On a related topic to the Muslim Cab Drivers that Wade and I discussed, I recently came across this: http://www.buzz.mn/?q=node/898.
Had this happened to me, I probably just would have scanned my own pork product and moved on. But obviously this has got a lot of people worked up…and perhaps rightfully so.
Similar to my cohorts on this site, I tend to lean left of center. But leaning left doesn\’t equate to giving everyone a handout or making sure no one ever gets offended by anything (anywhere, at any time).
In this case I tend to agree with many of the commenters after the article (many of who claim they are Muslim). If you work in a job where you may be asked to perform a task that you are comfortable with, then you need to suck it up and do it, or get a new job.
Even the law supports that stance. Religion is not a defense for refusing to do work that is part of your job duties. You cannot be discriminated against based on your religion, but I don\’t think being asked to scan an item that contains pork qualifies as discrimination.
Everyone in this country has the right to practice their religion (obviously as long as it doesn\’t break any laws), but immigrants also need to realize that there is an existing society here that cannot be expected to quickly adapt to a different belief system. Change takes time, and it takes numbers. Christmas is a federal holiday. Much of the country is Christian. If most of the country was Jewish, we\’d probably have Yom Kippur as a federal holiday. If it was Islam, perhaps Eid would be a national holiday.
On a somewhat related note: A thought I\’ve been toying with for a long time and just haven\’t had the time to really research is when my parents parents emmigrated to this country, there was a prevailing feeling of fitting it. You tried to learn English, you changed you name, you tried to be \”American\”. It\’s interesting that in the span of a 2-3 generations how that has changed. Some for the better… some perhaps not. A topic for another time…
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