Fair enough. But everyone's beliefs and values still come with a responsibility to live by them. Meaning that, if it's reasonable for you to think that a particular (current or potential) employer will ask you to do things that are repugnant to your personal sense of values...you are responsible for finding a different employer.

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Well said...

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Well, I'm a great believer in 'Render unto Caeser that which is Caeser's'. Which in my translation that means that there are things on earth we should address before we move on to worrying about what happens when we finally croak it!

On the other hand, why shouldn't we debate as to how many angels can fit on the head of a pin. After all, that's what most of the Catholic clergy did for over a hundred years! What a bloody waste of time!

On a final note, I'm wondering, Matt, why you went off into the heights of hypotheticals and managed to turn that taxi-driver into a zealot! I am talking about a 'real' person not a hypothetical. Strewth!!

The Jewish religion also forbids the eating of pork.

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Lucky is he (sic) who has been able to understand the causes of things
Virgil

The article states it was SOME stores in an area where there was a high East African population. It aso seems as if the store was able to handle it. I'm not even sure why this is news.

I know food outlets that are owned by non Muslim people who only sell halal food, because a large percentage of their client base is Muslim - is this news worthy?

If I look at my local supermarket, with a high percentage of Chinese and other Asians in the area, a lot of the items stocked are different from what I will find at another from the same chain.

Is this news worthy? Is it news worthy that there are some products I like to buy that are not for sale there, because there are so few of us caucasians in this area that its not viable for the store to stock them?

Should I kick up a stink because I have to go elsewhere to buy what I want?

Should we all do an evaluation of what our local supermarkets stock/don't stock and find out who is being discriminated against in our local area?

But apart from that - I am also amazed that the checkout operators ARE making a fuss - and I'd probably want a bit more information about the actual numbers involved before I formed an opinion.

It doesn't fit with my experience. Most Muslim zealots probably wouldn't work for Target - they would either be working in a relative's store (and possibly not being paid proper wages), or they would smile nicely and bide their time, and telling their cronies about all the disgusting things that we infidels buy, and how disgusting we are when they go home.

Handling pork products that are properly wrapped would not be an issue, and if they were meatworkers they would probably be working in a halal workplace.

No, that's not true at all. A person's job responsibility is established by his/her employer, and that responsibility is to do the bare minimum required to not be canned. And the Muslim cashiers are all doing that.

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Life only becomes meaningful at its extremes

-- S

I'd disagree, a cashiers job is to ring up those products that a customer brings to them for purchase, since the store stocks pork products then it is the cashiers responsibility to ring those up as well. So they are not doing the bare minimum required of them.

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England has no eternal friends and no eternal enemies, only eternal interests - Palmerston

I'd feel the same, when working in those type of positions one must leave their personal beliefs at home.

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Anyone who thinks freedom comes cheap, please put the blindfold on and stand against the wall.

Many times I believe Americans will have to take back the country and start a new government.

I'm not trying to turn anyone into a zealot. Simply exploring the boundaries we are talking about. Seems to me that's kind of the point of having a conversation, at least with some people.

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

Well, daisy if you look at my first post to this thread I did question its validity.

It's all a bloody storm in a teacup. The sooner we get rid of this evil that divides and antagonises us the better.

Btw, I'm reading 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins, therefore, I'm getting rather peeved at all this kerfuffle about various religions. I don't agree with Dawkins on everything he says, but goodness me he makes more sense than this thread! I do agree that it is time that we atheists stood up and loudly, and proudly, proclaimed....I Am An Atheist!

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Lucky is he (sic) who has been able to understand the causes of things
Virgil

LOL

"I believe in the non-existance of something I cannot prove does not exist. Way better than you fools who believe in the existence of something you cannot prove does exist!"

Atheism has become a religion unto itself.

Agnostics have the only intellectually defensible position - "I don't know"

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum

Well, yes, but why turn it into an extreme case? That's what alarmed me. Anyway, as a 'loud and proud' atheist I have had to tolerate all the stupidity and intolerance that a Christian or whoever has felt compelled to share with me down the years.

Even the nefarious and semi-criminal cults have had the gall to accost me in the street and ask me if I want to take a "Personality Test". I haven't got one, I snarl as I try to dodge around them. Others want to share their 'assurance' with me. Hari Krishnas try to sell me food full of honey and/or sugar which has no nutritional value whatsoever! I have the Jehovah's Witnesses knocking on my door while I'm in the shower. The Mormon's want me. One lot, the Catholics, have always aligned themselves with the forces of reaction never enlightenment. Another lot, the Christian Right, want to wipe us all off the fact of the earth in the name of their 'rapture'!!

And you are all whinging about a few Muslims who don't want to handle pork!!

Get over yourselves!!

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Lucky is he (sic) who has been able to understand the causes of things
Virgil

Fence-sitters get a picket up their bum!

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Lucky is he (sic) who has been able to understand the causes of things
Virgil

OUCH!

Argh! Sorry daisy, no OFfence intended!!!

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Lucky is he (sic) who has been able to understand the causes of things
Virgil

It's not an extreme case. We've had Muslim cab drivers refuse to pick up fares who were carrying alcohol.

Get over yourself, dearie.

Just as I protest the JWs and Mormons coming to my door to shove their religion down my throat, I protest the Muslim trying to do it at the checkout.

Would you be OK with your cashier slipping a Watchtower into your grocery bag when you check out?

Matt

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De duobus malis, minus est semper eligendum