Chicago Tribune: Group claims bias in chaplain case

By Manya Brachear

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a discrimination claim with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Wednesday, the precursor to a lawsuit against Illinois State Police, after it rescinded its first appointment of a Muslim cleric as chaplain.

Last week, the agency revoked the appointment of Sheikh Kifah Mustapha, associate director of the Mosque Foundation in Bridgeview, after questions about his connection to a charity with ties to the militant Palestinian group Hamas. In a statement, state police officials said Mustapha could not serve as a volunteer chaplain “due to information revealed during the background investigation.” State police declined to be more specific.

Shortly after Mustapha’s appointment, Steve Emerson, executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, criticized Illinois law enforcement, calling Mustapha one of more than 300 “unindicted co-conspirators” in the federal government’s case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, once the nation’s largest Muslim charity.