Thursday, September 22, 2016

Sweden: Muslim teacher resigns after refusing to shake hands with a male teacher

(Helsingborg) When a fellow male teacher offered his hand in friendship to 20-year-old substitute teacher Fardous El-Sakka, she instead put her hand on her heart and bowed her head. Citing her subscription to her Islamic faith, she thought she had done enough in which to insert yet another polarising aspect of Islam into the Western way of life. Unfortunately for Fardous, the other teacher was having none of this and he reported her to the principle for discriminating against him over his gender.

El-Sakka was called to a meeting with the school’s principal. She was told that staff members are required to conform to the institution’s values if they want to work there, which include gender equality.

Seeing that she wasn't going to get her way in trying to polarise the Swedish way of life to follow that of the opaque Islamic one and that she was in hot water, she resigned. After first reporting this to Sweden’s Equality Ombudsman. However, because she is a member of Swedish trade union Unionen, the case has been referred to the union instead.

El-Sakka explained that this was the first time someone had been offended when she chose not to shake their hand. She added that as things stand, it is difficult to see how she could return to the school in the future.

Just what is it about Muslims recreating the very environments which saw them seek shelter in the West in the first place?