Proof that sufficient public outcry -- and the possible loss of revenue -- can cause corporations to reconsider dhimmi policies. An update on this story. "BA to review uniform policy after outcry over crucifix," by David Millward for The Telegraph:
London: British Airways paved the way on Friday for a climbdown over its refusal to allow a Christian worker to wear a crucifix over her uniform.
The airline bowed to the threat of a boycott by consumers and condemnation from politicians and churchmen by announcing a review of its uniform policy.
The move came hours after Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, threatening to withdraw the Church of England's £10.25 million investment in BA.
It was a blow for Willie Walsh, the airline's chief executive, who had staked his authority on insisting that Nadia Eweida, a check-in worker, keep to its rules.
While defending the policy as consistent with industry standards and non-discriminatory, he signalled that the outcry had swayed BA.
"It has become clear that the policy will need to change in the light of the debate," he said. One option would be to let staff wear religious symbols as lapel badges.
[...]
"My reaction is that it is high time this happened, but I would like to have this vetted by my barrister," she said.
Announcing the climbdown, Walsh said: "The review will examine ways in which our policy will be adapted to allow symbols of faith to be worn openly while remaining consistent with the brand and compliant with legislation."
It did the heart good to see 100 MPs (across all parties and religions) with the Archbishop of York united on this issue. BA should have seen sense weeks ago. Other organisations will be sitting up and taking note.
The idiots of the Left don't see the light, nor do they feel they did anything wrong. They just bow to economic pressure - reluctantly. Without the outcry, those leftists would take us all aboard their dhimmi train straight to Mecca where we would disembark.
This story is a parallel to our worldwide battle against islamic imperialism and its sharia, in microcosm. The real danger is not the muslims themselves but our own people, who will gladly and enthusiastically implement sharia law on behalf of the muslims - if we don't stop them.
I am not concerned with someone wearing a cross on the outside of their uniform.
I AM concerned going into the airport and seeing hijabs and other muslim attire . Why would I want to board a plane after walking through the airport surrounded by members of the cult who took down the Twin Towers?
They're all connected to the horrors of islam.
Bravo Dr Williams. We need to see more of this righteous defence of our culture. In a sane world BA would stipulate that ONLY the cross can be worn on lapels and NO other religious symbol.It's time to reassert Christian values on our home turf and remind these primitive upstarts where they are living and who is running the show.
Actually, any connection this story might have to discrimination against any particular religion is almost incidental.
I suspect it has more to do with those advice books that were around in the 1950s and early 1960s about how women (unmarried, obviously) should behave in this alien male environment known as 'work'.
In those days, it was taken for granted that no British man wore jewellery. Only women wore wedding rings. Only bounders wore signet rings.
And, of course, there weren't any non-Christians around. Or not that you'd notice.
So one thing all these books had in common was that they all advised working women to be as masculine as possible (in a prim and dainty way) by - and they all gave the same advice - wearing 'no jewellery except a wristwatch'.
I suspect that the then BOAC and BEA - who later merged to form British Airways - drew up this code in the Pleasantville era, and never thought of changing it.
When workers began wearing hijabs and turbans, no one thought of connecting it with the jewellery code. And I'd be willing to bet that Jewish men working for BA can wear the yarmulke but not a Mogen David pendant.
I wonder why no tabloid newspaper has had their readers embroider Nadia a Coeur-de-Lion tabard with a honking great cross on it? Failing that, perhaps they should all rewatch that episode of Blackadder with Miriam Margolyes as his mad puritan aunt, in a sort of white chador with big wooden crosses all over her head.
Either of those would go down a storm, I'm sure.
WSW
"In those days, it was taken for granted that no British man wore jewellery. Only women wore wedding rings. "
jewellery is word that can have different meaning.
When you go under surgery they take off all your jewellery, not only because it can get in the way with measures and the operation but also because if one of the nurse steal it while you sleep the hospital can be blamed.
What if the cross of the BA worker is made of WOOD? not gold, not stones, or what if it's made of FAKE stones?
By banning every kind of cross (even wooden ones or PLASTIC ones) they are actually banning the religious symbol. I think BA was after that.
So the term jewellery was put there as a facade, they would have done it even if the cross was of wood or plastic.
"One option would be to let staff wear religious symbols as lapel badges."
So Muslim women will wear little hijab pins, Sikh men will wear little turban and kirpan pins and Jewish men will wear little yarmulka pins?
Or will Christians wear tiny little "approved" cross pins while everyone else gets to keep their big symbolic apparel?
That female employee's cross necklace was already quite small and was probably hidden by her blouse most of the time.
Too be honest there is only one "religion" whose symbols bother people (and for good reason). I suppose if all are banned, then maybe people will feel at ease at not seeing symbols of that one particular "religion". Of course that doesn't mean the peaceful ones aren't still working there (and watching what the do rather than what they wear is more important) but at least people won't have to have the "peaceful" ones lord it over everyone.
Was this a case of "p.c madness" or something else,did someone take issue with the cross and make a complaint?.
Alot of things like this are put down to "p.c"
However this is not always the case, fill in the blank.
LEICESTER Police here in central England seized a collection of porcelain pigs from a house's window sill after ....... complained that they were offensive.
"I just couldn't believe it, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," Mrs Nancy Bennett, the owner of the 17 miniature pigs, told the Sun tabloid newspaper.
http://www.dispatch.co.za/1998/05/26/foreign/PIG.HTM
The porcelain figures were held at the local police station, while Mrs Bennett was threatened with prosecution if she replaces the collection. Her house is located in the same street as the city's main mosque, meaning that Muslim worshippers often passed by her front window where the pig figurines were on display.
"Muslims find pigs highly offensive," explained police officer David Griffiths. "That is why the complaints were made". -- Sapa-AFP
British Airways never banned the cross. There was a Hhealth and safety regulation which states that no external dangling jewlery could be worn on the checkout desk because of the danger of it getting caught on luggage/conveyor belt etc.
Nadia Eweida knew this rule when she took the job. But when she was told to remove her crucifix, she decided to make an issue of it "becaue they're allowed to wear scarfs, turbans etc".
The tabloid Daily Mail jumped on the chance to prove that Christian were being persecuted, secure in the knowledge that the majority of its readers would be gullible enough - and keen enough to believe - it was all true.
How right they were.
"British Airways never banned the cross. There was a Hhealth and safety regulation which states that no external dangling jewlery could be worn on the checkout desk because of the danger of it getting caught on luggage/conveyor belt etc."
sounds to me like a bullshit excuse.
So the little necklace is caught on luggage and the muslim headscarf lets you move freely and manage to move the luggage properly?
I still have to figure out how muslim women can HEAR when you talk to them with their head covering.
kasper1062
Maybe it would be better if she sprinkeled them with bacon drippings. Even though I'm not a Catholic, I've decided to cross myself and bless every Muslim I meet with the Love of Jesus. I might not live long, so please pray for me.
God bless all of you who are standing up to Islam.
Karl
I suggest that you check into a mental institution August 22, regardless of the subject you find a way to rant against "the idiots of the left". Whereas this article had nothing at all to do with the left, in fact the biggest danger to the west are the economic dhimmis, the corporations that chase profits and shareholder value at the expense of everything else.. those people are commonly known as "capitalists"..and they own and manage the corporations that sell out the peoples of America and Europe in the name of global trade.. you know those "patriotic" lights (sacrcasm on) of the WTO, General Motors, Airbus, General Electric, British Petroleum, Exxon MObil, etc, etc.
You need a reality check Dudette, alas reality is something that your feeble mind blocks out.
mww,
Nice try; but finger rings, wrist bangles, and tight fitting wristwatches pose a greater safety hazard than the easily broken chain to which her small crucifix is attached.
Her picture:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=410299&in_page_id=1770
Sorry; no cigar.
Re. the porcelain piggies. I wonder what law was used to justify the removal of that woman's property from her home. Surely it isn't against the law in Britain to offend someone? Even offending someone's religious sensibilities shouldn't be against the law or every religious person would be in jail for not believing in someone else's religion. The article is dated 1998, I think. I wonder if there was any follow-up?
I know you enjoy reading about the Left from me, Nariz. And I will continue to educate others on that topic. Your defence of the Left and hatred of any aspect of Christianity, speaks volumes about the nexus between Islam and the Left.
Whereas this article had nothing at all to do with the left, in fact the biggest danger to the west are the economic dhimmis, the corporations that chase profits and shareholder value at the expense of everything else.. those people are commonly known as "capitalists
Who do you think runs BA? Right wingers? These idiots are leftists. Even CEOs have political views as all people do, and they institute policies that are islam friendly because it suits their politics.
And why?
Not because they are chasing the almighty dollar. Just the opposite is true. How much more money can a company make by insulting Christians, the majority, by appeasing the muslims, the minority? Oh, didn't think about that did you?
Not one dollar was made from this anti-Christian, pro-islam policy. Not one. Indeed, it lost them money. And the only reason why they reverted back to sensibility was because they were threatened with LOSING business. So, we see that chasing the almighty dollar helped our fight against islam.
The leftists in power in our governments, or business institutions such as BA, or places of higher education, must be taught that their surreptitious treachery will not go unnoticed.
Sorry but I disagree.
You assume that the Muslim communities will breed into ad nauseum when the fact is that western people are turning to right wing governments.
“Muslims prove again and again that they are capable and eager to digest and then spew forth Islam's waste products, which itself is then infested with more Islamic spores, more particles of horror, more agents of destruction.”
Imagine you’re a bisexual BBC correspondent from an ethnic minority who has spent too many years in the Gaza Strip and as become practically native.
Then imagine that Sharia law is looking imminent in Britain. Say you’re a Muslim woman.
Soon your love for the poor Palestine is going to see you lined up and shot before the football match at Wembley. Unlike the stadium at Kabul the locals won’t turn up and cheer, unless they are forced at the point of an AK47.
I fear you are expecting that our entire country is going to lie back and think of England when the reality is that the next Conservative government as already stated twice that there will never be Sharia law in Britain.
And don’t believe for a second that the Conservatives are going to spend eternity in opposition. Blair is a joke and most English hate Brown because the bastard is a high tax thief. Plus Brown is a non runner for English nationalists.
52% of Scots want to be independent. 59% of the English want Scotland to be independent. Brown can only hold power if the union holds.
Labour as took its power base from Scotland and Wales. The day that we break up the union is the day that Labour and the left lose the power base of England.
Good news if you ask me.
That's a bastard I posted my rant on the wrong thread.
Nothing to see here, carry on.
kasper1062,
Thanks for the post above about the woman whose home was raided by the British gestapo in 1998 for having pig figurines in the window. This is one of the most outrageous yet.
Do you know if the poor woman ever got her collection back?
What I would have done (if I lived in the UK) is to cover every wall and pole around that mosque with posters of pigs. For every act that Muslims commit, we must be willing to up the ante. If they are offended by a few pigs in a window, make them have to confront pig images everywhere they go. If they don't like it, they can move to Saudi Arabia.
Every one of her non-Muslim neighbors should have responded by putting pigs in their windows. Overload the local constabulary and they'll be unable to enforce sharia. If that doesn't work, bring in some young thugs from the BNP to confront the cops more "forcefully" and show these creeps that we are willing to fight back!
"Muslims find pigs highly offensive," explained police officer David Griffiths.
I hope the Animal Rights lobby gets to this idiot. Pigs are sentient creatures and it is a term of endearment for policemen in many circles
Thanks for the post above about the woman whose home was raided by the British gestapo in 1998 for having pig figurines in the window. This is one of the most outrageous yet.
Do you know if the poor woman ever got her collection back?
Posted by: Provoslavni
Not sure if the 17 miniature pigs are still in police custody or if they were released after being "cautioned".
There are striking parallels between the BA cross-wearing case and a similar dispute at Denbigh High School last year. There, the Luton school had a uniform policy that was agreed with and respected by all parents and pupils, except that is for one selfish religious extremist who demanded it be changed to cover her more personal statement of her Muslim faith, namely wearing a jilbab.
The Muslim Council of Britain inevitably took her side, placing the chance to advance the religious cause against the school’s common- sense approach which had the agreement of the wider community.
BA has a uniform policy respected and adhered to by all its 34,000 uniformed employees, and one which doubtless has been the subject of discussion and agreement with unions.
Again, one selfish religious extremist wants the rules changed to fit her personal demands. Again, a spokesman for the religion involved, in this case the Archbishop of York, places that demand above the need for the company to apply a commonsense dress code that 33,999 other people appear happy to accept.
BA is to be congratulated for sticking to its guns. No company should have its policies dictated to it by any one religious fundamentalist engaged in silly posturing, nor be intimidated by the religious lobby.
Alistair McBay