Moslems And The Social Contract

If your job is to haul people around in a taxi, that is what you do.

In America, that means anyone who can pay the fare.

If your religion requires that you refuse to haul certain people, seek other employment! Your religion is keeping you from doing your job! If your beliefs force you to adhere to a certain code of conduct, be aware that this will prevent YOU from performing certain acts and holding certain jobs. Please note, this must be a planned event, there aren't any Moslem pig farmers. They know what jobs they are forbidden by their religion to do. What it is going to take is someone brave to stand up and tell them how America works, and if they don't care for it there are a multitude of alternate choices to choose from, can we give you a lift to the border because you seem to be unhappy here.

The exchange should have gone like this:

Driver, "I refuse to drive people who have alcohol on them!"

Dispatcher, "You're quitting?"

Driver, "No, I refuse to transport alcohol, it is against my religion."

Dispatcher, "Your job is to drive anyone who calls the service or walks up to the taxi stand, without discrimination. Refusal to do so is a termination offense."


Driver, "It is against my religion to..."

Dispatcher, "Then you ARE quitting, or are at least telling me you are going to act in a manner that will get you fired. Here's your write-up acknowledging that you have been informed about company policies concerning discrimination and bias."

And by the way, in case I come off as a bit rabid about the followers of the teachings of the prophet Mohammed PBUH: Until Islam is as innocuous to ME as Catholicism, then I oppose it.

And I have put my money where my mouth is. My personal code has kept me from working before, I refuse to work for a foreign held or owned company. I refuse to work for a company that is actively working to steal my guns.

How this translates to our Islamic taxi driver? Part of the job is hauling drunks home from the liquor store, if you cannot or will not perform this task you are disqualified from working there. It is not the employer who is the problem here, it is the employee.

Working is a social contract!

There is at least a verbal contract at the moment of hire, "You pay me, I do what you say." It's a form of servitude! The collorary is of course, "Refuse to work, expect to be fired." Job descriptions and titles are a way of negotiating what the employee is expected to do and what the employer is not allowed to ask of him/her.

What this means to the employee is you do what you are told if it is part of your job description. In my previous post about taxi drivers it means hauling drunks around. We spent a long time getting the drunks to stop driving their own cars to the liquor store! In my personal experience as a drafter, they wanted drawings, I made drawings.

What this means to the employer; you cannot ask them to do things outside their job description. A taxi driver is not required to hang drywall or mow the grass. A drafter is not required to clean the toilet. A policeman is not required to stock shelves.

Another implication about this deal of freedom to work is when you are fed up with the job, you can quit! This is what really distinguishes it from slavery or indentured servitude.

Your employer is not required to retain you for even a second past the moment where your services are no longer required unless, of course, you negotiated a contract to the contrary.

Comments:

14th-Oct-2006 10:05 am (local)

Michele Evermore

one of the hearings I did was on the Worklace Religious Freedoms Act. Sounds like a good thing, we could all use a day off for Samhain or whatnot. But , no. This bill would make refusal to do basic parts of your job okay if it was because you didn't like something the person you are supposed to be helping did. Like the nurse who wouldn't wash up to help a patient who was bleeding to death after a problematic abortion. Or the pharmacists who might not want to sell birth control. God help me if the scientologists start working at the pharmacy. I mean, there are nutter christians refusing to do their job all the time, too.

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17th-Oct-2006 02:23 am (local)

ravenclaw_eric

This will come as a shock to you, but I agree completely about those idiotic taxi drivers. Hell, I _studied_ Islam in some depth in college, and _nothing at all_ in Islam forbids _non-Moslems_ not to drink themselves sick. Non-Moslems under Moslem rule were usually allowed to drink. (The reason it's _verboten_ in Saudi was because the locals kept getting their hands on it, and couldn't handle it. They were acting like a bunch of fraternity boys on the weekend of the Big Game.) A lot of this sort of thing strikes me as grandstanding, and ought to be slapped down like Right Now. Firing them sounds about right. That said...I once spent hours trapped with a driver who wanted to talk about nothing but his personal relationship with Jee-zuss, and interrogating me about whether or not I was saved. By the end of _that_ little ride, I was about ready to set fire to every church in reach.

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25th-Oct-2006 02:11 pm (local)

ravenclaw_eric

*knock knock* "Who's there?" "Torque." "Torque who?" "Torquemada! NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!"