Author Topic: Muslims, cabs, alcohol, and now, checkout clerks refusing to handle pork! (Read 8185 times)

thebaldguy · « **on:** March 13, 2007, 02:51:58 PM »

Many of you know know about muslim cabbies refusing airport taxi service to people who possess alcohol. This has been a problem in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

Now it's starting with grocery checkout clerks refusing to touch pork products. This is a blog from the StarTribune paper. I almost can't believe this is happening.

http://www.buzz.mn/?q=node/898

Standing Wolf · « **Reply #1 on:** March 13, 2007, 03:38:20 PM »

So-called "toleration" is often a one-way street.

Declaration Day · « **Reply #2 on:** March 13, 2007, 03:49:18 PM »

I don't see why this is an issue. Unless a grocery store is selling unpackaged pig limbs (highly unlikely), all the cashier is coming in contact with is plastic wrap.

garyk/nm · « **Reply #3 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:12:52 PM »

Easy answer: ring it up or I walk right now. You get to put everything away. You sell it, you ring it up. Otherwise get the manager and we'll talk religious discrimination, loudly, in front of everyone.

Total, absolute BS!

K Frame · « **Reply #4 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:21:31 PM »

I don't care what their religious beliefs are. If they refuse to do their job and I'm at the checkout, they're going to WEAR the product in question.

Thor · « **Reply #5 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:23:29 PM »

I live in the area and often the wrappers leak. I don't like it myself, just because it tends to get raw meat blood on my hands. I try to use the plastic bags provided. However, this is going too far.

Werewolf · « **Reply #6 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:33:49 PM »

I'd send for the manager and have him/her wring me up. Do that enough times and the muslim cashier won't have a job and I seriously doubt they'd have a case in court for wrongful termination.

Marnoot · « **Reply #7 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:37:23 PM »

I know they believe in not eating it, but does part of the pork prohibition include them touching it? If so, they shouldn't have taken a job that might require them to violate their religion. If not, then they're just looking for ways to be victims.
If the normal requirements of a job violate your religious beliefs, don't take the job! This would be like me taking a job in a "gentleman's" club and then complaining because viewing gyrating naked ladies is against my religion; or me taking a job in a winery that required me to sample the product for quality control, then refusing to do it because it's against my beliefs. People who seek out ways to be "the victim" drive me nuts.

Manedwolf · « **Reply #8 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:37:53 PM »

So would it be considered a hate crime to eat a ham sandwich in front of someone, now?

Sindawe · « **Reply #9 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:43:51 PM »

Quote

So would it be considered a hate crime to eat a ham sandwich in front of someone, now?

Only if you made and consumed the sandwich with intent to offend. Even worse if you enjoy a bottle of beer with that sandwich and let your doggie beg for bites from it.

BakerMikeRomeo · « **Reply #10 on:** March 13, 2007, 04:51:17 PM »

100 internet cookies and 200 bonus points to the first person to go and piss off a cashier with a fine BLT, Bacon & Brie, Ham sandwich, or sausage biscuit. 5000 bonus points for the first manager to vocally and publicly fire the cashier in question for refusing to do his fugging job.

~GnSx

wmenorr67 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 13, 2007, 05:02:48 PM »

Does it count if I do it here in Iraq? grin

Actually we have roast pork or pork chops here quite often served to us by LN. And I would assume that most of the cooking is done by LN. Logic would then play out that at least somewhere along the line my pork chop or roast pork was handled my a Muslim.

As Yakov would say, "What a country."

Firethorn · « **Reply #12 on:** March 13, 2007, 05:29:53 PM »

Quote from: wmenorr67 on March 13, 2007, 04:02:48 PM

Actually we have roast pork or pork chops here quite often served to us by LN.

You have LNs? All the DFACs where I've eaten over there were serviced by TCNs, mostly Indian.

Definitions: LN:Local National, IE Citizen of the country you're in. TCN: Third Country National: Not a US Citizen or allied military, nor a citizen of the country you're in.

wmenorr67 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 13, 2007, 05:34:37 PM »

Well where I am at is a small DFAC and really couldn't justify the cost of hiring TCN's.

Vodka7 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 13, 2007, 05:43:49 PM »

To the people who asked:

There's nothing in the Quran about not touching pork, but there are hadiths and sunnahs that state both that using pork byproducts (oil for lamps, etc) and profitting from pork are also forbidden.

So, in effect, a hard-line muslim could take the stance that by selling pork as an employee, he would be profitting from a forbidden activity. That said, any muslim scholar with half a brain would tell him that whether he sells the pork or his coworker does, the profits from that sale still indirectly funds his paycheck, and that he should not under any circumstances be working at that store.

And I agree--if you can't do the job, you shouldn't have applied.

CAnnoneer · « **Reply #15 on:** March 13, 2007, 06:31:56 PM »

It is irrational to expect rationality from the inherently irrational.

Thor · « **Reply #16 on:** March 13, 2007, 06:32:31 PM »

One of the things I gathered from the replies on the linked site was the fact that Target is apparently OK with this infliction of religion into their company. Of course, Target HQ is based in Minneapolis. I just want to know where we draw the line on this crap?? Do we let this progress so far as to allow Islam to control our lives here in America?? I would hope not, but this is only the beginning.

Vodka; you present an interesting perspective on the issue. It makes me believe that these people are doing this just to raise hell and inject their religion into our everyday affairs.

Matthew Carberry · « **Reply #17 on:** March 13, 2007, 06:40:56 PM »

Quote from: Manedwolf on March 13, 2007, 03:37:53 PM

So would it be considered a hate crime to eat a ham sandwich in front of someone, now?

If I was real hungry, and you seemed all gloat-y about it... grin

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #18 on:** March 13, 2007, 07:49:26 PM »

Quote

If the normal requirements of a job violate your religious beliefs, don't take the job!

Pretty much.

As I understand it, anti-discrimination laws demand that employers make a "reasonable accomodation" for religious beliefs. This would include scheduling your Jewish employees to work on Sunday, and the Christians to work on Saturday. It would also include letting your Muslim employees work somewhere where they don't need to handle pork. The cash register wouldn't seem to be one of those places.

But the above laws are bunk. If the employer wants to deal with Islamic mores on pork, that's their business. If they find it inconvenient, they should not be forced to hire Muslims. Similarly, WalGreens has every right to fire the pharmacists who won't dispense abortifacients. And in case anyone didn't know, that's coming from a crazed, anti-abortion, Christian fundie. cheesy

Dannyboy · « **Reply #19 on:** March 13, 2007, 07:55:38 PM »

Where's our resident apologist to explain the rules of the pork touching?

HankB · « **Reply #20 on:** March 14, 2007, 03:20:46 AM »

Quote from: wmenorr67 on March 13, 2007, 04:02:48 PM

Actually we have roast pork or pork chops here quite often served to us by LN.

Hmmm . . . can you pocket a pork chop to rub on your bullets, so if you shoot a BG you'll kill his soul as well as his body? (see linked story)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE2D81639F93BA1575BC0A962958260

Actually, this nonsence about grocery checkers would seem to be religious intolerance and discrimination on the part of the Moslem - he won't do his job for a Christian (or anyone else without a pork taboo) unless that person accepts Moslem strictures. (Ditto for cabbies who won't take passengers carrying liquor.)

As such, it ought to be grounds for immediate firing.

Leatherneck · « **Reply #21 on:** March 14, 2007, 03:43:06 AM »

Quote

Vodka; you present an interesting perspective on the issue. It makes me believe that these people are doing this just to raise hell and inject their religion into our everyday affairs.

I'm shocked.

TC

Manedwolf · « **Reply #22 on:** March 14, 2007, 04:02:41 AM »

Quote from: HankB on March 14, 2007, 02:20:46 AM

Quote from: wmenorr67 on March 13, 2007, 04:02:48 PM

Actually we have roast pork or pork chops here quite often served to us by LN.

Hmmm . . . can you pocket a pork chop to rub on your bullets, so if you shoot a BG you'll kill his soul as well as his body? (see linked story)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE2D81639F93BA1575BC0A962958260

Actually, this nonsence about grocery checkers would seem to be religious intolerance and discrimination on the part of the Moslem - he won't do his job for a Christian (or anyone else without a pork taboo) unless that person accepts Moslem strictures. (Ditto for cabbies who won't take passengers carrying liquor.)

As such, it ought to be grounds for immediate firing.

I'd suggested duct-taping a grenade to a can of SPAM, and throwing it into a building with terorrists in it. Or surrounding the warhead of Hellfires and JDAMS with a layer of compressed spam.

(As an addendum, maybe she would have felt more "at home" as, since she was a woman, she could be beaten in public over the matter as she could be over in the sandbox?)

thebaldguy · « **Reply #23 on:** March 14, 2007, 01:35:38 PM »

This issue made the front page of the StarTribune today.

http://www.startribune.com/535/story/1052945.html

I think I have come up with a solution; don't hire a muslim if you have pork products in your store. I know of a guy who runs a sub shop in the metro area. He was told by other owners not to hire muslims for their refusal to touch pork. Evidently someone recently had muslim employees that SUDDENLY refused to touch pork products, leaving customers walking out pissed off.

I should point out that this refusal of cabbies taking on fares who have bottled alcohol and this pork issue is a recent development. I believe some muslim leaders have recently (in the last year or so) begun telling their followers that they need to demand these workplace changes. The alcohol/pork thing was never an issue here until recently.

brimic · « **Reply #24 on:** March 14, 2007, 01:45:33 PM »

The market will eventually correct the problem.

I find the behavior kind of strange....
I work with several Muslims and Hindus who don't seem to be alarmed when we go out for lunch as a department and we heathens often order bacon cheeseburgers. Something to be said about tolerance.

News:

Author Topic: Muslims, cabs, alcohol, and now, checkout clerks refusing to handle pork! (Read 8185 times)

BakerMikeRomeo