PITTSBURGH: A Muslim nuclear physicist on Thursday accused the US Department of Energy of revoking his security clearance in retaliation for his criticism of the government s treatment of Muslims.

Moniem El-Ganayni, 57, an Egyptian who moved to the United States in 1980, had worked at the Bettis Laboratory in the Pittsburgh-suburb of West Mifflin for 18 years.

He was fired after the DOE revoked his security clearance, according to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on his behalf. The ACLU is an organization that advocates individual rights.

El-Ganayni is not necessarily looking to overturn the revocation. Instead, he is demanding that he be allowed to contest it before a non-political, neutral arbiter as mandated by DOE regulations , a right that he lost when the department cited national security as the reason for the revocation.

During his years in Pittsburgh, El-Ganayni has been active in Pittsburgh s Muslim community and helped establish one of the area s first mosques.

The department did not immediately return calls for comment.

Bettis Laboratory is dedicated to working on the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, a joint Navy-Energy Department program responsible for nearly all aspects of US nuclear-powered warships.