German Muslims Protest Butcher Shops With Decorative Pigs

Found the following info and link to the original German language article on Facebook. Apparently butcher shops in Cologne, Germany are being targeted by Muslims, mostly angry youth, who found the decorative cardboard pigs displayed in the shop windows offensive. The displays are used to advertise weekly deals.  The shop owners have been subjected to taunts, curses, threats, and their shops have been vandalized.  They have apparently removed the offending piggies.

Murat Kayman, board member of the DTIB (an organization representing over 800 German mosques) has criticized the young Muslim men, claiming they do not fully understand Islam. That even though Muslims are forbidden to eat pork, pigs are still God's creatures.

German language link here. You'll need a page translator.

CAIR Targeting SUBWAY Sandwich Chain For Barring Muslim Couple

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has the fast food restaurant chain SUBWAY (eat fresh) in its crosshairs. It wants an apology and investigation into an incident that occurred at one of its franchises in Louisiana.

Apparently, CAIR is unhappy with how a 63-year-old retired Muslim and his wife were treated at a Shreveport SUBWAY. The man, a U.S. citizen who happens to be of South Asian heritage and lives in New Orleans, stopped off at the Shreveport restaurant for a bite to eat with his wife, but first they paid a visit to the restrooms. The husband then walked outside to wait for his wife. Why? Who knows. One would think that one would wait for one's spouse inside the restaurant, but no, this man did not. When the husband tried to get back inside:

....[he] was blocked at the door by a female SUBWAY employee who allegedly asked him "Are you Muslim?" When the victim replied that he is indeed Muslim, the SUBWAY employee reportedly responded, "We can't serve you." The employee then went inside the restaurant and locked the door behind her. Fearing for his wife's safety and distraught at the violation of his civil rights, the man called 911.

When the Shreveport Police Department arrived, an officer went inside the SUBWAY restaurant and later came out to tell the victim that the manager was "scared" of him and that he "better leave."

According to the CAIR call to action:

[NOTE: The victim is 5'6" and weighs approximately 155 pounds. He wears an Islamic cap, called a "kufi," and a beard for religious reasons. His wife, a teacher, wears an Islamic headscarf, or "hijab."]

He might only be 5'6" and 155 pounds, but that height and weight hasn't stopped young suicide bombers from blowing up establishments. Perhaps had the husband not gone outside to wait, the manager of the store might not have been so wary. Things have changed since 9/11. We have become hyper vigilant because of the continued violence perpetrated in the name of Islam.  On the one hand I feel bad for the old man, it can't be fun to be discriminated against, but it's not our fault we've become fearful.

CAIR is therefore calling on "all people of conscience" to write the president and CEO of SUBWAY, Fred DeLuca demanding an apology.  CAIR's National Legal Counsel  Nadhira Al-Khalili has already written to DeLuca requesting that Subway:

 (1) investigate this troubling incident, (2) offer a formal written apology to the victim and his wife, (3) institute policy changes that will ensure that this type of incident does not occur in the future, (4) offer compensation to the victim and his wife for the humiliation and emotional distress caused by the SUBWAY employee and the police, and (5) participate in a corporate religious sensitivity program for franchise managers.

A copy of the letter was sent to Chief Willie L. Shaw, Jr. of the Shreveport Police Department and to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division.

First of all, this was one incident at one SUBWAY, and the man called the police. Corporate should not be responsible for its franchise owners' actions.

Compensation and religious sensitivity programs?  I hope SUBWAY doesn't cave.

UPDATE:  Van Grungy, in the comments below, has some interesting information.  Apparently, the owner of that particular SUBWAY happens to be a Republican congressman John Fleming, and his side of the story is very different to the one told by the Muslim couple, who have now been identified as Mohammad and Talat Husain.  They allegedly left a mess in the bathroom and were bucking for a confrontation. And according to Fleming, the employee did not ask if  Talat was a Muslim and security video can prove that.

The whole story seemed suspect.

TV Channel Fined For Airing Blasphemous "Simpsons" Episode

I don't think I've ever watched an episode of 'The Simpsons', and other than Homer's famous "Doh" I don't know much about it, but apparently the Turkish people do. They've been watching for almost ten years now. But the TV station that airs the adult cartoon series, CNBC-e, will have to fork over £18,600 after being fined for an episode that was deemed blasphemous by "making fun of God, encouraging the young people to exercise violence by showing the murders as God's orders."

The Halloween special "Treehouse of Horrors XXII"  that aired on September 20 in Turkey had actually aired last year in the U.S.

 In one segment of the episode, titled "Dial D for Diddly", the religiously-devout character Ned Flanders goes on a killing rampage after being given orders by what he thinks is the voice of God. Later in the episode, the Devil demands God bring him a cup of coffee. "Yes sir," God responds, revealing it is actually the Devil that runs the world.

According to RTUK, the state broadcasting regulator the entity that fined CNBC-e:

.. the episode shows "one of the characters is abusing another one's religious beliefs to make him commit murders.

The Bible is publicly burned in one scene and God and the Devil are shown in human bodies."

RTUK also said that God serving the Devil coffee can be considered an insult to religious beliefs.

Mehmet Yilmaz of the Hurriyet newspaper said of the fine:

"I wonder what the script writers will do when they hear that the jokes on their show are taken seriously and trigger fines in a country called Turkey. Maybe they will add an almond-moustached RTUK expert to the series," he added, evoking a popular Turkish stereotype of a pious government supporter.

One of the few, democratic, secular Muslim-majority nations in that region- thanks to its founder and first President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk- it is slowly creeping away from the secular roots that Atatürk fought so hard to maintain, mostly because of the current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a devout, conservative Muslim.

But it's not just mocking religion that can get you in hot water in Turkey, a popular Turkish soap opera was targeted for depicting the famed 16th century Ottoman Sultan "Suleiman the Magnificent" (the one who orchestrated the conquest of  most of the Middle-East, much of Africa and parts of Europe until he was stopped at the Gates of Vienna in 1529), in a not so glamorous light.

The show, 'Magnificent Century', shows the 16th century Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent drinking alcohol and spending more time with his harem than conquering the surrounding lands.

Mr Erdogan – who has been accused of fostering a more reactionary environment – said the owner of the channel that broadcasts the show had been warned and that he expected the judiciary to act.

But to show just how religious and conservative the Turkish people are becoming, the 'Magnificent Century' has garnered 70,000 complaints since January 2011.  They apparently want the  RTUK to ban the show. Touchy.

Sources: TelegraphUK, GuardianUK

Burqa Ban At Factory In Minnesota Prompts Somalis To Walk Off Job

Where I live you don't see burqas, hijabs occasionally but not often. And usually the women who don the head scarves are, laughably, wearing those skin tight, trendy jeans. So much for the whole modesty issue.

But Minnesota, apparently, has quite a few burqa-clad women in the Somali community over there, and a bunch of them just walked off their job at Dianne's Fine Desserts in Le Center because of a new burqa ban instituted by new management. And it's not even a total ban, all they want is for the women to wear leggings or pants for safety measures.

Apparently, a week after Mike Knowles bought Dianne's, a Somali worker's long flowing burqa got caught in a boot washer. Nothing happened to the woman, but in order to prevent any future mishaps they decided to make some changes to the dress code: no "unconstrained cloth below the knees." Shouldn't be a big deal for the Somali women. After all, wearing pants doesn't show skin, and the pants needn't be skin tight. But no deal. They want to be able to wear their burqas, not pants or leggings under company issued skirts.

Shamso Ali is a female Somali Muslim who works at Dianne's factory. She told the Faribault Daily News that as she prepared to begin her shift Monday morning while wearing a burqa, a manager approached her and told her to go change.

"I could not believe it was happening," Ali said. "They asked, 'Will you go change your skirt?' I said, 'No, I cannot.' 'Well, then you need to leave,' they said."

Ali eventually joined 10 other Somali women and about 20 Somali men in walking off the job.

Asher Ali, leader of the Somali Community Center in Faribault, characterized the company-issued skirts as "extremely high, they are way up there... It's like something a model would wear."

Dianne's is complying with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's dictates regarding accommodating the religious beliefs and practices of employees by allowing them to continue to wear the veil. All they are asking is for the women to not wear skirts below the knee, for the safety of all involved. And the company has every right to save itself from potential law suits if a worker gets into an accident.

Knowles, referring to the burqa-caught-in-boot washer incident, said, "when there's a safety incident like that you can't just ignore it... We addressed the safety issue by saying no skirts below the knee but that workers could wear slacks or pants and tuck them into their boots."

Regarding the 30 or so who walked off, Knowles said:

"People can't just walk off the job."

Which means they might not get to keep those jobs. Let's hope he doesn't cave, because I smell a CAIR lawsuit.

NOTE: They are actually referring to a niqab, not a burqa, since you can actually see their eyes.

British Engineer Could Spend 1 Month In Abu Dhabi Jail For Insulting Islam

I can't quite figure out what the appeal of the Gulf countries is, either as an ex-pat worker or a tourist.  The beaches might be lovely but the do's and don'ts in Abu Dhabi and Dubai are extensive and with even the slightest infraction you can end up in jail. I'm sure there's a truckload of money to be made in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) but is it worth the risk? You be the judge:

A British engineer could spend a month in jail because he insulted his Muslim co-workers by telling them in a fit of frustration:

 'When will we finish with the damn mosques?'

Misinterpreting and overreacting, as Muslims are apt to do, his colleagues then tattled on him to the authorities and he wound up in court. The ex-pat (who is appealing the sentence) tried to explain that the 'insult' was not deliberate, and that it was simply his frustration at how slow moving the project was, and that he just

".. wanted it to be ready as soon as possible.'

Apparently he works for Abu Dhabi's parks and recreation and is in charge of designing the gardens surrounding a mosque that has yet to be finished, and obviously taking far longer than it should. 
The engineer will know on February 7 whether he'll be spending a month in jail or be a free man.

If he's smart he'd head on back to England.