Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once -- Michelle "of the Resistance"
French innkeeper fined over Muslim headscarf demandA French court on Tuesday fined a guesthouse owner who refused to give a room to a woman wearing a Muslim headscarf unless she removed it in common areas.
Found guilty of religious discrimination, Yvette Truchelut, 54, was handed a suspended four month prison sentence and fined 1,000 euros ($1409). She will have to pay a total of 7,400 euros to the plaintiff and rights groups that brought the action.
Horia Demiati, who is of Moroccan origin, came to the guesthouse in eastern France in August 2006 with her mother, who was also wearing a headscarf, and other members of her family.
Fairfax: I say, Carstairs, two men with ducks on their heads have just walked into the public convenience. What do you make of that?Carstairs: They're probably freemasons.
Muslim sues Abercrombie Kids over headscarfThe Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK) announced today that it has filed an EEOC complaint on behalf of a Muslim woman who was allegedly denied employment at an Abercrombie Kids store in that state because of the applicant's religiously-mandated headscarf, or hijab.
The woman told CAIR-OK that a district manager claimed he could not hire her because her Islamic headscarf "does not fit the Abercrombie image."
"Employers have a clear legal duty to accommodate the religious practices of their workers," said CAIR-OK Executive Director Razi Hashmi. "To deny someone employment because of apparent religious bias goes against long-standing American traditions of tolerance and inclusion."
Former Employee Sues Walt Disney World Over Dress CodeWearing a hijab has meant not being able to work at Walt Disney World, according to a former employee who claims she lost her job because she refused to remove her Muslim head scarf...
Disney policy prohibits the wearing of anything but Disney-issued hats and visors... Disney offered to accommodate her religious attire with a "backstage" job out of the public view, the lawsuit states...
What Disney workers wear has been regulated meticulously since Disneyland opened in 1955 to produce what is now marketed as the Disney experience.
"A big part of that show is you, with your quick smile, your eagerness to help and your willingness to maintain the Disney Look that our guests have come to associate with our very special brand," Walt Disney World Resort president Al Weiss wrote in the current employee handbook. "Each of you has helped uphold our heritage in so many ways, such as through your commitment to the Disney Look."
Everything from the socks on their feet to chewing gum, frowning in public and the cut of their hair is spelled out for the theme parks' 70,000 employees. But the resulting beard-free image conflicts with the distinctive religious attire and grooming practices for devout followers of Islam, Judaism and some other religions...
A sales clerk wearing a religious scarf should not disrupt anyone's Disney experience, according to the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee.
"I'm guessing she's not dressed as Snow White, just wearing the standard Walt Disney uniform," said Leila Al-Qatami, a spokeswoman for the organization. "I don't think it [the hijab] impairs or in any way detracts from a person's experience at Disney World, and so our organization believes that you should make accommodations for religious clothing."
Muslim stylist wins £4,000 payoutThe owner of a hair salon has been ordered to pay £4,000 compensation to a Muslim stylist who was turned down for a job because she wears a headscarf.
Bushra Noah accused Sarah Desrosiers of religious discrimination when she failed to offer her a job at her Wedge salon in King's Cross, central London...
Ms Desrosiers said she needed stylists to showcase alternative hairstyles ...
Ms Desrosiers told the tribunal she was surprised it had not been mentioned earlier and expected her staff to reflect the "funky, urban" image of her salon ...
Speaking after the ruling the salon owner said: "I never in a million years dreamt that somebody would be completely against the display of hair and be in this industry. I don't feel I deserve it."...
The power that controls our world... non-discrimination is the ruling--and in its essence totalitarian--principle of the West, crushing everything that is not in conformity with itself ...
How many times have I said that liberalism is against the existence of any particular and distinct thing, because as long as that thing exists in its particularity, it is maintaining its distinctness from--and hence is discriminating against and is excluding--all that is not like itself? Here is a hair dressing salon. It is devoted to "alternative, funky" hairstyles. Yet it is punished, with a very large fine, for not hiring an individual whose very presence in the salon as a hair dresser would contradict the very nature of that salon.
Under liberalism, nothing (if it is of the West) is allowed to be itself.
What about Australia?
Newsletter of the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSWThe complainant was a young woman who worked on a casual basis at a childcare centre. She alleged that when she told the director she had decided to start wearing a hijab (headscarf) to work, the director reacted negatively, made various offensive comments about Muslims and said that the centre might lose business as the parents would not like it. The woman said she was not offered any more shifts at the centre...
Isma Report: Experiences of Discrimination
Many Muslim women felt that wearing the hijab deterred potential employers.I'm a qualified dental technician and it was really hard for me to get employment with my scarf. I applied for a position at a dental laboratory and the boss, well we talked on the phone and everything was ok. When he saw me for the first time he was shocked. But I had all the qualifications and experience, and I got employment for two weeks. Then he told me I was a really good and hard worker but that I could not continue being employed there unless I take off that scarf ...I asked him 'Are there any other reasons why you wouldn't give me this job?' He said 'No. You're a really nice person and a hard worker but I don't want to bring religion into my laboratory'.
Some women felt they had to bow to pressure from employers and remove their hijab so as to secure employment.
I was unemployed for about two years. Every job that I would go to I know that I've got the skills ... it would really, really surprise me to get a phone call telling me that I didn't got the job. I was thinking to myself, why? I know that I'm fit, that I can do this job. I know that I'm the best person for it. I automatically knew the reason. Three months later, when I took it [the hijab] off, I automatically got a job ... to find work this is what I had to do ...
Employer pressure on Muslim women not to wear the hijab at work was reported to be especially acute in service industries where client contact is an essential part of the job. For example, a young Muslim woman working in an Adelaide pharmacy was told by her employer that she was not allowed to wear her hijab to work. 'I just wear my uniform, put my hijab on. When I get there [work] I take it off, go to work, and as soon as I leave I put it back on.' ... A receptionist in a Melbourne real estate agency was threatened with dismissal by her employer's wife who said, 'Don't come anymore unless you change the scarf'...
Many Muslim women working in fields such as law and medicine felt that employers and colleagues saw them as less intellectually capable or professionally committed compared with other staff if they wore traditional Islamic dress...
A number of participants described law firms as being among those who use the hijab as an excuse for refusing to employ Muslim women.
They would never employ you in a commercial law firm with the hijab ... I've actually had people tell me, 'You take that [i.e. the hijab] off and you can come' ...
A human right to freedom of expression?
Or a totalitarian principle of non-discrimination that will destroy everything distinctive about the Western world?
Or a totalitarian principle of non-discrimination that will destroy everything distinctive about the Western world?
References
French innkeeper fined over Muslim headscarf demand - Oct 2007
Muslim sues Abercrombie Kids over head scarf - Aug 2008
Former Employee Sues Walt Disney World Over Dress Code - May 2004
Muslim stylist wins £4,000 payout - June, 2008
The power that controls our world - Lawrence Auster, June 2008
Newsletter of the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW - Autumn 2007
Isma Listen: National consultations on eliminating prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australians - 21 March 2003
Allo Allo
