A Christian woman in the U.K. claims she lost her job after being targeted by Islamic extremists:
Nohad Halawi, who worked at Heathrow Airport, is suing her former employers for unfair dismissal, claiming that she and other Christian staff at the airport were victims of systematic harassment because of their religion.
She claims that she was told that she would go to Hell for her religion, that Jews were responsible for the September 11th terror attacks, and that a friend was reduced to tears having been bullied for wearing a cross.
Mrs Halawi, who came to Britain from Lebanon in 1977, worked in the duty-free section as a perfume saleswoman of the airport for 13 years but was dismissed in July.
Her case is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre, who say it raises important legal issues and also questions over whether Muslims and Christians are treated differently by employers.
It comes amid growing concern among some Christians that their faith is being marginalised and follows calls from Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, for Christians to be given greater legal protection in the wake of a series of cases where they have been disciplined or dismissed for practising their faith.
November 29th, 2011 | 9:33 am
The case is not as simple as the article makes out: the Christian Legal Centre has a growing reputation in the UK for backing cases with big PR potential but little substance.
This article explains why the case is more complicated than it first appears:
http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/2011/11/sacked-for-challenging-muslim.html
November 29th, 2011 | 12:26 pm
I agree that it’s almost always the case that “there’s more to the story” than what one party says. But the link to “cranmer’s” website simply amounts to a charge that the woman is lying. That’s not “more to the story”.
He claims that Muslim fundamentalists would not do the things she is charging, but I think it’s just as likely that she is using the term “muslim fundamentalist” to mean “unfriendly aggressive people who identify as muslims and treat others badly who aren’t muslim.” There certainly are such people in the world, marked not by their fidelity to the exact demands of a religion but by their exclusivist identity.
I remember when the US dumped Osama bin Laden’s body in the sea. They said they wanted to do this to prevent people from turning his tomb into a “shrine.” Then there were tons of websites saying “no, Muslim fundamentalists are opposed to shrines, they would never do that.” Followed a couple days later by stories that the place where he was killed had turned into an un-official shrine, that people were visiting to pay homage to OBL, and where pamphlets on Al-Qaida were being distributed. So much for the experts.
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