Muslim Flight Attendant Who Wouldn't Serve Booze Sues

The Muslim flight attendant placed on unpaid leave last year after refusing to serve alcohol in accordance with her religion is now suing her employer. Charee Stanley of Detroit says Georgia-based airline ExpressJet was initially quite accommodating of her religious beliefs when she converted to Islam in 2013, even granting her request to wear a hijab to work. But when she became aware that "the Islamic proscription on consuming alcohol also extended to the act of serving alcohol to others" in 2015, she says she asked her employer if other flight attendants could serve alcohol in her place, reports the Guardian.

ExpressJet agreed, Stanley says—until a coworker complained. Stanley says the airline then told her to serve alcohol or resign, eventually placing her on unpaid leave in August. She was "on track for eventual termination for her requesting an accommodation of being allowed to not personally serve alcohol rather than abandoning her religious belief and practice," reads the lawsuit, filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, per the New York Daily News. Stanley wants her job back, plus economic, emotional, and punitive damages. ExpressJet says it "values diversity" but can’t comment on ongoing litigation, per the AP. (More ExpressJet Airlines stories.)