Minnesota Muslim oppressed by pants
Fatuma Hassan has just enough rice in her near-empty cupboards to make it through the month. The anger she felt when she lost her job in May has given way to a dull, nagging hunger.
Yet this soft-spoken 22-year-old became an unlikely hero within the Somali community when she and five of her Muslim co-workers were dismissed last month from the Mission Foods tortilla factory in New Brighton, Minn., for refusing to wear a new company uniform — a shirt and pants — they consider a violation of their Islamic beliefs.
“For me, wearing pants is the same as being naked,” Hassan said, noting the prophet Mohammed taught that men and women should not dress alike. “My culture, my religious beliefs, are more important than a uniform.”
There’s actually quite a litigious Somali subculture in Minnesota, as we’ve observed with the Minneapolis airport taxi-driver disputes. And then there was that TIZA thing last month. True to form, CAIR has picked this up, and will sue Mission foods on their behalf.
So Mission can either continue to ban unsafe, loose-fitting, but culturally sensitive clothing and be sued and slandered by CAIR, or they can give in and take a hit from a personal-injury lawyer when a burqa-clad employee gets tangled up in an industrial tortilla press. Tough decision.
The article goes on to discuss issues of immigration and assimilation, and the pressure Somalis feel to avoid the latter. Don’t become Americanized, they are told at home.
It looks like the indoctrination’s working, and with CAIR’s help they’re trying to Somalize Minnesota instead.
Meanwhile you’ll be relieved to know that California’s governmental code specifically memorializes workers’ rights to wear pants to work, regardless of their sex.
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{Post by See-Dubya. Pants by J. Press.}
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Categories: CAIR, Imams, Islam, Stuff Muslims Don't Like
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I’m thinking way back to a summer job I had to take because I waited too long in the Spring to go Summer job hunting, and, no one was paying for that upcoming college but me (either I earned money in the summer or I wouldn’t have Fall expenses met). So, I had to take this job (only thing I could find — everyone else I knew had the cushy jobs already) at a greasy spoon “down by the river” (really) and I HAD to wear this miserable uniform AND wretched hairnet.
I even tried to NOT wear the wretched hairnet but the guy working the chile and grill told me I’d wear it or I’d lose the job. So I wore the wretched thing.
Talk about offending my religion! Ever worn a hairnet and tried to look customers in the eye when they’re, um, staring at the hairnet?
This woman’s problem is that she’s functioning in the U.S. like she’s functioned in Somalia and why she left Somalia in the first place: she probably had similar “resistance” temperamental stories from failed jobs back there and so she came to ‘Merica, expecting to be indulged.
And here I just read a story from somewhat nearby Vermont about THEM having problems keeping some people there IN clothes.
People, if you’re working and/or out there in the public, dress to blend in and do what your boss tells you to do if you want to pay your own way. Not all of us has someone to pay that way for us.
End of story.
Oh, haha, I just had visions of the fictitious Bada Bing and burkha wearing dancers. And what Tony Soprano or Syl would have to say about that.
What did you expect in liberal Minneapolis?
I don’t have a problem with covered women, but I do have a problem with dress over work safety.
I think it’s high time for us to start evangelizing Somali Muslims over here. Let’s turn up the heat.
And if they win, then next a Muslim woman will sue Hooters Resturants because their work “uniform” conflicts with the Muslim beliefs.
I used to feel that we all were Americans in the same boat, and I was kind to people and felt that I could count on kindness from them. However, people have now been led to say that they are not proud of America. They HATE America, hate me, and want to destroy my life and world.
My college student co-worker said last week that the best thing the great and powerful Obamessiah could do to show the world his intentions would be to blow up Mount Rushmore… all those evil damn white men!
I was just watching MSNBC, or what I call the “My Sweet New Barack Channel”, and they were bemoaning how no one around the world likes us anymore, and that the rest of the world wants the Obamessiah to be our president. Well, I see how the rest of the world feels about the USA… those three words that they all chant, “DEATH TO AMERICA!” I am supposed to care about how people like THAT feel? I want them dead.
Obama says “CHANGE”. I liked my life the way it was. I liked my country the way it was. I liked being able to control the temperature in my home without being told by liberals how hot or cold I could be. I liked driving to see my mother without it costing an arm and a leg… I don’t want change. I want the illegals and muslims and liberals and all the other haters deported or killed.
I have changed the way I feel about things… and I don’t like it!
I want MY country back.
This is beyond silly. What defines male-dress and female-dress? I’ve been to Dubai, and for all appearances to me, many of the Muslim men were wearing clothing for which I know no other word than dress. Maybe robe, but that’s in fact the French word for dress and entered English that way.
In fact, the word dress is a verb, that somehow sometimes means a particular type of garment, but not always. So it is not obviously female.
And commenter #8 says she is Pentecostal so empathizes. At the time you believe that God decreed that Men and Women should not dress alike, nobody wore pants! The social norms that you believe dictate how you should dress were created by Man, not by God. And I believe that God has some restrictions when it comes to worshiping things other than him, such as clothing styles. And placing such importance on western gender associations with techniques of covering the body, you are committing a form of idolatry.
The answer to my previous question is obvious. When someone is attempting to dress as the opposite sex, you will definitely know. It’s not merely the type of clothing, but the way it is worn that is either feminine or masculine. A pair of pants does not a man make.
I’m with ya’.
Given the number of contributors to this post my comment is not needed to establish a forum consensus. But I still have to say, Muslims have contributed very little positive to our society while benefiting eminency from the same. The more I learn of them the less I care for them. Hopefully emigration has caught the sent of these cultural Neanderthals and they will eventually just dry up. Ya think.
I’m still offended by the sight of their mosque towers and think they should be hidden from public view. And what is the ACLU doing about these obscenities. I know what they do about the public display a Christian cross.
ok. Now I agree with you.
And yet they do everything they can to sneak into America and take advantage of all it’s blessings. If America is so terrible, and Somalia, Sowdi Arabia, Iran etc. etc. so great, why aren’t millions trying to sneak into those countries?
I believe America is the greatest nation in history (although the libs are working hard to change that), we can brag and be arrogant because we are the greatest and I personally could care less what the rest of the world thinks of us.
If America is so terrible, quit taking our money, quit selling your junk in our stores, and quit asking for help every time some despot thug attacks you with his antique soviet tanks.
Oh, and get your Useless Nations organization out of our city. Move it someplace friendlier such as Tehran or Riyad.
Me too…
Oh yeah, if I forgot my pants, I am naked, yikes!
Freaking idiots making PC mountains out of mole hills!
Enough of all of this nonsense. I want my country back! The Constitution allows individuals to be who they are. It doesn’t mean that newcomers get to tell me who I am. News flash for all those who think hiding under a tent is equivalent to modesty, middle eastern headcoverings became common to hide head lice and for protection during sand storms. Further, we’re not the ones having virgin repair surgery. Their modesty rings rather hollow with me.
Sounds like your religion is more important than eating too.
The solution is simple – find another job you your religion will tolerate. But no, it’s easier to make the employer come around to your way of thinking. Wouldnt have gotten your name in the paper otherwise, would you?
Yes, Rambler, a lot of us want our country back. But I’m not optimistic.
I’m sure they’d like to, but it probably depends on what their legal budget is. Sounds like Mission is between a rock and a hard place.
Shouldn’t CAIR be suing OSHA instead of the company? Do they not set the standards for safety in the workplace? How can you sue a company for complying with federal law? I suspect the lawsuit will go nowhere.
It would be too much to ask for the gov’ment to throw this out I guess. Cowards.
Speaking of “oppressed”:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0608/11168.html
Two Muslim women at Barack Obama’s rally in Detroit Monday were barred from sitting behind the podium by campaign volunteers seeking to prevent the women’s headscarves from appearing in photographs or on television with the candidate.
The campaign has apologized to the women, all Obama supporters who said they felt betrayed by their treatment at the rally.
“This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama’s commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run,” said Obama spokesman Bill Burton, who added that the volunteers were acting contrary to the campaign’s policy. “We sincerely apologize for this behavior.”
There is a very simple solution to this whole issue.
Pay the tortilla production line employees by the tortilla.
Those who agree to wear an approved uniform are eligible to work on the high speed mechanized production line.
Those who insist on wearing burqas can sit in the hot sun (surely if they can’t wear modern conveniences such as pants they can’t enjoy modern conveniences like air conditioning), grinding the corn with mortars and pestles, and making the tortillas by hand.
OSHA is happy. Muslim employee is pacified. All employees are now getting paid on merit.
Perfect.
Saw something interesting yesterday while on the road on Northern VA. Passed a vehicle being driven by a woman who wore a head covering from which only her eyes were visible.
Now I thought, if a police officer was to pull her over for say a moving violation, and ask for identification, first what would her license show for a photo, and second, what would be the reaction when (most likely) the officer asked the woman to remove her head covering for confirmation of personal identification?
Another dust-up waiting to happen?
What gets me is the standards of convenience. They are supposed to reject modernism (such as women wearing pants to run machinery, or even women working outside the home), but they don’t have trouble adapting to “modern” transportation, cell phones, ipods, RPG’s etc. etc.
If they are supposed to avoid the sins of the modern world, why don’t they live in caves, ride camels and donkeys and fight with swords and spears?
I just don’t understand how any adult with average intelligence could buy off on this “religion of peace” BS. Your everyday common sense can make anyone with a lick of sense see the glaring inconsistancies in the teachings of islam.
Exaclty Watler. If she can’t wear pants for these reasons why is she leaving the house without a male guardian. They shouldn’t be driving or working or complaining when the husbands beat them.
I don’t wear pants either. However, it is the company’s right to require a uniform and it is Fatuma Hassan’s right to seek employment elsewhere.
This all started when Americans bought into the hyphenated american PC BS. Stop saying things like, “He’s an —-American.” We are just AMERICANS (NO HYPHENS ALLOWED.) If these immigrants will not conform and assimilate into the AMERICAN culture, that should be grounds to deport them.
The real problem is the tort process. With a ‘loser pays’ reform, the employer could just leave it after telling them what it is they need to wear to be safe. After that, Darwin would be allowed to take over and no trial lawyer would be interested in going to trial.
Someday I’ll tell you the whole story about a long hair hippy guy running a machine lathe but the short story was that he was probably very surprised …for about 0.35 seconds.