Posted on 03/10/2005 2:40:02 PM PST by ambrose
DELL fires 30 Muslims over workplace prayer
Muslim civil rights group calls for rehiring, offers mediation
by OfficialWire NewsDesk
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- (OfficialWire) -- 03/10/05 -- A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on Dell Computers to rehire 30 Muslims workers allegedly fired from a plant in Tennessee for seeking to perform religiously-mandated prayers in the workplace. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) also offered to help the company and its employees reach a mutually-agreeable solution to the dispute.
CAIR said the workers were fired from a Dell facility in Nashville, Tenn., after they sought to perform the Islamic "Maghrib" prayer each day after sunset. (While the window of opportunity to perform the other four daily Islamic prayers, the sunset prayer is tied to a particular time of day and therefore requires greater flexibility and creativity on the part of employers and workers. Muslims pray each day after the break of dawn, at midday, in the afternoon, at sunset, and in the evening.)
"Given sufficient goodwill on the part of all those involved, both the employees' legal right to reasonable religious accommodation and the employer's right to maintain smooth operations in the workplace can be maintained," said CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar.
In a letter sent today to Dell President and CEO Kevin B. Rollins, Iftikhar asked that the Muslim workers be rehired pending resolution of the issues involved. He said CAIR staffers who have experience dealing with workplace religious accommodation are available to act as mediators between the Muslim workers and Dell.
CAIR publishes a booklet, called "An Employer's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices," designed to prevent just such incidents. The booklet is available by emailing pubs@cair-net.org. (Include name, address and phone number when requesting the booklet.) Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires an employer to accommodate religious practices unless it causes an "undue hardship."
The Washington-based group has 31 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Posted 3/10/2005 2:48 PM
So, what happens if co-workers eat pork sandwiches in their lunch-break? Or salami...or come to think of it, anything meaty that hasn't been ritually slaughtered, I wonder? Hey, what if a female co-worker shows up in a mini-skirt, does that prove she's a whore? Can they get permission to stone her in the parking lot?
A little bit of sharia is like a little bit pregnant.
ping
Yup. It's part of their faith, that's when they get on their knees facing Mecca.
The absolute damndest thing about this is that they will sue for religious discrimination... and they WILL win.
And Christians might as well keep on bending over and taking it au naturale...
Move all their workbenches so they can face the east, let them pray under their breath to themselves, and if they don't like it tell them to go FT-selves!
Gee, what a shame...
Right. That's why there is a short Ash Wed. service around lunch hour, as well as an early morning and late evening one.
Most of us do not flaunt our ashes. In fact, we are specifically told not to do so.
Me too.
Its goin on as we speak.
.......Its mission (CAIR) is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding to Murder women and children, Bomb buildings, Slit throats, and any other heinous acts they can get away with.
There! Fixed! That's better.
So FD, is Captain America going to represent Dell against CAIR? Dell will need all the help it can get.
There is NO WAY CAIR is going to let Dell get away with this...
to be continued...calling the ACLU...Yep.They are on their way!
There is no law that states you can repeatedly disrupt the workplace every day for prayer or for anything else.
Where do you work, Malaysia?
Something smells here. I am an orthodox Jew and I pray three times a day, morning, afternoon, and evening. At work, during the winter months when sunset is earlier, I must pray for 5 minutes sometime before sunset. I don't bother anyone, "hide" to the best of my ability, and quietly get it done. This practice is done here by thousands of Observant Jews. Something about this case at Dell makes me smell a rat. I want to know Dell's side of this story.
Furthermore most companies, and I'm sure Dell is no exception, are extremely understanding and accommodating about religious observance, within reason. It seems to me there's more here than meets the eye.
geez, that's scary!
Sorry to say, but in Australia we have already experienced the result of calls for such tolerance...several employers have been forced to both re-hire employees and/or provide a seperate room for muslim prayers.
What the muslims themselves do not realise is, they are not making gains for islam, they are turning even the most tolerant Australians against them. Work opportunities become limited as a result of this type of agitation. (Not that the clerics give a d*man.)
Islam must be oppressed, remember?
d*man? D*mn!
Flithy.
They're probably court shopping right now.
How much money you wanna bet this is settled out of court with these gentlement keeping their gig?
No money. The courts are so far gone anything is possible : )
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