A legislative aide who joined an anti-Islam group and became obsessed with its mission crossed the line and illegally used state resources to promote its interests, a state ethics panel concluded in a ruling released Friday.

Minutes after the ruling was made public, Karen Sawyer's new boss, state Rep. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, announced that Sawyer resigned her job.

Sawyer's activism on behalf of Stop Islamization of America became an issue when she was chief of staff to Palmer Rep. Carl Gatto before his death this year. Hughes was appointed to replace Gatto on May 1.

The House subcommittee of the Select Committee on Legislative Ethics recommended that Sawyer be fired and permanently banned from rehire by the Legislature.

The far-right, anti-Islam group describes its goals as support of human rights, religious liberty and freedom of speech, and opposition to Sharia, or Islamic, law. But the Southern Poverty Law Center calls it an anti-Muslim hate group, as does the Anti-Defamation League.

Sawyer allowed an operative for the anti-Islam group, a man named David Heckert, to set up shop inside the Wasilla Legislative Information Office, where he worked for months, according to one of two reports about the ethical lapses by the ethics panel that were released Friday. Sawyer let Heckert use her personal laptop and Internet card, and provided him a cellphone number under her family plan. She herself used state equipment to plan events for the group. She even gave Heckert her key to the Wasilla LIO so he could get in while she was out of town, the report said.

Anchorage Daily News, 14 December 2012

See also Associated Press, 14 December 2012

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A Rock Hill Walmart employee was fired Saturday after police say she grabbed a co-worker’s arm, threatened to cut her throat and called her an anti-Muslim, derogatory name, according to a police report.

Police spoke with the victim, 23, who said she was on her break at the Walmart on Old York Road and tried to buy some items, according to a Rock Hill police report. While in the checkout line, a co-worker stepped behind her but tried to check out first by skipping in front of the woman and moving her items.

The two employees began to argue before the co-worker called the victim a derogatory, anti-Muslim name. She grabbed the woman's arm twice and said she was going to cut her throat, the victim told police.

The employee told her manager, who fired the employee, according to the report. No arrests were made. The victim will seek a courtesy summons against her former co-worker, according to the police report.

The Herald, 3 December 2012

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation's largest Muslim civil liberties organization, said today that it is calling on the SUBWAY restaurant chain to apologize to a Louisiana Muslim allegedly locked out of a sandwich shop in that state because of his faith.

A retired 63-year-old U.S. citizen of South Asian heritage who lives in New Orleans reported to CAIR that on November 21, 2012, he and his wife stopped at the SUBWAY restaurant in Shreveport, La. Before ordering, they went to the restrooms in the facility. The husband exited the restroom first and went outside the restaurant to wait for his wife in anticipation of re-entering to order their food.

While his wife was still inside the restaurant, the victim attempted to re-enter, but was blocked at the door by a female SUBWAY employee who allegedly asked him "Are you Muslim?" When the victim replied that he is indeed Muslim, the SUBWAY employee reportedly responded, "We can't serve you." The employee then went inside the restaurant and locked the door behind her. Fearing for his wife's safety and distraught at the violation of his civil rights, the man called 911.

When the Shreveport Police Department arrived, an officer went inside the SUBWAY restaurant and later came out to tell the victim that the manager was "scared" of him and that he "better leave."

[NOTE: The victim is 5'6" and weighs approximately 155 pounds. He wears an Islamic cap, called a "kufi," and a beard for religious reasons. His wife, a teacher, wears an Islamic headscarf, or "hijab."]

In a letter to SUBWAY President and CEO Fred DeLuca, CAIR National Legal Counsel Nadhira Al-Khalili wrote in part:

"Louisiana Revised Statutes 51:2247 states that it is a 'discriminatory practice for a person to deny an individual the full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of a place of public accommodation, resort, or amusement, as defined in this Chapter, on the grounds of race, creed, color, religion, sex, age, disability, as defined in R.S. 51:2232(11), or national origin.' According to the law, a place of public accommodation 'means any place, store, or other establishment, either licensed or unlicensed, which supplies goods or services to the general public.'"

Al-Khalili's letter cited Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on account of religion in places of public accommodation and service. She also referred to the company's diversity policy that claims SUBWAY "does not tolerate discrimination of any kind on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, creed, religion, color or national origin."

CAIR requested that SUBWAY (1) investigate this troubling incident, (2) offer a formal written apology to the victim and his wife, (3) institute policy changes that will ensure that this type of incident does not occur in the future, (4) offer compensation to the victim and his wife for the humiliation and emotional distress caused by the SUBWAY employee and the police, and (5) participate in a corporate religious sensitivity program for franchise managers.

A copy of the letter was sent to Chief Willie L. Shaw, Jr. of the Shreveport Police Department and to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

CAIR press release, 29 November 2012

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