What’s next? Mandatory prayers facing Mecca? Sharia Law?
Workers at Tyson Foods’ poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day, but will instead take the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in the fall.
A recent press release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) stated that a new contract at the Shelbyville facility “implements a new holiday to accommodate the … Muslim workers at the plant.”The RWDSU stated that “the five-year contract creates an additional paid holiday, Iidal Fitil, a Muslim holiday that occurs toward the end of Ramadan.”
Eid al-Fitr falls on Oct. 1 this year.
Tyson’s Director of Media Relations, Gary Mickelson, stated that while the new contract does not provide an additional holiday, as the union claimed, “the new contract includes eight paid holidays, which is the same number provided in the old contract.”
“However, the union leadership did request and receive Eid al-Fitr (which is apparently spelled various ways including Id al-Fitr and Eid ul-Fitr) as a paid holiday in place of Labor Day,” Mickelson confirmed in an e-mail to the T-G.
……Eid al-Fitr means “Festival of the Breaking of the Fast” in Arabic, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
The festival “is distinguished by the performance of communal prayer (salat) at daybreak on its first day. It is a time of official receptions and private visits, when friends greet one another, presents are given, new clothes are worn, and the graves of relatives are visited,” the encyclopedia said.
……”Implementing this holiday was a challenge, since it falls on a different day every year and is declared on fairly short notice,” RWDSU Representative Randy Hadley said in the press release. “But the negotiating committee felt this was extremely crucial, since this holiday is as important to Muslims as Christmas is to Christians.”
……The press release stated there are approximatly 700 Muslims working at Tyson, but Mickelson said that Somalis only represent approximately 250 of the 1,200 employed at the plant, a little over 20 percent of the workforce.
……The union also claimed that in addition to the observance of the Muslim holiday, “two prayer rooms have been created to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant.”
Mickelson said that Shelbyville’s Tyson plant “does have a prayer room to accommodate the needs of Muslim Team Members.”
“In addition to regular, non-paid breaks, all Team Members are allotted a seven-minute paid break,” the Tyson spokesman said. “Some Team Members choose to pray during this time.”
This is another blatant capitulation to a horrific, brutal religion. Islam, at its very core, is misogynist, anti-simetic, anti-Christian, and advocates terrorism as part of the religious doctrine proscribed in the Koran. Islam is diametrically opposed to every freedom held dear by our democratic Republic, yet Tyson chooses to give its practicioners special compensation?
I will no longer purchase Tyson products.
Exactly.
It’s not even that Muslims are getting special treatment ALONGSIDE other religions getting special treatment. (That would be called “fairness”). Nope, it’s others having to GIVE UP things that are rightly due to them in order to MAKE WAY for Muslims getting special treatments. Or else, having to stand by and watch their own religions vilified and trampled on while Muslims are treated with the status of favorite child.
And they have done NOTHING to deserve it. Look what Christians have done for America. The numerous charitable groups, the soup kitchens, the homeless shelters, the homes for un-wed mothers, the AIDS hospices, the fund-raising for the needy and marginalized both here and abroad, the universities and schools and hospitals built by Christians…the list goes on and on. What have the Muslims done for America to warrant this special treatment?? Not one f*cking thing!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, it’s unfuckingbelievable that this sort of thing can happen in America. If Tyson had built a prayer chapel for Catholics to pray the Rosary during alotted breaks, the ACLU would have a shit fit.
SFC MAC
How much longer will we put up with this shit? I really, really want someone to explain to me why it’s okay to make these RIDICULOUS concessions for Muslims but not for Christians or anyone else? EVEN insofar as graciousness goes–if I were a manager or whatever I sincerely wouldn’t have a problem with giving a little bit of extra leeway to my staffs on the grounds of religion, within reason, and with fairness to others, because a happy employee is a good employee–these concessions are STILL above and beyond the call of good graces. Replacing federal holidays–especially, MY GOD, Labor Day??? Oh, the IRONY–and creating PRAYER ROOMS? I swear, I read this crap and it’s like I’m reading a satire or a spoof. It’s so…surreal.