More Nonsense from Little Green Footballs?

March 15, 2007 3:51 AM

was bored the other day, so I decided to go check in on Little Green Footballs to see if they were still up to their racist crap. Turns out, they definitely are. But what I found most interesting was this post.

The story the post refers to is about observant Muslim employees at Target that, due to their religious beliefs, refuse to so much as scan products that contain pork, such as pepperoni pizzas or packages of bacon. The post then rants about this, and the comments are pretty much just variations on the theme.

But it got me thinking: what's the right line to draw here? Ultimately, my answer comes down to the fact that you should accept the consequences of your choices. Here's my analysis: On some level, the observant Muslim has chosen to be an observant Muslim. That choice, of course, is neither good nor bad in and of itself, but it comes with certain consequeces. For example, it is my understanding that observant Muslims are required to pray five times a day. That's fine--that comes along with being an observant Muslim. Another consequence, apparently, is being unable to handle pork products.

Now you've got Target, or any other employer, who requires their employees to do certain things. Every job has a list of requirements: pizza delivery drivers need to have valid driver's licenses, lawyers need to have law degrees, construction workers need to have arms, Target employees need to be able to scan the products Target sells. So, if an observant Muslim wants a job at Target, they have a choice: working at Target might require them to do something that is against their religion. They are free to take the job or not. Of course, Target has a choice, too: they can decide how accomodating they're going to be. Here, it looks like Target decided to be relatively accomodating; they just call in another scanner to scan the particular item, just like the Copps by my house has the underage kid call in a manager to scan my booze. It's not a big deal, and it's way better than having to defend yourself against accusations that you don't hire Muslims.

Of course, I think that Target would have been justified in choosing not to be so accomodating; requiring that employees meet certain requirements or be able to do certain things--as long as that requirement is applied evenly--isn't discrimination. It's just keeping the customer satisfied.

The point of all this is that the people at Little Green Footballs are wrong for seeing Target's accomodation of Muslim employees as "another intrusion of extremist shari’a law into US society." I don't often say this, but those words evince an attitude of intolerance and ignorance that is, frankly, nothing short of paranoid islamophobia.

And besides, what the fuck kind of a name is "Little Green Footballs," anyway?

1 Comments

TheExpat said:

Good post. I especially like that your title seems to suggest that our freind in Albany has something to do with this pack of bobble-headed yahoos on the widdle gween footballs blog.

March 16, 2007 5:18 PM

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