Muslim man accuses airport contractor of job discrimination

<p>A Muslim man claims in a federal lawsuit that an Atlanta-based contractor at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport denied him a security job based on his religion and national origin.</p><p>Ahmed Mohamed, 29, of Erlanger, filed the discrimination suit in U.S. District Court in Covington against Air Serv Corp., an Atlanta-based contractor to Delta Air Lines.</p><p>Mohamed, a native of Mauritania, said he initially filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after he applied for a security job checking airline cabins but was offered a janitorial position instead.</p><p>"Typically, we don't comment on things that are litigated," Air Serv chief financial officer Paul Freischlag said Friday.</p><p>The lawsuit seeks the job offer Mohamed says he was denied, back pay to October 2003 and unspecified punitive damages.</p><p>"I came here because everybody here is treated equally," Mohamed said. "That's the best thing about this country. If I wanted prejudicial treatment, I would have stayed where I was."</p><p>Mohamed said he moved to the United States in 2000 after receiving a bachelor's degree in veterinary science from Al-Fateh University in Libya. He worked full time as a quality-control technician for a meatpacking plant and also checked passengers and luggage at the airport from August 2001 to October 2002.</p><p>He said he was employed by Argenbright Inc. and Huntleigh USA until the federal government took over airport security, which made him ineligible to keep the job because he wasn't a U.S. citizen.</p><p>When he learned about the Air Serv positions, he underwent a background check and attended two days of training.</p><p>"According to the job description, it was supposed to be some kind of monitoring of the airplane on the airport grounds when the plane isn't used," Mohamed said.</p><p>Mohamed alleges that Air Serv then tried to steer him into janitorial training. He refused.</p><p>Kareem Shora, director of legal policy for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, D.C., said he has not heard of any other discrimination lawsuits filed by ground personnel at airports since Sept. 11, 2001. There have been suits brought by Arab and Muslim passengers, pilots and flight engineers.</p><p>"If the gentleman passed all security checks and completed all of the requirements for the job, they have to give a reasonable cause for not permitting him to do the job," Shora said. "It seems suspicious."</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2866810)</p>