ICC Note:
After 13 years as a saleswoman, Nohad Halawi recently had her license to sell duty-free goods at London’s Heathrow Airport revoked. Halawi, the subject of ridicule by Muslim colleagues, had her sales license revoked after filing a religious harassment complaint with airport authorities. Halawi, who claims colleagues falsely accused her of being “anti-Islam,” is being represented by the Christian Legal Centre, which has filed her case with a court of appeal after suffering a disappointing loss in a lower court.
06/25/2014 United Kingdom (Christian Today) – A Christian woman who was fired from her job after complaining about religious harassment by Muslim colleagues has taken her case to the Court of Appeal today, June 25.
Nohad Halawi, who worked as a saleswoman at Heathrow airport for 13 years, says she raised her concerns about being subject to abuse from Muslim staff several times. She contends that she was taunted by colleagues for her “shi**y Jesus” and was compelled to defend a fellow Christian who chose to wear a cross.
She alleges that her Muslim colleagues then made up false accusations that she is “anti-Islam” and this resulted in her airside pass, which allowed her to trade at the duty free section in Terminal 3, being taken away.
Employed by Autogrill Retail UK Limited, Halawi was hired as a commission-based worker and was thus told she had no legal rights to contest her dismissal, despite a petition signed by 22 of her former colleagues – including Muslims – which argued she had indeed been the victim of “malicious and unfounded allegations”.
“We find this incident particularly worrying as it appears to allow individuals to perniciously use the ‘race and religion card’ to besmirch a fellow colleague,” the petition stated.
Her case – first brought to light in 2011 – is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre (CLC), which contends that unsubstantiated claims were made against Halawi regarding her conduct.
Halawi’s case was, however, later rejected by two employment tribunals, The Guardian reports, but she is now challenging this decision in the court of appeal.
According to the newspaper, a judge who ruled on the second of Halawi’s tribunals has said he had an “uneasy feeling” that the dismissed worker “could have been the victim of discrimination and yet have no right to complain to a tribunal”.
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