Mrs G. has posed an interesting question. She works for a large American company in the UK. They employ a third party to supply a security guard.

The latest security guard is a young man of the Islamic faith. Elaine (Mrs G of course) as Location administrator looks after reception, switchboard, post, security etc. and needs to work closely with the young man as they need to 'hand over' from security to reception and vice-versca.

However when she introduced herself and offered a handshake he would not accept and told her his religion would not allow him to greet women. All the top management of the site where she works are women but he would not shake the hand of any of them. Nor will he speak to any of the women except to answer specific questions with as little intercourse (no puns please!) as possible. If he needs to ask a question he will find a male member of staff and ask them.

The question is of course where does the law of the land, which says that both sexes must be treated equaly and the law of the company, which says everyone must be treated with equal courtesy, give way to the law of a specific religion?

I am not in all honesty trying to condemn or condone anything. I admire the young man for standing by his principles yet I also abhor his attitude to half the population of the world. It is a genuine paradox for me. How can I justify and condemn his attitude at the same time?

Do we go for complete tollerence of all beliefs? Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Budhist, Pagan, Satanist, whatever? Where do we draw the line? Followers of Charles Manson?

Do we go for no tollerance? Sorry - The law of the land is the law of the land! No exeptions? No alcohol? No break from the work place for daily prayer?

Where is the happy medium? I only wish I knew.

Ah well. We may not have all the answers but surely we can write a song about it;-)

Good luck. I don't intend to loose too much sleep myself but I wait with tollerant anticipation...

Cheers

Dave the Gnome