More Pork

A story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune last week reported that Muslim cashiers at Target stores in the area have refused to scan and bag bacon for customers, saying that because eating pork is against their religious beliefs, selling it to customers amounts to encouraging others to sin. In the article, customer Beryl Dsouza described a recent experience....

"She made me scan the bacon. Then she opened the bag and made me put it in the bag. It made me wonder why this person took a job as a cashier."

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-uspork185134899mar18,0,6742319.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-print

Some Muslim cashiers at the store would apparently call other cashiers over to scan the bacon rather than ask the customer to do so, which of course resulted in delays. Customers like Dsouza were rightfully outraged, as were those who read of the practice in the newspaper article.

Target now says it is reassigning its Muslim cashiers to other jobs in the store. That is preferable to what was happening previously, but the problem is the slippery slope that this creates. What's next.... Catholics won't scan beef jerky on Friday? Vegetarians won't scan meat at all? Vegans won't scan milk and eggs? People who think circus peanuts are gross won't scan those?

The fact that anyone would take a job that he or she can't fully perform due to religious beliefs, then expect the employer to change the nature of the job to accomodate those beliefs is an outrage.

Note: See related blog entry on a similar topic from Friday, March 16th