Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Notice the dateline

It's not Saudi Arabia, and it's the first case I've ever heard of where someone was fired for eating a BLT:
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A Central Florida woman was fired from her job after eating "unclean" meat and violating a reported company policy that pork and pork products are not permissible on company premises, according to Local 6.

It's apparently an unwritten policy for this mostly Muslim telecom company in Orlando that even non-Muslim employees may not eat food forbidden to Muslims:
However, by the company's own admission to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that policy is not written, Local 6 News reported

Here's a classic exchange:
The CEO of Rising Star, Kujaatele Kweli, told Local 6 News that they have tried to create an office that accommodates anybody's religion -- not just Islam.

"Clearly you're accommodating," Holfeld said.

"Yes." Kweli replied.

"And you have an ecumenical philosophy," Holfeld said.

" Yes," Kweli replied.

"[Then] shouldn't you be able to accommodate all faiths in the same lunch room?" Holfeld asked.

"We do, we can," Kweli said.

"But you've dismissed one of your employees for eating pork in the lunch room," Holfeld said.

"Yes, pork is considered unclean," Kweli said.

Notice the structure of the conversation. Every question is answered, "yes." "Yes, we're accommodating." "Yes, we accept all faiths." "Yes, we're ecumenical [sic]." "Yes, we fired someone for eating a BLT." Logical connections not required. What are required are 1) to keep stating the necessary platitudes about diversity and accommodation and 2) to continue to deny diversity and accommodation in practice.

I don't care if a private company declares itself kosher or halal or vegan, but it ought to have the decency to declare itself. If they want to have an all-Muslim staff, great. If they want to stop work five times a day for the prayers, that's fine, too.

Any bets on whether the ACLU will take on the case?

Coming soon to a community near you.

SOURCE: Allah

No comments: