“A former attorney for Apple filed a lawsuit this week alleging that the company violated anti-discrimination laws by failing to accommodate his religious beliefs,” Jeff John Roberts reports for Fortune.
“In a complaint filed in state court in San Jose, Feras Mousilli claims the company refused to print Arabic on his business cards, and repeatedly told him he was not a ‘cultural fit,'” Roberts reports. “Mousilli, who lives in San Francisco, also states that Apple refused to re-schedule weekly meetings with his supervisor so that he could attend Friday prayers.”
“The lawsuit seeks at least $25,000, including for back wages and for other monetary and punitive damages along with compensation for emotional pain and suffering,” Roberts reports. “The complaint, spotted by Courthouse News, also claims that Apple failed to accommodate physical disabilities relating to his blindness in one eye and color-blindness.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A lawyer filing a lawsuit. Shocking.
No, you can’t dictate the language you want on your business cards or the hours you work. Both of those are at the discretion of your employer.
SEE ALSO:
Tim Cook is ‘personally involved’ in improving diversity at Apple Inc. – July 14, 2015
Perhaps they didn’t want to risk having the fscker shoot up the place?
I’m not muslim, but that is a Brutal offensive stereotype! Millions and millions of muslims in the world and only a small, small minority are that kind of risk.
I do wonder however, why these improving diversity initiatives seem to also increase the number of nit wits.
Only 99.6% of suicide bombers are Muslim. Also when you look at the percentage beheadings, and burning people alive, and drownings, and throwing people off of buildings that are Muslims, it’s not a stereotype that sprung up from nowhere.
Crazy – Of course, when it comes to terrorists who blowing up buildings, shoot up crowds and murder people, all other religions are well represented. Since 9/11, Christian terrorists have killed far more Americans than Muslim terrorists. Just saying there’s plenty of blame to go around.
What is your source on that?
Google is your friend. Most of the sources do not include the San Bernardino shooting (too recent), but even with that deadly spree, domestic terrorism has resulted in more dead Americans than Islamic terrorism.
I am not discounting the real threat of Islamic terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. But here, in America, that threat has been exaggerated.
“Google is your friend.”
Really? And we are supposed to believe someone who actually says that?
“But here, in America, that threat has been exaggerated.”
Maybe for not except for 911, remember that, and San Bernadino, Fort Hood, etc. A murdered human being is a murdered human being, so a terrorist victim in another country has less value than one in the US just because we have not felt the full effects yet?
Goodle has lots of things, what specifically is the source of your belief?
There are plenty of cases of murder by non Muslims in the US; in fact most murders are committed by people who would call themselves Christian.
Remember that good Christian southern white boy who shot up the black church? He’s one example of a terrorist who happened to also be Christian.
It’s factually wrong to pin all terrorism or murder on Muslims.
Just remember…it’s the same impulse that rails against Muslims and tries to blanket associate them with terrorism that also so freaks out over terrorism that they demand a company like Apple break into its own iPhone.
When one of these “Christian terrorists” commits an atrocity, and you can get video in more than one place of Christians dancing in the streets rejoicing over that atrocity, then come talk to me about “Christian terrorists.”
Until then, they’re crazies that happen to profess Christianity, but act in ways that virtually all Christians condemn.
I know, 911 doesn’t count in lib fairyland, yet ordinary crime does, that’s how you come to that. Kid shoots up school — “Christian terrorism”
There are over 100 contemporary calls to violence in the Quran, exactly 0 in the NT.
“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” – Jesus Christ
Also, check into the principles of Sharia Law for further enlightenment, a legal system in over 50 Islamic theocracies.
Isn’t being paid a good wage at a good company enough. Not these days. Hey everybody…accommodate my every whim!
You should thankful for having a job fool!
“Had a job”.
Come on, lets call this what it is. The guys is an attorney and he’s looking for some “unemployment” cash. Seriously, $25K?! That is the basic amount most companies settle these kind of lawsuits for. Had he gone higher, then Apple would fight it. They’ll be advised to settle and the guy will go away. Yeah it sucks. This guy can afford to represent himself because it sounds like he has plenty of time on his hands.
Typical a scumbag.
My employer refused to install a hot tub and wine fridge in my office. I said ok thanks anyway…
So in other words you rolled over to “the Man”.
Sucker.
🙂
Ha! Sorry-I forgot to turn on my Snarkmeter 2000 when I got up this morning!
I’m colorblind and the only issue I have is when people try to call attention/highlight text in emails using red. Not sure what else it could be. Tacking that on to a grievance/lawsuit is idiotic.
Prayers are your business , not the employers. no matter who the company is.If thats so important, work for a company thats your faith based
Great point!
I wish Hobby Lobby would remember that.
so much suffering…
Frivolous.
Based on all the info here this guy’s moddle name should be “lucky”.
No individual, town, city, state, country, company or institution should be forced to accommodate anyone’s religious beliefs beyond what is generally acceptable such as religious holidays.
The only thing anyone owes you regarding your religion is quiet tolerance. You owe everyone else the same thing. In fact, you owe more. You should be courteous and allow people to be free from your rhetoric and insanity. If you can’t do that, you should leave.
When the religion begins to conflict with the greater community, religion should stand down. Religion is a private matter. Most modern religions understand this. One conspicuously does not, but then the word modern doesn’t really apply.
The number one rule of every religion should be the same as Fight Club. The number two rule should be, leave everyone else the hell alone.
Well said.
Hear hear
Rhetoric and insanity indeed!
“When the religion begins to conflict with the greater community, religion should stand down. Religion is a private matter. Most modern religions understand this. One conspicuously does not, but then the word modern doesn’t really apply.”
Funny, I was thinking evangelical Christians up until you said “one conspicuously does not”. Of course, they think they make up the “greater community” and should be able to dictate things like teaching creationism, and abstinence as the only sex education in school, among their many examples of conflicts with the actual greater community.
Thelonious – You had me right until you said “One conspicuously does not…” In fact, fundamentalists of virtually ALL religions want to shove their faith down our throats when they can, including Christian, Jews and Mormons, as well as Muslims.
Just ask secular Jews in Israel how they feel about the “black hats.” Or moderate Christians here in the US about how they feel about “Bible thumpers”. This is not strictly an issue with Islam. When it comes to organized religions, even the “modern” religions are old-fashioned.
You’re all of course right. There is fundamentalist Christian nonsense that rational people must contend with also. Creationism has no place in public schools. Thing is that’s pretty much the extent of Christian nonsense. There is a sense that Christian dogma is fading from public policy as well. Most *reasonable* people do not oppose same sex marriage for instance. With a certain other religion, it seems just the opposite, as if public policy is shifting to accommodate their lunacy.
You forgot reproductive health, which includes anti-abortion and the abstinence “education” I mentioned earlier. The biggest driving force behind both in the US is very clearly religious Christians.
True.
Yes, public policy is shifting because their religious leaders have taken government leadership positions. This is a root cause where government is not separate from the state.
What, pray tell, is the number one rule of Fight Club ?
“Number One rule of Fight Club? Don’t talk about Fight Club.”
What an asshole.
Business cards belong to the employer not the employee. The employee can’t dictate what he wants on his business card. Plus, when he accepted the job he knew he had to work all day Friday. But now he thinks he deserves time off to pray.
Unfortunately, employment laws in the US have become so onerous and biased against employers that he might actually win. It is the reason business formulation in the US has steeply declined over the past decade. No one with an ounce of brains will start a business and hire employees these days because the laws and government’s interpretation of the laws will do them in before they can make a profit.
Is this a great country or what!
No, he won’t “win”.
He will settle for what Apple gives him. No Muslim dares go to court in the US for workplace religious discrimination, especially over such unimportant issues. How many Muslim workers manage to show up at work on Fridays? My company never printed business cards in Latin, the scholarly language of my religion. Who cares? Based on the quality of the case he has put together here, I’d say Apple had other reasons for letting him go.
And he will never be employable again, because no one else will touch him. No winner here.
Isn’t he praying like, 6 times a day?
“Yeah, hi Apple, please rearrange the working schedule, meetings, and everything else that is employment related so I can take time off on Fridays even though it is not allowed to any other employees. Oh yeah, please have my business cards in Arabic even though we speak and write in English so all cultures and races because regardless of where one is from, we all have a common denominator to communicate and understand with one another.”
The nerve of this guy. . .
Friday prayers. Ooops, then there are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday prayers. 5 times a day. So if anyone feels they must adhere to a rigid plan then they are responsible for choosing compatible work with a compatible employer. Apple – do NOT settle.
It’s well documented that Apple allows time for daily prayers if an employee’s faith requires it. Hell, it’s been well documented since the 80s how accommodating Apple is with its employees — even in its benefits programs!
Requiring that Apple reschedule meetings (or maybe even giving Friday off, it’s unclear from the article) to accommodate him is suspicious. Were these one-on-one meetings or were they staff meetings that rescheduling would have affected a dozen or more other people’s schedules, or were they pre-meetings where the boss was gathering information just prior to his boss having a meeting with HIS boss [this guy’s boss’ boss] that the immediate boss had no control over scheduling?
What did he request for support with regard to his blindness and color blindness? Unless he documents specific requests and specific refusals for reasonable support from Apple then these claims will likely be thrown out in the first review of the case.
With regard to his being fired over showing the iWatch to relatives… Just because Tim Cook showed something up on stage does not mean this person can show it to relatives. I doubt this guy showed it to his relatives from a distance, and it would very much surprise me if he did not let his relatives play with it. How many non Apple people did Tim Cook let play with the watch in that on stage presentation this guy references? I’d bet that number is zero.
Ban all religions. They’re not what I had in mind. Humans are stupid.
next time I build a universe, there will be no humans to screw it up.
(cue awesome fanfare)
I am THE TRUE LORD!!!!!
Creator of Everything!!!!! But I agree, puny god.
First, this guy could be exaggerating what really happened.
That being said, he still seems to be trying to cash in. As to the language on the business cards, imagine if I’m conducting business in America, and I want the words on my business card printed in French, Russian, or any other language…my employer would probably say that was not that practical.
And if Apple said he was not a “cultural fit” they clearly meant he didn’t fit in with the company culture…not a comment in his cultural background. The guy is probably used to stirring up a bit of trouble and that doesn’t suit well with most companies. That’s why he wasn’t a “cultural fit.”
The stealth jihad continues. They chip away at American values wishing to gain special privileges that islamists expect in lands ruled by sharia. Their cries of “islamaphobia” and “racism” should fall on deaf ears.
Do you feel that way when people whine about the “War on Christians” here in the U.S.?
No, because America was birthed upon Judeo-Christian principles.
Our nation’s history provides overwhelming evidence that America was birthed upon Judeo-Christian principles. The first act of America’s first Congress in 1774 was to ask a minister to open with prayer and to lead Congress in the reading of four chapters of the Bible. In 1776, in approving the Declaration of Independence, our founders acknowledged that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights…” and noted that they were relying “on the protection of Divine Providence” in the founding of this country. John Quincy Adams said, “The Declaration of Independence laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity.” Also, the signers of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Revolutionary War, insisted the treaty begin with the phrase, “In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.”
In 1800, Congress approved the use of the Capitol building as a church. Both chambers approved the measure, with president of the Senate, Thomas Jefferson, giving the approval in that chamber. Throughout his terms as both vice president and president, Jefferson attended church at the Capitol, including Jan. 3, 1802, just two days after writing his infamous letter in which he penned the phrase “the wall of separation between church and state.” Nearly 100 years later, in 1892, in Church of the Holy Trinity v. United States, the United States Supreme Court held that America is a “Christian nation.”
Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Jackson, McKinley, Teddy Roosevelt, Wilson, Hoover, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Reagan all referenced the importance of Judeo-Christian principles in the birth and growth of our country. In fact, President Franklin Roosevelt led our nation in a six-minute prayer before the invasion of Normandy, the greatest military invasion in history where freedom was protected for the world, asking God to preserve our Christian civilization. After that great war, Congress came together and jointly recognized that our strength was not in our weapons, our economic institutions, or the wisdom of our committees—it is in God. Congress therefore adopted “In God We Trust” as our national motto and it was engraved in the wall in front of which the speaker of the House of Representatives stands. — J. Randy Forbes, U.S> News & World Report, May 7, 2009
Despite the fact that our current prez is deeply confused and in way over his head, America is, as always, a Judeo-Christian nation. If you want to live here – ASSIMILATE. If you don’t want to do as generations of legal immigrants have done for centuries, don’t come here. You are not a “cultural fit.”
In spite of some fundamentalist Christian attempts to rewrite history, most of the Founding Fathers were not Christians as the fundamentalists view Christianity, but Deists. That’s one step removed from atheism, where you believe in a god or creator, but that he/she then just went away.
Now their language sounds more religious today, but in that day and age they were very progressive religiously, and believed that humankind makes its own future, not a god or supernatural being.
That’s why the Founding Fathers wanted separation of church and state and wanted to protect religious liberty. They were not a part of one religious sect.
You as full of it as they come who stuffed you full of BS like this.
Tactileman – Sorry, but facts are facts. Some of the Founding Fathers WERE Christian, but many were not. They weren’t athiests, either, but somewhat closer to Universalist/Unitarians. That is, they believed in a God, but not necessarily Jesus as the Son of God.
It’s important to remember that while the Declaration of Independence speaks of “the Creator” (not God, not Jesus) the Constitution makes absolutely no reference to a supernatural being, other than to assert that no religious test would be required to hold office.
America may have been founded on some basic Judeo-Christian beliefs, but we were NOT founded as a Christian nation.
I hear tell that Thomas Jefferson edited his Bible down to a slim volume that conveniently aligned with his pragmatic beliefs, a practice every public figure has followed to this day…
The first step to negotiation with any Muslim is to knock Islam off its Pedestal.
Some negotiators will put Islam high up on a pedestal, even those who despise Islam.
They will declare that Islam is “complicated”
Islam is not, nor has it ever been complicated.
Yes it is convoluted, evasive and tedious, but certainly not complicated.
Islam is a shameless excuse — nothing more.
Andy–agreed! Right along with all the other Judeo-Christian faiths… They’re all pretty shameless when you hear from the extreme followers.
To me, what stands out about Islam is this—it’s never the imams or ayatollahs that strap on the explosives, it’s indoctrinated young people incited by these old men to deliver Allah’s judgment to infidels. Young Muslims are cannon fodder in a misguided global holy war.
It makes me wonder if such Islamic holy men are such true believers after all. Because if they chose, at retirement, to pursue their own personal jihad, through a righteous death they could obtain release from old age and infirmities, including impotence, by being rewarded with new youth and a plenitude of houris. I know a lot of Western leaders would junp on a deal like that, if they believed it.
I’m pretty sure (statistically speaking) that there are many muslims – and many of numerous religions – working at Apple, with no problem.
As an employee, MDN’s take is exactly on!
History has shown through centuries how this isnt just a few craizies.
«/ ‘No servant can be the slave of two masters; for either he will hate the first and love the second, or he will be devoted to the first and think nothing of the second. You cannot serve God and Money. — Prophet Jesus /»
The moral application is that this lawyer cannot serve both Apple and Mohammed.
Auld proverb: He who pays the piper calls the tune.
What’s your point? You can say the exact same thing and substitute Jesus for Mohammed. Are you saying devout employees are bad for business? Because I don’t think that’s the case at all.
Even most fundamentalists make pretty decent employees (excluding Kim Davis and her ilk).
A Muslim suing a homosexual – those liberal Cali judges are in for conundrum!
Rock papers scissors behind the chamber doors…..
Half of my vacation days are mandatory for Christmas week (when it is freezing outside) and if I want to take off for holy days, there goes the rest of the vacation days. With my job, I could easily work from home During the Christmas break, but this is not allowed.
I also receive visits at my desk 3-4 times a month from lay preachers to straighten me out (and I believe in JC). I also was asked religious questions during both my phone and on-site interviews, and was told that they could arrange for a preacher to counsel me during my lunch breaks. That is the way of things. I’ve been with this employer for five years. I’m looking forward to moving on. I haven’t had a vacation in the summer for half a decade.
As for the Arabic on the cards, if he was working in an Arabic country, there wouldn’t have been an issue. Re: Friday prayers, basically he was asking for a flexible lunch hour. It is a reasonable request for a salaried employee.