A court verdict giving a Muslim man a $ 10 000 compensation for having been subjected to discrimination is stirring up a lot of controversy in Sweden. If I understand the verdict correctly, he was given this recompensation because the Swedish Public Employment Service cancelled his Employment Insurance, EI, when he refused to great a female manager with an employer that was offering an internship for him with a handshake.
What is so disconcerning is that most commentators seem to believe that the scandal of the situation is that he was given the componsation at all by the court, seeing as he had refused to shake hand with a woman - which itself can be seen as offensive treatment of the woman in question. The problem is that, to my knowledge, that is not what the court has been discussing. Even if we accept that his refusing to shake hand with a woman is insulting to that woman, the problem was that the Public Employment Service cancelled his EI on this ground. By this rationale, the Employment Service is in its right when it cancels EI on the grounds that the client acts in a socially inacceptable manner, and that seems rather different than cancelling the EI on the grounds that the client is refusing to accept an internship position.
The kneejerk reaction of most commentators, which automatically seem to assume that the court was wrong and that it would now be acceptable to discriminate women and get paid for it, is also deeply troublesome, and often involve some hyperbole. Indeed Kjöller's editorial is one of the few more nuanced pieces so far. It bears witness to the state of the Swedish public discourse, in which "the other" is automatically the one to blame. One commentator have even used it to question multiculturalist policies in general. That's the second time in a very short span of time that such policies are coming under fire. If this continues, will we see the same renaissance for assimilationist policies that we have seen in other European countries with backlashes against multiculturalism?
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteIt is actually the rules in Sweden that the Employment Service is in its right to cancel EI on the grounds that the client acts in a socially inacceptable manner.
But, he did it because of his religius faith and thats why he won the case. If a person would go to the meeting dressed like a satanist, or dressed in pyjamas his or her EI would be cancelled due to socially inacceptable manners.
My question is: What is a religious behavour? Approx 95 percent of muslims do shake womens hands. So, is it religious to refuse?