Accommodating Islam On the Checkout Line

Accommodating Islam On the Checkout Line
By Robert Spencer

Wegman’s, a supermarket in Rochester, New York, has set up a special checkout line for a hijab-wearing Muslim cashier, directing customers to go to other lines if they have pork or alcohol.

Islamic law forbids Muslims not just to eat, but to handle or sell pork or alcohol, and Wegman’s customers seemed happy to go along. One said, “I feel like if they’re going to hire her and she’s got to have the job, why shouldn’t we respect her. Just go to another cashier.” Another added: “I would respect her beliefs and go to the next line if I had alcohol.”

This all sounds high-minded, tolerant and multicultural, but in reality it is just another example of the fact that when it comes to Muslims and non-Muslims, the respect goes only one way. This new Wegman’s policy is yet another example of the cultural and societal initiatives I wrote about at length in my 2008 book Stealth Jihad: Muslims in the West are increasingly demanding that, rather than assimilating into Western culture, it is Western culture that must adapt to them. Muslims demand special accommodation for Islamic law and practice, and reinforce the principle that wherever Islamic law and practice and American law and practice conflict, American law and practice has to give way. It also establishes special privileges for Muslims, in accord with their status in Islamic law.

Muslims who demand that American institutions, businesses, and organizations change their practices to accommodate Islam manifest contempt for American established mores and practices of that new land – contempt that stems from the conviction that those mores and practices are inferior to the ones he brings with him. And they cannily portray this contempt and their demands for accommodation as a simple desire to exercise their religious freedom.

What is inexcusable about this is that so many non-Muslim businesses such as Wegman’s fall for this. Some Wegman’s customers noted that some Christians don’t like the idea of selling alcohol, but did not mention the fact that Christians who don’t like the idea of serving alcohol just get another job. They don't demand that their workplace change the way it does business in order to accommodate them.

This has been going on for a long time, although the mainstream media has taken no notice of it, and the Obama Administration is actively abetting it. As far back as 2004, Lina Morales, an employee of Rising Star, a telecommunications company in Florida, was eating a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich at work, and was summarily fired for violating a company rule against eating pork products on company premises. Rising Star’s Chief Executive Officer, a Muslim named Kujaatele Kweli, said that he fired Morales as a matter of religious accommodation. “Our point of view,” he explained, “is to respect the laws of the land and the laws of the land as I understand it is to accommodate people’s right to practice their religions if you can.”

But apparently only Muslims have the right to practice their religions – not Morales, who is Catholic. That is the principle Obama’s Justice Department has followed, suing on behalf of a Muslim first-year high school teacher who demanded three weeks off to go on the hajj, and winning her an award of $78,000. The DoJ has also joined other such suits, all in favor of Muslims demanding special accommodation.

If the Muslim cashier at Wegman’s were fired for any reason, Wegman’s would probably hear from the Justice Department as well. And so they are taking the easy road of submission. Wegman’s policy amounts to discrimination against non-Muslim customers — they have one less checkout line, longer waits, etc. Yet if they didn’t discriminate against non-Muslims, they would be certain to face charges of “racism,” “bigotry,” and “Islamophobia” – the cudgels that the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) uses to intimidate Americans into dropping all resistance to the stealth jihad and Islamic supremacism.

This not about religious freedom, it is about Islamic supremacism. The civil rights movement was fought to establish equality of access to services for all Americans. This is a perversion of it.

Robert Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and author of the New York Times bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad.

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GFWSR

12 years ago

It must be obvious to Wegmans that muslims cannot meet or fulfill the job requirements. Making a special’ accommodation is a BIG mistake! Get rid of them!

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NextVoiceUHear

12 years ago

I would make it a point to tell the manager that – because of the store’s pro-Muslim policies – I would be shopping elsewhere. Then I would make sure his chain of ownership and the stores various vendors got the same message.
NVUH

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Isha Merdeka

12 years ago

How good Wegman’s. May God give you more sustenance.
Response criticism well, cause: Americans Don’t Know Much About Religion
http://ishamerdeka.blogspot.com/2012/01/americans-dont-know-much-about-religion.html

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KKKK

12 years ago

“it sounds” good alright, but hen it comes to Muslism dealing with nonMuslims, thigns have to go one way. and any effoert to the contrary is lambashed as “islamophobia,” when really it is terrific sense.

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Macktheknife

12 years ago

The problems with muslims are world-wide problems. First they want rights, then they take over, in most European countries that’s an issue ( watch : http://www.vlaanderenandersgezien.in/Mind-over-Matter.php ). Statistics showed in Belgium that the population muslims was around 8-10%, that was corrected to nearly five times the amount … in the great cities. And they did not count the serious amount of illegal immigrants !

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Auntie Izlam

12 years ago

Store owners should know that it is their job to accommodate the majority of customers NOT their employees. A little common sense goes a long way.
They should also know know that if they pander to muslims they will lose a lot of their regular customers.

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Martel

12 years ago

most readers of Jihad Watch already know this, but for anyone reading into this type of stealth jihad stuff for the first time, head this warning…
This is the this sliver of of very wide wedge. This is how stealth jihad works. One drop at a time. Take a look at Sweden and France to see where this stuff leads after about 10 years.

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Mary

12 years ago

When reasonable people demand equality and decent treatment for all, it is a victory. Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are leaders in this war declared against us, and we all need to do our part in this citizen war.

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Auntie Gin

12 years ago

The lawsuits should be rolling in from customers about Wegman’s discriminatory practice. I wrote to their company, but doubt it does any good. I hope customers start staying away in droves. As for the lady fired for being fired for eating a BLT sandwich, I hope she sued and won big. I would be interested in follow up on that story.

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trade fair accommodation

12 years ago

Another interesting post from this blog author. Really impressed about the way you express the information. Seems that these topics. Keep up the good work.

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Lydia

12 years ago

What if one’s religion prohibits birth control ? Oops no condom’s line !

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