And you were working in a position where a lot of interaction is necessary (clients, sales, customers, etc), and relationships matter a lot. Pretend this is a manager level position for a big company, and a lot of decisions get made by you just based on the relationship with the other person (which is not unlike how a lot of decisions are made anywhere else in the world).
You are working with a sales person from another company, and he belong to a religion that does not eat meat, but he is Pakistani. That means he doesn’t know what you are talking about when you are telling him about that great bbq restaurant you visited with family, how great your chicken tikka making skills are, and most likely will not join you and your other coworkers when going out to lunch to a burger place or the likes for lunch or some after work snacks. On top of that, come bakhra eid time, he will not even acknowledge that day because it involves sacrificing an animal which his religion strictly prohibits.
Would this fact hurt your relationship with him? Would you think different of him?
Now let’s assume there is another sales guy who belongs to the same religion as the previous guy, and he is down with eating meat ( I swear this doesn’t have a double meaning). He loves your long tales of making the best chicken tikka, and even adds his own stories. He loves eating BBQ, and joining you and your coworkers for lunch and can chow down 10 burgers at a time. And during Bakhra Eid, he will heartily send you a Happy Eid mubarak email and even accept your invitation for a Bakhra Eid lunch with your family.
Do you find it easier to work with this guy more than the other guy? What do you think about the fact that he doesn’t care what his religion says about eating meat?
And before you start, when I was in Pakistan last, late 90s, eating out was a big activity and weekend entertainment, and I don’t recall anyone eating just a salad. Meat items were absolutely necessary.