Backlash at M&S for 'Muslim' policy on handling pork and alcohol

The Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail both reported on an episode at a London store of retailer Marks and Spencer where a Muslim member of staff passed a customer on to another checkout to avoid handling alcohol.

An M&S spokesman said: “We recognise that some of our employees practise religions that restrict the food or drink they can handle.

“M&S promotes an environment free from discrimination and so, where specific requests are made, we will always make reasonable adjustments to accommodate them.”

The Sunday Telegraph notes that both Tesco and Sainsbury’s do not see why staff who not drink alcohol or eat pork for religious reasons could not handle the goods. In comparison, Asda said it would not deploy Muslims on tills if they objected to handling such goods. A Morrisons store in Bradford said it would “respect and work around anyone’s wishes not to handle specific products for religious or cultural reasons.”

The Daily Mail reports that the incident has resulted in a backlash from M&S customers who have bombarded M&S’s Facebook page with complaints and have set up a website calling for M&S to be boycotted. The Daily Mail article itself boasts almost 4,000 comments from readers.

In much the same way articles describing halal slaughter as ‘barbaric’ fail to consider kosher methods in the same vein, so the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Mail articles choose to ignore the fact that the supermarkets extend their policies to Muslims and Jews who seek accommodation of religious beliefs.

In an article in the Jewish Chronicle a spokesperson for M&S confirmed that Jewish workers “who did not wish to sell pig products or seafood” would be accommodated while those “who did not wish to sell meat and milk together” would have requests considered “on a case-by-case basis”.

The JC adds the views of a Tesco spokesperson who said “it treated each case on its merits but that it “made no sense” to employ staff on a till who refuse to touch some foods.”

The Daily Mail and BBC News later reported that an M&S spokesman, in an apparent reversal of policy, consequently stated:

“Where we have an employee whose religious beliefs restrict food or drink they can handle, we work closely with our member of staff to place them in a suitable role, such as in our clothing department or bakery.

“We regret that in the case highlighted today we were not following our own policy.

“As a secular business we have an inclusive policy that welcomes all religious beliefs.

“This policy has been in place for many years, and when followed correctly, we do not believe that it should compromise our ability to offer the highest level of customer service.”

This is not, of course, the first time such a story has attracted widespread attention. In 2007, news that Sainsbury’s had adopted a similarly ‘flexible’ policy to accommodate religious beliefs of members of staff also made headlines, see Sunday Times and Evening Standard.

At the time, Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, now assistant secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “Muslim employees should look at the allowances within Muslim law to enable them to be better operating employees and not be seen as rather difficult to cater for.”

In an essay for Prospect Magazine on Islam and English Law, Professor Maleiha Malik draws attention to the practice of ‘cultural voluntarism’ as a “more stable form of integration in the long run” because it allows “individuals within a community some space and opportunity to transform their own religious norms.” The possibility for cultural voluntarism however, is impeded by the “demonisation of Islam, Islamic law and British Muslims”. A point well illustrated by the near 4,000 comments appended to the Mail Online website article.