Yesterday, when I wrote about Islam Expert(?) Frankie Martin’s views on Somalia, I came across this article by Martin at the Huffington Post from October. The article is entitled, “Hundreds of Somali Muslims fired for praying.” In fact they were fired for walking off the production line, so even the title is an attempt to gain the readers sympathy for the Muslims right off the bat.
Martin begins:
These are not easy times for Islam in America.
[…..]
In this environment, the recent firings of hundreds of Somali workers in JBS Swift Meat Co. plants in Greeley, Colorado, and Grand Island, Nebraska have taken on an added significance. The workers had demanded and were refused time to pray and break their fast at sundown during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
He doesn’t tell you that when a prayer break time was given that the entire production line must shut down. Since the originally promised break needed to be early in the shift to satisfy Islamic requirements regarding sundown, it meant that all the workers would have a very long (tiring) second half of the shift. The other workers preferred their break midway through the shift. That was the crux of the problem for the other workers of varying nationalities.
I have to give Martin credit though because he is one of the few who have written at all about the clash of cultures within the plants themselves. The Hispanics, mostly, felt that they had been there a long time and resented the newcomers making demands. However as we reported in our extensive coverage of this issue, those protesting against the Somalis were from many countries.
Martin on the culture clash:
There had been tensions building up for some time between the Somali workers and the mainly Latino management of the plant over cultural and religious issues like prayer times. The final straw came when managers grabbed two Somali women who were praying and removed their prayer rugs from under them, which the Somalis viewed as a major religious and cultural insult and attack on their honor. [Editor: These women had left the production line without permission.]
The Somalis reiterated their demand for a short break from the meat assembly line and were granted a break at 7:45 pm for prayer. But then Latino workers protested that the Somalis were being given preferential treatment. Tensions escalated. In response, the management at Swift canceled their offer of 7:45 pm prayer and then, to the ire of the Somalis, pushed the break back to 9:00 pm. This was seen by the Somalis as a deliberate slight to them and as a sign of favoritism to the Latinos.
[…..]
There is also suspicion from Americans fearful that Muslims are not assimilating and are seeking special favors. “We don’t get time to pray at work,” said one white Grand Island women I spoke to, “why should they?” But in reality things are a bit more complex as the real culture clash seemed to occur between immigrant groups within the plant.
Somali’s told Martin, “It’s a win.”
Yet, despite these trials the Somalis still had a strong sense of dignity, of confidence. I asked them how they felt after losing their jobs, and they said they felt great. “This is not a loss for us,” one worker said, “It is a win.” In their minds they had preserved their culture and their religion, Islam — the only thing, it seems, they have left.
Come on Frankie! That is just B.S. Of course it’s a win because this whole event was a set-up from the beginning to force Americans and American places of employment to accomodate Islamic religious demands. They know what they are doing — wearing us down. They have been taught well by the Left, create a “crisis” and force “change.”
For more background on the controversy at Greeley and Grand Island we have an entire category on the subject here.