Muslim flight attendant suspended for refusing to serve alcohol

[bilby]

The A380 super-jumbo long-haul jet comes in a variety of configurations; only a handful of airlines have chosen to include a bar in their layout, and it is Arab carriers - Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad - that have been most keen to do so.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/airbus-a380-bar-wars-qatar-emirates-and-etihad

Our choice to fly Emirates next year for our trip to the UK was in part inspired by this facility.

http://gizmodo.com/a-bar-on-board-a-plane-now-youre-talking-1693275090

When the flight consists of a sixteen hour leg, a couple of hours on the ground, and then a further eight hour leg to the destination, this is a very nice facility to have.

My experience with Muslims is that they are rather more tolerant of alcohol than many Christians; Those who don't partake themselves (and many do) are perfectly OK with haram practices by non-Muslims.

My mate Ali and I got corporate box tickets to the football a few years back, and we were both chucking down the free beer, when a lady came around with a tray of sandwiches. Ali, who had a beer in each hand, refused to eat any, in case they contained pork. I suggested that having a beer in each hand meant that he was a little late to be worrying about being a good Muslim; He countered that alcohol is less sinful than pork. I guess irrational beliefs don't have to make sense.

Ali also mentioned that his wife had suggested he should stop drinking alcohol, and that she was wasting her breath, because he didn't even listen when God told him to. Ali is a Kenyan Indian, and in my limited experience, the Islamic members of the Indian Diaspora (mostly to Africa and the Pacific Islands) tend to be rather more secular than the Arabs, with the Indonesian and Malay Muslims falling somewhere in between, and the new converts (mainly in Africa) being the most extreme of all. Both Christians and Muslims are, inevitably given their numbers, very varied indeed in the degree and extent of their observances. Fundamentalist Christians seem to have a much bigger downer on alcohol than even some elements of Islam that few would hesitate to describe as 'Fundamentalist'.

 

[Derec]

My experience with Muslims is that they are rather more tolerant of alcohol than many Christians;

And yet it is the Muslim flight attendant who is refusing to serve alcohol, not Southern Baptist. Her airline is Atlanta based and we have a shitload of Southern Baptists around here.
Likewise it was Muslim, not Christian, cabbies who refused to drive passengers with alcohol bottles at Minneapolis Airport.

Those who don't partake themselves (and many do) are perfectly OK with haram practices by non-Muslims.

And yet the Quran prohibits consumption and selling of alcohol equally.

 

[AthenaAwakened]

And yet it is the Muslim flight attendant who is refusing to serve alcohol, not Southern Baptist. Her airline is Atlanta based and we have a shitload of Southern Baptists around here.
Likewise it was Muslim, not Christian, cabbies who refused to drive passengers with alcohol bottles at Minneapolis Airport.

Those who don't partake themselves (and many do) are perfectly OK with haram practices by non-Muslims.

And yet the Quran prohibits consumption and selling of alcohol equally.

And?

There must be some point to this, other than giving hate yet another good airing.

 

[bilby]

And yet it is the Muslim flight attendant who is refusing to serve alcohol, not Southern Baptist. Her airline is Atlanta based and we have a shitload of Southern Baptists around here.
Likewise it was Muslim, not Christian, cabbies who refused to drive passengers with alcohol bottles at Minneapolis Airport.

Those who don't partake themselves (and many do) are perfectly OK with haram practices by non-Muslims.

And yet the Quran prohibits consumption and selling of alcohol equally.

Indeed. Which just goes to show that, just like Christians, Muslims pick and choose their religious practices, rather than following the scripture like they claim they do.

And the flight attendant in question is a recent convert - which is the subset of Muslims that I identified as the most extreme.

Her beliefs are not only incompatible with her job at a US airline; they would also be incompatible with her job at many Arab airlines. If she is the bar attendant on my Emirates flight next year, I will be asking for my money back

 

[Derec]

There must be some point to this, other than giving hate yet another good airing.

I was refuting bilby's point that Christians are more intolerant of alcohol than Muslims.

 

[Nexus]

And?

There must be some point to this, other than giving hate yet another good airing.

He's just rebutting the inevitable moore-coulter or perhaps a new name for the fallacy like christian-muslim that leftists must throw out in threads about Muslims behaving badly.

 

[bilby]

There must be some point to this, other than giving hate yet another good airing.

I was refuting bilby's point that Christians are more intolerant of alcohol than Muslims.

No, you were merely rebutting it.

Many parts of the US still prohibit sales of alcohol altogether; while most Arab nations - including some that are far from liberal - allow sale to non-Muslims of all manner of Haram items, including liquor.

 

[scombrid]

And yet it is the Muslim flight attendant who is refusing to serve alcohol, not Southern Baptist. Her airline is Atlanta based and we have a shitload of Southern Baptists around here.
Likewise it was Muslim, not Christian, cabbies who refused to drive passengers with alcohol bottles at Minneapolis Airport.

American Muslims trying to show be all hardcore and real. People get all hot and bothered for their religion when they are recent converts or feel some existential threat.

Kind of like someone that got super Jesus at some hillbilly revival and then decided to take the law into her own hands in Kentucky.

And yet the Quran prohibits consumption and selling of alcohol equally.

First town where I lived in North Carolina is still dry these multiple decades later.

I was up in the Jawjaw mountains recently. Visited a dry county there. Even in the non-dry counties you may find the booze section of the Publix blacked out on Sunday.

 

[Blahface]

I have a huge problem with forced accommodation of religion in the private sector, but it is a little different when you are a government employee who is acting on behalf of the state. Both are bad, but the latter is a bit worse.

I remember hearing about a Muslim checkout clerk in the UK who refused to checkout customers who bought pork. I would be so pissed off if I were a customer waiting in line and then finding out I have to queue up in another line because of the clerk's religious beliefs.

 

[whichphilosophy]

I have a huge problem with forced accommodation of religion in the private sector, but it is a little different when you are a government employee who is acting on behalf of the state. Both are bad, but the latter is a bit worse.

I remember hearing about a Muslim checkout clerk in the UK who refused to checkout customers who bought pork. I would be so pissed off if I were a customer waiting in line and then finding out I have to queue up in another line because of the clerk's religious beliefs.

If she's that concerned, then she shouldn't work in a shop which sells pork. Alternatively she can get a job in Saudi Arabia.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I have a huge problem with forced accommodation of religion in the private sector, but it is a little different when you are a government employee who is acting on behalf of the state. Both are bad, but the latter is a bit worse.

I remember hearing about a Muslim checkout clerk in the UK who refused to checkout customers who bought pork. I would be so pissed off if I were a customer waiting in line and then finding out I have to queue up in another line because of the clerk's religious beliefs.

If she's that concerned, then she shouldn't work in a shop which sells pork. Alternatively she can get a job in Saudi Arabia.

That sounds like a really inconvenient commute each day, especially for a minimum wage job. It's probably best that she go for the first option.

 

[James Madison]

I have a huge problem with forced accommodation of religion in the private sector, but it is a little different when you are a government employee who is acting on behalf of the state. Both are bad, but the latter is a bit worse.

I remember hearing about a Muslim checkout clerk in the UK who refused to checkout customers who bought pork. I would be so pissed off if I were a customer waiting in line and then finding out I have to queue up in another line because of the clerk's religious beliefs.

Precedent already exists limiting the freedom of companies, businesses, and public accommodations when it comes to serving the public. This is but an extension of the erosion of liberty in which the law requires "reasonable" accommodations which do not constitute as an "undue hardship" to the business.

Perhaps this is a reasonable approach in which the religious employee is not required to pick between their religious/beliefs and earning a living, and a business which can reasonably accommodate the employee without losing significant money/business.