimination for 50 years, but this is its first case of religious discrimination.

"The Lawyer's Committee chose to join the Sikh Coalition in this lawsuit because AutoZone's egregious actions are occurring in other workplaces, where religious minorities face bigoted and unlawful discrimination after 9/11," said Laura Maslow-Armand, the committee's staff attorney.

The EEOC is seeking stronger anti-discrimination policies and training at AutoZone and monetary relief for Mahoney-Burroughs.

Comments

[evangelicalchimp]

10:08 PM on 10/01/2010

i'm starting a new religion....nothing says I can't.
My first law of conformance is to place one's testes outside of one's pants wrapped with a pretty pink bow (male only religion BTW)..........

I should be able to do this despite the comments of my cohorts........and you should go to jail if you disagree.....

I am so sikh of this BS................

[jweider]

10:00 AM on 10/01/2010

They have a photo him on bostonherald.com. He looks like he's wearing it as a joke.
Most employers have a dress code. If this guy wants to dress like Hadji on Jonny Quest he needs to get used to people ridiculing him.
The HP article fails to mention that the reason he was terminated was because he stopped showing up for work. Most places of employment consider that quitting.

[jweider]

01:13 AM on 10/01/2010

If he was one of my coworkers and he suddenly started wearing turban to work I would be laughing my @$$ off at him every day!
It would be like someone coming to work dressed like a clown and expecting people to keep a straight face.
I think Auto Zone should sue him for harming their business.

[DraconianDebate]

03:45 AM on 10/01/2010

What part of "religious freedom" do you not get? Or did your religious school give you an edited version of the constitution that says that only Christians are entitled to that?

[joe5591]

07:10 PM on 09/30/2010

So he was a model employee until he converted? I suppose only Christians are true Americans and only Christians can overcharge us for auto parts.

And, though HP may change the stories featured up top, ironically (for now) the first is headlined: "Americans Know More About Religion Than Most Other Subjects". Using this page's story as an example, I beg to disagree.

[Droid X]

07:05 PM on 09/30/2010

Send his butt back to India. This is a Christian country. Obama was wrong on this one!

[JB Craigs]

07:36 PM on 09/30/2010

I hope you were being sarcastic!
He is not from India. He is an American who converted to Sikhism

[NVEd]

07:37 PM on 09/30/2010

You must be dim, do you really think a person named Frank Mahoney-Burroughs is from India? If he was his surname would be Singh.

[researcher]

05:36 PM on 09/30/2010

he will win that one

$$$$$$$$$$$$$ coming to him big time.

[Musa 1400]

04:01 PM on 09/30/2010

Wearing a turban is not a requirement for Muslim men as it is for Sikhs according to their religion. Then also the way Muslims would wrap their turbans if they wore one is not the same as the sikh way. Usually the Sikhs make big turbans that are mounted and wrapped up several times on top of their heads. Muslim guys often would have a lower profile turban wrapped a little bit around the head and then with a tail sticking out the back... well anyway different societies out there ahvent different style turbans and Muslims are not the only people who would wear them.

Anyway this reminds me of when i was little half Arab/ half euro kid growing up in America who didnt even wear traditional clothes, where in addition to being called sand-N**** and camel jockey, I was occasionally called dot-head.

The Hindu Indians are the ones who sometimes have dots on their foreheads, especially the women, its not the Arabs. So these little mean kids learned this racism and bigotry most likely from the adults who surround them. And so these adults cant even distinguish between Indians and Arabs.

[invirginia]

03:12 PM on 09/30/2010

Who wants to buy wiper blades from a guy in turban?

[NVEd]

03:22 PM on 09/30/2010

My daughter-in-laws uncle is a U.S. citizen, a decorated former member of the Indian Air Force and he wears a turban. He wears it out of respect for his religion. You are an obvious bigot.

[invirginia]

03:31 PM on 09/30/2010

My comment was intended to be satirical.

[invirginia]

03:33 PM on 09/30/2010

But seriously, you didn't answer the question: who wants to buy wiper blades from a guy in a turban?

[researcher]

05:37 PM on 09/30/2010

have you priced wiper blades lately???????
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[RedRat]

02:56 PM on 09/30/2010

Sounds like the auto store managers are idiots. Osama is not a Sikh, and would be terribly offended that he was likened to Sikh! Muslims view Hindus all its variant forms as infidels. Sound like the community is just about as ill-informed.

[Uproar]

01:52 PM on 09/30/2010

First, Indian Sikhs are not Muslim. Those who confuse the two are ignorant retards who need to understand the basics of culture. Second, why is it ok to convert to some religions, but not to others/

[RedRat]

02:57 PM on 09/30/2010

Because they are a community of idiots. What do you expect?

[NVEd]

10:36 AM on 09/30/2010

This only shows how ignorant some people are. Sikhism is a Indian religion from Punjab state in India. They are not Arabs. Shortly after 9/11 at least one Sikh cab driver was kill because someone thought he was an Arab since he wore a turban. Very religious Sikh men do not cut their hair or shave their beards. My question is why this man converted to Sikhism. Look up Sikhism on Wikipedia it's very interesting.

[RedRat]

02:58 PM on 09/30/2010

For that matter why does anyone convert from one religion to another? Why religion in the first place.

[Sonny Minx]

09:31 AM on 09/30/2010

AutoZone isn't a place I would expect to find religious tolerance, intelligence, or common sense.

[thereisonlyoneparty]

10:19 PM on 09/30/2010

You are just not looking hard enough.

They keep the religious tolerance and intelligence next to the batteries.  The common sense is with the carb and choke cleaner.

[Musa 1400]

04:09 AM on 09/30/2010

Sikhs aren't even Muslims. But it just goes to show that people in this country are "offended" by people that even look like they might be Muslims.

[Uproar]

01:53 PM on 09/30/2010

Some people think anyone brown is muslim. But many muslims are from a variety of places, and can look white. In fact, many white folks have probably converted to Islam, and don't fit the stereotype.

[MedinaM]

04:48 AM on 10/01/2010

And most Muslims happen to be black. I bet most people wouldn't even know that. Muslims come from all backgrounds...you have plenty of white, black, Hispanic, Asian, Arab, etc Muslims from all over the world.

[RedRat]

02:59 PM on 09/30/2010

Like most nations of the world, the U.S. is not the most tolerant of nations when push comes to shove. Yeah, we all talk the talk, but as times get difficult, we don't walk the walk.