Consider these: A British Muslim checkout operator refusing to deal with customers who buy alcohol; Muslim medical students refusing to learn about diseases related to alcohol or promiscuity; and the Muslim dentist who insisted his patient put on a headscarf before agreeing to treat her.
Sainsbury’s response, it has been reported, was to permit their Muslim staff to refuse to handle customers’ alcohol purchases on religious grounds, and is also allowing its Muslim pharmacists to refuse to sell the morning-after pill to customers.
Now let’s just state that the majority of the British Muslim public find some of these claims ridiculous; they are not supported by Islamic teachings and worse, they could jeopardise legitimate religious claims in the future. Islamically, it’s obligatory for Muslim doctors and students to learn all prescribed content and there’s a significant difference between learning about alcohol consumption and consuming it. It does our community no favours to stay ignorant about such issues. As for the Muslim checkout operators, the best solution would be to work in a shop that doesn’t sell alcohol.
Putting aside the debate as to whether such incidents are even newsworthy, questions arise as to why companies like Sainsbury’s chose to respect such claims. Failure to recognise a sincere religious claim from that of a diva-like one? Fear of being branded anti-Muslim? Overcompensating? Whatever the case, if Muslims are the youngest child of the family, spoiling us will only cause our other siblings to resent us.
The only positive thing that can be extracted from this whole issue is that it proves Muslims do consider
Which is ironic since this debate has attracted the usual ‘Go back home’ sentiments from members of the British community. No doubt the reaction of many non-Muslims upon reading about the Muslim medical students or cashiers was along the lines of ‘beggars can’t be choosers’; the nerve of these outsiders to be behaving like insiders. So maybe it’s not our loyalty that they should question but their reluctance to accept it.
13 comments ↓
What liberal guff! The medical student story is actually, as far as I can gather, not much more than a piece of gossip. The not handling alcohol I respect - the many Muslim cornershop owners who sell it I don’t. It’s a shame we don’t hear about the dentist’s who treat their NHS patients like pieces of dirt - that’s the real story. The rest is simply ‘new racism’, which says society is for whites and ‘newcomers’ cannot be accomodated. Of course, it’s alright for the immigrants to heal the sick and stack the shelves, as long as they don’t ask for more. Like the right to be considered human. But then that would complicate matters, wouldn’t it? Like justifying their mass murder in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
The classic example of muslims blaming anyone but themselves. Predictable for yakoub…
I can’t see the problem, there should be a complete freedom to make contracts between people. If the person does not those conditions they are free to go elsewhere.
Scrubbers don’t have a God given right to have their morning after pill dispensed at one particular branch of sainsburys.
only a socialist would have the alternate view
If you enter into a contract to work as a cashier at a place that sells alcohol or a chemist that sells the morning-after pill, you are breaching that contract if, after being hired, you refuse to do what you were engaged to do. Your only choice is to resign.
I can’t understand how someone who won’t be basically part of the process of a sale involving alcohol, is quite happy to have his wages paid from the proceeds anyway.
I think companies and shops have the right to institute whatever policies they like. If they don’t want to serve women without hijab, then that’s fine as people have a choice and can just go to another dentist. If they want to accommodate the sensitives of their employees (Muslim or otherwise) then again, provided they choose to do so and are not coerced by the state or others, then that’s fine too.
The real issue, I think, is when things that are cultural or really have no basis in Islam get turned into very public “Islamic issues”. There have been a few of them in recent years such as the issue about niqab and the courts and banks. We know, for example, that if someone is entering into a contract, they have a right to see the face of the other person but yet the whole thing was turned into a question of “Niqabi rights”. The Muslim medical student example above is perhaps like this: there’s really no basis whatsoever for a medical student to be forbidden from learning about STDs or alcohol-related illnesses and to cast this as an “Islamic issue” makes the entire community look silly.
Hood at the now tragically defunct Islamic Law, etc had this to say on the issue of cultural demands being cast as religious ones.
Muslim cashiers not selling alcohol - if the shop is ok with it at employment then no problems.
Medical students refusing to learn about alcohol and ‘promiscuity’ related diseases - absolutely bloody ridiculous. What about smoking and obesity, I am against both of those practices but should I not treat those patients.
Doctors refusing to treat patients who aren’t wearing hijab - see above.
My only question is why is this a story? Plenty of Christian doctors refuse to prescribe contraceptives and morning after pills but we don’t necessarily hear about it (although the odd story is related)
I think it would do everyone a favour if the students were just dismissed from their courses and the doctors were told to treat all patients according to the Hippocratic Oath or don’t practice.
Noor Hammad
British Muslims…don’t even go there. They’re a totally different breed.
“I can’t understand how someone who won’t be basically part of the process of a sale involving alcohol, is quite happy to have his wages paid from the proceeds anyway.”
Fair point, but I wouldn’t go as far as Chumba Wamba in their ‘I will not work for the UK PLC’ days, in other words, no one except Suma Foods! The question I pose is “Am I contributing to the good via a job?” I was teacher and hence was paid by the British government, but being a good teacher in the fullest sense was always more important than who paid me. I’d happily work for the private sector as a teacher. But sometimes, the good can just mean putting food on the table for the kids.
“I can’t understand how someone who won’t be basically part of the process of a sale involving alcohol, is quite happy to have his wages paid from the proceeds anyway.”
Exactly.
Yakoub, it is understandable to be concerned about handling alcohol, however, when someone feels strongly about it, the logical thing to do is not work in a shop that sells it, prevention better than cure.
“Plenty of Christian doctors refuse to prescribe contraceptives and morning after pills but we don’t necessarily hear about it (although the odd story is related)”
Actually, over here in the U.S. there was an issue with pharmacists refusing to honor prescriptions that consist of contraceptives which provoked a public outcry. It was a local Eckerd’s if I recall correctly.
Hmm - I don’t know what a “disease related to promiscuity” is. Presumably the more people you have unprotected sex with, the higher your chances are of getting STDs, but so are your chances of catching a cold, and colds aren’t a “disease related to promiscuity”. Silly people with silly sexual phobias.
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