Civitas Blog

When asked by a local reporter why the young lady had been put on the till when her conscientious objections to selling cigarettes were known to the store, an assistant manager from it reportedly replied that:‘It is against the law to discriminate against people on religious grounds’!

Well, that certainly clears up the matter, doesn’t it?

At least the Muslim shop assistant cannot be said by her refusal to be placing anyone’s life in danger which is more than can be said of the possible consequences of the Metropolitan Police just having made a young Muslim woman a police constable who apparently refuses on religious grounds to come into any bodily contact with males besides her father and husband.

Apparently, the WPC made known her religiously-based objections to so doing at the passing-out parade to mark her graduation, when she refused to shake hands with Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair.

While undergoing her training, the young WPC was said to have given assurances that she would be prepared to arrest men. However, it has not been reported whether she would be equally prepared to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, in the event of arriving at the scene of an accident before an ambulance.

Either way, given her religious scruples, her appointment does seem hazardous. Metropolitan Police Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, described by The Times today in its report on the matter, as ‘one of the country’s most senior Muslim officers’, reportedly said that: ‘I can’t see how an operational officer will be able to do practical policing work in the street with those kinds of values’.

Maybe, the Muslim WPC could be seconded to the Cambridgeshire Constabulary to deal with the frustrated female smokers to whom the Muslim W.H.Smith employee is denying their daily weed and of whom one, reportedly, told a local newspaper:

‘If she had just said, I can’t serve you, then that would be fair enough, but the thing that really annoyed me was the way she gave me a lecture as well. She started saying she doesn’t agree with smoking, that it kills you – I was really gob-smacked.’

That lady is not the only non-Muslim starting to get wound up by the way the religious values of Muslims are beginning to intrude to their personal cost into previously established conventions of British public life. Sir Ian Blair was reportedly incensed by the Muslim WPC’s unwillingness to shake his hand.

Maybe, in light of her stated reason for refusing to do so, he should consider revising yet again the Met logo which, on appointment and at great public expense, he changed from ‘Working for a Safer London’ to ‘Working Together for a Safer London’. I suggest he should consider changing it to read: ‘Working Together for London’. Still better, how about: ‘Working Together for a Salafi London’?