Home Depot hit with Discrimination Charge

Mark Absher

11-24-10

2:30PM

A man has filed a federal lawsuit against Home Depot claiming religious discrimination. He claims that Home Depot did not find a full time job for him after his position as a receiving clerk was eliminated. He applied for another full time position but was not hired. He believes it is because he would not work on Sunday’s, is the reason he was not hired in another position. As a Roman Catholic he believes in following the Sabbath, which for them means working on Sunday’s is a sin. What is particularly damaging for Home Depot in the lawsuit is that it alleges that another employee was allowed to not work Saturday’s for “educational purposes.” I was a manager at Lowe’s for years and have some experience dealing with these types of situations. As a non-management employee you are bound to let them off to worship and the like. What will be difficult to prove for the former employee is that the reason they did not hire him is because of the no work on Sunday’s issue. Either way this is a messy situation for Home Depot and something we always tried to avoid at my former employer because of the nasty nature of such a suit. This is a social problem if the employee was truly discriminated against. Part of the freedom of religion has interpreted by the Court’s as freedom to worship and that employers must work around the beliefs of its employees. While this can be difficult for companies, it allows true freedom of religion. It keeps people from being unable to work because of their convictions, a fundamental American right.




http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/hd_brief-worker-sues-home-depot-claiming-religious-discrimination-1325928.html

Christian's Statistically Most Peresecuted

Mark Absher

11-19-10

9:50

Statistically people of Christian faith continue to be the most discriminated against. They make up 75% of the total number of people every year who are discriminated against. While other religious beliefs take up most of the media coverage for discrimination, it is important to remember that Christians are persecuted too. While we live in a country that has seemingly little discrimination, we are not completely free from it. India is an example where Christians are the minority, making up only a little over 2% of the population. This had lead to them being dominated by the majority groups, leading to and including acts of violence. This article is addressing the discrimination from the perspective of the European Union, and how they could do more to stem the tide of persecution throughout the world. One example of the power they could exert, mentioned in the article, is by financially withholding from countries that openly allow discrimination. The article also mentions how it is not just pure violence or not allowing them to work, but “Persecution may include also obstacles to the proclamation of faith, confiscation and destruction of places of worship or prohibition of religious training and education.”
As I have mentioned over my previous months of blogs, this is a social problem. Discrimination tends to have a trickledown effect. As we allow, or not openly fight, discrimination it could absolutely get worse. As this article demonstrates, discrimination includes all religious faiths, Christian, Muslim, Jew, and all others as well. We must stem the tide of intolerance before it is too late.





http://www.neurope.eu/articles/Persecution-against-Christians-remains-unnoticed/103691.php

Indonesia Under International Scrutiny

Mark Absher

11-11-10

9:30AM

Once again the country of Indonesia and its government has come under fire. The Religious Affairs Minister, Suryadharma Ali has been denounced by international human rights organizations for his stand against the Ahmadiya. The New York based Human Rights Watch has written a letter to Indonesian President Yudhoyono denouncing the discrimination of this Islamic sect. This sect is comprised of nearly 200,000 Indonesians and is different from mainstream Islam because of their belief that Mohammad was not the final prophet. The Minister of Religious Affairs has been heavily scrutinized for his push since 2006 to have the sect banned and for his 2006 decree that makes it very difficult for minority religions to build houses of worship. The result has been a tacit approval of discrimination against this sect and an increase in violence towards those who follow it. The Human Rights Watch has alleged that the Minister’s stance is due to his own religious beliefs and does nothing but foster hate and fear.
The problem with this is that it fosters a hostile environment for freedom. As areas of the world, such as Indonesia, continue to have policies like this, it spills over into other areas of the world. As the discrimination grows other areas of freedom will come under attack. It’s the typical government model, as it gains power, to discriminate against religion for instance; it rarely gives this power up without a significant fight. So we see that this is a social problem, even for us thousands and thousands of miles away. The only viable solution is what this human rights group is doing, shining the spotlight on the persecution.



http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/home/indonesian-president-urged-to-take-minister-to-task-over-ahmadiyah/405011

Deported, to be Persecuted Again?

Mark Absher

11-4-10

4:15PM

The Correa’s are a family who fled Argentina 10 years ago to find a better life in the United States. In Argentina they were harassed, for working for an American company at the time, and for being Mormon. They received taunts when in Argentina, including the wonderfully original “Go away Yankee Mormon.” (Note sarcasm) This is a family of hard working, family oriented people, a husband and wife and two teenage children, ages 14 and 17. So in order to have a more normative life they moved to the United States on a 90 day visa waiver. This waiver, unbeknownst to them, left them with little avenue for permanent residency and in limbo while their appeals to stay remained.
The fault to be levied at this family is that they did not follow protocol to attain residency. They were no informed that they would have a case to claim asylum, and they did so after living here for two years. Unfortunately petitions for asylum must be filed within the first year of living in the country. So this petition was rejected. This is just another example of the flaw in our system. Those who are being persecuted are the ones we should welcome in this country. As we discussed in class, we have such stringent rules on immigration, asylum and the like that it is difficult to assimilate these displaced ones who want to be part of our country. Dr. Sills mentioned how those we take in asylum we give a few months of rent and bills and then basically throw them to the wolves. Families like the Correa’s are an asset to our country and we are sending them now back to be persecuted and downtrodden.




http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700078471/Family-who-fled-anti-Mormon-anti-American-sentiment-will-be-deported-Thursday.html

No "Christian" Video's for Uzebekistani's

Mark Absher

10-28-10

6:00PM

Murat Jalalov was found guilty recently of owning one “Christian” video recently. He nearly received a 15-day jail sentence, but instead was assessed a massive fine. This is not an uncommon thing in Uzbekistan unfortunately. This man, who was a Protestant, joined many others in this country by being oppressed by the government. In 2010 alone Jehovah’s Witnesses claim to have paid fines on more than 100 occasions for their religious efforts. This country, Uzbekistan, levies fines and threatens imprisonment to religious groups who do not have the requisite permits. This has drawn a large amount of scrutiny from the international community. The government of Uzbekistan claims that the video’s that have been confiscated can be used “among local ethnicities for missionary purposes.” The judge at first told Murat that he would be imprisoned for 15 days, but later backed down and instead fines him the equivalent of around 1900 US dollars. To put this amount in perspective, in this part of the country the average wage is around 30 US dollars a month. As evidenced by this we can see how this former Soviet state is following in lock-step with the Russian government to limit freedom of religion.
This is another case of a severe social problem. It meets the criteria set out at the beginning of our study in this course. It is evident that people view this as an infringement on basic freedoms, as the international community continues to lobby for changes in this part of the world. Will there be a quick resolution? History tells us no. What is intriguing about this case is how the judicial branch is right in step with the local government to make a point with this huge fine and threaten imprisonment. We have studied about crime, crime rates, roots of crime, and more relevant the prison population of various parts of the world. This can not seem like a crime from my perspective, heck it was just a movie in the man’s private home. Change is needed.


http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id=1502

Is this discrimination?

Mark Absher

10-21-10

9:00AM

Oregon passed a Domestic Partnership Law in 2007. This law was designed to accommodate homosexual couples. This court case is based on a county employee, Kathy Slater, who asked to be excused from doing the filing of these partnerships. She works in the clerk of court’s office, along with several others. The court case revolves around her asking to not have to file these partnership based on her religious convictions that those types of relationships are wrong. Her case is that since each filing only takes ten minutes she could have easily handled other types of partnerships and clerical duties while the others in the office handled the homosexual partnerships. So far the court has concluded that the counties effort to relocate her to another department was not sufficient enough.
This is where states, local governments, and corporations make ridiculous mistakes. All they had to do was break up the duties to accommodate this lady and the problem is solved. Instead, this lady loses her job and now they are embroiled in a lawsuit that costs, the taxpayers in this instance, lots of money and time. If we truly advocate for freedom of religion, why can we not just make this small accommodation and have this lady stay true to her beliefs, as constricting as they may seem, and allow those who are not offended by this simple statute handle these cases. The downside to this type of issue is it further divides people; it pits citizens against citizens, over small mundane issues. I’m flabbergasted at the inability for groups of people, even with very different belief structures, to hash things out instead of tying up the already over-burdened court system with trivial pursuits.








http://www.onenewsnow.com/Legal/Default.aspx?id=1210178

Russia's Fear of Non-Mainstream Religions

Mark Absher

10-13-10

1:00PM

Russia continues to be scared of religions not in the mainstream of its ideology. In a letter sent from the Deputy Director of the Department of Labour and Social Security said that some “destructive sects and groups whose activities are causing irreparable damage to society.” One of the goals of these people is to have hospitals and doctors to record when some people refuse medical treatment. This is specifically aimed at Jehovah’s Witnesses and their well known stance on refusing blood transfusions and some other religions that refuse certain medical services. The country seems resolute to target religions who refuse military service, blood transfusions, and who are not totally devoted to the community or country. Some of the some 265 groups that are on the list are the aforementioned Jehovah’s Witnesses, for their so-called “unfriendly attitude towards other churches”, the Mormon’s, the Church of Scientology, and Seventh Day Adventist’s.
The scary part of this is that it seems to be a regression back to the communist days of Russia’s not so distant past. Back then most religious groups were outright banned. Now, instead of banning them, they keep pressure on the groups to limit growth, literature distribution and the like. This is a social problem because it impacts are significant portion of the population and is being noticed by more and more people. The question is whether the Russian people will stand up against intolerance and push for a real democracy that supports freedom of religion, which is a principle tenet to a free society. Solution? Keep educating the people. As we learned in Chapter 4, education leads to a more aware and tolerant society. That is, education that is not propaganda nonsense, but true education, liberal education, that liberates the mind.









http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Moscow’s-measures-against-extremist-sects-19451.html

Crazy in the USA

Mark Absher

10-07-10

9:45PM

This topic has been weighing on me since I decided on religious division as my topic, and I would be remiss if I didn’t admit I was looking for an excuse to write about it. Fortunately, the Supreme Court heard a case involving them, so it worked out perfect. I am referring to the Westboro Baptist Church. These people are the ones who go ahead and protest funerals of soldiers, blaming their deaths on gays in America, divorce, abortion, and anything else their pitiful God condemns. This particular case pits them against the family of Matthew Snyder, a 20year old who died in Iraq in 2006. His family is suing this organization for protesting at his funeral, and causing “intentional emotional distress.” The family initially won a big settlement, but it was doomed to be overturned in appeal and then made it to the Supreme Court.
The problem for the Snyder family is this, they can’t win. It is truly that simple. In fact, I’m so convinced they’ll lose that I’m shocked the court agreed to hear the case. 1st amendment cases are treaded on very lightly by the court, for fear of any precedence that would limit this speech. The problem on the flip-side, is that this is one thing 99.9% of Americans can agree on these days, that these people are out of their $#*^! minds! You want a textbook social problem as we have discussed, it is these nuts saying God Hates Obama, and Thank God for Dead Soldiers. The only problem is they aren’t a large enough problem to warrant any response, that and we are restricted on doing much by the 1st amendment. This is where religion shows it true colors, we bash Muslims all the time, we being the ignorant so-called “Christian” Americans. Yet, our fringe fundamentalists are just as nuts, if only less violent. Grow up you sick Baptists. Take your ignorant beliefs and silly pitiful God back to Kansas and stay there.




http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-10-06/news/bs-md-snyder-arguments-20101006_1_sean-e-summers-westboro-baptist-church-protests

Even in Mainstream America

Mark Absher

10-01-10

10:45AM


In March of 2008, an 18 year-old woman applied for a job at Abercrombie and Fitch. She describes herself as an avid shopper of the brand, but with one anomaly, she wear’s headscarves as part of her religious beliefs. The store she applied at was in the Bay Area of California, in the city of Milpitas. During the interview, the manager asked her if she was Muslim and required to wear the head covering for religious reasons. Then, the manager made the key mistake, marking the “not Abercrombie look” on the interview form. The lawsuit from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission states that Abercrombie and Fitch violated Federal law by not granting an exception to the companies “look” policy. What is most damaging to the company is that this is the second such lawsuit they have had to face due to non-accommodation of Muslim potential employees.
This is sad, yet not surprising. As we have studied, religious division is a global problem, with differing religious views struggling to accommodate each other. We have also studied about migration patterns, and it shows that in areas like Northern California there is a growing Muslim population, so not only is Abercrombie and Fitch behaving unethically, they are also hurting their chances with a new customer base. While they may have certain “look” in mind when they interview and hire, they need to see big picture issues. I know its piling on to just blame Abercrombie as they are not the only ones engaged in these types of practices, but they must revisit their “look” policy. This lawsuit alone will cost them a lot of money, and cause even more damage to the brand, and most importantly loss of customers. It’s time to grow up as a people and put an end to this prejudice.



http://www.indiawest.com/readmore.aspx?id=2483&sid=1

Not Enough Mosque's in Moscow?

Mark Absher
9-23-10
9:00am

Due to the lack of Mosques in Moscow some Muslims may have to resort to praying in churches. As the Muslim population continues to expand in Russia, and really in the rest of the world as well, the Muslims are meeting resistance. In Moscow there are nearly one million Muslims, yet they claim to only have four Mosques. So recently they attempted to attain permits and the like to build a new Mosque in a “green” area of Moscow. People, non-Muslims, demonstrated against this proposed building. The local residents claimed that the addition of a Mosque in this area would lead to traffic and parking congestion, and funniest of all would lead to endangerment of their dogs. I was not aware that some Muslims view dogs as the incarnation of the devil, but this is what some claim.
What solution do some offer? Well, the Orthodox Church has allowed Muslims to use their churches for prayer. Obviously, that does not suit all of their needs but could be a temporary fix. Some also claim that the Muslim’s claim of a million faithful in Moscow is overstating their true numbers and that besides the four main Mosques there are numerous smaller Mosques.
This is another example of countries failing to reach amicable solutions. The Christians are afraid of Muslim’s moving into to their comfort areas, so instead of reaching out they make half-hearted attempts at peace, in the case the use of their churches. Why not allow them the same privilege to worship in their own Mosque or church or temple or whatever they use? There will always be fear of the unknown and the minority but the only true resolution is to embrace, learn, and accept those that are unlike us. Russia has had a hard time of this, going from Communism which banned almost all church type activity, to its pseudo form of Democracy. Maybe its growing pains in this regard will die down; it just does not seem likely to happen any time soon.



http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Moscow,-Muslims-may-end-up-praying-in-churches-19500.html

Non-"Traditional" Religions a Threat in Russia

Mark Absher
9-17-10
9:15AM

In Russia, a divide is becoming more and more apparent in the government’s stand against certain religions. The country has a long standing policy of dividing religious organizations into two broad categories, traditional and everybody else. The government supports the “traditional” religions. What makes this so interesting and divisive is that this stand is nowhere espoused in law. In fact, it all comes from a position that the government takes without having the law or constitution to back it. This policy originates from the Russian Orthodox Church. Disappointingly, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev have begun to subscribe to this. The government even views those of these not “traditional” faiths as “increasing the terrorist threat” in the country. So this beckons, who is under the umbrella as a “traditional” church? Only four religious groups actually. They are Russian Orthodox, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism. Ironically, even offshoots of these main religions are not under the umbrella or recognized by the government. Christian religions such as Jehovah’s Witnesses have experienced problems being recognized and even faced some forms of persecution.
So, what does this mean for the Russian people? If you aren’t a strict subscriber to these four main religions you will have difficult time being able to have meeting places and even though their constitution provides protection for some freedom of religion, your efforts will be hindered. This separatist attitude that the Russian government is showing will do nothing but further divide a divided country. Yes, what we as Americans have learned is that by accepting differences it makes a stronger nation as a whole, obviously a concept not yet accepted by the Russian hierarchy. They are trying to curb terrorism, which is a natural thing to do, but the question remains, is this the way to go about it? I would say no, even though there are hints of some on the fringes of the political spectrum here in America who would probably do the same thing. Russia is due to have some growing pains in its fledgling semi-democracy, hopefully they find their way.


http://www.eurasiareview.com/201009178299/moscows-division-of-religions-into-traditional-and-all-others-heightens-terrorist-threat.html

Burning the Koran and Freedom of Speech?

Mark Absher
9-10-10
11:00 AM
Dominating the news lately has been this preacher from Gainesville Florida and his planned Koran burning. Now, the world is reacting. In an article from the Sydney Morning Herald, it documents some of the leaders of the world and their reaction. The normally reserved Canadians made mention of how it would fan the “flames of intolerance.” The Canadians worried for the safety of their small-armed contingent in Afghanistan if the burning took place. The Pakistani government called it a “despicable” act. In Iraq, President Al-Maliki said it would be used as a “pretext for me killings.” So with all this, and more, international outcry, what would happen? At the time of this writing, the burning is suspended, though “Pastor” Terry Jones said it was still a possibility.
Terry Jones is the “Pastor” of a small church known as the Dove World Outreach Center. This is an ironic name, as the dove is usually a symbol of peace. The church and this supposed holy man seem to be using this issue to try and get publicity, get their message of hate of Islam, and to get the Islamic Center several blocks from ground zero moved. As the article brings out the world is opposed to this man’s plans. Yet, the fact is if he wants to he can. This is what makes America great and the envy of the world. I deplore his intentions and the probable ramifications. The fact remains though, people in the same countries that are condemning the burning have repeatedly through the years burned the flag and besmirched “Christianity.” When they do this, do American zealot’s suicide bomb their markets, buildings, and schools? No. Yet this is what we are fearful of as retribution. It seems to be a hypocritical stance by much of the world. Can’t we all just get along? Let me be frank, I think this preacher is an idiot, he speaks worse than W Bush, and sounds asinine in his arguments, but he has constitutional grounds.



http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/world-condemns-planned-us-koran-burning-20100910-153g6.html

A Country Divided

Mark Absher
9-2-10
8:00

Early this week the Religious Affairs minister in Indonesia said that the sect Ahmadiya should be disbanded. This particular religious group is an offshoot of Islam, the major difference being that they do not believe Muhammad was not the final prophet. In Indonesia there are somewhere around 200,000 followers of this sect. This is not a new stance taken by the Indonesian government, in fact they have been working in this direction since 2008 when they banned the group from propagating their beliefs. The President, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has yet to comment on the situation. He seems content to allow the religious violence and oppression to continue.
The issue the government is using as a reason to keep the pressure on the Ahmadiya's is that they did not follow the instruction in 2008 to stop propagating their faith. The Ahmadiya's claim they are being infringed and their human rights impeded and that they should be legally protected. They claim that they were sanctioned way back in 1954.
This is just another example of religious intolerence and oppression. In this area of the world if you are not part of the religious mainstream, violence and depravity are likely results. You would think more reaction from the international community would occur. Hopefully as stories like this continue to penetrate the media more reaction and pressure from the rest of the world will react and intervene.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Indonesian-Religion-Minister-Wants-Ahmadiyah-Sect-Disbanded--101918633.html