According to USINFO article, American corporations are looking for guidance on how to handle religion in the workplace, how to accommodate workers various beliefs and practices.

The article states that where before religion was a non-issue, the increased immigration by Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and other groups, has resulted in a more religiously diverse workforce.

Citing David Miller, executive director of Yale University’s Center for Faith and Culture, the article states that according to U.S. law, an employee’s beliefs and practices has to be accommodated so long as it doesn’t impose undue burden on the employer.

However, there are other reasons companies have for wanting to deal with religion in the workplace, Miller told USINFO.

For the employee:  

• It’s can be a source of ethical guidance.
• It can help people find meaning and purpose in their work.
• It can help them stay “anchored” in their work environment.

For the employer:

• Respecting religious differences helps attract and retain talented employees.
• Enables companies to reach out to a larger customer base.

Examples of what might require religious accomodation: 

Georgette Bennett, president of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, issues that can require accommodation could be …

• The wearing of religiously significant attire such as hijabs (headscarves worn by Muslim women), crosses or yarmulkes.
• Taking time off for religious observance.
• Having facilities for prayer breaks and meditation.

Also, the article states, a few years ago, the Tanenbaum Center helped put together a panel at General Motors (GM) consisting of individuals who were members of different religions.

Panel participants discussed what they value about their beliefs, how those beliefs have been stereotyped and how that affected them, and how their beliefs affect their work life.

What are your thoughts on this? Is there religious diversity in your workplace? Do you feel your coworkers value your faith? Is your religion stereotyped? If yes, how so? How do your beliefs or others’ beliefs affect your work environment?

The Associated Press reports that a British teacher is accused of inciting religious hatred in Sudan after her class named a teddy bear “Muhammed.”

The teacher, 54-year-old Gillian Gibbons, was arrested Sunday after one of her student’s parents complained, saying she named the bear after Islam’s prophet and founder.

If convicted, Gibbons could face a whipping of up to 40 lashes, Read more of this entry »

The big November holiday is Thanksgiving. But the month is notable for other observances. For example, November is American Diabetes Month, Child Safety and Protection Month, Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month and National Adoption Month.

November also is National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. The first observance, called “American Indian Day,� was designated in New York in 1916. Native American Awareness Week in 1976 grew into American Indian Week in 1986, and then into National American Indian Heritage Month in 1990, according to the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, the agency charged with the administration and management of 55.7 million acres of American Indian and Alaska Native lands.

The Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation, a 3,000-member tribe living in Hillburn, as well as in Mahwah and Ringwood, N.J., is recognized by New York and New Jersey, but not by the federal government. There are plans to renew efforts to seek federal recognition.

Smaller groups of Ramapoughs live on Staten Island, as well as in Orange and Sullivan counties.

The tribe has battled marginalization and environmental pollution of its lands, and is embarking upon a platform of economic, educational and social independence.

Suffern’s police chief has stepped in to mediate part of an ongoing dispute between administrators and a group of congregants at the Darul Ehsan mosque in the village.

On Nov. 5, the congregants — who are suing the mosque’s president and board of trustees in a dispute over finances and leadership — asked Suffern’s Mayor John Keegan to help them talk to Khurshid Ahmed, the mosque’s president.

Keegan in turn asked Police Chief Clarke Osborn to help. He agreed, mediating a conference call between the two feuding parties.

As the court case remains to be decided, congregants were complaining that administrators were failing to comply in a timely manner with a court order allowing them access to the building for prayer.

After the conference call, it appeared that the two sides would work together, Osborn said.

He said the village welcomed the chance to work with the parties.

“I made it obvious to both sides (that) whatever I can do for them, my department and the village would be more than willing,� he said. “I really hope they work it out. You want to see people work their problems out amongst themselves … . It’s a house of worship. You want people to be able to get along.�

Jews in Rockland will tomorrow gather on the steps of the Rockland County Courthouse for a solemn candlelight vigil to mark Kristallnacht, which is viewed as the first step toward to the Holocaust.

Kristallnacht, or the “Night of Broken Glass,” refers to the Nov. 9-10, 1938, pogrom that was ordered by the Nazis. Throughout Germany and Austria, thousands of synagogues, Jewish institutions and businesses were burned and destroyed.

The nights’ hostilities were prompted by the Nov. 7 shooting of Ernst vom Rath. The German official was shot in Paris by 17-year-old Herschel Grynszpan, a Jew who was angry about his parents’ deportation from Germany to Poland.

When vom Rath died two days later, Nazi officials used the incident as an excuse for security forces and others to go on a rampage.

Thousands of Jews were beaten, shot or deported to concentration camps.

Some local Jews were in Germany or Austria at the time of Kristallnacht, and have told their stories before audiences at the Holocaust Museum and Study Center in Spring Valley, as well as at other venues.

Many were incensed when members of a homophobic church visited Rockland in 2004 and protested gays by trampling an American flag and thanking God for 9/11. That church is now gaining even more of an unsavory reputation for protesting the funerals of U.S. military members who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Members of Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas-based organization led by the controversial Rev. Fred Phelps, pickets the funerals, often carrying signs and chanting slogans that say God is punishing the United States for homosexuality by killing and injuring its servicemen and servicewomen.

Yesterday, a Baltimore court awarded the family of one of those veterans about $11 million in damages. According to the Associated Press, the family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder — who died in Iraq in a 2006 vehicle accident — had sued Phelps and other Westboro Baptist leaders for emotional distress and invasion of privacy.

Members of the church protested at Synder’s funeral and displayed signs including one that read, “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.�

Phelps is reportedly shrugging off the jury’s decision, saying the First Amendment protects his views and that the award will be overturned in appeals court.