A Christian worker at London’s Heathrow Airport was dismissed after she stood up for a colleague who was bullied and harassed by Islamic fundamentalists at the United Kingdom’s leading Airport and border control.
Despite working at Terminal 3 for 13 years—and having friends of all religions on staff—Nohad Halawi was fired after Muslims filed unsubstantiated claims about her conduct.
Halawi had persistently complained to management over personal religious abuse and harassment from Islamic staff, who even mocked her about “[expletive] Jesus.”
Heathrow Duty Free took her security pass and she is no longer allowed to trade there. As a part-time, commission-based worker in Duty Free, Halawi was told she has no employment rights with the companies she works with at the airport. What’s more, she has been threatened with costs if she attempts to go to an Employment Tribunal, despite the fact that this forum is cost free.
An open petition signed by 22 staff members at Heathrow, including Muslims, reads: “We are shocked and saddened by the recent dismissal of our colleague and friend, Nohad, as a result of malicious and unfounded allegations made against her … We find this incident particularly worrying as it appears to allow individuals to perniciously use the ‘race and religion card’ to besmirch a fellow colleague, with the intention of securing their dismissal from gainful employment.”
If Halawi’s allegations about the influence of Islamic fundamentalism at Heathrow are true, this case raises huge issues of national security, religious discrimination and the rights and welfare of thousands of workers across the country who are technically outside Employment Law, but are used by many agencies as employees.
Christian Legal Centre Paul Diamond is representing Halawi in a case against both employers—Autogrill Retail U.K. Limited and Caroline South Associates. One of Halawi’s fellow workers said her accusers are extremists who work with the employer.
“They try to convert us to Islam and we really find their ideas distasteful to discuss such religious matters on the shop floor, yet they twisted it around to put the blame on our dear colleague,” the co-worker wrote. “Her only crime was to defend a colleague who has been bullied and harassed by these individuals. We have all been too scared to report these individuals as we all know we will not be taken seriously.”
Andrea Minichiello Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, said Halawi’s case is one of the most serious the organization has ever handled because of the huge issues it raise.
“Nohad represents tens of thousands of people across the U.K. who work, in all but name, as ‘employees’ for companies and yet, have absolutely no employment rights,” Williams says. “This is a case which, if simply struck out by the Employment Tribunal as a technicality, will demonstrate how woefully inadequate the U.K.’s employment legislation is, and will ensure that the fundamental security and religious issues of this case are not properly investigated.”
