Excerpt:
A major retail chain has rehired a fired Muslim employee in the Twin Cities and is now accommodating his right to pray in the workplace, an Islamic civil rights organization in Minnesota and the retailer said today.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced Monday that Walmart agreed to the accommodation after CAIR-MN intervened on behalf of employee Abdi Abdi, who was fired from his job in February as a stocker and loader at the Woodbury store.
CAIR-MN says that Abdi, a four-year employee with Walmart, was let go for violating a new supervisor's ban on prayer during work breaks. A previous supervisor had allowed him to perform his daily prayers, the organization said.
Abdi was rehired last month at a Walmart in St. Paul and is now allowed to pray during breaks, following negotiations between CAIR-MN and local and national representatives of Walmart, the St. Paul-based rights group said.