# Muslim cashiers won't ring up bacon
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [March 18, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432 "2007-03-18T14:56:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/1 "2007-03-18T14:56:33Z")
At first, I thought this was a joke. [Apparently not.](http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspork185134899mar18,0,6742319.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print)
It does appear, however, to be an isolated incident. But I am forced to ask…if your religion forbids you from doing a certain thing, why would you put yourself in a situation where you might have to do that thing?
---
### Author:  [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/2 "2007-03-18T15:14:40Z")
I feel the same way about pharmacists who will not fill prescriptions for birth control or the morning after pill.
---
### Author:  [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/3 "2007-03-18T15:18:28Z")
Exactly. If your religious beliefs are going to interfere with your job, get another job.
---
### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/4 "2007-03-18T15:25:16Z")
If I remember right, there have also been reports of Muslim cabbies refusing to pick up passengers who’ve been drinking or passengers with dogs. This is getting ridiculous. Why take a service job if you have those restrictions on who you’ll serve?
---
### Author:  [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/5 "2007-03-18T15:25:51Z")
It depends on what the thing is. I’m not comfortable with the idea of ordering pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill or take another job --although I’m not sure that that’s an unreasonable stance for someone else to take(especially the employer of said phramacist).
But if you are a cashier, and you are Muslim and you don’t want to ring up bacon, find a store to cashier at that doesn’t sell bacon. Please.
---
### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/6 "2007-03-18T15:31:08Z")
[QUOTE=Eureka]
It depends on what the thing is. I’m not comfortable with the idea of ordering pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill or take another job --although I’m not sure that that’s an unreasonable stance for someone else to take(especially the employer of said phramacist).
But if you are a cashier, and you are Muslim and you don’t want to ring up bacon, find a store to cashier at that doesn’t sell bacon. Please.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t understand what distinction you are making. If it’s fair to require Muslims to fulfill their job duties, why not Catholics?
---
### Author:  [@dawson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dawson)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/7 "2007-03-18T15:32:38Z")
**Customer refuses to shop at store where clerk let’s his religous beliefs get in the way of fulfilling his job requirements**
\*\*Store loses business, owner fires clerk for not fulfilling his job requrements, \*\*
Problem solved.
---
### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/8 "2007-03-18T15:35:41Z")
[Muslim Cab Drivers Refuse to Transport Alcohol, and Dogs](http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=2827800&page=1)
I think this was already discussed on the SDMB. Not sure if it’s been blown out of proportion. But, some quotes from the article are a little bit troubling.
> [@](#):
>
> Jan. 26, 2007— Commissioners at one of the country’s biggest airports are considering punishing Muslim cab drivers who refuse service to passengers possessing alcohol or guide dogs.
> [@](#):
>
> Over the past 5 years, airport officials say 5,400 passengers have been turned away.
> Some had guide dogs or pets, others were carrying cases of wine from California, or liquor from duty-free shops.
> [@](#):
>
> “This is a public access issue,” says Chuck Samuelson, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, “Bottom line is we are a secular society, and that’s the way it is.”
> [@](#):
>
> Minnesota’s Muslim American Society had offered a compromise measure last year to color code cabs that would not transport alcohol, but the airport commission turned the proposal down.
---
### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/9 "2007-03-18T15:45:47Z")
In reading my previous post I don’t think I made my position clear.
I completely agree that those that do not want to provide a legal service be them Catholics or Muslims or Hobbits need to either make accommodations within their faith or find other employment.
Guide dogs?
---
### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/10 "2007-03-18T15:48:50Z")
The difference with cabbies are that they are usually independant contractors. They rent their cab and get paid if they take a fare. If they sit around at the airport all day refusing fares, they don’t cover their cab rent. That’s their business.
A cashier or a pharmacist (unless they own the store) is costing their employer revenue (or at the very least inconvience for the customers of the store - which probably results in lost revenue). That’s the business of the store owner.
I see no difference between not selling birth control pills and refusing to ring up pork. In some ways, I think the case is better for pork - strict interpretation is that they can’t touch it or sell it - they aren’t judging me for buying it, they simply can’t touch it (work at the Gap, they don’t sell pork products). Whereas with BC pills or the morning after pill, they are applying their moral code to you - i.e. there is no Christian Law that says “thou shall not touch birth controll pills.” I suppose they could say that by being involved in the transaction, they are party to the murder they believe is happening, but then Christians should be fleeing all sorts of behavior that could make them accessories to “murder” - like not working in sporting goods stores where bullets are sold.
---
### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/11 "2007-03-18T15:56:45Z")
By the way, hate this part from the article:
> [@](#):
>
> A customer’s personal preference is usually not a factor in deciding whether a practice is protected, noted Khadija Athma of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington.
>
> A cashier should call over another cashier to scan a product and the shopper shouldn’t be inconvenienced, she said. “If the employee is rude and gasps at the sight of pork, then it’s a different situation,” she said.
You know, anytime I have to wait for anything to happen outside normal when I’m in line at Target, I’m being inconvineced. If it takes two minutes to call another cashier over to ring through the bacon, that’s two minutes of my life. Bullshit, I’m leaving my full cart right there are walking out of the store. You can’t judge whether I’ve run in and am running late to get the kids to piano practice or if I have all the time in the world to stand there so you can meet your religious obligations.
It probably isn’t a HUGE inconvience, its a few minutes from my life. But to say I’m not inconvienced at all - that’s not being at all respectful of my time.
---
### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/12 "2007-03-18T15:57:08Z")
[QUOTE=Eureka]
It depends on what the thing is. I’m not comfortable with the idea of ordering pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill or take another job --although I’m not sure that that’s an unreasonable stance for someone else to take(especially the employer of said phramacist).
But if you are a cashier, and you are Muslim and you don’t want to ring up bacon, find a store to cashier at that doesn’t sell bacon. Please.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t see how you could draw a distinction between the two scenarios. Can you elaborate?
---
### Author:  [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/13 "2007-03-18T15:59:24Z")
[QUOTE=Eureka]
It depends on what the thing is. I’m not comfortable with the idea of ordering pharmacists to fill prescriptions for the morning after pill or take another job --although I’m not sure that that’s an unreasonable stance for someone else to take(especially the employer of said phramacist).
But if you are a cashier, and you are Muslim and you don’t want to ring up bacon, find a store to cashier at that doesn’t sell bacon. Please.
[/QUOTE]
I do find the situation a little odd (since the Muslim cashier almost certainly never touches the bacon itself given that it’s presumably in a plastic package), but it’s a major exaggeration to compare it to the pharmacist not dispensing morning after pills. If you read the article you’ll see that the cashier didn’t prevent the customer from purchasing the bacon; she just had the customer scan and bag it. If a pharmacist refuses to fill an Rx for morning after pills the customer can’t do it herself.
---
### Author:  [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/14 "2007-03-18T16:05:23Z")
[QUOTE=enipla]
I think this was already discussed on the SDMB.
[/QUOTE]
[Yes.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=390347)
---
### Author:  [@kung\_fu\_lola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kung_fu_lola)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/15 "2007-03-18T16:07:57Z")
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
I don’t see how you could draw a distinction between the two scenarios. Can you elaborate?
[/QUOTE]
I am guessing because theoretically, **any** pharmacy could be called upon to dispense those drugs. Standing outside any pharmacy in Anytown, USA, it’s reasonable to think that Birth Control Pills would be sold inside. But no one goes to a flower shop or a clothing store to buy bacon. The set of skills required to work in those places is roughly the same as that required to be a grocery store cashier, so the employees have lots of options as to where they can be gainfully employed, a multitude of which have no possibility of violating their religious beliefs.
---
### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/16 "2007-03-18T16:09:24Z")
Some clerks won’t even engage in the transaction of selling a pork product.
> [@](#):
>
> Muse Dahir told the AP this past week he quit his job at the Sam’s Club in Bloomington after he was transferred from another position to cashiering and was ordered to ring up pork purchases.
>
> Several times on his first day as a cashier, Dahir said, said customers brought pork products to his register. He asked them to take their goods to another register, and a customer complained to management.
>
> “They told me, you have to check this,” Dahir said. “I told them, I can’t do this. You want me to do something that’s against my religion.”
>
> Dahir said a manager told him that was part of the job, so “I just put down my uniform and I left.”
>
> He said it doesn’t matter if the pork product is packaged. **“Even if you just sell it to someone, you break a promise to Allah,”** he said.
[http://wcco.com/local/local\_story\_076144841.html](http://wcco.com/local/local_story_076144841.html)
Cashiers need to sell legitimately marketed products. Pharmacists need to fill legitimate prescriptions.
---
### Author:  [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/17 "2007-03-18T16:10:49Z")
I’ve got no issue (well, I’ve got some issue, but not a lot) with someone saying, “Hey, I’m not supposed to touch this. Can you scan it and bag it?” That’s very different from, “Hey, I’m not supposed to touch this, so you can’t buy it. Next!”
---
### Author:  [@athelas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/athelas)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/18 "2007-03-18T16:19:26Z")
Well, then can they just let you walk out with it? Everyone wins with free bacon.
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/19 "2007-03-18T16:23:40Z")
I’ve never encountered this particular problem, but when I was younger, we had a bellman at our Holiday Inn who was in every other way a good worker — except that he refused, on account of his religion, to give cigarettes to guests. We pleaded with him and gave him fair warning, but eventually had to fire him.
---
### Author:  [@hawksgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawksgirl)
#### Post date: [March 18, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432/20 "2007-03-18T16:29:58Z")
Ok, color me clueless, but can someone explain what the issue was with cabbies and dogs? I’ve never heard of anything like that.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/muslim-cashiers-wont-ring-up-bacon/396432.md?page=2)