5th Circuit Reinstates Muslim Doctor's Retaliation Claim Against VA

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals this week reversed a Mississippi federal district court and held that a Muslim physician had raised genuine issues of fact in his retaliation claim against the Biloxi Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In Rikabi v. Nicholson, (5th Cir., Jan. 23, 2008), Dr. Khaled Rikabi alleged that the Center's chief of staff openly referred to Muslims as a threat to the United States after 9-11. The wife of the Center's Human Relations Manager said that she and her husband dislike Muslims and how Muslims live. Rikabi was dismissed from his position at the Center in March 2003, but he continued to provide infectious disease consultations at the Center. In June 2003, Rikabi made a verbal EEO complaint and three hourse later the Center's chief of staff instructed hospital staff to stop using Rikabi's services. Rikabi says this was retaliation. The chief of staff said the action was taken because of an onsite altercation between Rikabi and his wife three months earlier. Subsequently the chief of staff gave a different explanation for his actions. Today's Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger reports on the decision.