Posts Tagged ‘ethics’
August 23, 2010
Racial and religious prejudice and defamation will always be with us, although they are growing less acceptable socially. Call someone a nigger or dago or spic or kike and you’re out of the game. Write about how Jews control the banks and the media, or how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has destroyed our schools and nice people will come down hard on you. But these same nice people have no such compunctions about spreading hateful misinformation about Muslims.
I got such an email just this morning, from a very nice person. It’s subject line was “Life is a Journey, Not a guided tour,” and it forwarded something called “Jihad watch, Islam Explained in Layman’s terms.”
I’m uncomfortable repeating the vile race-hatred but people need to see what’s circulating virally on the internet and through our society. So here are some of the “explanations,” quotes truncated but—I promise—all in context:
- “Islam is not a religion, nor is it a cult. In its fullest form, it is a complete, total, 100% system of life. Islam has religious, legal, political, economic, social, and military components. The religious component is a beard for all of the other components…
- “Islamization begins when there are sufficient Muslims in a country to agitate for their religious privileges…
- “As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority…
- “At 2% to 5%, they begin to proselytize from other ethnic minorities and disaffected groups, often with major recruiting from the jails and (more…)
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Tags:Civil Rights Act of 1964, Dearborn, ethics, Homeland Security . Fort Hood, Indonesia, Islamization, Jews, Jihad watch, Life is a Journey, Muslims, Obama, Racial and religious prejudice, Turkey
Posted in Ethics-general, Politics, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
August 22, 2010
Imane Boudlal, a 26-year old Muslim woman is free to wear a head scarf. The U.S. Constitution says so. Disneyland can’t discriminate against Ms Boudlal because of her religion. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says so.
Ms. Boudlal works as a hostess at Disneyland’s Grand Californian Hotel, where employees are called “cast members.” She has worn Disney’s prescribed uniform for over two years, but has asked permission to wear a head scarf. Management told her they would try to get a Disney-appropriate headscarf, but seemed to be dragging their feet.
Ms. Boudlal ran out of patience after a couple of months and showed up for work Sunday wearing a hijab. She was told to either remove it or work out of the customers’ sight. She refused and was sent home—four times. Now she’s suing Disney.
Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said Disney has a policy not to discriminate. She said that Boudlal may work with the head covering away from customers while Disneyland tries to find a compromise that would allow her to cover her head in a way that fits with her hostess uniform.
“Typically, somebody in an on-stage position like hers wouldn’t wear something like that, that’s not part of the costume. We were trying to accommodate her (more…)
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Tags:cast members, Disneyland, ethics, freedom of religion, Grand Californian Hotel, head scarf, hijab, Imane Boudlal, job discrimination, Suzi Brown, The Civil Rights Act of 1964
Posted in Business ethics, Ethics-general, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
August 18, 2010
Some days ethics backs you into a corner. You have to choose between doing what your inner voice is saying is right—or not. That day is here for President Obama.
He made a stirring statement about religious freedom last Friday at a Ramadan dinner. The next day he equivocated: “I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right people have that dates back to our founding. That’s what our country is about.”
Score a miss for Presidential leadership. His conflicting statements poured fuel on the burning controversy.
· Americans generally believe Muslims have a right to worship, just not there.
· One and one-half billion Muslims thought America was a land of religious freedom, not at war with Islam, but aren’t certain.
· Manhattanites mostly think people ought to be able to do whatever they want.
· Families of 9/11 victims are divided
You can’t please everybody, Mr. President. Time to do the right thing. But what is the right thing? Should a Muslim community center-cum-prayer area be built on the site of a decrepit ex-Burlington Coat Factory, hard by an Off-Track Betting parlor, a bar, a porn shop, and some run-down office buildings 2-1/2 blocks from Ground Zero?
The opponents say it’s a matter of respecting sensitivities of people who lost loved ones on 9/11. (more…)
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Tags:9/11 families, Burlington Coat Factory, ethics, Ground Zero, Islam, mosque, Muslim community center, Muslims, President Obama, Presidential leadership, Ramadan, religious freedom
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics, Tolerance | 1 Comment »
August 17, 2010
Dr. Laura Schlessinger is ending her radio show at the end of the year, nudged along by the furor over her repeated use of the “n-word” in a conversation with a caller. Dr. Laura repeated the word six or seven times, not in a racist way, but in a complaint about a double standard whereby black comics can use it ad nauseum, but it’s off limits to whites.
In the conversation Dr. Laura spoke disrespectfully and hurtfully to the caller, who, after all, called in for some consoling and advice. The next day Dr. Laura taught us all a lesson about apologizing. Not a Category 1 (defiant) apology: “I’m sorry if you think I did something wrong.” Not a Category 2 (evasive) apology: “I may have made an innocent mistake, and I’m sorry for it—if I actually did it.”
No, Dr. Laura issued an all-out Category 3 apology that’s so rare in public life:
“I talk every day about doing the right thing. And yesterday, I did the wrong thing. I didn’t intend to hurt people, but I did. And that makes it the wrong thing to have done.
“I was attempting to make a philosophical point, and I articulated the “n” word all the way out – more than one time. And that was wrong. I’ll say it again – that was wrong. (more…)
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Tags:apologizing, apology, black comics, double standard, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, ethics, four “R”s, n-word, racism
Posted in Entertainment, Ethics-general, Tolerance | 5 Comments »
August 16, 2010
It’s hard to find words to describe Newt Gingrich’s statements opposing the mosque project planned for 2-1/2 blocks from Ground Zero:
“The folks who want to build this mosque, who are really radical Islamists, who want to triumphfully (sic) prove they can build a mosque next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by radical Islamists. Those folks don’t have any interest in reaching out to the community. They’re trying to make a case about supremacy… This happens all the time in America. Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington..”
The first sentence equates the folks who want to build this mosque (radical Islamists) with the people who killed 3000 Americans (radical Islamists.) So Newt is saying, in plain English, that Imam Rauf and his associates are morally equivalent to the 9/11 attackers—notwithstanding that Imam Rauf was as outraged as anyone at the attack, and justifies the project as strengthening the American alternative to radical Islam.
The last sentence equates Rauf and his colleagues to Nazis. This is where Gingrich forfeits any claim to leadership in America.
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34.064458
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Tags:9/11, ethics, Ground Zero, Holocaust Museum, Imam Rauf, mosque, Nazis, Newt Gingrich, radical Islamists
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Tolerance | Leave a Comment »
August 13, 2010
President Obama defended the right of New York Muslims to build a house of worship in lower Manhattan, 2-1/2 blocks from Ground Zero. Hosting a White House Iftar–a sunset ceremonial dinner marking the breaking of a Ramadan fast. he gave an inspiring 9-minute speech about freedom of religion, and about the historic place of Islam in America.
Made me proud.
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Tags:ethics, freedom of religion, Ground Zero, Islam in America., mosque, Obama, Ramadan, White House Iftar
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics, Tolerance | 1 Comment »
August 13, 2010
Keeping in shape has gotten easier for me since I got an iPhone and discovered a PBS program, Speaking of Faith with Krista Tippet. I listen to this on a podcast on my iPhone, and it makes the hour at the gym go by much faster.
This week’s program is called Revealing Ramadan, and Krista describes it this way:
“14 Muslims, in their own words, speak about the delights and gravity of Islam’s holiest month. Through vivid memories and light-hearted musings, they reveal the richness of Ramadan — as a period of intimacy, and of parties; of getting up when the world is quiet for breakfast and prayers with one’s family; of breaking the fast every day after nightfall in celebration and prayers with friends and strangers.”
I found this a fascinating window into Islam, American style. It’s a little foreign to a non-observant Jew like me, but what was so striking to me was not its foreignness but its sameness—nothing about the people speaking seemed any different from the family next door—to any one. I wish the people railing about mosques at Ground Zero, in Murfreesboro, or Temecula, could listen to the stories these Americans—and one Brit—tell.
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Tags:American Muslims, ethics, Ground Zero, iPhone, Krista Tippet, Murfreesboro, podcast, Ramadan, Revealing Ramadan, Speaking of Faith, Temecula
Posted in Ethics-general, Tolerance | 1 Comment »
August 11, 2010
I’ve been writing in favor of Park 51, the so-called Ground Zero mosque, because ethics demands that we treat others as we would be treated, and because religious freedom is a precious American birthright.
But sometimes the ethical thing is also the best strategy. Fareed Zakaria, one of America’s most insightful political commentators (and an Indian-born, Yale- and Harvard-educated Muslim) writes in this week’s Newsweek that encouraging groups like the one behind Park 51 is part of a “lasting solution to the problem of Islamic terror.”
Zakaria has been tagged by New York Magazine as a possibility to be the first Muslim Secretary of State. All his columns are worth reading, but this one is a must for understanding the national security reason for supporting Park 51 and other efforts by moderate American Muslims.
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Tags:ethics, Fareed Zakaria, Ground Zero mosque, Islamic terror, national security, New York Magazine, Newsweek, Park 51, religious freedom
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
August 10, 2010
I recently offered a wallet-sized code of ethics to replace — or at least, mitigate — the bureaucratic system of rules, supervision and oversight that stifles initiative and deadens workers’ spirits. The ethical guides were simple:
I will:
· Do my best at work
· Avoid conflict of interest
· Speak truth to power
· Be a good citizen
· Shun any private gain from public employment
· Act impartially
· Treat others the way I would like to be treated
· Report waste, fraud, and corruption
When in doubt, my test is can I explain my actions to my mother or to my child.
Many people are hungry for this sort of simple, straightforward guide and have asked me how they can introduce such a tool in their organizations. Here’s what to do next:
· Decide on your organization’s principles of ethical behavior.
· Print wallet-size cards (plastic is best) and hand them out like crazy.
· Teach: look for coachable moments to align people with the principles.
First, what’s right for your organization? Chances are the code isn’t exactly right for you. Give the workers a chance to own the code. Announce that you’re in the market for a new code of ethics that can fit on a wallet-size card. Offer a $100 prize (your $100!) for the best one submitted, and (more…)
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Tags:Bureaucracy, code of ethics, ethics, mission statement, Organizational ethics, oversight, unenforceables
Posted in Business ethics, Ethics-general, Government, Organizational | 2 Comments »
August 1, 2010
The Anti-Defamation League has in the past stood against, not only anti-Semitism, but against all kinds of racial and religious bigotry. Those days sadly are gone. In a shameful statement the ADL summed up its position this way:
“Proponents of the Islamic Center may have every right to build at this site, and may even have chosen the site to send a positive message about Islam. The bigotry some have expressed in attacking them is unfair, and wrong. But ultimately this is not a question of rights, but a question of what is right. In our judgment, building an Islamic Center in the shadow of the World Trade Center will cause some victims more pain – unnecessarily – and that is not right.”
So if you are a victim and you blame Islam—not al Qaeda—for 9/11, we should honor your bigotry by preventing American Muslims from building a community center/mosque 2-1/2 blocks from Ground Zero. For a Jewish group to make such a statement is remarkable, and especially reprehensible. It wasn’t long ago that Jews too were told to be unobtrusive because their presence where they were unwanted would cause pain (more…)
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Tags:9/11, al Qaeda, Anti-Defamation League, anti-Semitism, bigotry, diversity, ethics, fivethirtyeight.com, Ground Zero, Islam, Islamic Center, lunch counters, Nate Silver, polling, religious freedom
Posted in Ethics-general, Government, Politics, Tolerance | 7 Comments »
Racial and religious prejudice and defamation will always be with us, although they are growing less acceptable socially. Call someone a nigger or dago or spic or kike and you’re out of the game. Write about how Jews control the banks and the media, or how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has destroyed our schools and nice people will come down hard on you. But these same nice people have no such compunctions about spreading hateful misinformation about Muslims.
Ethics Bob 