To assimilate or not to assimilate? It isn't exactly Shakespeare, but it is a question that a new generation of Muslim immigrants to the United States is asking itself. I've covered this issue extensively for CBN News, including this story in Minneapolis--a city with a large Somali Muslim population--last year. At the heart of the matter is this question: should America's non-Muslim majority bow to the demands of a small but vocal Muslim minority? Or should that small minority assimilate and adapt to the ways of the majority? Traditionally, immigrants in this country have done the latter. Thanks partly to help from some American corporations, not anymore. Here's exhibit A, from The Shelbyville (LA) Times:
Workers at Tyson Foods' poultry processing plant in Shelbyville will no longer have a paid day off on Labor Day, but will instead take the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr in the fall.
A recent press release from the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) stated that a new contract at the Shelbyville facility "implements a new holiday to accommodate the ... Muslim workers at the plant."
The RWDSU stated that "the five-year contract creates an additional paid holiday, Iidal Fitil, a Muslim holiday that occurs toward the end of Ramadan."
Eid al-Fitr falls on Oct. 1 this year.
Tyson's Director of Media Relations, Gary Mickelson, stated that while the new contract does not provide an additional holiday, as the union claimed, "the new contract includes eight paid holidays, which is the same number provided in the old contract."
"However, the union leadership did request and receive Eid al-Fitr (which is apparently spelled various ways including Id al-Fitr and Eid ul-Fitr) as a paid holiday in place of Labor Day," Mickelson confirmed in an e-mail to the T-G.
"Since all Team Members will still have eight paid holidays, the change will not affect production," Mickelson said.
Eid al-Fitr means "Festival of the Breaking of the Fast" in Arabic, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, and marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
The festival "is distinguished by the performance of communal prayer (salat) at daybreak on its first day. It is a time of official receptions and private visits, when friends greet one another, presents are given, new clothes are worn, and the graves of relatives are visited," the encyclopedia said.
Mickelson said that "Eid al-Fitr is one of eight paid holidays for all Team Members covered by the contract, while Labor Day is not a paid holiday."
Read it all. Mickelson goes on to say:
"The union also claimed that in addition to the observance of the Muslim holiday, "two prayer rooms have been created to allow Muslim workers to pray twice a day and return to work without leaving the plant."
I'll take it that the Muslim prayer room is right next to a chapel and/or synagogue for non-Muslim workers?