He didn’t ask them to remove the cloth while they were praying. He asked them to remove it after they were finished. “Porter in row over crucifix,” by Neal Keeling in the Manchester Evening News (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
A HOSPITAL porter has been suspended after a row over a crucifix being covered up in a prayer room.
The male porter had allegedly gone to use the room, which is available to visitors and staff of all faiths, at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital in Pendlebury, Salford.
When he entered the room the crucifix, which was on a table, had been covered with a cloth as several Muslims were using the room.
A source said: “The porter apparently asked them to remove the cloth when they had finished as he and others wanted to use the room later.
“There was then some kind of incident and as a result the porter was suspended. It is the talk of the hospital and many staff are astounded that the porter has been sent home, and feel he has been unfairly treated.
“It has been claimed that he was verbally abused by those in the prayer room.”
Complaint
A spokeswoman for the Central Manchester and Manchester University Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Pendlebury, said: “We have received a complaint, following an incident which occurred last week, involving one of the porters who works at the hospital. The porter has been suspended and we are currently looking into what has taken place. Until we are in receipt of the full facts we cannot provide any further detail at this time.” […]
Another source said: “Some staff believe the porter is the victim in this situation, but because an official complaint has been made the management have had no option but to suspend him.”
There’s a dhimmi history in Manchester:
In October, a Manchester airport boss was suspended after he hung an image of Jesus on a staffroom wall. Car parks supervisor Gareth Langmead, who is Catholic, was sent home after a Muslim colleague complained.
He was suspended for three days while airport chiefs investigated the complaint then reinstated without a blemish on his record.
The suspension was blemish enough.