Ariens Manufacturing’s Muslim employees are planning to quit because of a conflict over prayer. The Muslim workers claimed until recently they were allowed to take brief breaks to pray but for some unknown reason, the heads of Ariens Manufacturing changed the policy.
About 40 Ariens Manufacturing Muslim employees are planning to leave the Wisconsin power plant because they are not longer allowed to pray in the workplace.
Just weeks ago, hundreds of Muslims from Somalia employed at Cargill Meat Solutions in Colorado were told that praying at the plant was not permitted.
Just like the Muslim workers in Colorado, the 53 workers in Wisconsin had been taking two 5 minutes breaks per day to pray, and it was never an issue until the San Bernadino and Paris attacks perpetrated by Muslim radicals and inspired by ISIS.
There are 53 Muslims workers at Ariens Manufacturing, and 40 of them say they are leaving. The Muslim employees explained, according to their faith, they must pray a total of five times per day. During the prayer those who participated always made sure another employee covered for them.
Employee Adan Hurr said he is outraged by the policy changes, which were made on Thursday. He explained:
“It is absolutely discrimination on its face. Allow me to pray so that I can go back to work and do what I love to do, which is working for Ariens. But we are not allowed to do that.”
The Brillion-based company issued a statement saying that employees are allowed to pray – during scheduled breaks. A company representative said:
“We are asking employees to pray during scheduled breaks in designated prayer rooms. Our manufacturing environment does not allow for unscheduled breaks in production.”
Masjid Imam Hasan Abdi, another employee, responded to Ariens Manufacturing and reminded them that it is not in the Muslim tradition to pray during meal times. He said:
“If someone tells you, “You pray on your break,” and the break time is not the prayer time? It will be impossible to pray.”
Another worker named Ibrahim Mehemmed added:
“We pray by the time. So they say, “If you don’t pray at the break time,” they give us this [unemployment] paper to just leave.”
On Saturday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on Ariens to allow Muslim workers to pray at work using the previous policy until the matter is solved. The company has yet to respond. The Ariens Manufacturing Muslim employees are being blasted for asking too much from the enterprise.
What are your thoughts on the Ariens Manufacturing Muslim workers prayer break conflict?
