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| Europe |
| Muslim man wins handshake case in Sweden |
| 2010-02-08 |
| Sweden's unemployment agency has been found guilty of discrimination for expelling a Muslim man from a job training program because he refused to shake hands with a woman. A Stockholm court Monday ordered the Public Employment Service to pay 50,000 kronor ($6,700) in damages to an immigrant from Bosnia who lost his jobless benefits when he was kicked out of the program. Citing his faith, the man had refused to shake hands with a woman when he was interviewing for an internship. The agency said his behavior was part of the reason he didn't get the position, and decided to exclude him from the program. The court ruled that the man was discriminated against because of his religion. It wasn't immediately clear whether the ruling would be appealed. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #6 Euros call that "reasonable accomodation" I call it: impersonation of a doormat. |
| Posted by: Flitch Platypus7063 2010-02-08 18:56 |
| #5 I think the nugget here is he refused to shake hands with women. Aparantly shaking hands with men is OK. So his discrimination against women is OK? |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2010-02-08 15:36 |
| #4 Sweden is a country rotten to the core. Downhill is the path. |
| Posted by: Glush Wittlesbach8127 2010-02-08 14:54 |
| #3 This is one case where I would actually agree with the court. Expressing common courtesy is one thing, but there are many people who, for a myriad of reasons, abhor physical contact, even to the point of not wanting to shake hands. And unless such contact is part of their job description, such as being a masseuse, it does not mean they cannot perform their job. This can be a little odd. I remember a substitute teacher who was told by the other teachers to absolutely refuse to shake the hands of students when offered, because the students were trying to screw up the superior-inferior relationship of teacher to student. If he was to make the mistake of shaking hands with the students, they would take him for a sucker, and turn his day into a living hell. He later noted that the half dozen who offered their hands were already on the list as troublemakers. There are also a lot of non-Muslim religious people who equate such handshakes as sexual flirting, and would never touch someone of the opposite sex they were not related or married to. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-02-08 13:57 |
| #2 He's obviously living in the wrong country. He now has enough to emigrate to Saudi. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-02-08 13:50 |
| #1 Insane, other Muslims manage to shake hands with women. And what happens when he doesn't get jobs because he won't shake hands, or won't work with women? Permanent welfare. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-02-08 13:08 |