The King's Bay YM-YWHA and Trump Village West - Community Carnival, May 19, 2013

Kingsborough Faculty Slammed For Firing Muslim


by on Oct 1st, 2010
Hanaa Khalil says problems at Kingsborough began when she showed up in head scarf.

Source: NYDailyNews.com

So much for those “progressive bastions” known as higher education institutions. Or maybe that title is reserved for four-year schools…

Officials at Kingsborough Community College were ordered to head back to school themselves – for a workplace discrimination class – after illegally firing a chemistry professor because she is Muslim. They’re also going to have to shell out $17,700 in damages and backwages.

The victim, 46-year-old Egyptian immigrant Hanaa Khalil, said the problem began when she first showed up to work after being hired over the phone in March. It took the Department of Physical Sciences secretary, Maureen Sharkey, just a moment’s glance for the job posting to go downhill, according to Khalil.

“She turned her face when she looked at me … she turned her face like she saw something real bad,” Khalil told the Daily News. “It was clear to me it was because they found out that I was a Muslim.”

Khalil said Sharkey continued to treat her “in a dismissive tone,” and she and others hassled her over identification, security and equipment reservations. Sharkey’s behavior was enabled by department head John Mikalopas, who at one point asked Khalil, ”Between you and me, do you really have a Social Security number?”

When Khalil turned to the school’s human resource department for help, Mikalopas showed up with two guards, and told her she was fired.

Khalil hopes the school learns the costly lesson.

“I am hoping that I will be the last one to go through this at this school,” she told the Daily News.

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  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_CIXKMWVRUVBKQ4CT75NB5BAEBU Death

    That’s grimy, You can’t judge a person by the religion they follow….. not to mention Egyptian people are really smart when it comes to chemistry!

  • Joe

    Muslim is the new Black

  • BrooklynBus

    I never heard of hiring someone over the phone. Something doesn’t sound right.

    • paladin

      Agreed — especially not within academia. This reeks from the start. If she was indeed “hired over the phone,” then the person who hired her probably broke protocol and that’s grounds for dismissal right there (for the hired as well).

      But, of course, since a Muslim is involved, now it’s a defamation case. Cue CAIR involvement in 3… 2… and….

  • Cabbie

    I agree with BrooklynBus and paladin on this. Something does”t sound right. I don’t believe this story.

    Also, don’t believe everything you read on sheepsheadbites!

    • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

      Gee. Thanks.

      • http://www.nedberke.com Ned Berke

        Btw – I have friends who have been hired by KCC over the phone, without a meeting with the department head. Also, this was reported by the Daily News, which is linked so you can read the originating source.

  • Bugg

    CUNY hires professors over the phone. Our genial host says he knows of people who have been so hired. It sounds very odd.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=839675042 Holly Renee Reinhardt

    What’s so… weird about this is that a really large portion of KCC students are Muslim themselves. I’m not saying it didn’t happen, just that it’s odd.

  • schenck

    The Daily News got it horribly, horribly wrong. This person was NOT hired over the phone, the Physical Sciences Department does NOT do that (as for other departments, who knows). Khalil was INTERVIEWED, and only then hired. She was fired by the college, and she was fired because she wasn’t bothering to show up to teach her classes. Its stupid to say that people in the department hate muslims and fired her because of that hatred: they never would’ve hired her in the first place, and they’d've fired the other muslims that work in the department. And its also just plain crazy to say that Mrs. Sharkey or Dr. Mikalopas would’ve been ‘shocked’ to see her headscarf, a headscarf, Islamic or otherwise, doesn’t stand out on that campus.
    Bottom line, Hanaa Khalil was fired because she didn’t bother to show up to teach her classes, and then she made up some lies to get a pay-out from the college.
    Notice also, she was paid out around $17k, which is pretty close to the same amount that the college’s fundraising Walk-a-thon raised last year (it raised $18k). Obviously she wasn’t paid with that money (well, hopefully she wasn’t anyway), but she basically took from the school’s budget as much as they were able to raise through a big fund-raising scholarship effort. She should be ashamed of herself.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisanne001 Lisanne!

      I’m curious as to how you know these particulars.

  • Callahan

    Why are people shocked? This is not John’s first human rights violation. The question is, will it be his last.

    • Surfer

      What is this other “human rights violation” of which you speak? Is it documented?
      It would be a shame if he lost his position, KCC would be hard pressed to find a better candidate for the job. He’s a gifted teacher and administrator – who needs to perhaps exercise better judgment with offhanded comments.

  • Davidka8

    Pearl Harbor.

  • Ucbrct97

    The reported behavior by Dr. M. doesn’t sound new to some U of Cincinnati grads.

    • seriously?

      He’d be a brilliant shock jock on Sirius.