Former radio presenter’s discrimination case to go to Euro Justice Court

Sep 2 2009 East Kilbride News

A CHRISTIAN preacher who has accused a community radio station aimed at the Asian community of religious discrimination is to have his case referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling to decide if volunteers are protected by legislation.

Mahboob Masih (37), a Church of Scotland minister who presented a show for AWAZ FM Ltd on a voluntary basis, has complained to an employment tribunal that he lost his job for reasons related to religion or belief.

But the radio station denied discrimination and argued the tribunal had no powers to hear the case as Mr Masih was not an employee.

The Reverend Masih, of the West Kirk in the Village, had worked at the radio station for six years when his services were terminated following a ‘’lively’’ debate on air about religion and the views of a prominent Muslim speaker.

Mr Masih told a preliminary hearing before the Glasgow tribunal that he presented his show as normal on a Saturday morning in July with fellow presenter Afzal Umeed and an on-air guest. He was later told "certain people were unhappy in the Muslim community".

He said the two presenters attended a meeting with bosses of the radio station, which receives public funds and is targeted at the Asian community. Mr Masih said: "We were told we tried to create friction in the community, which we vehemently denied. I personally did not make any comment on which the whole storm was created.

“After listening to the show a few times, it was demanded that we apologise. We said we would do it to avoid further conflict with management."

Mr Masih said he believed that if they had not apologised, they would have been barred from presenting the programme again.

After apologising live on air, Mr Masih said he was asked to go to the local mosque and offer an apology again.

"I said I would not be willing to go to the mosque because this is inappropriate.''

Mr Masih, who was previously minister at Queen’s Park Baptist Church in Glasgow, said he later wrote a letter to the radio station stating he had done nothing wrong, nothing insulting was said, no intemperate language had been used and he felt that the request to apologise at the mosque was intimidating.

Javed Ullah, a director of the community radio station which has an estimated 55,000 listeners, 60 per cent of whom are Muslim, denied he told Mr Masih that the Prophet Mohammed was insulted in a discussion on his radio show.

The tribunal heard Mr Masih apologised during his show, but Mr Ullah said it was not done at the stated time.

Employment judge Raymond Williamson ruled that the case should be referred to the European Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling to determine whether Mr Masih’s status as a volunteer was protected by the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, legislation which was introduced to protect against discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief.

Mr Williamson added: ‘’I ask myself the question, ‘can it be right that the respondent, a creature of statute, partly funded of our public funds and set up with the aim of promoting social cohesion through education and other services, should be able to discriminate on religious grounds against the volunteer staff it is obliged to engage as a condition of its licence?’

“The answer to that question seems obvious and I take the view that the Court of Justice may well consider that the nature of the relationship between the parties in this case falls within the Directive’s concept of ‘employment and occupation’.’’