أمريكا: ليست هى جنة المسلم ولكنها بلد الحريات!

Quote: Freedom of faith on company time? More Muslims in Minnesota and across the country are suing employers, alleging religious discrimination. Businesses say they're just trying to get the job done. BY SHANNON PRATHER Pioneer Press School bus driver Seham Nabry says her boss confiscated her prayer mats and complained that her ritual hand and feet washing messed up the office bathroom. She also says he blared Christian music and taunted Muslim workers as they prayed. Nabry said giving up her daily prayers — one of the five pillars of Islam — wasn't an option. So she did what more and more Muslims in Minnesota and across the country are doing — she sued her employer. "People told me I should just leave the job and find a new job, but I was thinking if I leave this job, there's no guarantee there won't be another manager like him," said Nabry, a Burnsville resident who emigrated from Sudan. "I came to America for freedom. Why should I walk away?" In Minnesota, the number of Muslims filing federal complaints about being targeted at work because of their faith climbed from four a decade ago to 66 last year. Nationally, the number has more than doubled since the mid-1990s. Federal officials point to a rising number of Muslims in the country and a post-Sept. 11 backlash as reasons for the increase. The complaints and suits pit the bedrock American right to religious freedom against employers' efforts to run an efficient business. Federal law clearly bars religious discrimination and requires employers to provide a "reasonable accommodation" of all faiths. But cases get murky as courts try to decide when accommodating a worker's faith puts an undue burden on an employer's bottom line. "The legal standard is a little bit loose," said University of Minnesota law professor Steve Befort. "Employers are not to discriminate on the basis of religion. There is a duty to accommodate, but the undue hardship regulation is not very high." Since October, 40 Muslims in Minnesota have filed three federal lawsuits alleging their employers discriminated based on faith or didn't accommodate their faith. At the same time, some Muslim cab drivers are facing potential penalties at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport for refusing to carry passengers with dogs or alcohol, which some Muslims say violates their faith. "The issue of religious accommodation has been pretty dormant. It's just rearing its head again in the last four or five years," said Karen Schanfield, a labor attorney with the Minneapolis firm Felhaber, Larson, Fenlon & Vogt. "The two taboo topics at work used to be politics and religion. They are not taboo anymore. Certainly with this influx of immigrants and workers from other countries who bring different culture and religions, courts are going to have to grapple with this." Federal law prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, gender, color, national origin or disability. The law goes further in cases of religion, requiring reasonable accommodation of sincerely held religious belief as long as it doesn't place an "undue burden" on employers. In October, nine current and former Muslim workers sued Central Minnesota poultry processor Gold'n Plump and an employment agency, alleging they were prevented from praying at work; forced to handle pork while working on the factory line; and given dirtier, less desirable jobs than their non-Muslim counterparts. The plaintiffs allege the employment agency that hires for Gold'n Plump requires prospective employees to sign a form consenting to the handling of pork in an effort to screen out Muslims. Muslims pray five times a day — at sunrise, around midday, mid-afternoon, after sunset and at night. Muslims also undergo a washing ritual before prayer. Gold'n Plump attorney Tim Thornton said allowing factory line workers to take multiple breaks at their leisure erodes safety, decreases morale among all workers and jeopardizes food quality. "Life doesn't stop five times a day even in Islamic countries," said Thornton, who has retained an Islamic expert to assist with the case. "Islam understands supporting one's family is critical. There is flexibility in that faith, like other faiths, where they can make it up later. To suggest this interferes with their religious freedom is ludicrous." Thornton said Gold'n Plump tried to rearrange break times, but the new schedule was vetoed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which inspects the processing plant. "They have a very skinny profit margin," Thornton said of Gold'n Plump. "The company has done what it can to continue to provide jobs and stay afloat." But T. Joseph Snodgrass, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said Gold'n Plump is breaking the law. "Gold'n Plump's competition does this," Snodgrass said. "It's not that hard to do." In December, 22 Muslim workers at an Arden Hills circuit-board manufacturing plant filed suit against the company and an employment agency, alleging management inexplicably took away their prayer breaks. Attorney Sofia Anderson said Celestica Corp. started out as a model for other employers. It allowed Muslim workers to divide their break time to accommodate prayer and set up a prayer room for employees. That changed in May 2005. Employees, who worked 10- and 12-hour shifts, were no longer allowed to divide break time for prayer, Anderson said. Anderson said her clients say they weren't working on a production line and their prayer breaks did not disrupt business. "The choice between being able to pray and working was not much of a choice," Anderson said. "They were forced to leave." Attorneys for Celestica declined to comment, but in court filings they say the company has tried to accommodate Muslim employees, even increasing break time for all workers, but that it cannot allow multiple unplanned breaks. The company argues that it disrupts production. "Essentially plaintiffs demand that they be permitted to cease work and engage in prayer whenever they deem it necessary regardless of their employer's legitimate business needs," wrote attorneys for employment agency Adecco USA. Nine Dakota County bus drivers, including Nabry, 34, sued their employer, MV Transportation Inc., accusing it of hostile treatment based on their religious practices. In court filings, the company denies the drivers' allegations. With workplaces becoming increasingly diverse, employers need to listen to workers' requests for accommodations and respond, said Schanfield, the labor attorney. "You need to have a conversation with the employee about what the real need is and do a careful look if making that change would be burdensome to the employer," Schanfield said. "Where employers get into trouble is when a new idea comes across their desk and they dismiss it out of hand." Shannon Prather . Chris Polydoroff, pioneer press