The Legal Defense Fund of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, filed a lawsuit today against Meta for discriminatory treatment of Mohammed Feras Majeed over pro-Palestine, anti-genocide advocacy.

CAIR’s lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, Austin Division, alleges that Meta violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code.

It states in part:

“Meta discriminated against Plaintiff based on his religious identity as a Muslim by forcing him to choose between expressing his sincerely held religious belief and maintaining his employment. Meta silenced Plaintiff’s expressions of religious solidarity with the Muslim community during the ongoing genocide in Gaza—a subject central to Plaintiff’s faith—while permitting similarly situated non-Muslim employees to speak freely about other humanitarian and political crises.”

The lawsuit seeks an injunction prohibiting further religious discrimination by Meta, removal of negative references from the plaintiff’s personnel record, annual religious sensitivity training for Meta management, and compensatory and punitive damages.

Read CAIR’s lawsuit HERE.

Backgrounder:

Mohammed Feras Majeed, who is of Indian origin, was hired at Meta in 2018. As a Muslim, he felt it was part of his religious duty to speak up about Palestine within the workplace and on his social media pages. Within workplace chat platforms, Majeed had seen discussions of political topics such as Ukraine and the Black Lives Matter movement, along with sympathy for the Israeli victims after October 7, 2023.

However, when Majeed attempted to discuss Palestine and his prayers for Muslims impacted by Israel’s genocide, he suffered adverse employment action in response, including formal reprimands, content removal, verbal warnings, and threats of further discipline, all stemming from his religiously motivated expression.

Source: CAIR