Posted on 07/23/2007 9:33:44 AM PDT by AngelesCrestHighway
OMAHA, Neb. — Supervisors at a meatpacking plant have fired or harassed dozens of Somali Muslim employees for trying to pray at sunset, violating civil rights laws, the workers and their advocates say. The five- to 10-minute prayer, known as the maghrib, must be done within a 45-minute window around sunset, according to Muslim rules. The workers at the Swift & Co. plant in Grand Island say they quit, were fired or were verbally and physically harassed over the issue. The Council on American-Islamic Relations has drafted a complaint to be filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The petition compiles testimony from at least 44 workers who had planned to sign the complaint during a meeting Sunday. The signing was changed to a later date because of a logistical problem. Jama Mohamed, 28, said he was fired in June for leaving a production line to pray. Supervisors would not allow him a break, he said. "Some of them took the (prayer) mat from me; they started shouting, they started telling me to stop it, and one of them grabbed me by the collar of my shirt," Mohamed said through an interpreter. "I was crying at the time this was happening to me, and when I finished I told them while they were doing that I was in the middle of a prayer." Mohamed said he was then called to an office, where a supervisor fired him. Mohamed Rage, chairman of the Omaha Somali-American Community Organization, said Swift had fired at least two dozen workers for praying since May. Donald Selzer, an attorney for Greeley, Colo.-based Swift, said only three Somali workers were fired for reasons relating to the issue, and that it was for walking off the line without permission, not for praying.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Do they have problems with handling pork products too?
Or was that a factor in seeking employment (i.e. did they go to a processing plant that DOESN’T handle pork)?
Why can’t they work a night shift someplace (Islamic calls to prayer are from 6am-10pm)?
It’s beyond bizzare. You can’t fire me because I want to stop production and pray...These Muslims need some classes in American work ethics.
Or what? moongod will make you cut off your own head instead of someone else's?
Exactly!....Get back to work or quit!
Get another job, dummy.
I try not to think that these (People?) are preparing the food that I eat.
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