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CBS 2 - February 2, 2007
Fired for being a Muslim
N.J. Corrections Officer Claims Humiliation by Co-Workers
Brendan Keefe
A case of locker room ribbing and flat out abuse of power, that's what a New Jersey corrections officer said is exactly what his colleagues did to him -- all because of his Muslim faith.
One image shows the body of a camel with the head of a Passaic County corrections officer and a turban taped over it.
Another shows that officer's face edited into a picture of Osama bin Laden.
"(I was) portrayed as a terrorist or a camel, or just not good enough," said fire corrections officer Tamir Kozrosh.
A five-year department veteran, Kozrosh said fellow corrections officers posted the doctored photographs on the command center bulletin board inside the Passaic County Jail.
He said after a year of abuse and discrimination against Muslims by the Passaic County Sheriff's Office he decided to hire an attorney and file a formal complaint.
Kozrosh got an immediate response from the sheriff's office, but not the one he was hoping for. He said two lieutenants and two detectives from Internal Affairs showed up on his doorstep demanding his shield and identification, and told him he was being fired for not cooperating with the investigation into the complaint he filed.
"I asked them directly, 'by whose order are you coming here on?' and he told me from the sheriff," said Aslan Soobzokov, Kozrosh's attorney.
Said Kozrosh: "I really kept my mouth shut in fear of retaliation, in fear of being terminated at my job. And my worst fears came true being that that day I was terminated."
Born and raised in Passaic, Kozrosh always dreamed of serving the county as a patrol officer…
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_033020516.html
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