Muslim's Lawsuit Alleges Humiliation

Aim Is to Increase Tolerance, Attorney Says

Just before he was scheduled to undergo surgery to treat oral cancer, Mohammed A. Hussain went to the bathroom at the hospital -- and that's when he says the humiliation began.

Inside the restroom at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, the 61-year-old Muslim performed the Islamic ritual of washing his hands and feet. The private ritual, known as wudhu, was to purify his body and soul before praying.

But Hussain never got to pray. A hospital security guard saw him washing himself in the sink, Hussain said, and proceeded to manhandle him, yell racial epithets at him, push him down the corridor and order him to exit the hospital.

"He was just very loud and yelling at me," Hussain said. "He pushed me and literally dragged me into the lobby. . . . It was very terrifying."

Hussain filed a $30 million lawsuit Friday against the hospital, alleging assault, battery and emotional distress from the incident about 10 a.m. March 22.

Because the case is in litigation, hospital officials would not comment other than to release a brief statement saying that hospital executives contacted Hussain on several occasions before the suit was filed to discuss his concerns.

Hussain's lawsuit was first reported by the Baltimore Examiner.

Hussain, who lives in Upper Marlboro and is a practicing physician and radiologist in Waldorf, described his experiences in an interview yesterday with The Washington Post.

He said he was treated as if he were homeless or a criminal. It was "humiliating," he said.

"People who are coming in the bathroom and treating you so harshly and thinking everybody is either a terrorist or somebody who you don't recognize of your color or your race -- this is something that is a very emotionally tortured experience," Hussain said.

The guard, identified in the suit as Rodney Corban, yelled at Hussain to "get out here!" Hussain said. Corban "was extreme and outrageous, and beyond the bounds of decency in society," according to court filings.

Hussain said he repeatedly told Corban that he was a patient at the hospital and a licensed physician, but he said Corban did not seem to listen. Hussain said a crowd -- including his wife, who is a psychiatrist, and their two adult daughters -- witnessed the scene in the lobby.