According to a report on bechadrei, some Muslim employees of City Hall in Jerusalem have requested to have a room designated for them to pray in during the afternoon.
As it is now, they pray wherever they might be when the time comes, and it is very uncomfortable and inappropriate. Having a room designated for a certain amount of time is a reasonable request, and just as the city provides a room for religious Jews to daven mincha, there is no real reason they cannot or should not provide a reasonable space for Muslim employees to pray as well.
Bechadrei says the city is considering designating a conference room for an hour every day for the usage of the Muslim employees. The religious and Haredi employees are supposedly upset, calling it a provocation. I don't know what should be so upsetting about this. the religious and haredi employees should actually be the most understanding of such a request, as they make similar requests in offices all around the country.
We want people to respect our religion and allow us to pray comfortably and in an appropriate and respectful fashion, there is no reason not to allow others to do so as well. Having a few Muslims pray in a designated room does not create a threat to the Jewish nature of the city council. And anyway, they are already praying - this would just give them a designated place to do so.
If we had any semblance of a separation between church and state, or shall I say shul and state, then the request could be refused on the grounds of not having prayers on federal (aka state/city) property. Then again, they would then have to be given off an appropriate amount of time to go to a nearby location. It would also mean stopping the religious Jews from praying in the room designated for them. But then again, since we don't have any such separation, I see no reason to not be forthcoming in providing a room for said prayers.
There's no good reason not to provide a place for Moslem citizens to pray in a municipal facility. But in my experience, it's true that haredim hate Moslems as such. They aren't even particularly embarrassed by it.
ReplyDeleteThe 'provocation' probably lies in the expectation that the Arabs will somehow take political advantage of this, as well. Something like, 'Jerusalem is our city, and we proudly have our davening right in the seat of power as is suited to the real legitimate residents', or some such nonsense. They'll start advertising that they have a mosque right in city hall.
ReplyDeleteNow tell me, IF Jews worked in the Amman city gov't, do you think they'd be given a place to daven?
So even though this seems only fair (I agree with that); that is only looking at it through purely Western or American eyes. The Jewish politicians have a reason to be suspicious.
if jews would be allowed to live in Amman and work in the public sector, I would also expect them to be given equal prayer rights and allocated a room for prayers just like the arab employees are allocated a room for prayers (if they are).
ReplyDeleteIf we think they are taking over and looking for every way possible to use the "inch given" to their advantage for that purpose, then perhas the complaint should not be that they want a room to pray in, but perhaps we should not be hiring them at all.
if we live in a democracy, and we do, for better or worse, minorities have equal rights, and those rights must be protected. If these employees are deemed to be safe, by virtue of their citizenship as Israeli arabs, or by security background approval, and they are given jobs in the public sector, they should also be allowed to pray properly.