Muslim woman sues over jail church attendance

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A Muslim woman has sued Cuyahoga County in Northeast Ohio alleging she was forced to attend Christian church services during a 60-day jail stint on an assault charge.

Twenty-four-year-old Sakeena Majeed of the Cleveland suburb of Rocky River says in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday that a corrections officer made her and other Cuyahoga County jail inmates attend Friday afternoon services led by a Baptist minister.

Majeed alleges that she was threatened with solitary confinement if she did not attend and that another corrections officer mocked her when she refused to actively participate in the service.

Majeed’s attorney says it was clear breach of his American-born client’s constitutional right of religious freedom, which isn’t lost when someone is jailed.

A spokesman for the county prosecutor declined to comment.