Nick Damask
Sabra and the Council on American-Islamic Relations of Arizona (CAIR) also launched a lawsuit over Damask s lesson last year in Arizona U.S. District Court on First Amendment grounds, but it got thrown out in August by Judge Susan Brnovich, who ruled that the class material never interfered with Sabra s personal right to practice his religion. Sabra is appealing the ruling, still hoping to someday secure a court order to delete material in the class that has the primary effect of disapproving of Islam.
District officials who oversee operations at SCC and nine other colleges eventually got involved on Damask s behalf, but only after the national nonprofit group Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) sent a letter ripping the county college system for trampling academic freedoms.