Excerpt:
Sheikh Ahmed, a former New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) worker, filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the NYCTA violated his rights by subjecting him to persistent harassment due to his Muslim beliefs and denied him reasonable workplace accommodation of his religious observances.
According to his supporters, Mr. Ahmed had a track record of over ten years of excellent service as a Car Cleaner with the NYCTA. When he was transferred to the Department of Buses' East New York Depot in 2009, he faced a campaign of hostility and obstruction as a result of his religious observances. When Mr. Ahmed tried to raise complaints of discrimination, he faced escalating retaliatory harassment.
Mr. Ahmed is a member of the South Asian Workers Center at DRUM – Desis Rising Up & Moving, an organization of low-income South Asians fighting for workers rights, immigrant rights, educational justice, and against all forms of profiling and discrimination. With legal assistance in partnership with the law firm of Bantle and Levy LLP, and the Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center, Mr. Ahmed filed the lawsuit against the MTA in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.