10/26/11 School – A Muslim man contacted CAIR-WA in regards to his son being threatened at school. There were two incidents where his son was threatened by two different people but the school did not take any action. CAIR-WA is awaiting further information from the family including documentation before writing a letter to alert school officials.

10/26/11 Public accommodation – A Muslim woman was threatened with eviction when a public housing employee came to inspect her residence. The woman was praying at the time of the inspection and the employee threatened her with a 10-day eviction notice. CAIR-WA reviewed the woman’s letter of complaint to public housing authorities and is awaiting the response.

10/20/11 School – A Muslim woman contacted CAIR-WA about a bullying case at her daughter’s school. The daughter was given detention for retaliation towards another student and the other student was given a one-day suspension for using anti-Muslim language. CAIR-WA is following up with the family to determine next steps.

10/20/11 Employment/Other – A Muslim man was terminated from his position and denied a letter of suspension due to exploitation allegations made against him even though the investigation was inconclusive. CAIR-WA is following up with the client to determine next steps.

10/18/11 Public Accommodation – Two Muslim men were not allowed to reserve a public facility for prayers even though it has never been a problem in the past. They were told their group was “too noisy” and that their group was given lesser priority compared to large corporations who also wanted to use the facility. CAIR-WA is working with the men to propose policy changes to the City’s handbook and address a complaint against a particular city employee.

10/13/11 Government agency/FBI – A Muslim man received a call from state patrol wanting to talk to him about an incident of “reckless driving” that occurred several months prior. The man was arrested and is currently being detained pending a terrorism investigation. The reason for the investigation is due to a phone exchanged between the man and another man who has been arrested on terrorism charges. CAIR-WA took statements from the man’s family and is attempting to get in contact with the man’s public defender to discuss the case. .

10/10/11 Public Accommodation – A Muslim man and woman ate at a restaurant with the son, who became very sick from the food. The couple reported the bad food to the restaurant manager who told them to wait for paperwork from the Department of Health. As the couple was waiting for the paperwork, the police arrived in the restaurant and the manager said she wanted to police to kick the couple out of the restaurant. The couple was issued a notice of trespassing. CAIR-WA assisted the couple in filing a complaint with the restaurant chain and attended a meeting with a third party adjuster in which the couple made statements regarding the incident. The case is pending as CAIR-WA is waiting to hear from the restaurant’s insurance company as to what kind of settlement will be offered to the couple.

10/06/11 Public Accommodation – A Muslim woman along with her husband have received racial/religious insults. As a result, their development project has been stopped several times by the housing authority. CAIR-WA reviewed the documents of the case and referred the woman to a civil rights legal firm.

10/03/11 Employment/Prayer – A Muslim man was terminated from his work due to his taking breaks for prayer. CAIR-WA referred the man to an employment attorney in his area.

09/26/11 Employment/Other – A Muslim man who works for a school district contacted CAIR-WA when he was denied leave from work to perform Hajj. CAIR-WA sent a complaint letter to the employer’s legal counsel and then the leave was granted, although it was too late for the man to make travel arrangements. CAIR-WA is working with the man to request leave for next year far in advance, so he can perform Hajj in 2012.

09/26/11 Employment/Other – A Muslim man was removed from his work building by security guards and asked to go to a psychiatrist after having a dispute with a non-Muslim coworker. The man was still not allowed back to work for nearly a month after he went to the psychiatrist. The other employee involved was not punished or suspended, to the best of the victim’s knowledge. CAIR-WA sent an investigative letter to the man’s employer requesting information about the disciplinary procedure involving these two men, and the discrepancy between the treatment each received.

09/26/11 Employment/Beard – A Muslim man from Lynnwood was asked to shave his beard as his next stationed company only allowed mustaches. CAIR-WA has drafted a letter to the company explaining the religious significance of the beard for some Muslim men, and is following up with man to resolve the situation.

09/23/11 Government agency/Police – A Muslim woman from Seattle was patted down by a male police officer and given a ticket for not properly swiping her prepaid pass to ride the light rail. The woman was sent to jail, where she was then forced to remove her headscarf. No charges were brought against the woman but she had to attend court the next morning, also without her headscarf on. CAIR-WA assisted the woman in requesting a contested hearing for the ticket she received. Further, CAIR-WA is drafting policy recommendations to police and sheriff’s departments regarding religious coverings.

09/19/11 Employment/Other – A Muslim man from Tukwila was denied his badge for work after being told he looked “suspicious.” CAIR-WA is attempting to follow up with the man to investigate the incident and potentially file a complaint.

9/8/2011 Hate Mail/Hate Phone Calls – Two men from an Islamic center in Washington contacted CAIR-WA regarding two items that were found outside the center on the morning of September 8, 2011: A sticker on the door reading "Do not forget 9/11" and a Safeway plastic bag with a copy of "American Crescent" which had vulgar language on the cover, calling Muslims sexual perverts. The bag smelled bad and had ants crawling inside it. The men reported the case to the police department and to CAIR-WA for documentation.

9/7/2011 Hate Mail/Hate Phone Calls – A Muslim woman contacted CAIR-WA to report several threats that had been made against her after her husband was arrested. The woman had received hate mail, hateful notes on her car, and several threatening remarks from strangers. CAIR-WA advised the woman to report all incidents to the police and save future notes/mail as evidence.

09/06/11 Employment/Other – A Muslim man contacted CAIR-WA regarding discrimination from his supervisor which resulted in his being terminated from his job. The supervisor did not give employees time to pray and would interrupt people if they prayed during their already allocated breaks. The man also claimed that the supervisor would not give him an accident report form when he was injured on the job, resulting in his denial of worker’s compensation benefits. CAIR-WA sent a complaint letter to the employer and assisted the man in filing a complaint with EEOC. The case is pending as CAIR-WA awaits a response from the employer and a response from EEOC determining if it will open an investigation.

8/23/2011 Employment/Harassment – A Muslim woman contacted CAIR-WA regarding ongoing harassment from her immediate supervisor who denied her time off for Eid ul-Fitr, requested that she wear different clothing (a shorter skirt), and provided less training and support for the Muslim woman than for her non-Muslim coworkers. The woman was placed on probation for taking too much time off (two days for court and one for Eid ul-Fitr). CAIR-WA assisted the woman in requesting time off for Eid-ul Fitr, which was approved. Further, CAIR-WA assisted the woman in requesting a transfer to another location.

8/17/2011 Airport Profiling/Airline – A Muslim man contacted CAIR-WA to report a profiling incident on a recent flight from Chicago to St. Louis. The agent, Colin, was very rude and threatened to call the police, refusing to let him board. The agent picked up the phone saying "I have a Muslim man standing here interfering with my work." When the manager and police arrived, the Muslim man was put on the next flight home and given a $400 credit. CAIR-WA referred the man to an attorney for legal advice in pursuing legal action against the airline.

7/21/2011 Employment/Harassment – A Muslim man contacted CAIR-WA regarding discrimination in the workplace. The man works as a professor at a public university in the Northwest. The man was repeatedly excluded from events relevant to his department and area of study, harassed by several coworkers, and denied informal benefits enjoyed by other staff members in his department (such as having his study abroad program advertised on campus listservs). CAIR-WA assisted the man in compiling a timeline of events and filing a complaint with the EEOC. The case is pending as CAIR-WA awaits a response from EEOC as to whether or not they will open an investigation.

7/16/2011 School – A Muslim man enrolled in a professional diving school after passing a medical examination. Upon completing the program, he took another medical examination and failed due to medical complications which disqualified him from a career in the field. The man found out later that the FBI was involved after they received complaints from the school about him. CAIR-WA helped the man file a Privacy Act with the FBI. Further, CAIR-WA worked with the school’s insurance company and legal counsel to have the man fully refunded for all tuition and fees he had paid to the school, a sum of $34,600.

7/7/2011 Airport Profiling/Airline – A Muslim man was scheduled to fly from Portland to Italy, however when he arrived at the airport the airline clerk told him that he was being rescheduled because of technical problems with the aircraft. After much delay, the man was approached by a Port of Portland police officer who held his passport and told him he was on a "no fly" list. CAIR-WA sent a letter to the airline as well as TSA regarding the man’s treatment and filed a Privacy Act request with the FBI regarding the man’s record. CAIR-WA is in the process of appealing the FBI’s response to the Privacy Act, which yielded no documents under the man’s name.

6/22/2011 Employment/Prayer – A Muslim man was promoted at his job at a hotel near an airport. Upon promotion, the man’s schedule changed, requiring him to take three breaks for prayer per day, while he formerly only took one break for prayer per day. The man was written up by his supervisor for refusing to compromise or shorten his prayers. CAIR-WA wrote a letter of complaint to the company and filed a complaint with the EEOC. The case is under active investigation.

6/20/2011 Prison – A Muslim man contacted CAIR-WA because he was not being provided adequate accommodations for Maghrib prayer during an evening class at a state prison. CAIR-WA addressed the issue with the Department of Corrections. The man was transferred to another facility for unrelated reasons and CAIR-WA continues to correspond with him regarding religious accommodations.

6/17/2011 Government Agency/FBI – A Muslim man contacted CAIR-WA after being contacted by the FBI for an interview. FBI agents questioned the man at length about one of his friends at the interview, at which an attorney from the man’s company was present. CAIR-WA advised the man of his first amendment protected freedoms and requested that he contact CAIR-WA if he is contacted by the FBI again.

6/17/2011 Employment/Other – A Muslim man contacted CAIR-WA about ongoing harassment at his place of work. The man complained of repeated sarcastic comments by his supervisors about his faith and unsuccessfully attempted to resolve the issue through the human resources department. CAIR-WA assisted the man in filing a complaint with the EEOC and provided a translator for the EEOC interviews. EEOC found that the incidents of discrimination had occurred outside the statute of limitations, so they closed the investigation. The man was referred to several attorneys who work in employment law.

6/16/2011 School – A Seattle area Muslim woman contacted CAIR-WA regarding a bullying incident involving her son in which she felt the school did not take appropriate investigative or disciplinary actions. CAIR-WA wrote a letter of complaint to the school’s principal and board of directors of the district requesting an investigation and a meeting. CAIR-WA is in the process of scheduling a meeting with the mother, her son, and the school principal.

6/15/2011 Employment/Other – A Muslim man working for a state agency has been complaining about harassment by his supervisors, specifically about their designs to destroy his career. CAIR-WA has filed a complaint with the EEOC and is assisting the man in organizing all evidence he has compiled regarding the ongoing discrimination. .

6/14/2011 Government Agency/Other – A Muslim woman contacted CAIR-WA after being denied a travel visa to Canada three times. CAIR-WA addressed a letter of support to the Canadian consulate and connected the woman with an immigration attorney for free legal advice. The woman is currently awaiting review of her application for citizenship.

6/14/2011 Employment/Other – A Muslim woman who worked on the janitorial staff at a community college was laid off after taking a 3 week emergency vacation. The woman was told that all part time employees had been laid off. She claimed that this was false and that the other Muslim employees had been laid off as well. CAIR-WA drafted a letter to the community college which the woman is currently reviewing.

6/10/2011 School – A Muslim father contacted CAIR-WA regarding disciplinary action taken by school officials against his two sons, who were both suspended. CAIR-WA advised the man on how to appeal the decision to the school board. Still dissatisfied with the response, CAIR-WA submitted a public records request on the man’s behalf. The results of the request explained the disciplinary procedure through which his sons had been suspended.

6/9/2011 Government Agency/Other – A mosque in the Seattle area has requested to remove “no parking” restriction in front of the mosque. After extensive correspondence with the city, no rational reason has been given for the continuation of the parking restrictions. Board members of the mosque reported the case to CAIR-WA, but decided to hire an attorney to work on the case.

6/7/2011 Prison – A Muslim man from Kelso, WA was asked numerous questions about his faith and political views during a polygraph test by his probation officer. When the man said that he did not have to answer those questions, the probation officer said that if he refused he would fail the test and go back to jail. CAIR-WA sent a letter to the Department of Corrections reporting the contracted polygraph tester and requesting that DOC terminate their contract with the tester. An investigation was launched following CAIR-WA’s letter and the results are expected to be released within the next month.

6/7/2011 Hate Mail/Hate Phone Calls – CAIR-WA offices received a hateful e-mail rant about how "dishonest" and "hateful" Islam is and how Americans will eventually mount a resistance against CAIR-WA and Islam. The e-mail was reported to the FBI and the Seattle Police Department as it contained particularly violent and threatening language.

6/7/2011 Government/CBP – A Muslim man has been stopped and questioned by the CBP during his last three entries into the U.S. despite having dual U.S./Canadian citizenship. He was stopped for at least two hours and his car is searched. CAIR-WA educated the man on his rights at the border and encouraged him to file for a traveler’s redress number. The man indicated that he would contact CAIR-WA if he had trouble crossing the border in the future. CAIR-WA calls the man periodically to check up on the status of his case.

6/7/2011 General – A Muslim woman called CAIR-WA reporting various harassment incidents that occurred when she was wearing a headscarf. The incidents ranged from comments while she was shopping to jokes about the possibility of her being a terrorist during a strip search at an airport. CAIR-WA encouraged the woman to call the police if she is ever threatened, and to report any future incidents to CAIR. The woman indicated that she called for documentation purposes only.

6/2/2011 Hate Mail/Hate Phone Calls – A Muslim woman in Bellevue was driving when she heard a man say, “Osama is dead” through her open window. She asked him why he said it, and there was a heated argument between the two that ended with the man cursing at her. CAIR-WA contacted the Bellevue Police Department reporting the incident. A police officer followed up with woman who reported that he was very courteous and respectful. Though the suspect was not found, the police encouraged the woman to contact them in the future if she receives any threats. The investigating police officer also attended a potluck at the woman’s masjid, upon invitation.

6/2/2011 Government/Other – A woman contacted CAIR-WA regarding discrimination in public accommodations after she left a hospital without treatment after waiting for over 4 hours. While waiting, the woman was questioned by a nurse about her headscarf. CAIR-WA addressed a letter to the hospital and the ethics review board which the woman is in the process of reviewing and approving.

5/31/2011 Public Accommodation – A woman and her husband were the recipients of racial slurs at a carnival at the Seattle Southcenter Mall in May 2011. The carnival employee who made the racial comments also made indirect threats to the lives of Muslim carnival goers. The woman and her husband complained to the manager of Cascade Amusements Services asking to close the carnival. CAIR-WA contacted the woman to discuss options, but she indicated that she had reached out only for documentation purposes

5/26/2011 Criminal Offense/Against Person – A local Muslim woman was assaulted by her roommate which resulted in many lacerations and bruises. A motive for the crime is suspected to be religious bias. CAIR-WA was contacted for documentation purposes only, but encouraged the woman to file a police report, which she had already done.

5/25/2011 Hate Mail/Hate Phone Calls – A Muslim woman and her daughter went into a Starbucks in Redmond for about ten minutes and upon leaving they found a blue sticky note attached to their car saying in English, "We don't Muslims in America," and in Arabic, "We don't want Muslims in our country. Leave." Her daughter, who was in a wheelchair at the time, was scared that the person was going to follow them home and hurt them. CAIR-WA assisted the family with filing a report with the Redmond police, who took the situation very seriously. CAIR-WA also held a press conference regarding the case and mediated between the victim and the media regarding confidentiality. As the police investigated the case, they discovered that a Muslim man who works nearby and parks in the same parking lot had received a similar note several months prior. The author of the notes has not yet been found. See TV news coverage here. 

5/25/2011 Government Agency/FBI – A man contacted CAIR-WA claiming an FBI agent had visited his son at a public high school in Seattle and interviewed him privately for an hour. The high school did not alert the parents of these visits, which occurred two days in a row. CAIR-WA collaborated with the ACLU to advise the family of their rights. In addition CAIR-WA sent a complaint letter to the school’s principal and the school district’s board of directors. After no response, CAIR-WA filed a public records request pertaining to the student, which yielded over 600 pages of records. CAIR-WA is in the process of reviewing the records with the family and determining what steps to take next.

5/4/2011 General – A man was denied an orthodontic examination for his son after waiting three weeks for an appointment. The orthodontist, who worked out of Issaquah, said he was denying service because of a heated miscommunication the client had about a paper that he refused to sign, because he did not understand it. The man cannot read or write English and was confused about the paperwork.  CAIR-WA is working with the man to report the orthodontist’s office to the Department of Health due to violations of denying services on the basis of ethnicity.

5/2/2011 Prison – The wife of a Muslim inmate called CAIR-WA to report her husband's transfer from a low security to a high security prison. She has a medical hardship, and her husband's transfer means that she would rarely get to visit him. She wants to understand why he has been transferred and why others with similar or worse sentences were allowed to remain. CAIR-WA filed a public records request with the Department of Correction which yielded over 100 pages of documents. The documents revealed that due to the murder of a corrections officer at Monroe, inmates with certain offenses and sentences were sent to higher security prisons, such as this woman’s husband. The woman felt satisfied by the response, which revealed that the transfer was not due to bias but security concerns.

4/27/2011 Employment/Other – A Muslim man has worked at a car dealership in Portland for the last 19 years. He fell and hurt his back on the job and received medical treatment paid for by his worker's insurance from 2002-2009, however the treatment did not provide relief from the pain. He needs a costly surgery and shots, however the company refuses to pay for the surgery and he was terminated from his job last week. CAIR-WA referred the man to an attorney to assist him in appealing his denial of worker’s compensation benefits for injuries sustained on the job.

4/20/2011 Prison – A Muslim man incarcerated at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center contacted CAIR-WA regarding his prayer which was lost or stolen when he was transferred from another facility. Despite filing grievances and tort claims, the prayer rug was not replaced. The man was infracted for allegedly falsifying his property matrix, but was found not guilty at his infraction hearing. CAIR-WA worked with Department of Corrections officials and the Chaplains at Coyote Ridge to secure a prayer rug donation which was given to the man, free of charge.

4/20/2011 Government Agency/USCIS Naturalization – A Muslim man applied for citizenship at the end of August 2006. When immigration called him in for his second interview, they told him they wanted to ask a few simple questions, however he ended up being interviewed for three hours by the FBI. When he received no information about the status of his citizenship request, he wrote to his local senator, who replied with a letter saying that his application was pending due to background review. CAIR-WA contacted USCIS regarding the extensive delay of the man’s application. Shortly thereafter, the man received a call to schedule his appointment for fingerprinting and for his citizenship interview. CAIR-WA is still in contact with the man regarding his application, which is pending review for approval.

4/6/2011 Criminal Offense/Against Person – A Muslim man at a Jamba Juice store in Bellevue Square Mall was harassed when he gave his name with the order. The employee began cursing at him and making offensive remarks ("terrorist," "stop making bombs," etc.) in front of other store customers, as well as the man’s children. The police were called to take the victim’s statement and the manager told the police that he had already been terminated. CAIR-WA documented the incident and drafted a letter of complaint to Jamba Juice, which the man decided not to send.