Fired Muslim Trucker Sues Company (refused to haul beer)

[Khephra]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A Muslim truck driver is suing his former employer for religious discrimination, claiming he was fired for refusing to haul beer because doing so would violate his beliefs.

Ibrahim Barzinji, 42, filed the federal lawsuit earlier this week against Arkansas-based J.B. Hunt Transport Services. J.B. Hunt declined to comment.

Barzinji had been working just a few months when he drove a load of auto parts to St. Louis in June 2003. He said he was asked to pick up a return load of Budweiser at an Anheuser-Busch plant.

"When I saw it was a beer company, I called my dispatcher and said, 'I can't do this. It's against my religion,'" Barzinji said.

more........

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-brf-muslim-driver-beer,0,3833697.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines

[NMDemDist2]

1. hmmm they didn't ask him to drink the darn stuff

would a Mormon refuse to haul Folgers?

[hightime]

2. The dedicate your life to your God or buy your own truck.

[lapfog_1]

3. I don't see that much difference

between his actions and those, widely commented on here, of pharmacists
who won't sell birth control because it's against their beliefs.

No one was forcing him to drink it.

It's his right to not haul it. It's the trucking companies right to
not employee him because they can't depend on him to haul stuff

[DrWeird]

5. Here's a difference.

One involves medical treatment of a human being. The other's a beer shipment.

[lapfog_1]

7. So... because birth control is medical

that should mean that you have to dispense it, no matter what...
but if its alcohol, it's OK to refuse on religious grounds?

this is bogus.

I wonder where DUers will stand when it's medical marijuana?
If I have a strong religious conviction against drugs, and refuse
to dispense it... is that OK? or not?

I still don't see this. Yes, he could have (and maybe DID) ask
the shipping company that employed him to avoid him trucking
certain shipments... in which case, if they choose to employ him
and then ask him to violate the agreement, they would be at fault.
From the sound of the article, he didn't do that. He hauled something
to St Louis, and then they asked him to haul beer somewhere else.
For them to send another driver and/or truck because he refuses
on religious grounds costs them time and money, and possibly future
business shipping beer...

[DrWeird]

11. There's this thing called the hippocratic oath.

You can't deny somebody medical treatment because of your own personal biases. If you can't do that, you don't belong in medicine.

Birth control or marijuana. If there's a prescription it's the pharmacists moral obligation to provide the medicine.

[hughee99]

15. I don't think the Hippocratic oath applies...

Since it's pharmacists not doctors refusing to dispense the pills. Also, is birth control a "medical treatment"? A doctor who is able to, and doesn't fix a broken leg would be violating his oath. If a doctor chose not to offer birth control (which a person could obtain other places), I don't think he/she has violated any oath. I don't agree with those pharmacists, but I don't think they're being hippocrites either.

[oldcoot]

18. Yes, birth control pills can be a medical treatment

I knew a woman who was "on the pill" because her doctors advised her to never have children for medical reasons. Since a pharmacist does not receive the same amount of medical training as a doctor, he or she should refrain from making judgements about what medicine his or her customers need.

[hughee99]

19. I was thinking in terms of

condoms, but as for the pill, the fact that a pharmacist chooses not to sell birth control pills doesn't prevent a person from getting them elsewhere. A person who is having a heart attack doesn't have the option of going elsewhere if a doctor won't treat him. A person with a broken leg can go to another doctor, but may do more damage in the meantime. For those looking to fill a birth control perscription, it's an inconvenience to have to go to another pharmacy, but not a medical situation with lasting implications. A person who misses their pill for the day isn't going to just become pregnant because of the delay.

[oldcoot]

20. Actually, it can be more than inconvenient to get birth control pills

Unlike condoms, birth control pills require a prescription. Any woman wants or needs birth control pills has to go through a pharmacist. Unfortunately, not all women are fortunate enough to live in large towns with more than one pharmacy. If the only pharmacy in town refuses to fill a woman birth control pill prescription, she might be in trouble. Even if she has reliable transportation to another town (which in the West could be at least 50 miles away) she still might have a hard time getting her prescription if the pharmacist refuses to return her prescription so she can get it filled elsewhere. Although not getting one's birth control pills may not constitute an emergency like a heart attack, you should not assume that not being able to get one's pills is a trivial matter.


BTW, a woman can became pregnant after missing her pill for one day if she misses a pill early in her cycle.

[hughee99]

21. Pharmaceutical products such as

birth control pills can be mailed, if I'm not mistaken, though the arrangements would still have to be made for this. A woman who misses her pill, and realizes that she is at risk, can "make arrangements" to ensure with a high probability that she does not become pregnant. I'm not arguing that this is a completly trivial matter, and many women may not realize the implications of missing a day, I'm simply arguing that I wouldn't consider a pharmacy not offering birth control a breach of the Hippocratic oath. The pharmacy is not actually hurting anyone, they're just making it more (and in some cases much more) difficult on people, and the hippocratic oath doesn't discuss this.

[Scout]

22. Bullshit!

A person who misses their pill for the day isn't going to just become pregnant because of the delay.

yes dear, you can become pregnant if you miss a pill. You can become pregnant even if you don't miss a pill, as even oral contraceptives are not 100% effective.

[hughee99]

25. You're missing the point

on that statement. If someone requires medication to prevent their blood from clotting in their bloodstream, and they don't take it, their blood WILL clot. I understand that birth control isn't 100% effective. When used exactly as expected, there's a 99% chance of effectiveness, under "typical use" which I imagine would include skipping a day on occasion, it is only 95% effective. The difference is that the lack of medication with the blood clotting agent will, with a fairly high percentage, cause a problem. You don't have the option to avoid sex, wear a condom, or anything else to keep your blood from clotting. With the birth control pill, there are other things you can do to increase the effectiveness. Do you consider birth control to be a medical necessity in all cases? I know that in some cases it is, but for a vast majority, it is a convenience. I'm not complaining about it, I'm a fan of the pill, but to equate a doctor who won't help an injured/sick person to a pharmacist who won't distribute a birth control pill, in my opinion is just ridiculous.

[Scout]

28. It doesn't matter why you're taking the pill

It's none of the pharmacist's damn business why you are taking it. If you have a legal prescription from a doctor, he should fill it.

If I have the prescription from my doctor, then my birth control is a medical necessity. Convenience has nothing to do with it.

[Occulus]

6. My experience has always been

that it's the employer's responsibility to avoid such things in the first place by being aware of religious restrictions among their employees.

[lapfog_1]

9. Bull hockey

It's the employees responsibility to let be known, before being hired,
what things they will refuse to do on religious grounds.

What if the shipping company landed a huge beer hauling contract and
almost everyone would be involved with shipping or storing beer? You
think that they would have to make an exception for some employees,
continue to pay them or maintain their employee status, with nothing
much to do because they "can't be involved?". Cripes.

I'm going to guess here, but suppose he wasn't a driver but a clerk,
would he be within his "rights" not to process an invoice for a
beer company or dispatch drivers to the beer company? How is that
different (if you are going to assert a difference) than hauling
beer? No one is asking him to drink it, touch it, or even know
what it is.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Would it have been such a big deal to

assign someone else to that particular gig? Hunt's a huge company.

At the same time, it seems like the truck driver could have made that request rather than refusing in an apparently defiant fashion.

[JayS]

8. It was a return load so there might not have been another driver...

...available or hiring someone else would have added to the expense of the trip.

[theHandpuppet]

26. I can just see it now...

Each trucker would provide his or her employer with a list of cargos they won't haul on the grounds that doing so would vilolate their religious beliefs, be they Muslim, Mormon, Hindu, Catholic et al ad infinitum. I can't even imagine the logisitic nightmare of trying to juggle shipments of everything from beer to bratwurst, coffee or condoms, to Bibles or bikinis. Should loads of books or DVDs be perused for "banned" or offensive titles? Should Christian Scientists have the right to refuse shipments of medical supplies? At what point does this become utterly ridiculous and unworkable?

Sorry, but I think the guy needs to find a new line of work, one which won't present such conflicts with his beliefs.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

29. I doubt it would go so far over the top...

Suppose the driver had been ill? Wouldn't they have simply found someone else?

[Bridget Burke]

10. Have any Southern Baptist truckers been fired for the same reason?

Or have they all accepted money for doing the Devil's work?

[JayS]

12. Southern Baptists will both haul it and sell it. Since it is going to...

...heathens, it does not matter; they are all going to hell anyway. :)

[rocktivity]

13. If he doesn't want to drink, fine. But by refusing to haul the beer

he effectively forces his religious views upon those who don't share them--just like what Bush is trying to do with his gay marriage ban.

:headbang:
rocknation

[hunter]

17. Thanks, rocknation...

I've had my own problems with issues like this. I am a hardcore Christian pacifist. I used to work in medicine, and the people I worked for occasionally did business with the military. I didn't refuse that work. If I had, I would have hurt myself, I might have hurt the actual people in the military who required my attention, but I certainly wouldn't have hurt the U.S. military machine itself. As much as I would like others to follow my own religious beliefs, I wasn't going to impose those beliefs on others.

If this guy doesn't want other people to drink beer, he can refuse to haul it and get fired, which will have NO affect on the amount of beer consumed in the United States, or he can keep his job, and use whatever platform that provides him with to proclaim his religion.

Anyone who is at all religious will often find their faith tested by secular society. Many times it is worth fighting, but sometimes it is best to (I hate to say this...) turn the other cheek.

[info being]

14. He doesn't have a case

If we start mixing our morality with our jobs, there'd be nothing left to do in this god-forsaken economy.

[MurrayDelph]

16. He has a right to not drive

1. If the cargo is illegal

2. If the cargo is hazardous (and he isn't properly bonded)

3. By saying "I quit!"

[TahitiNut]

23. Does he stop his truck 6 times each day in order to pray?

(I doubt it.) Does he have an employment contract that permits him to refuse to haul any alcoholic beverages ... or pork products like Spam? (I doubt it.) Does he avoid eating in any restaurant that serves alcohol? that's not halal? (I doubt it.)

Fuck him. I smell the stench of hypocrisy. There's no way in the world he's avoided hauling halal products or has met his "devout" prayer obligations.

[mbperrin]

24. Beer just isn't very high on my list of priorities.

They can dump it all out for all I care. The millions of fetal alcohol syndrome children born each year and bonded to lives of misery sorta makes either trucking company profits off one load of beer (which they didn't lose, by the way) or beer company profits seem sorta like small potatoes.

[hightime]

27. Progressive prohibitionist...hmmm never heard of those.