In reality, there is no such thing as a job that an American will not do. The show 'Dirty Jobs' has great examples every week to prove that no job is too dirty for an American. Sure, we might bitch and moan about the job, the pay, the boss, everything, but when compared to (certain) Muslims, Americans are a pretty damn flexible, and great workforce.
Take the Airport Taxi Drivers in Minnesota who are refusing to carry passengers that have alcohol or dogs with them, including service animals.
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- For Abdi Mohamed, it's not a question of whether he'll carry passengers with alcohol in his cab. The question is whether he'll get punished for refusing to do so.
"I am Muslim. I'm not going to carry alcohol," Mohamed, a driver for Bloomington Cab, told a Metropolitan Airports Commission panel that gathered public opinion Tuesday regarding proposed penalties for cabbies who refuse service to passengers carrying alcohol.
Dozens of cab drivers showed up for the hearing at a hotel near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Commissioners are charged with setting a new policy by May, when airport licenses for cab drivers are set to expire. Under the proposal, drivers who refuse service for any reason would have their license suspended for 30 days. A second refusal would mean a two-year revocation of the license.
According to airport officials, about 80 percent of their cabdrivers are Somali, who are commonly Muslim. Islam religious law strictly forbids the carrying of alcohol. - Boston.com
This problem comes from propagandizing the Islamic concept of najis by religious extremists:
In Islamic law, najis (Arabic: نجس) are things or persons regarded as ritually unclean.[1] There are two kinds of najis. The essential najis which can not be cleaned and unessential najis which becomes najis contact with another najis and one of them are wet.[2]
Contact with najis things brings a Muslim into a state of ritual impurity (najasat), which requires undergoing purification before performing religious duties, such as regular prayers.
According to the Shafi'i school of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence, as systematised by al-Nawawi in his book Minhadj, the following things are najis: wine and other spirituous drinks, dogs, swine, dead animals that were not ritually slaughtered, blood, excrements, and milk of animals whose meat Muslims are not allowed to eat. Spirituous drinks are not impure according to the Hanafi school, while living swine are not impure according to the Malikis.[1]
To the list of impure things enumerated by al-Nawawi, Shi’a jurists traditionally add dead bodies and kafirs.[1][2] According to Ruhollah Khomeini, the entire list of things that are considered najis in Shi’ism includes: “urine, excrement, sperm, blood, a dog, a pig, bones [of a dead body], a non-Muslim man and woman, wine, beer, [and] perspiration of the camel that eats filth.”[3] Khomeini further specifies that “[t]he whole body of a non-Muslim is unclean, even his hair, his nails, and all the secretions of his body.… A child below the age of puberty is unclean if his parents and grandparents are not Muslims; but if he has a Muslim for a forebear, then he is clean.… The body, saliva, nasal secretions, and perspirations of a non-Muslim man or woman who converts to Islam automatically become pure. As for their garments, if they were in contact with the sweat of the body before their conversion, they will remain unclean.”[3] - Wiki
As you can see, alcohol is not 'clean' in their world-view and this is the basis of the taxicab driver's refusals to allow alcohol in their cabs. Fine, but according to their own list, the whole body of non-muslims is equally unclean, so they should be refusing to carry these alcohol-carrying passengers for being non-muslims, not for carrying alcohol.
One alcohol-related issue that I have not seen them complain about is why are they not complaining about picking up customers after they leave a bar? Wouldn't it be worse to carry a person in their taxi who has just imbibed large quantities of alcohol instead of a person simply carrying alcohol?
Now dogs are also 'unclean', but for some reason the cabbies claim that there is no problem carrying dogs, as long as the law requires them to:
Much of the hearing was dedicated to concerns over whether Muslim cabbies would also refuse service to blind passengers with trained guide dogs, because of Muslim prohibitions against interacting with dogs.
Several blind people voiced their concerns, but cabbies at the hearing said such worries aren't warranted. Refusing service to blind passengers is against federal law.
"I am a Muslim and I have taken many guide dogs," Abdi Mohamed said.
But the cabbies and their supporters left no doubt that they aren't flexible on the alcohol issue. - Boston.com
The concern about activist muslim drivers refusing to accept service dogs is a valid one. Take this recent post at Little Green Footballs documenting muslim taxi driver's refusal to assist blind people with service dogs:
Blind woman Gry Berg, accompanied by her guide dog, was denied entry into four taxis in the center of the city of Oslo, Norway, this March. Three of the drivers claimed that their unwillingness to accept her dog was due to allergy, while the fourth one simply locked the car doors and refused to give an explanation for why he wouldn’t let Ms. Berg into his cab. - Little Green Footballs
Lets see if this alergy spreads to muslim taxi drivers in the US as well, or if the law is written to prevent that type of excuse.
A number of countries in the Middle East have huge populations of foreign workers. When I was there, the initial impression that I had was that the locals were lazy and preferred to just import others, from India, Pakistan and other countries in the region to do their work for them, all paid by the proceeds of oil revenue. (Allowing the unemployed locals to go off on jihad.) Now I wonder if part of the reason is that also do not want to be put in a situation of being unclean.
So, taking into account the above restrictions, one would think that Muslims are not able to work in the following positions:
- Taxicab Driver
- Bus driver
- Airline Pilot (Alcohol, dogs onboard)
- Flight Attendant
- Overnight Delivery service (UPS, Fedex, etc.)
- Mailman
- Garbage man
- Anything in the food industry
- Any job in a hospital
- Grocery Store clerk
- Pharmacist (pork derived medicines, ie insuline)
- Most any job not in a mosque or halal butcher
MINNEAPOLIS (Kansas City Star) - 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, or hijab, 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 Quran 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. - Jawa Report
So according to them, you should still use the muslim taxi drivers and checkout clerks, but be sure to not carry alcohol or buy pork products because you'll offend them.
Sorry, you cannot have it both ways. I will give the muslim groups credit. They are right in thinking that these examples will encourage others to profile muslims negatively. Now I don't avoid muslims at the supermarket checkout and have yet to have one treat any pork products I'm buying any different from anything else on the belt. But you can bet that I am looking for a reaction. If anything, muslims are now handling more pork products and carrying more alcohol because many others are also fishing for reactions and refusals to do their jobs.
These rouge muslim workers are doing serious damage to those of their faith who are unemployed and looking for work. Who in their right mind, knowing of these refusals to do work, would hire a muslim?
In light of the examples above, if I had a muslim woman show up from the temp office with a head covering, that would be her last day. If she showed up with a veil, I would ask her to remove it when talking to me, to respect my beliefs, or leave immediately. This has not happened yet, and I doubt it would be a problem as any muslims that faithful to their religion would not walk through the office's front door as there is a Mezuzah affixed to it. This indicates to all that this is a Jewish business. (in this case the company I work for is owned by a Jew.)
I am not targeting all Muslims. This is aimed at all the extremist, activist, no-good muslims whose only purpose in life seems to be starting trouble. Really, maybe they were not paying attention when they first arrived here when it was pointed out that all new arrivals to this country were and are treated like sh*t, and that they will be judged and accepted as a direct result of their ability to contribute to society. Their response is to contribute nothing of value while at the same time, attempting to poison other muslims who have, until now, managed to find a way to be part of America’s melting-pot. Really, do they they really think that they are the first muslims to live in the US?
And by the way, if alcohol is prohibited by Islam, why is it permitted in some muslim countries?
Dubai - Drinking or possession of alcohol without a Ministry of Interior liquor permit is illegal and could result in arrest and/or fines and imprisonment. Alcohol is served at bars in most major hotels but is intended for guests of the hotel. Persons who are not guests of the hotel, and who consume alcohol in the restaurants and bars, technically are required to have their own personal liquor licenses. Liquor licenses are issued only to non-Muslim persons who possess UAE residency permits. Drinking and driving is considered a serious offense. Penalties generally are assessed according to religious law. - US State Deparment
Qatar - Qatari customs authorities enforce strict regulations concerning importation into Qatar of items such as alcohol, narcotics, pork products, firearms, or anything deemed pornographic by Qatari authorities. While importation of religious material for personal use is acceptable, importation of religious material for the purpose of proselytizing is not. It is advisable to contact the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Washington, D.C., or the Consulate General of the State of Qatar in Houston for specific information regarding customs requirements. - US State Deparment
So if the Saudis have no problem with alcohol, why should any other muslim?Bahrain is a country where there are the very, very rich and the very poor -- there is nothing inbetween. Money flows from the pockets of the reveling Saudis, who cross the bridge they built to Bahrain in order to escape the extreme strictures of their homeland. In Saudi Arabia, alcohol is positively forbidden; in Bahrain, it is not. The Bahraini look on the the loud, pretentious Saudis with contempt -- but take their money. - Jennifer Tyson
Najis - Wikipedia
3 comments:
Nice article. I mentioned it in my latest post. Thanks. I didn't see a trackback URL.
http://righttruth.typepad.com/right_truth/2007/04/its_not_just_th.html
Hey Fred,
I agree with your main premise. There are plenty of Muslims that won't take jobs that Americans would gladly accept. I also think there should be repercussions for those cab drivers that refuse service to people transporting alcohol and dogs (as long as the cab company itself doesn't have a rule against dogs for sanitary/upkeep reasons). Unfortunately this is as far as I can go.
First off, while Dirty Jobs, along with our very low unemployment rate , shows that Americans are a very industrious people; there are jobs we don't take. These are predominantly off the books jobs for illegal aliens. If you meant legal employment please specify first.
I understand you wanted to highlight these sensationalist cases but a much stronger case could have been based on the foreign guest workers you saw in the gulf. The concept of shame is very strong in Muslim culture. They don't quite fully grasp the idea of sacrificing a small measure of their convictions in order to feed their families.
Your breakdown of najis is barely useful and deliberately misleading. The Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, while the second most popular in the world, simply does not possess the influence of the Hanafi or Hanbali schools. The Somali cab drivers would most likely be following the Maliki school anyway. Khomeini was an extremist. That he was popular enough to continue influencing a nation of 70 million is regrettable. This does not reflect a common position of the everyday Shia, let along the common Muslim.
A more useful breakdown of Muslim attitudes towards dogs or alcohol would have entailed the outline of the five akham. I'm guessing transporting alcohol and dogs would fall into the "makrooh" or discouraged category. Also, the opprobrium towards dogs is descended from Arab culture, not Islam.
I agree that it's fairly silly for a strict Muslim to be a cashier at a convenience store where they're obviously going to be selling/handling pork and possibly alcohol products. But is it really so bad to scan the pork for them? If they said "could you please scan that for me, it's considered unclean in my religion and you'd be doing me a big favor." would you really say "why don't you get another job?" Have you been scarfing down meatloaf in front of your Catholic friends on Friday for the past few weeks? Just because one set of beliefs is dominant in a country doesn't mean you can flout those of the minorities.
The availability of alcohol in many Muslim countries speaks more towards the hypocrisy of the governments of those states rather than the hypocrisy of Islam in general. Just because a few rich, decadent Saudis decide to violate the injunctions of their religion doesn't mean that all Muslims should give it up as a lost cause.
I'd love to have a chat about the hijab too but I've taken up too much space already (sorry about that).
Donny,
Thanks for the great feedback!
Keep in mind that a cab company is required to transport service dogs (Seeing eye and other assist animals) regardless of any company policy.
As for jobs done by illegal aliens, yes many of those jobs are illegal and that is an issue. Many of those jobs would simply not exist if they were legalized and the employee was legal as well. All of a sudden the employer and employee would both have additional costs, starting with taxes, social security, unemployment, etc. Since many people would not be willing to pay the real cost of the services being offered, many of those jobs would either go away, or pass on to a new breed of illegal aliens. (Oh perhaps even, people will go back to mowing their own lawns.)
As for the differing versions of Islam, I do understand that I am picking on the more extreme version of it, but that is the version that is making the news. And it is not so extreme when you have 80% of the cab drivers in Minneapolis all of a sudden agreeing to it. That makes it mainstream, as far as for those wanting to get a cab there.
As for your comment:
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"But is it really so bad to scan the pork for them? If they said "could you please scan that for me, it's considered unclean in my religion and you'd be doing me a big favor." would you really say "why don't you get another job?""
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No, I would probably would leave the goods on the belt and walk out. If I wanted to scan the item myself I would have used the self-checkout lines.
I have done some really crappy jobs and very simply when you accept the job, you accept the responsibility of doing it right. Otherwise you should quit, or the manager should have the right to fire you.
There is a very basic premise here. You get to live the way you want, but it should not impact on my right to live the way I want. It is not my responsibility to understand their religion. It is their responsibility to fit their religion into our society. If their husband wants them to wear a veil in the US, that is fine with me. What is not OK is the husband forcing their wife to wear it, at least not in the US. It is against her rights, regardless of the culture they are living in.
This brings up a good point, many of these people have fled from somewhere else. It makes no sense to me that they are so eager to replicate their failed society here. What they want already exists in other countries. No need to spread it here.
Once again, thanks for your valuable insight and clarification!
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