These are not easy times for Islam in America.
As Barack Obama continues to battle persistent rumors he is Muslim, 28 million DVDs of the film Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West have been distributed in newspapers in many swing states. A recent Pew survey found the number of Americans harboring negative views of Islam is growing.
In this environment, the recent firings of hundreds of Somali workers in JBS Swift Meat Co. plants in Greeley, Colorado, and Grand Island, Nebraska have taken on an added significance. The workers had demanded and were refused time to pray and break their fast at sundown during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The Grand Island case was featured in a front page article by the New York Times this week. I was in Nebraska when the story broke on an American University study of Islam in the United States led by Professor Akbar Ahmed, so I decided to investigate. The project, called "Journey into America" will take us to 35 US cities in the next six months.
I set off from Omaha with one of our team members, Craig Considine, and Abdi Mohamed, a Somali professional we had met in Omaha. We arrived in Grand Island and Abdi stopped briefly on the side of the street to pick up a Somali worker who we hoped could guide us in the town. "Welcome to America!" a woman screamed angrily from across the street. "Get moving!"
We headed for the center of the Somali community. It was a small room off one of the streets which served as prayer room, restaurant, community center and place of business, all rolled into one. There were about six workers in the room, one of whom had just been fired that day.
There had been tensions building up for some time between the Somali workers and the mainly Latino management of the plant over cultural and religious issues like prayer times. The final straw came when managers grabbed two Somali women who were praying and removed their prayer rugs from under them, which the Somalis viewed as a major religious and cultural insult and attack on their honor.
The Somalis reiterated their demand for a short break from the meat assembly line and were granted a break at 7:45 pm for prayer. But then Latino workers protested that the Somalis were being given preferential treatment. Tensions escalated. In response, the management at Swift canceled their offer of 7:45 pm prayer and then, to the ire of the Somalis, pushed the break back to 9:00 pm. This was seen by the Somalis as a deliberate slight to them and as a sign of favoritism to the Latinos.
Some Somalis attempted to break anyway to pray and were fired. Some workers requested a bathroom break and would secretly pray during the time allotted. The management suspected that they went not to the bathroom but to pray and were fired. Many others simply walked off the job when threatened with dismissal should they choose to pray.
These people had fled the hell of civil war in their country as refugees, languished for years in camps in Kenya and finally made it to the US. They then journeyed to small Midwestern towns to work in a dangerous, minimum-wage jobs while living in apartments packed full of people. Now hundreds of them had lost their jobs and were left helpless in a strange place. They have no one to represent them, and it takes money to hire lawyers. Unlike some of the plant's other workers, the Somalis are in the US legally.
Yet, despite these trials the Somalis still had a strong sense of dignity, of confidence. I asked them how they felt after losing their jobs, and they said they felt great. "This is not a loss for us," one worker said, "It is a win." In their minds they had preserved their culture and their religion, Islam -- the only thing, it seems, they have left.
Still the firings had left the Somalis confused. "America has freedom of religion," one man said, "I don't understand what is happening here." Some workers have left to find employment elsewhere but others have stayed to fight the firings and have now involved the US Department of Justice Equal Opportunity Commission.
These Somali refugees have walked right into a raging debate about Islam in the US, to the point where fired workers in Greeley, Colorado have had to answer questions about the film Obsession and the mayor of Grand Island, Nebraska admitted in a New York Times interview that Somalis make her think of Osama bin Laden and the September 11th attacks.
There is also suspicion from Americans fearful that Muslims are not assimilating and are seeking special favors. "We don't get time to pray at work," said one white Grand Island women I spoke to, "why should they?" But in reality things are a bit more complex as the real culture clash seemed to occur between immigrant groups within the plant.
We have also heard people say, "if you don't like it here, leave." But these Somalis are American citizens and legal residents exercising their Constitutional rights. With this in mind, some accommodation and understanding on the part of the plant management, and by the other groups working in the plant, is necessary.
The reaction to the case demonstrates how far we still have to go to better understand a religion practiced by 1.3 billion people around the world and seven million people in the US. With more understanding we will be better be able to deal with problems such as the prayer controversy when they occur. With all that is going on involving Islam domestically and overseas, we can afford nothing less.
You can find video we shot in Grand Island on CNN's iReport here and follow our blog at www.journeyintoamerica.wordpress.com
However, religion is supposed to be kept out of schools. Yes, Christians and Jews have religious holidays, but they are not praying and worshiping in the school building, because the school is supposed to be a neutral zone where all prejudices and cultural peculiarities are put aside so that people can learn together.
So it seemed to me to be excessive (and unconstitutional) to make special dispensations for Muslims and not for students of other religions. I also think that when Christian fundamentalists wear a big cross or when Muslim fundamentalists wear head coverings, that in both cases it is advertising religion, it is an attempt to enhance the self-perceived "holiness" and superiority of the wearer (look how holy and virginal I am), and it serves to shove that person's religion into other people's faces.
Public schools are the backbone of democracy. They teach respect for diversity and therefore they should not favor one religion or one ethnicity over another. But if we observe EQUAL rights, that does not have Muslims praying in schools when Christians and Jews are not doing so.
If there is such a law, then perhaps the people in this article might have a good case.
Is that a state, federal or local law? How does the law define "reasonable accommodation" for a particular business? Would such a law override union labor agreements, or work rules of a particular business?
Can you give a source please?
Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination
Questions And Answers
Federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Laws
Religious Accommodation
An employer is required to reasonably accommodate the religious belief of an employee or prospective employee, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship.
That would be Federal law.
And for Muslims working in the evenings, they would only have to break once for the prayer that is performed when the fast is broken, which takes a hefty 5 minutes or so. Under the law, employers are required to allow reasonable accomodation for religious practice and its not the fault of practicing Muslims that Christians or Jews don't want to pray! If Christians and Jews are so upset that its unfair if Muslims get to break to pray, well then maybe they should make a practice of praying too.
I worked for a public utility for thirty years, and actually knew one guy that tried to get out of working Sundays because of his religious beliefs. No one ever doubted his sincerity, but he knew the job requirements just like everyone else. He tried to fight it through the union, but they couldn't do anything for him either. He certainly had respect from other workers, but no sympathy for his cause. If the company had given him special treatment, there would've been some serious resentments from others.
I do think companies are responsible for making sure that their rules and requirements are clearly understood by all employees before they are hired. If the nature of the business can allow for this, then that's fine, but make it clear from the start.
Doing special favors for one group just isn't going to work in many businesses because there will always be some other person or group that demands something else. Friction and resentment are inevitable unless everyone can be treated equally.
One must consider the implications of allowing breaks for prayer. If it is only during Ramadan, perhaps that is not a big deal. But devout Muslims pray many times a day. In Southeast Asian countries, for example, Muslims drop everything when called to prayer during the day.
How many times can a person take off during a work day to pray? Who will cover for that time period for that person?
Somehow the idea that people expect special treatment because of their religion strikes me as unreasonable and arrogant. But of course one can't expect "reasonableness" in this case, can one?
It didn't - but I was glad to have had this pointed out to me at that early stage.
It strikes me that an initial statement like that, by the employer, should be sufficient to let people know that if they accept a job there, they will be required to fit in with the hours and shifts on offer, and if they feel they can't do that, then to look elsewhere for employment.
It also seems to be that people are not willing to 'give' any ground now at all when it comes to their own personal agendas.
People - we can't all do exactly what we want to, when we want to. That is anarchy.
And anarchy is never healthy.
Have they asked for it?
The following year the organizers prohibited the people anywhere near TV cameras from carrying Mexican flag.
its a free country and that also means you are free to seek other employment if you do not like the policies of your current employer. its that simple.