A Muslim woman has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit against a Missouri gun range, alleging that the range denied her and her husband service when she refused to remove her hijab.
The law firm Baldwin and Vernon and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are representing Rania Barakat in her lawsuit against Frontier Justice. Her attorneys filed the suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
“Defendants have denied Muslims who wear hijab entry to Frontier Justice, based on violations of their dress code policy, while allowing similarly situated individuals who wear headcaps or other clothing that similarly covers the neck and head to enter their facility and access to their services,” the complaint reads in part.
Frontier Justice, which also operates gun ranges in Omaha, Nebraska and Kansas City, Kansas, did not respond to a request for comment.
The complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against the gun range in Lee’s Summit, a suburban community in the Kansas City metropolitan area, alleging that the headwear policy violates Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“This case is about equality in all aspects of American life and about ensuring those promises and ideals set forth by the Founders ‘to secure the blessings of Liberty’ not just for themselves, but all who came after,” said Kevin Baldwin, a partner at Baldwin and Vernon Law.
In the lawsuit, Ms. Barakat alleges that she had waited in line for hour when the gun range’s staff told her that she would have to remove her hijab to comply with a policy that bans all headgear except for front-facing baseball caps.
The lawsuit alleges that Frontier Justice has displayed a pattern of discriminatory behavior against other Muslim women who wear hijabs, citing Google reviews from other Muslim women who said they were denied service for the same reason.
“We were not allowed to shoot because my friends wear a hijab, or headscarf, for religious reasons,” Heba Khalifa said in one of the quoted reviews. “A member of their staff told us that we could not shoot because apparently a scarf covers your identity.”
Moussa Elbayoumy, board chairman of CAIR-Kansas, said the organization rejects the idea that a Muslim woman’s religious headscarf represents a security risk: “The claim that a hijab somehow presents a safety issue is merely a bad excuse in an attempt to justify a pattern of discriminatory treatment of Muslim women.”
In July 2020, CAIR sent a letter to theDepartment of Justice on behalf of Ms. Barakat, requesting an investigation into possible civil rights violations at Frontier Justice.
“We demand that they end their bigoted, discriminatory policies and practices and allow Muslim women to use their services like any other customer,” said Zanah Ghalawanji, a CAIR staff attorney.
• Sean Salai can be reached at ssalai@washingtontimes.com.
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