A US employee organisation is being sued after they referred a Malaysian man to the FBI for displaying an ‘American flag desecrated with IS Symbols.’
The flag in question was Malaysia’s. The Malaysian flag has the same colours as America's - red, white and blue - but also includes a Muslim crescent in its left corner.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed a lawsuit accusing the employee organisation, Spirit Boeing Employees Association (SBEA), of "racial profiling and blatant religious discrimination."
Executive director of the ACLU Micah Kubic said Munir Zanial was wrongfully discriminated against for displaying the flag for Malaysia’s 60th independence day celebrations on September 2017.
“To label someone a terrorist due to their appearance and their celebration of their heritage is shameful,” he said in American Civil Liberties Union statement on the lawsuit.
“To use that mislabel as ground for blatant discrimination – even after it had been discredited by the FBI – is downright reprehensible”.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the original complaint made to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alleged Mr Zanial was flying an IS flag and conducting an IS meeting on an SBEA property.
Malaysian students wave Malaysia flags during the 60th Independence Day celebrations at the Independence Square in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Source: AAP
Reports of 'Muslim garb' and 'desecrated flag'
Mr Zanial is an aerospace engineer and was a paying member of the employee association when he held a party including mostly Indian-Malaysian guests, according to the BBC.
The party was held at a property in Kansas owned by Spirit Boeing Employees Association (SBEA) that Mr Zanial had rented, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
A report about a group ‘dressed in Muslim garb’ displaying the ‘desecrated flag’ was made to the FBI on the same day.
The Bureau of Investigation contacted Mr Zanial to investigate the complaint, who told them the flag was Malaysia's.
The complaint was cleared the following month.
Mr Zanial thought the incident was resolved, but on January 2018 the aerospace engineer discovered Spirit Boeing Employees Association had banned him from renting the same rental property again because of the previous party.
Malaysia Welfare Department collaborated with students to make a giant flag with over 5,000 coconut shells in conjunction of Malaysia's 60th Independence Day Source: AAP
Civil advocacy organisation launches lawsuit
The American Civil Liberties Union's lawsuit alleges SBEA hired a private investigator to look into Mr Zanial after the flag-complaint incident and barred him from renting the lakeside property.
ACLU said Mr Zanial feared his permanent residence status was put in danger because of the employee organisation’s private investigation. The lawsuit outlines how the incident has caused him stress and anxiety.
"[He] feels distressed and humiliation based on this experience of being singled out because of his ethnicity, race and religion,’' ACLU said.
The civil advocacy organisation wants the SBEA to take steps to remedy the effects of the "illegal and discriminatory incident" and award Mr Zanial damages.
The Spirit Boeing Employees Association has made no comment on the lawsuit, the BBC reported.
