Posted on 03/15/2007 1:13:37 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Minneapolis, MN (SHNS) -- Beryl Dsouza was late and in no mood for delays when she stopped at a Target store after work two weeks ago for milk, bread and bacon.
So Dsouza was taken aback when the cashier -- who had on the traditional headscarf worn by many Muslim women -- refused to swipe the bacon through the checkout scanner.
"She made me scan the bacon. Then she opened the bag and made me put it in the bag," said Dsouza, 53, of Minneapolis. "It made me wonder why this person took a job as a cashier."
In the latest example of religious beliefs creating tension in the workplace, some Muslims in the Twin Cities are adhering to a strict interpretation of the Koran that prohibits the handling of pork products.
Instead of swiping the items themselves, they are asking non-Muslim employees or shoppers to do it for them.
Minneapolis has become a hotbed for such conflicts because of its burgeoning population of Somali immigrants, many of whom are orthodox Muslims. Last year, Somali cabdrivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport attracted national attention when some refused to carry passengers toting alcohol.
Shah Khan, a spokesman for the Islamic Center of Minnesota, said the Somali Muslim community is divided between those who believe it is wrong to eat pork and more orthodox Muslims who believe the prohibition extends to selling, touching or handling the meat.
He urged people to remember the extraordinary adjustments many Somalis have made in coming to the Twin Cities. "Many of these people are refugees. They may have been tortured. And they came here having never held a book in English," he said. "They're already adapting to our society. We need to adapt to them, too."
Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are required to make reasonable accommodations for a person's religious practices if it doesn't impose an undue hardship.
A customer's personal preferences is usually not a factor in deciding whether a religious practice is protected in the workplace, noted Khadija Athman, national civil rights manager for the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington.
In most cases, a cashier should be able to call over another cashier who can scan a product and the shopper shouldn't be inconvenienced, Athman noted. "If the employee is rude and gasps at the sight of pork, then it's a different situation," she said.
Jonathan Sigelman, a local attorney, said he wasn't bothered when a cashier called for assistance after he showed up at the checkout lane with a package of turkey bacon. He explained to the cashier that turkey bacon did not contain pork, and the cashier agreed to scan it.
"It might have delayed my purchase 15 seconds at the most," Sigelman said.
Some legal experts said cashiers who avoid pork in a checkout line are different from taxi drivers at the airport who refuse customers carrying alcohol. "I think in general we expect taxi drivers to pick up all fares," said Eric Janus, the vice dean of William Mitchell College of Law. "That's part of what it means to be a taxi driver."
What about bass or trout? :>)
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