A Muslim truck driver has filed a court suit in Tennessee against his employer, saying he was fired for refusing an assignment to transport beer, according to a Muslim advocacy group.
Ibrahim Barzinji, who is Kurdish and lives in Nashville, was granted the right to file the federal lawsuit against ex-employer JB Hunt Transport Services by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission earlier this week, …
Barzinji said he was told to go to a brewery to pick up a load of beer for the return trip. “I called my dispatcher and said, ‘I can’t do this. It’s against my religion,’” he told the newspaper.
Muslims are forbidden to deal in any way with alcohol.
Hooper said a similar case arose a few years ago in Minneapolis where Muslim taxi drivers refused to ferry passengers who carried alcohol purchased at airport duty-free shops. It was settled by having the drivers skip those fares, he said.
utd, the bolded part is for you.
ahmadjee, its a separate discussion whether the fatwa is right or not. But its a free country that tolerates religious sensitivities of people. If a person is saying he does not want to indulge in transporting beer, reassign him to something else. Why force him, or fire him? I am sure this transportation company does not deal only in beer, that if someone can’t transport it, he is of no use to the Company. I am reasonably sure that this lawsuit will be settled in the favor of muslim driver.
Faisal Bhai, I am all for accommodating religious sensitivities but when someone claims in a lawsuit saying ‘it’s against my religion’ then it does become an issue of if it is really against his religion that shared by a billion other people or is it just him?
I want to sue my company for making me work with the Indians, cos I think it's aganist my religion.
At one time, I was working on a government project to implement a new Information System and they said that they need flexibility in the system that some people won't have Social Security Numbers. Since SSN was a key data point to differentiate individuals, we asked how is it possible that some people won't have an SSN. And they replied, well some people have a religious belief that they should not have any numerical number to identify them, so they don't get an SSN. How their religion goes around telling them not to have an SSN beats me, but the point is, whatever their religious belief's may be, these are respected.
Plus there is a reasonable argument (you may not agree with it) that it is haraam to deal with all alcoholic products. So lets leave it at that.
Bhaijaan, let me assure you that if he has been in the trucking business for some time, he must have hauled alcohol related items. Generally it is not required to detail what is being shipped to any shipping / transportation company. When the big giant grocery stores ship their stuff, they don't mark the trucks alcohol free!!
I think after he finishes with this lawsuit, he should sue his employer again for making him transport alcohol and not telling him about it. He can get a pretty good deal on the charge of 'emotional distress'.
Come to think of it, I really wanna work on a project to scheduling trucking business based on religion. A Hindu shouldn’t be hauling beef, a Muslim no pork or alcohol and a Jew should haul nothing but kosher!
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*Originally posted by ahmadjee: *
let me assure you that if he has been in the trucking business for some time, he must have hauled alcohol related items.
Maybe the driver wanted to apply this hadith... Prophet (saw) said: "Jibril came to me and said: O Muhammad, Allah Almighty has cursed wine, and the one who presses it, and the one who has it pressed, and the one who drinks it, and the one who carries it, and the one to whom it is carried, and the one who sells it, and the one who buys it, and the one who serves it, and the one to whom it is served." (Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, Ibn Majah)
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*Originally posted by PakistaniDragon: *
Has he the right to sue his employer or should he have just followed the orders?
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He DEFINITELY has the right to sue his employer. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." Anyone in this great democracy known as the US has the right to sue anyone else on grounds violating their beliefs. Furthermore, this is perhaps the #1 lawsuit-driven country in the world so I'd tell this Kurdish fellow to go right ahead and try to get as much as he can out of this lawsuit. Best of luck to him.
