Christian Cop Loses Appeal After Objecting to Attend Islamic Mosque Event

25 May, 2014 by Alyssa Lafage

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A Federal Court in Denver: has ruled in a 3-0 decision that: it is acceptable for a police chief to order a: Christian police officer: to attend religious services in an Islamic mosque, even if doing so violates his or her: religious convictions.: 

The ruling came on Thursday from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a case brought by Capt. Paul Fields, who had been ordered by Tulsa police officials to either go to a special event at the local mosque himself, or order others to do that.

Fields refused based on religious freedom objections and was punished for that.

The judges on the 10th Circuit panel said that was perfectly appropriate.

Capt. Paul Fields first filed suit against the police: department, the chief of police: and deputy chief after he was suspended for 10 days from the force following an internal investigation.Capt. Fields’ claimed that his: punishment for not attending violated his religious rights, but the court disagreed.: 

The court ruling lists these reasons for ruling against Fields’ appeal:

• The Attendance Order did not burden Fields’s religious rights because it did not require him to violate his personal religious beliefs by attending the event; he could have obeyed the order by ordering others to attend, a nd he has not contended on appeal that he had informed his supervisors that doing so would have violated his religious beliefs.
• The order did not violate the Establishment Clause because no informed, reasonable observer would have perceived the order or the event as a government endorsement of Islam.
• The order did not burden Fields’s right of association because it did not interfere with his right to decide what organizations to join as a member.
• Fields’ equal-protection claim duplicates his free-exercise claim and fails for the same reason.
• The district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Fields’s motion to amend the complaint to add ORFA and free-speech retaliation claims because the amendment would have been futile.

This case has been closely watched by Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center. Muise told WND: that this: ruling is: “troubling on so many levels.” He went on to say that “[AFLC]: intend(s) to seek full court review of this patently erroneous decision.”

One can only wonder if the outcome of this ruling: would have been the same if: Capt. Fields were a Muslim ordered to attend an event at a Christian church.

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