Update September 17th: As of yesterday, Swift had not fired any Somali workers here.
Update: If you are having trouble following all this Somali/meatpacker controversy on-going in Greeley and now Grand Island, see our new category.
And the beat goes on…. What is their beef? It’s Ramadan, what else, and Somali workers are protesting because their employer, who else, Swift & Co., is not letting them pray in the middle of the shift. From the Grand Island Independent:
A group of 500 Muslim workers from Grand Island’s JBS Swift & Co. plant staged a protest Monday afternoon.
Members of the B shift (3 to 11:30 p.m.) and some members of the morning A shift walked off the job after being denied time to pray during what they said is the holiest of times for them — Ramadan.
A group of protesting women said they were kicked by a supervisor when they attempted to pray at work.
Asha Abdi said she knelt to pray when the supervisor said, “You can’t pray here,” kicked her feet and told her to go home.
Another woman, Hawo Mohammed, said she told her production supervisor she needed to go to the bathroom. She attempted to pray quickly in the bathroom until the male supervisor followed her in and told her she was taking too long.
“The main point is freedom for religion,” said Ridwan Abbi, a second-shift production worker who gladly supported his peers.
Calling all doubters! Tell me now that this isn’t a planned and orchestrated campaign. Listen to this guy:
“The company said we aren’t going to give you any time to pray, but this is a free country,” said Ahmed Abdi, a spokesman for the largely Somalian group, who formerly worked at the plant. “We are Muslim and this country is about freedom.”
Notice he formerly worked at the plant and the woman who claims she was kicked has the same last name (wife, sister, maybe?). These are most likely community organizers sent by someone to Grand Island, NE. Just as I’m predicting the whole mess at the Swift plant in Greeley, CO is orchestrated. This is to send a message to American businesses, accommodate Islam, or we will give you hell. Bets on when CAIR arrives on the scene?
To the US State Department: What the hell were you thinking when you gave 83,000 Somalis airfare to get here. Or, for that matter, when you gave a tea party send-off to Somali illegal aliens in Malta recently.
And, to Swift & Co., I do feel sorry for you, but if you had stuck with American workers and paid them a decent wage (I’m willing to pay more for meat) then you wouldn’t be in this deep stuff now.
New readers, see this post about the stealth jihad and how Shariah is creeping into Minnesota and into America. Religious accommodation is an early step. We need only look at the UK, a country further along in the process, to know what is in store for us.
More from last spring on Somali problems in Nebraska here.