A former Kane County jail guard claims he lost his job because of his Muslim beliefs, according to a federal lawsuit filed this week in Chicago.

A former corrections officer has filed a religious discrimination lawsuit against the Kane County Sheriff’s Department, claiming he was forced to resign after refusing to shave his traditional Muslim beard.

A former Kane County Jail guard who alleges he was forced to choose between his job and his beard has filed a federal lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Department.

In the federal suit filed this week in Chicago, Abal Zaidi of Streamwood said he was forced out of his job in December 2006 after Sheriff Pat Perez reinstituted a policy mandating that correctional officers be clean-shaven. Zaidi, a Muslim, said his beard was an expression of his religious faith.

CAIR-Chicago executive director, Ahmed Rehab, discusses the recent successful inclusion of Ramadan along with Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations after opposition from parents at a local public school. Dan Rea and Rehab also discuss how the reasonable accommodation of all cultures and religions is central to American pluralism.

OMAHA, Neb. – Meatpacking plant officials accused of discriminating against dozens of Somali Muslim workers have offered to tweak break times to help accommodate the workers’ prayer demands.

CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab discusses religious accommodations for Muslims in the workplace.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Supervisors at a meatpacking plant have fired or harassed dozens of Somali Muslim employees for trying to pray at sunset, violating civil rights laws, the workers and their advocates say.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – For Mahamed Jama, a Minnesota taxi driver, the Islamic restriction on drinking alcohol is a seamless rule for life.

“He who carries alcohol, he who drinks and he who sells it are the same thing,” he says.

That belief could affect his livelihood.