There’s an interesting Greenview column in the new Economist about a recent UK court decision, which says that employers may not fire people over their environmentalist attitudes, just as they can’t fire someone over their religion.
Last month Mr Justice Burton stated that anyone holding a “philosophical belief which is based on science as opposed, for example, to religion” should also be protected from discrimination at the workplace.
Writes The Economist about the case: “He (Mr Justice Burton) provided a five-pronged test to shore up the ruling: the belief must be genuinely held; it must be held for a long period of time; it must relate to something of grave importance to humanity; it must reach a certain level of cogency and seriousness; and it must not trample on existing ideas of human rights. By way of example, he said belief in the supremacy of the Jedi knights of “Star Wars” fame would be excluded, but he conceded that allegiance to the doctrines of Marxism or communism might not.”
Of course, it’s not news that environmental issues such as manmade climate change are a question of faith to many. But who would have thought environmentalism would find its way into labour legislation quite so quickly?
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In the trailer for brand new documentary film New Muslim Cool, a radio talk show host says the following to rapper Hamza Perez:
You are a single dad, a Muslim, a Puerto Rican, you are from the hood, you are an artist, a rapper - you sound like America’s worst nightmare.”
The film centres on Perez, a former drug dealer who converted to Islam and started over as a Muslim preacher in North Pittsburgh. Opening a mosque in a rough neighbourhood and attracting a sizeable following with his unconventional fusion of Islam and hip hop, Perez soon arouses the suspicion of both, local drug dealers and Homeland Security.
Eventually, the FBI raids his mosque and Perez has to come to terms with post-9/11 realities. The archenemy of the state is no longer the African- or Latin-American drug dealer. Muslims are the nation’s new usual suspects, often seen as little more than terrorists-in-waiting.
So far, so familiar. But, luckily, the film doesn’t end there. After the raid, instead of turning his back on society and minding his own business, Perez challenges his own reservations and begins reaching out to Christians and Jews in his own unusual way.
