Requests by Muslims to pray at work have led to clashes with employers who say they cannot accommodate the strictly scheduled prayers.
The conflicts raise questions about religious rights on the job. Muslims say they are being discriminated against and are taking their complaints to the courts and the federal government. Employers say the time out for prayer can burden other workers and disrupt operations.
Disputes boiled over at two JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in September during the holy month of Ramadan.
It’s going to be almost impossible to integrate strict followers of the Islamic prayer regimen into American working environments. Not only is prayer required a couple of times during the normal working day (and it’s even worse on second shift), but as the article says, the prayer times shift a few minutes daily. There is a limit to the amount of accommodation which can be made when dealing with high-volume continuous processes. American Muslims will have to accept saying the prayers at the next available opportunity. In truth, that’s what most Muslims do in the Middle East. If they’re occupied by work at the appointed time, they’ll say the prayers later. This drive in the U.S. is political Islam; begin to give in to it, and it will only get worse.
Why are we listening to them at all ? If things are so intolerable here then I would respectfully suggest they return to Somalia.
In short enough is enough.
Maybe another cup of coffee might help this morning ๐
Let the secularists pretend they are Christians asking for this concession and then give the standard answer, “NO!”
Next think you know, Muslims will start asking for prayer in schools and to teach creationism.
The Courts have ruled that businesses have to make “Reasonable” accomodation to religious practices. Clearly, some of the Muslim requests fall outside of this base-line.
I mean, can you imagine a Muslim pilot and flight crew in the middle of the Atlantic, abandoning their post because it’s time for prayer???
#4. Precisely. If a fundamentalist Christian working in retail asked to not be forced to work on Sunday, it would be denied. Similarly if he asks that his daughter not have strict Darwinian theory taught in public school (and yes it is only a theory with a fair number of holes in it) it would be denied. If he asked to not have Halloween displays due to his discomfort with the holiday, it would be denied.
So why are we bending over backward for Islam? If they want to pray, they too will have scheduled breaks throughout the day, and nobody is stopping them from praying silently then. What they are asking for is breaks in addition to those that others receive.
And this is always going to be a problem. I recall that in residency the orthodox Jews demanded the Sabath off, receiving Friday through Saturday off (which is essentially two days, not one). No Christian who asked for Sunday off ever got it. Anybody who asked for it was assumed to be lazy rather than religious.
I worked at a bookstore once, where Chrisitan employees and Jewish employees worked with the boss so that the Chrisitan employee would work on the Jewish holy-days, and the Jewish employee would work on the Christian holy-days, and everything worked out well. Until one year when Passover fell on Good Friday!
And by the way, Muslims are already asking for prayer in schools, or at least that muslim students in public schools be excused from class during prayer times.
#4 –
They undoubtedly will. This is the quandary the Left finds itself in: multicultural democracy must ultimately succumb to the reactionary forces that its charter requires to be given free rein.
America finds itself hosting a triangular conflict at this point, unprecedented in its history, and further unprecedented in that it is taking place by our own hand. The great Western conflict of the past was a bipolar one: Islam vs. Christianity. It was resolved by the protagonists’ securing their respective territories against the other. A deliberate Western policy of multiculturalism has overthrown that prior state of truce, and now Atheism, within its trojan horses of secular democracy, cultural Marxism, etc., is the third and latest protagonist.
The essence of a triangular conflict is the fact that each can gain by temporary alliance against the other. Thus, the pious Muslim is the atheist’s worst enemy and the Christian’s best ally in the battle to normalize homosexuality, abortion and feminism. Simultaneously, by donning a mask of moderation, the Muslim can join with the atheist in efforts to de-Christianize the public square.
This tripartite construct, like a three-legged stool, is inherently unstable, and will eventually resolve to a more stable model.
#8 A simple solution …..NOPE, NOT HAPPENING, NYET.
I know I know too simple.
Ron,
Unfortunately, you are right. It’s too simple. So much so that the Muslims are gaining victories in this area (the last I heard was in NYC schools).
This discussion reveals how little we know of how many muslims practice Islam.
A leftist need not support “multiculturalism.” I don’t. Nor do those really influenced by Marxism. Multiculturalism is really a commodity imposed by capitalist sensibilities. If anything, it is a convenient way for people to avoid the hard work of integration into communities.