8 p.m. Sunday: Imad Hamad has been placed on administrative leave while his employer looks into a state lawmaker's sexual harassment complaint against the local Arab-American civil rights leader, Darren A. Nichols reports in The Detroit News. His job could be in jeopardy, suggests a statement from Washington, D.C.
The move comes after State Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, sent a letter Friday to the national board of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee accusing Hamad, director of the committee's Michigan regional office, of sexually harassing her and numerous women and contending the committee failed to stop Hamad.
The board responded Saturday by saying "sexual harassment is not and will not be tolerated" and the issue is being taken seriously. The organization is retaining an independent investigator to handle the issue.
"Shortly after receipt of the complaint, ADC informed Mr. Hamad he was being placed on administrative leave pending a full investigation into the allegations and he consented to it," according to a statement on the group's website. "ADC expects and requires Mr. Hamad to fully cooperate in the investigation. Upon completion of the independent investigation, a determination will be made as to the employment status of Mr. Hamad."
Saturday article:
A state legislator from Detroit and another woman say Imad Hamad, a local Arab-American civil-rights advocate, sexually harassed them repeatedly. Rep. Rashida Tlaib sent a letter Friday to his boss in Washington, D.C., and gave a copy to Niraj Warikoo of the Free Press.
It's the second complaint to group leaders, Warikoo writes.
In a letter sent to the national office of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, blasted the group for its alleged failure to stop the sexual harassment by Hamad, who is director of the Michigan office of the committee, the leading civil-rights group for Arab-Americans. . . .
In a letter sent to the national office of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, blasted the group for its alleged failure to stop the sexual harassment by Hamad, who is director of the Michigan office of the committee, the leading civil-rights group for Arab-Americans.
Top of letter sent Friday to the chair and president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Read Rashida Tlaib's two-page complaint here.
The alleged harassment of Tlaib and Rana Abbas dates back to their employment in the Dearborn office Hamad oversees.
Tlaib said Hamad sexually harassed her when she worked in his Dearborn office for five months in 1999.
Hamad, 52, of Dearborn, ADC senior national adviser and regional director, did not return three calls Friday night seeking comment. . . .
Rana Abbas, who was deputy director under Hamad before leaving in 2008, also said Friday that Hamad sexually harassed her almost daily.
Tlaib, 36, and Abbas, 33, say Hamad’s harassment consisted of aggressive groping, stroking of hair, rubbing his body against women, trying to kiss them, commenting in suggestive ways on women’s body parts, paddling women, pushing women against walls, and pressuring women to sleep with him.
A 2007 complaint to the national headquarters by eight female workers and volunteers against Hamad led to sensitivity training, Tlaib says.
The lawmaker says she and Abbas are speaking out publicly because of continuing complaints
“I feel an overwhelming responsibility to make sure we protect these young girls, so this is not repeated,” Tlaib told the Free Press.
Tlaib broke down crying as she spoke about what she said Hamad did to her and others. Tlaib said she was prompted to write the letter Friday after seeing a photograph Hamad posted on Facebook of him posing with a new group of female interns. [Photo is below]
Abbas said that “I could not wrap my mind over how a civil-rights organization that was charged with defending and protecting the rights of individuals would not protect the rights of the people who worked for it.”
Imad Hamad postes with summer interns in photo he posted May 29 on his personal Facebook page, which Rashida Tlaib says makes her corncerned.
