{"id":3011,"date":"2011-04-25T15:00:48","date_gmt":"2011-04-25T19:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=3011"},"modified":"2011-04-25T14:54:56","modified_gmt":"2011-04-25T18:54:56","slug":"transit-worker-fired-for-burning-quran-gets-job-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/04\/transit-worker-fired-for-burning-quran-gets-job-back","title":{"rendered":"Transit Worker Fired for Burning Quran Gets Job Back"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By GINGER GIBSON AND CHRIS MEGERIAN<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>c. 2011 Religion News Service<\/em><\/p>\n<p>TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) The New Jersey Transit employee fired for burning pages of the Quran at the site of a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero will get his job back.<\/p>\n<p>Derek Fenton, who sparked a national firestorm during his protest on the ninth anniversary of the 9\/11 terror attacks last September, will be reassigned to his $86,110-a-year job and get $25,000 for pain and suffering.<\/p>\n<p>Fenton had joined a protest in Lower Manhattan at the site of a planned Islamic center, where he removed and burned three pages of the Quran. At the time, he was off duty and did not publicly link himself to the transit agency.<\/p>\n<p>The settlement, dated April 21 and obtained by <em>The Star-Ledger<\/em>, also says he will get back pay equal to $331.20 for every day since his firing. The state will also pay $25,000 in legal fees to the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the suit on behalf of Fenton.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our government cannot pick and choose whose free speech rights are protected, based on whether or not they approve of the content of our statements or actions,&#8221; Fenton, 40, said in a statement. &#8220;This is the very essence of the First Amendment.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Spokesmen for the attorney General&#8217;s office and Gov. Christ Christie, who publicly support Fenton&#8217;s firing, declined comment. NJ Transit did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations has also said Fenton should keep his job because he was not on duty at the time. &#8220;What he did, however reprehensible, should not impact on his employment,&#8221; CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said.<\/p>\n<p><em>(Ginger Gibson and Chris Megerian write for <\/em>The Star-Ledger<em> in Newark, N.J.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By GINGER GIBSON AND CHRIS MEGERIAN c. 2011 Religion News Service TRENTON, N.J. (RNS) The New Jersey Transit employee fired for burning pages of the Quran at the site of a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero will get his job back. Derek Fenton, who sparked a national firestorm during his protest on the ninth&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,8,9],"tags":[274,538,271,2208,61,2202,275,537],"class_list":["post-3011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-news","category-rns","tag-274","tag-derek-fenton","tag-ground-zero","tag-islam","tag-quran","tag-rns","tag-september-11","tag-the-new-jersey-transit"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Transit Worker Fired for Burning Quran Gets Job Back<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/04\/transit-worker-fired-for-burning-quran-gets-job-back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Transit Worker Fired for Burning Quran Gets Job Back\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By GINGER GIBSON AND CHRIS MEGERIAN c. 2011 Religion News Service TRENTON, N.J. 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(RNS) The New Jersey Transit employee fired for burning pages of the Quran at the site of a proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero will get his job back. 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