I have written a number of articles warning American companies not to employ those of the Islamic faith. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed no one took Islam into consideration for the portion of the law now known as Title VII which "prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment. Employers must reasonably accommodate employees' sincerely held religious beliefs or practices unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer."

Ay, there's the rub, the law rarely recognizes any accommodation as an undue hardship on the employer. Suppose there was a religion that required the faithful to take a three-hour nap in the afternoon? Would that be an undue hardship? I don't think it would be found to be so since the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did not find 5 prayers a day an undue hardship when it ruled against Electrolux Home Products in St. Cloud, Minnesota even thought the production line had to be completely stopped every time Muslims needed to pray. There are more than 150 Muslim employees at that plant and it's impossible to have production continue while they pray.

Imagine you hire a Muslim cashier and she won't handle bacon. Is that an undue hardship on your grocery business? Target made the mistake of hiring a Muslim cashier. I give many more such examples in my article 13 Things to Consider before Hiring Muslims.

Now let us consider what happened to Whole Foods recently when they fired Glenn Mack Jr., a 24-year-old Muslim man for absenteeism. Before any of my Muslim readers cry Islamophobia, allow me to mention that Whole Foods is a company that is actually too nice to Muslims. According to PhillyNow (A blog about Philadelphia by Philadelphia Weekly) , "Whole Foods was recently credited and thanked by CAIR for being the first national supermarket chain with a Ramadan food promotion."

But that did not keep them from being sued for firing a Muslim. Here's the story:

TheBlaze.com, 10 Nov 2011, Muslim Man Claims Whole Foods Fired Him Because of His Faith

According to Mack, he didn’t start experiencing problems in the workplace until his supervisors learned that he would be taking vacation time for Hajj — an Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

...

Mack had planned to take the 18-day trip back in November 2010 and he says that he let his supervisors know about his plans two months ahead of time. But before his vacation, he claims that his bosses told him that he needed to make a choice between taking his trip and keeping his job.

Regardless of the alleged choice presented, Mack chose to go on his trip. But when he returned, he said he was downgraded to a part-time employee and subsequently terminated.