by zatang 57 Replies latest jw friends
@james_woods
It would never be asked in the first place, let alone ommitting it. And if i do get a job, I know I can't deny it. I didn't come here to gain sympathy, i came here to see if I could find a person who has working solution of the prospective problem I could face or people who faced with a similar situation and the kind of behavior they exhibited and the consequent response they received. I wasn't aware that this forum was composed of ex-JWs.
I have a working solution: swallow your pride & prejudice and go along with the custom as being a secular part of the job.
NOT as a personal birthday celebration you are taking part in. Feel free to point out that YOU do not personally observe birthdays.
You will NOT be compromising your religion.
“ I guess it depends on the Muslim... perhaps they aren't supposed to, but I know quite a few who do... even birthdays of us filthy kuffar.”
@Scully
Those who do, they either don’t care about or don’t know about it. Also, I or any of the Muslim I know from family/friends, call non-Muslims as ‘filthy kuffar’. We call them by their proper names and we find it disrespectful and offending to label someone as such. Quran prohibits us to do so in the following verse
The Noble Qur'an - Al-Hujurat 49:11
“ O ye who believe! Let not some men among you laugh at others: It may be that the (latter) are better than the (former): Nor let some women laugh at others: It may be that the (latter are better than the (former): Nor defame nor be sarcastic to each other, nor call each other by (offensive) nicknames: Ill-seeming is a name connoting wickedness, (to be used of one) after he has believed: And those who do not desist are (indeed) doing wrong”
"I have a working solution: swallow your pride & prejudice and go along with the custom as being a secular part of the job.
NOT as a personal birthday celebration you are taking part in. Feel free to point out that YOU do not personally observe birthdays.
You will NOT be compromising your religion."
@james_woods: This is nothing to do with any pride or prejudice. And this is what I decided to do in case I do get a job and land up in a situation where I do have to be involved in birthday celebrations. But, I WILL be comprising my religion.
@james_woods: This is nothing to do with any pride or prejudice. And this is what I decided to do in case I do get a job and land up in a situation where I do have to be involved in birthday celebrations. But, I WILL be comprising my religion.
Religion really always boils down to pride and prejudice. If you can leave those behind, you will not compromise the religion.
If you still hold on to them, then almost anything can be a compromise of the religion.
"The managers where I work recently started bringing a cake to work once a month in honour of everyone's celebrations. It didn't matter whether it was a personal celebration (birthday, wedding, new baby, new house, etc.) or a professional one (achieving an accreditation or certification, or presenting at a conference) the cake was to celebrate everything.
You have to remember that the goal with these "celebrations" is that you are trying to build and maintain a positive morale among your staff. If you take away something that they are accustomed to doing, how does it benefit morale? Will it make your job of morale building easier or not?
@Scully: I would be happy to be a part of such celebration as above, which is general in nature and not specific to birthday. In fact, I don't have any problem in individually celebratinng, Wedding, New Baby, New Promition, New Professional achieve, etc
Understand that your beliefs regarding not observing the kuffar birthdays if it is the company's directive could put you in legal jeopardy for discri1minating against persons on the basis of religion. If you are serious about your beliefs to the point that you cannot stomach the thought of offending Allah by celebrating with the kuffar, you really would be better off seeking employment with a Muslim-only company.
@Scully: Again I have to say that I feel you have a personal prejudice against my faith. As explained earlier, neither we denote Non-muslims as kuffar nor the birthday celebration has anything to do with the religion of the person. I thank you for giving your time to respond to my posts but I don't think I would need any more of your advise because you are carrying much prejudice and stereotyping againsts Muslims.
Yes, I am looking somewhere else but I was searching to find a way out, if anything of that sort exists or is being practiced.
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Yes. There is a way out. Don't bother applying for jobs that offend you and that you have no desire to be part of. That not only is a waste of time for an employer, but it also could take away from the chances of someone else who is willing and able to fulfill all those duties to get that same job.
Many of us have had to make choices in our lives and a great many of those choices come down to the fundamentals of life/work balance. If being near any sort of birthday itinerary is offensive to someone, then they shouldn't work at a bakery that offers all goods to all people, or perhaps a pharmacy, or a hospital, or ...or...or.
Why find a way 'out' - when you already know what is required of you in the job? I just don't get it. sammies
Let me ask you something, Zatang.
Are you aware that you are getting more reasonable advice here than if you HAD made it to an "active" or "PRO-JW" board?
The only thing an active JW poster would have done is to try to convert you into a JW. They could care less if you celebrate birthdays (as a Muslim) or not.
They just want to convert everybody to their own religion.
(sound familiar?)
"Religion really always boils down to pride and prejudice. If you can leave those behind, you will not compromise the religion.
If you still hold on to them, then almost anything can be a compromise of the religion."
@james woods
Well, it seems you are an atheist. If yes, then I would say that no one exists without following a particular faith or ideology, even atheism is also a form of 'belief system' which is still to be proved to be true through 'empircal evidence'.
Not all religious people follow religion only because of certain indoctrination. I only follow because I find logic and rationale in my beliefs and hence I am what I am. Yet, I acknowledge and appreciate the different ideologies people hold. And I am told by my faith that if God wanted, he could have made all mankind as one people. Hence, he tells us to accept people from various backgrounds and work out on similarities and commonalities and not to behave or belief in a manner where I develop a pride that by virtue of my claim of being a Muslim, I am heaven-bound and everyone else is hell-bound.
The Noble Qur'an - Al-Hujurat 49:13
O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).
(sorry, i don't intend to go off-topic but I felt like saying it)
(sorry, i don't intend to go off-topic but I felt like saying it)
And here I suspect we have found the true purpose of the thread. A devout, fundamentalist Muslim is certainly not going to take ex-JW (or active-JW) advice on how to behave at work on religious matters. Unless, of course, they told him to just do whatever fundamentalist Islam tells him to.
I believe we have here a not-so-subtle attempt to preach a particular brand of Islam.
