what happens to a muslim when they eat pork
Hussein Abdullahi chose to exit a cashier job because of his religious objection to handling pork. He represents one terminate of the spectrum of Muslims' opinions on Islam'south rules governing pork.
MPR Photo/Annie Baxter
Muslim cashiers' refusal to handle pork in the check-out line only recently flare-up into the headlines. Simply Hussein Abdullahi dealt with the issue privately a decade a ago. When he first arrived in Minnesota from Federal democratic republic of ethiopia in 1997, he took a chore in a grocery shop and ran into a conflict with his faith.
According to Islamic belief, pork is dirty, and at the very least, should not be eaten.
Abdullahi believes the ban extends much further than not eating pork. He says Islam'due south holy book, the Quran makes it clear that one cannot sell or even touch pork.
"Absolutely not," he says. "Pork is forbidden. We cannot consume it and cannot bear upon it. Pork, if it touches my body, I cannot pray. I accept to clean."
Hussein Abdullahi now co-owns a halal shop, where pork and alcohol products are not offered.
MPR Photograph/Annie Baxter
Abdullahi assumed the store'south owner was a practicing Muslim similar himself, because he was Lebanese. Then Abdullahi was surprised to larn that the store possessor sold pork and booze.
"And I told him that I was sorry I took the job in the first identify. But now I come across these things going on, so I have to give upward my chore and quit. I am Muslim, I cannot sell pork or alcohol," he says.
The shop owner tried to give Abdullahi other job duties like mopping the floor, and so he wouldn't have to handle pork or alcohol. But Abdullahi thought it best to seek work elsewhere to avoid any conflicts with his beliefs.
That beingness said, he's appalled by reports of some local Muslim cashiers refusing to scan pork products, thereby offending some customers. He believes if you take a job that involves handling pork, yous take to live with it or leave.
Leaders of many area Muslim organizations say that virtually Muslims would exercise what Abdullahi did under such circumstances -- simply move on -- if they establish a task'southward pork-handling duties objectionable.
Muslim leaders say those private decisions take kept the issue largely invisible to the public.
But another reason for the consequence'due south lack of visibility is this: many Muslims, including some prominent leaders, don't remember that treatment pork is a problem.
Ali Khan, the national manager of the Chicago-based American Muslim Council, says when it comes to workplace issues, Islam allows an individual's economical needs to trump religious obligations like avoiding pork.
"If your job requires you to move products similar pork from i side of the store to another side of the store to go along your family fed, and then that takes precedence over staying at the mosque all day and praying five times a day," Khan asserts. "So obviously that is part of your job requirement to practice something like that, and you should apply your mutual sense and take care of your family. Now that's the perspective of many mainstream Muslims."
Khan sees the recent events with Muslim cashiers in Minnesota as isolated incidents that are unlikely to spread elsewhere. So far, there are no reports of other similar incidents in the U.Southward. The American Civil Liberties Union has not documented any such cases. And Wal-Mart, the country'southward largest individual employer, says information technology has not encountered any problems with Muslim employees refusing to handle pork. Several Twin Cities lawyers specializing in employment issues say the consequence has never crossed their radar earlier.
Someone who grew up in a urban center where there's lots of Christians and Jews and foreigners would react differently from someone who grew up in a small village where they only encounter people doing things i style.
"A lot of this is media hype," says Hesham Hussein of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.
Hussein says the news media have overblown the issue. And he objects to Ali Khan characterizing cashiers who won't handle pork as outside the mainstream. He says these people are not "extremists," and they're not getting their views from particularly dogmatic imams.
Hussein says some Muslims' caution nigh dealing with pork may well stem from a strict interpretation of the Muslim ban on eating, selling, or promoting items that are not "halal" or permissible -- like pork. But he says information technology would actually be okay for a cashier to browse -- and therefore sell -- pork products, as long as the cashiers are non working at a store that only sells pork.
"For example you're working in a shop that sells items that yous have no problem with, so at that place's a small minority -- 1 percent or 2 percent -- of the items there are not halal, a lot of the Muslim scholars would be of the stance that it's okay to piece of work in that line of business," he says.
Clarity can be hard to come by.
Hesham Hussein says recent reports of Muslim cashiers' refusal to handle pork have overstated the problem. He says many Muslims who object to such job duties simply practice not seek cashier positions.
MPR Photo/Annie Baxter
Jocelyne Cesari, a Harvard University expert on Islam, says the religion lacks hard and fast rules on this issue. She says the obligation to avoid selling pork would typically apply to a store'southward owners, non the employees. Merely she says on these questions, what's permitted and what'south not are not rigidly proscribed.
"In the Islamic tradition, you accept 'in the middle,' lots of nuances that become from tolerated to not recommended," she explains.
Cesari says ethnicity does not business relationship for differing interpretations. In her view, the cashiers' refusal to scan pork products probably has little to do with what state they come from. She says such decisions tend to have more to practise with personal traditions.
"It's not an ethnic specificity more than a religious tendency or religious behavior grounded in a item interpretation," Cesari says.
Hesham Hussein, of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, says it is possible, though, that some Muslims' aversion to treatment pork stems from their experience in their native countries. He says in Minnesota, many Muslims are refugees from areas where pork wasn't a trouble considering it wasn't usually sold.
"Someone who grew up in a city where there's lots of Christians and Jews and foreigners would react differently from someone who grew up in a pocket-size village where they only see people doing things one way," Hussein explains.
That'south how it was for Hussein Abdullahi dorsum in Ethiopia. He said ane might find pork in some areas of the capital, Addis Ababa. Just he says even in other cities with lots non Muslim residents, he never saw pork.
"In Ethiopia, none of u.s.a. are handling pork," he says.
"Even the Christians?" I ask.
"No," he asserts.
But Abdullahi as well provides an case of the variation to be found in Islamic practise. While he strictly avoids pork and refused to sell alcohol, he sees no problem for a Muslim cabby carrying liquor in a taxi.
He says Twin Cities taxi drivers who won't transport passengers carrying booze accept a false interpretation of the issue.
As Abdullahi makes his indicate, his 2-year-erstwhile son hoots in the background, and his married woman scowls in disagreement. She objects to any contact with alcohol.
"She says no touching {alcohol}. If she doesn't like information technology, that'south up to her!" he exclaims.
His wife calls their imam on the phone for clarification.
Both of them talk information technology over with the imam, who confirms Hussein Abdullahi'south interpretation.
"It'southward exactly what I say," Abdullahi declares.
Nonetheless, his wife looks broken-hearted and unconvinced.
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Source: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2007/03/22/muslimfollow
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