Posted on 06/21/2007 4:14:07 AM PDT by markomalley
Refusing work duties due to faith – Legal cases rise as believers say job aspects inconsistent with religion By Michelle Martin
6/21/2007 Our Sunday Visitor
HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Our Sunday Visitor) – When some Muslim cab drivers in the Twin Cities began refusing to pick up passengers who were carrying alcohol — either from the duty-free shops or as souvenirs from vacation spots — it caused a small media blip. But when the Metropolitan Airports Commission considered allowing cabs to display a different colored light if they would not transport alcohol, it generated a torrent of public response, nearly all negative. In the end, the commission went the other way, instituting a regulation that requires cab drivers to pick up any passenger, regardless of whether the passenger is carrying alcohol. If a driver refuses, he loses his license to pick up fares at the airport for 30 days. A second violation means losing his airport taxi license for two years. This is just one of a growing number of incidents where Muslims protest job duties on behalf of faith. For example, one recently occurred when cashiers at a SuperTarget store in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., refused to check out customers who purchased pork. Within the last few months, a group of Somalis quit their factory jobs claiming their break time didn’t permit them to leave the floor for prayer time.
Travelers’ have rights Ask a Minnesotan about the issue, and most likely, you’ll get a sigh in return. They seem a little tired of talking about the whole thing.
But when it comes to religious freedoms and rights, it’s far from trivial, said Cathleen Kaveny, the John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law and a professor of theology at University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind. The issue touches on religious and civil traditions of hospitality, religious rights of conscience and laws against discrimination, she said. “One question is what people reasonably expect when they walk up to a taxi line?” Kaveny said. “Cab drivers are common carriers. They’re the class of people who have the least sort of rights to discriminate, unless they think someone poses an actual threat to them.” Part of the reason for that is that travelers have been seen as so vulnerable that they have been given a special protected status from biblical times. “If your morality is not the common morality, then you’ve got choices to make,” she said. “That’s part of what goes with the territory.”
Right to refuse On the other hand, Catholics have long held that they — and members of other religions — have the right to refuse to act in violation of their consciences, including in medical and pharmaceutical environments. “If you’re a Catholic, and working at the drugstore, do you scan the package of Trojan condoms for a customer? It’s the whole framework of cooperation with evil,” Kaveny said. “What you’re balancing is the public’s right in terms of food, shelter or transportation versus the right of other people to impose their moral values.”
In the case of Minnesota cabs, it’s not against the common morality in the United States to buy or transport alcohol, she said. “If you don’t like it, try to change the common morality,” she said. Robert Kennedy, director of Catholic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn., said the issue of religious freedom applies to members of all faiths, not just Muslims. “We’ve seen some famous examples of Jews and Christians in sports who refused to play on important holy days,” Kennedy said, perhaps most notably, Hall-of-Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax who would not pitch the first game of the 1965 World Series because it was on Yom Kippur, a game his Dodgers lost 8-2. They went on to win the series against the Minnesota Twins in seven games. In general, Kennedy said, civil-rights law prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on their religious convictions and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations. The question is, what is reasonable, he said. For example, in most positions, it would be reasonable to schedule an Orthodox Jewish employee so he or she would not have to work Saturday. But if the business is, say, a retail establishment that operates only on weekends, the employer would not be obligated to hire someone who can’t work Saturdays. In a similar way, Catholics can’t be compelled to participate in abortions — but a nurse applying for a job at Planned Parenthood should know that they perform abortions there, Kennedy said. “The fact is, there’s a lot of disagreement in the Muslim community about whether these are real and reasonable religious issues,” he said. “Observant Muslims will refrain from consuming alcohol, but that’s different than transporting it in their cabs — not even their private cars. The prohibition is on consumption, not transportation.”
Living under the law But because Islam has no central authority, no one can give a definitive ruling on what is required or prohibited, said Jesuit Father Gerhard Bowering, professor of Islamic studies at Yale University. Still, he finds the whole taxi issue “ridiculous.” “Muslims, who have chosen to live in America, have to live under the law of the land. They cannot expect to enforce their vision of the law onto the whole country and society,” Father Bowering said. “[There’s] no problem with transporting people carrying alcohol in their luggage. Taxi drivers do this all over the Muslim world every day, 24 hours a day — not only the taxis that are parked at the airport but also taxis in the heart of towns.” Kennedy argues that whatever the law is, parties on both sides need to be reasonable and make reasonable accommodations for one another — the kind of accommodations Christians have long taken for granted. “People have to be careful about being too narrowly principled,” he said. “Christians should be careful. We’ve often asked for and received reasonable accommodations.” Alcohol-free cabs — a short history Tens of thousands of Somalis — more than 40,000 by many government estimates — live in Minnesota, according to estimates from the state and federal governments. The state has the highest Somali population in the United States, with most arriving since the early 1990s, when civil war broke out in their homeland. Somalis are nearly 100 percent Sunni Muslim, and alcohol is prohibited in Somalia.
Minnesota’s Muslim population — estimated at about 150,000 — helped elect the first Muslim-American congressman last year, Democrat Keith Ellison of the 5th District. About three-quarters of the cab divers who have licenses to pick up passengers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Muslims from this African nation. Some imams told them not to handle alcohol — including transporting it when it was clearly visible, most often in duty-free bags. Other imams said cab drivers should carry all passengers, regardless of whether or not they were carrying alcohol. - - - Michelle Martin writes from Illinois for Our Sunday Visitor. |
|
|
I suppose an imaginary cell phone conversation in the cab in which one said “Screw Mohamed” repeatedly would be in poor taste.
How about... I get in a cab with an pen beer, tell the driver where to go (letting him smell the beer) get on my phone and tell my buddies to get all the pork ribs and beer they can for the bar-b-que tonight. (and then act like they couldnt get enough, so I “issue a fatwah” on them)?
No?
“Uh, yes, would you mind taking ‘durkadurka street’? I have someone I need to check on”
Is this the same as phamacists refusing to sell birth-control?
Do we have any reports of a Roman Catholic refusing to do this? I know there have been cases of pharmacists refusing to dispense abortiofacient drugs, but that is quite different because the pharmacist then has an active role in a abortion and you shouldn't be able to force that on someone.
Selling a box of condoms is a different thing altogether, for all the cashier knows, the buy may intend to use them to make Christmas tree decorations for the Clinton White House.
Odd that the author chose to pull in the hypothetical here instead of referencing a real case.
Oh that's a smart thing to allow a mohamicidal slave of satanallah to do!
Where's your bag lady? Isn't it time for your husband to beat you before you get on with your camel dung shoveling? Strap some bombs to Junior and send him across the street to murder the infidel neighbors.
Wonderful morality they have there!
LOL! Yes, I was a little puzzled by the example used and I don't think it was the best one he could have found.
Another point about Catholic pharmacists not wanting to dispense abortiofacient drugs, btw, is that this type of drug is a very recent thing. At the time these pharmacists went through school and even at the time most of them started to work for pharmacies, dispensing such a drug would have been unthinkable. Some people complain that Catholics "knew they'd have to do this went they went into that work," but they actually didn't, because that type of drug was not sold in pharmacies until very recently.
I think Catholic pharmacists and doctors will probably end up having to work only in Catholic hospitals or institutions eventually, because an effort is being made by the pro-abortion lobby to force medical professionals to participate in abortions or to be unable to refuse to do so for reasons of conscience.
“At the time these pharmacists went through school and even at the time most of them started to work for pharmacies, dispensing such a drug would have been unthinkable.”
I am unclear on this. Oral contraceptives have been available in pharmacies for decades now. Aren’t they a similar taboo? If that issue has been settled, how can a Catholic pharmacist refuse to dispense any drug on religious principal? FWIW, I am not a Catholic and am just curious here. Please don’t flame me. BTW, I think the Muslim incidents are more about Muslim power than about religious belief.
Oral contraceptives may cause abortions and are used for other things than a contraceptive, the morning after pill does cause abortions and that is it's only purpose.
I never flame and I don’t like people who do, so don’t worry!
No, I was referring to drugs that cause abortions. Most contraceptives do not: they simply prevent conception, usually through some form of a barrier, whether chemical or physical (such as a condom) or by preventing the woman from ovulating (birth control pills).
On the other hand, things like the “morning after pill,” which was only recently legalized here, actually go after the fertilized egg. Since Catholic doctrine - well, and science - acknowledges that the person begins from the moment the conception begins, and that is the moment of the conception, then that type of “contraception” is actually a very early abortion. That’s the reason that Catholic pharmacists feel this is something they cannot do.
As for the Muslims, I agree. They are trying to impose a ritual law simply to assert their power (same thing with getting ritual footbaths installed at state universities). Muslims are forbidden to drink alcohol, but not to carry it or even, actually, to sell it. This is part of the “impose Islam” movement that has gotten into the Muslim community in this country, probably paid for by Saudi cash.
They are totally about power. The Imams are revving up the population to do their bidding — first, no alcohol in taxis; then footbaths at Universities; then ... fill in the blanks.
They are totally about power. The Imams are revving up the population to do their bidding — first, no alcohol in taxis; then footbaths at Universities; then ... fill in the blanks.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.