Court rules prison can ban Muslim scarves of employees

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 Editor - In a test of religious freedom vs security, security won out in the 3rd
circuit court, as restrictions on Muslim women wearing scarves to work
has been upheld.

These "tests of faith" have already occurred in France.  The women had

sued GEO Group, the manager of a correctional facility in Delaware
County, Pennsylvania for not allowing them to wear khimars, the Muslim
head scarves, at work.  They complained it restricted their religious
freedom.

The
court ruled, however, that security comes first and that the head
scarves makes it hard to identify people and could potentially be used
to strangle the person wearing it.  Furthermore, there was the concern
contraband could be hidden in the headband of the khimar.

A Philadelphia-based panel agreed with a district court's conclusion that the prison has a rightto impose certain rules for security. 

"Even assuming khimars present only a small threat of the asserted
dangers, they do present a threat which is something that GEO is
entitled to attempt to prevent," the panel ruled.

Judge Wallace Tashima wrote this as his dissent, "The majority's
approach allows an employer facing an asserted safety concern freely to
discriminate on the basis of religion by merely inventing a post-hoc
safety rationale for its refusal to accommodate its employees* religious
practices."