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WYFF 4 – April 3, 2007
Harassment complaint follows 'religious' dispute
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- A Muslim civil rights group says BMW ignored religious harassment between employees, but WYFF News 4 has learned that there is more to this story.
News 4's Gordon Dill has been looking into the complaint -- a fight between an Israeli Christian and a Muslim. Both men were contract workers at BMW.
The 65-year-old Muslim man told deputies he was washing his hands in the bathroom at BMW when the 41-year-old Israeli man put a box cutter to his throat and threatened to kill him.
The Muslim man then called the Council on American-Islamic Relations and said there was a pattern of harassment by BMW employees.
According to a spokesman, the council had received reports of other incidents not only involving the Israeli man but other employees as well.
But the Israeli man and his alleged victim may have known each other for years.
The Muslim man's nephew and that same Israeli man were business partners in a Duncan restaurant and as far back as 1996, there was a police report alleging that one man punched the other.
In its official statement, BMW alluded to that relationship.
The statement said, "... It appears the two individuals have a long personal history, including being business partners in the past."
WYFF News 4 tried contacting that alleged victim and his nephew, but they didn't return calls.
Dill did find the Israeli man, who said he couldn't appear on camera or even reveal where he lives because he fears Muslims will "put a bomb on his porch."
"This isn't about BMW. It's about religion," the man said.
BMW said it has started its own investigation
The Council on American-Islamic Relations has asked the FBI to start its own hate crime investigation.
http://www.wyff4.com/news/11512955/detail.html
CAIR-MN – April 2, 2007
MN Muslims fired in WI over workplace prayer
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, April 2, 2007 - The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today called for an investigation of the alleged firing of Muslim employees at a chicken processing plant in Wisconsin who wanted to offer religiously-mandated prayers in the workplace.
CAIR-MN says two workers were fired and three others quit in protest last night at the Gold'n Plump Poultry plant in Arcadia, Wis. The workers are all of Somali heritage and live in nearby Minnesota.
The workers told CAIR that the dispute centered on a "floating break" used to offer their break-of-dawn (fajr) prayer, one of five daily Islamic prayers. They say the company had accommodated the prayers with a floating break for at least the past several months, but issued a new policy last Friday that forced the workers to choose between their religious practices and their jobs.
Each of the workers contacted by CAIR says the processing line was never shut down while the prayers took place. They said that when the Muslim workers offered their prayers, employees of other faiths filled in for them, and when those workers took their break, the Muslims worked to keep the line moving.
CAIR's national office contacted Gold'n Plump, which is headquartered in St. Cloud, Minn., to seek its perspective on the incident. The statement issued by the company differs from the workers' accounts of the incident. It states in part:
"Because of the number of our employees with a desire to pray outside of the regularly scheduled breaks, we recently implemented a new floating break schedule to accommodate prayer needs.
"This new schedule went into effect at our Production Plant in Arcadia, Wis., on Sunday, April 1. While we were able to successfully accommodate virtually all employees with prayer needs immediately, there were a few positions that because of limitations of the line would require more time to make the necessary changes.
"Though we advised these few employees that we were committed to accommodating their needs and could do so within weeks, they were unwilling to give us the necessary time and made the decision to quit."
"Companies have a legal duty to offer reasonable religious accommodation to employees unless they can prove there is an 'undue hardship' resulting from that accommodation," said CAIR National Civil Rights Manager Khadija Athman. She said the fact that the processing line apparently never stopped moving appears to remove any claim of undue hardship.
Athman said CAIR is asking the company to investigate the incident, to reinstate all five of the Muslim workers and to ensure that all polices are in conformity with federal laws requiring religious accommodation in the workplace.
She said CAIR offers a booklet, called "An Employer's Guide to Islamic Religious Practices," designed to prevent such incidents from occurring.
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