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FLPanhandle

(7,107 posts) Mon Jun 20, 2016, 12:18 PM Jun 2016

Wegmans Store Refuses to Make Cake for Ex-Muslim Group Because Their Existence is “Offensive”

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/06/20/wegmans-store-refuses-to-make-cake-for-ex-muslim-group-because-their-existence-is-offensive/

To celebrate their third anniversary, the Ex-Muslims of North America recently contacted a Wegmans grocery store in Fairfax, Virginia with a simple request: They wanted to buy a cake with the group’s logo on it along with the phrase “Congratulations on 3 years!!”

They weren’t asking for a drawing of Muhammad or a statement condemning Islam. They just wanted a cake celebrating their existence.

It was too much for the store to handle:

… when the group’s staffers called to confirm the design and status of the cake, they report that a “rude bakery associate” denied the request, calling it “offensive.”

The organization’s initial attempts at getting an explanation from Wegmans were unsuccessful. Finally, an employee called the group back and explained that the cake was declined because the store did not want to advocate “one way or the other.” The worker said that the store has “a lot of employees who are Muslim,” and that “employees may not know what this stands for.”

The staffers’ ignorance shouldn’t be an excuse to reject customers who aren’t asking for anything unusual. Do the Muslim staffers also refuse to make cakes that say “Congratulations on your bar mitzvah”? What about cakes for atheist groups? Those celebrating a second marriage? Just because some people have left Islam doesn’t give Muslim employees the right to refuse service to them.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the store’s manager and the chain’s executives today:

Unlike the blatant discrimination some Christian bakeries have shown to LGTBQ Americans in the name of religious freedom, this appears to be discrimination against customers’ lack of religious belief — Wegmans essentially refused to serve a group of nonbelievers. This raises serious concerns under federal, state, and local civil rights laws.

Legalities aside, Wegmans rationale for the discrimination is wrong on multiple counts. First, it suggests that leaving a religion is offensive.

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Anyone leaving a religion should be praised. Those who are ex-Muslims should especially be praised for their courage. Atheists are still one of the most hated groups in the world. sigh.