AP News, September 5th, 2007
An arbitrator's ruling has effectively ended the suspension of a Christian jail chaplain accused of handing out anti-Islamic cartoons, allowing her to return to work.
Arbitrator Paul Bailey decided Tuesday that the Rev. Teresa Darden Clapp should be suspended without pay for 30 days. Clapp has already been suspended without pay since May and would not need to spend any more time on suspension.
Bailey called for Clapp to be retrained and for the Rockland County jail where she works to set standards for distributing religious material.
Earlier this year, inmates complained Clapp was passing out anti-Islam booklets.
In the cartoon panel stories, a tract titled "Men of Peace?" said Islamic fundamentalists who commit terrorist acts are not "bad Muslims" but "very good Muslims" who act in accordance with their religion. Another tract, titled "Allah Has No Son," said Allah is not God, Muhammad was no prophet, and the Quran is not the word of God. Both stories end with people being convinced Islam is false. In one, a Muslim converts to Christianity.
In recent testimony before Bailey, Clapp said the materials were sometimes too voluminous for her to read before distributing them. She said she apologized and removed the cartoon panel booklets as soon as an inmate complained, and she acknowledged she had erred by bringing them in.
No home telephone number for Clapp is listed in New City or surrounding areas.
Noting that the administrative charges against Clapp weren't brought until more than a month after the incident, Bailey wrote that he had "the uneasy feeling that the employee is being disciplined, not because of her negligence, but to soothe anger" aroused by publicity about the booklets.
Some local Muslims called for Clapp's dismissal, and some were dismayed by Bailey's ruling.
"I don't want her to lose her job _ it will be a hardship on her _ but she should not be sent to the same position," said Mohammed Ziaullah, who testified at Clapp's hearing.
Jail officials have said they would hire a Muslim imam and provide religiously appropriate food for Muslim inmates.
