France workers sacked for fasting!!!

[United]

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French workers sacked over Ramadan fast


Tensions between French authorities and the country's Islamic community resurfaced on Tuesday after it emerged that four summer camp instructors had been sacked for fasting during Ramadan.
In a row that echoed last year's controversy over a law banning women from wearing full veils on French territory, Muslim leaders denounced a Communist-run town council's dismissal of the workers on health and safety grounds.
The four had been employed temporarily by the town of Genevilliers in the Paris suburbs to help run a summer holiday sports camp in southwestern France.
They were dismissed on July 20, the first day of Ramadan, after an inspector visited the camp and told them they were endangering children's safety by not eating or drinking between dawn and dusk.
Although they were fully paid for the week they had remaining on their short-term contracts, the instructors plan to contest their dismissal through labour courts.
The French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) described the town's actions as "an attack on religious freedom" and said it was considering pressing charges against Genevilliers council for discrimination.
CFCM President Mohammed Moussaoui added: "Hundreds of millions of people fast for Ramadan every year without it having any impact on their professional activities."
Genevilliers Mayor Jacques Bourgoin defended the decision to remove the four employees from the camp, a stance which won strong backing from the far-right National Front.
"They did not respect the terms of their contract in a way that could have endangered the physical safety of the children they were responsible for," said a statement issued by the mayor's office.
"This lack of nourishment and hydration could have resulted in these employees not being in full possession of the means required to ensure that activities at the camp were correctly and safely run, as well as the physical safety of the children in their charge."
Nicole Varet, an aide to the mayor, said the decision to dismiss the four employees had been influenced by an incident three years ago in which a fasting camp worker had been taken ill while driving, resulting in an accident in which a child was seriously injured.
But the four sacked workers believe the safety argument is a smokescreen for anti-Muslim prejudice.
One of them, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Samir, said their treatment had been "unfair and unacceptable" and that he was glad it had been brought into the public domain.
"We are thinking about going to court to get clear answers to our questions," he told AFP. "Do people have the right not to eat during the day? Are doctors who observe Ramadan putting their patients' lives in danger?"
A spokesman for the National Front said the Gennevilliers mayor had made the right decision, adding that: "Those who oppose this wise decision are making a mockery of the principles of safety and secularism."
The row over the Ramadan sackings erupted as France brushed off US State Department criticism of its ban on veils which fully cover women's faces, introduced last year by the administration of former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
In its 2011 International Religious Freedom Report, the State Department expressed concern over a "rising number of European countries, including Belgium and France, whose laws restricting dress adversely affected Muslims and others".

[DESERT FIGHTER]

French are acting like f.. hobos!

[KRAIT]

When KSA punishes a man for worshiping Buddha statue, no one utters a bad word against them and here if french do something with any logic, call it twisted or logical according to your perception, all hell breaks loose.

Am I the only one seeing the hypocrisy ?

"Its their country, they can do whatever they want" isn't it the lines people oftenly use in this forum ?

[United]

Laws against veils, mosques fuel anti-Muslim prejudice, says Amnesty




PARIS—European laws on what girls and women wear on their heads are encouraging discrimination against Muslims and against a religion that has been part of Europe’s fabric for centuries, Amnesty International says in a new report.

Far-right gains in French election

Extremist political movements targeting Muslim practices for criticism have enjoyed a rise in several European countries — as witnessed by French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s surprisingly strong showing in presidential elections this week.

In that climate, the Amnesty report released Tuesday lists a raft of examples of discrimination against Muslims from Spain to the Netherlands and Turkey, spurred on by laws viewed as anti-Islam.

The report, titled “Choice and Prejudice,” pays special attention to national laws or local rules against wearing headscarves or face-covering Islamic veils. France and Belgium ban them outright, as do some towns in Spain and elsewhere.

“Amnesty International is concerned that states have focused so much in recent years on the wearing of full-face veils, as if this practice were the most widespread and compelling form of inequality women in Europe have to face,” the report says.

Proponents, such as French President Nicolas Sarkozy, say face-covering veils imprison women and violate France’s values of equality. France also bans headscarves in schools.

The niqab, a veil with just a slit for the eyes, and the burqa, with a mesh covering for the eyes, are worn only by a very small minority of European Muslims. But banning them creates an atmosphere of suspicion of anyone with visibly Islamic dress, the Amnesty report says.

It cites French Muslim women who wear headscarves, which cover the hair but leave the face exposed, as saying they have experienced epithets and public pressure since Sarkozy started calling for a face-veil ban.

The human rights group spoke to Muslims who have had trouble getting jobs or had to change schools because of discrimination over their head coverings.

The report says Spain and Switzerland, in particular, don’t have strong enough laws against discrimination. Switzerland has banned the construction of new minarets.

In Spain, Amnesty highlighted cases in the northeastern region of Catalonia where Muslims are sometimes obliged to pray in the street because their congregations have grown too big for existing mosques, yet permission to build new ones is denied because local residents have objected. It said at least 40 disputes over new mosques had arisen in Catalonia between 1990 and 2008.

Belgium has seen several legal disputes in recent years involving Muslims who say they lost work because of their headscarves, and Muslim communities barred from building a minaret for their mosques because “this doesn’t fit the landscape,” said Mehmet Saygin of moderate group Muslim Vigilance.

Amnesty urges European authorities to allow mosque-building regardless of whether non-Muslim residents disagree.

“If a proposed Muslim place of worship meets all requirements, public authorities should not deny authorization solely on the grounds that some people living locally may not want a mosque in their neighbourhood,” it says.

Many Europeans wrongly assume all Muslims are immigrants, even though Islam has been a leading religion in Europe for centuries, the report notes. That makes the discrimination especially painful for the millions of Muslims born in Europe who are told to “go home” — when they have no other “home” to flee to.

In France, candidate Le Pen and her anti-immigrant National Front party have singled out Muslim practices such as ritual slaughter of animals for criticism.

Conservative Sarkozy has borrowed from Le Pen’s rhetoric as he heads into a runoff vote May 6 with Socialist Francois Hollande. Le Pen scored a strong third place in Sunday’s first-round election, handing her party new political influence ahead of parliamentary elections in June.

European Union officials warned this week against flirting too much with the extreme right and sacrificing European unity, built on the ashes of World War II.

One of the most vivid signs that European authorities have failed to root out a growing Islamophobia was the massacre in Norway last year by a man who fears Muslims are taking over Europe. Images of him defending his rampage in court have been televised across the continent over the past week.

Ciaran Giles in Madrid and Don Melvin in Brussels contributed to this report.

When KSA punishes a man for worshiping Buddha statue, no one utters a bad word against them and here if french do something with any logic, call it twisted or logical according to your perception, all hell breaks loose.

Am I the only one seeing the hypocrisy ?

"Its their country, they can do whatever they want" isn't it the lines people oftenly use in this forum ?

There are many Hindus in Arab states, many due to the migration of Indians to the oil-rich states around the Persian Gulf.
Hindu temples have been built in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Yemen and Oman.
The estimated figures for the Hindu population in several Arab countries is as follows: [1]
Saudi Arabia 500,000
United Arab Emirates 450,000
Oman 300,000
Kuwait 200,000
Bahrain 100,000
Qatar 90,000
Yemen 6,000
Total: 2.7 million

Hinduism in Arab states - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

KRAIT u r a bloody troll uneducated fellow.

all ur posts are shameless and senseless.

Pakistani Hindus: Fasting for love

[Ottoman-Turk]

French is one of the most racist country in europe , they have killed 1+ million algerians , tested nukes on them , they have all that blood on their hands.

[karan.1970]

When KSA punishes a man for worshiping Buddha statue, no one utters a bad word against them and here if french do something with any logic, call it twisted or logical according to your perception, all hell breaks loose.

Am I the only one seeing the hypocrisy ?

"Its their country, they can do whatever they want" isn't it the lines people oftenly use in this forum ?

But its also the country of the muslims staying in France.. So the French Muslims protesting is perfectly fine.. But Pakistanis and saudi's crying a river on this issue is pure hypocrisy...

[DESERT FIGHTER]

When KSA punishes a man for worshiping Buddha statue, no one utters a bad word against them and here if french do something with any logic, call it twisted or logical according to your perception, all hell breaks loose.

Am I the only one seeing the hypocrisy ?

Anybody in ksa can worship their god ......but u cant build churches or temples there...

"Its their country, they can do whatever they want" isn't it the lines people oftenly use in this forum ?

My dear hindu islamophobe fasting is something tht doesnt effect others.... u dont have to build a mosque for it...if a muslim fasts it doesnt effect the non muslims...... also this comes under religious freedom tht france is denying people....... also its france tht claims to be a tolerant developed country...... but sacking people because they are fasting? r u seriously tht screwed up?

But its also the country of the muslims staying in France.. So the French Muslims protesting is perfectly fine.. But Pakistanis and saudi's crying a river on this issue is pure hypocrisy...

We dont kill or burn christians or massacre sikhs.....we dont put people in jail for eating meat or kill them for it........ its u guys.

[IZVINITE]

Don't make it a religious issue.If that job requires healthier poeple for children security then whats wrong in that.There are many jobs ,simple find other job instead making it a religious and political issue

[Safriz]

if a christian gets sacked for celebrating easter in pakistan...the whole world protests and shows how backward,medeival we are.
When france does similar...well indians are there to defend them.

[INDIC]

We dont kill or burn christians or massacre sikhs.....we dont put people in jail for eating meat or kill them for it........ its u guys.

Are you sure about it.

[bronxbull]

I know a muslim guy here who works in the mines and often in the night,hows he supposed to fast.

Similarly cant these 4 guys done the same and not fast or fast next month or so.

[INDIC]

if a christian gets sacked for celebrating easter in pakistan...the whole world protests and shows how backward,medeival we are.
When france does similar...well indians are there to defend them.

You guys even don't give public holidays on festivals of minorities.

[Safriz]

If i am given a choice between a temporary job and ramazan,i will leve the job and take ramzan.and ask the employer to shove the job up their whatever.

You guys even don't give public holidays on festivals of minorities.

I dont get eid holiday in UK and i am a minority here. What you say about this?

[KRAIT]

Anybody in ksa can worship their god ......but u cant build churches or temples there...


My dear hindu islamophobe fasting is something tht doesnt effect others.... u dont have to build a mosque for it...if a muslim fasts it doesnt effect the non muslims...... also this comes under religious freedom tht france is denying people....... also its france tht claims to be a tolerant developed country...... but sacking people because they are fasting? r u seriously tht screwed up?

I am not here to debate who is tolerant and who is not, the fact of the matter is why someone turns a blind eye when something strange and illogical happens in one country while cry out loud when other do.

Aren't many countries also worried to the edge when it comes to effect of western civilization in their country which they openly oppose ? Aren't people got to the extent to praise a killer who kills a judge on basis of religion ?

Phobia is present everywhere, don't tell me its just in the France or West. Every country or religion is always worried about conversion and diffusion of other religion in their own country.

With what has been happening around the world, where Muslims are portrayed as extremists, the general population is getting more anxious about them. The propaganda, truth, call it whatever, at the end of the day, these people are going more islamophobic just like people are too much worried about Christians in their country. They think whites want to rule them and jehad is the way out.

How can a person distinguish or be certain of a person's objective and state of mind when there is so much prejudice against that person in the society?

Phobia emerges where there is irrationality and insecurity in the society.

Try to look from other frame of reference, instead of getting emotional.

P.S. I am open for healthy debate not for cheap shots.

[Safriz]

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I know a muslim guy here who works in the mines and often in the night,hows he supposed to fast.

Similarly cant these 4 guys done the same and not fast or fast next month or so.

Personally i have done hard physical work for 14 hours every day and still kept the whole month fasting....
So i know by experience that it can be done?...
You eat more high calorie food in the night and compensate for the day