Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority by Berger Benjamin L. Moon Richard

Author:Berger, Benjamin L.,Moon, Richard
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2016-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

B.Hypervisibility as Authoritative

Not all our participants experienced this collapse of identity as problematic. Some felt it gave them more credibility and leverage in their jobs. Thirty-year-old headscarved Dalia, for instance, attributes part of her good reputation as an early childhood educator in a publicly-run day care centre to the fact that parents know that she is a Muslim and think her religiosity helps her to better educate and discipline their children:

[The parents] they said that because I’m Muslim there are certain things that I will do, you know, I will be more picky about. Like, before going to eat we wash our hands, after eating we wash our hands, after going to the bathroom we wash our hands. Because there are many teachers, you know, who don’t do that, they don’t care … They saw that I was taking care of their child.

Other participants, especially those in more established positions, embraced the possibility of becoming spokespeople or ad-hoc theologians for ‘acceptable’ Muslim religiosity in their workspaces. These Muslim public servants willingly ‘out’ themselves in ways that make their religious identities predominant. Hassan, 29, has taken an unofficial role as religious mediator at a Crown corporation. Working in a human resources department where questions of dispensation and accommodation are raised quite often, Hassan has met with imams outside work hours to determine what might be an Islamically appropriate response to particular workplace employee issues. When asked about the implications of his employer’s request that he evaluate the validity of another employee’s religious request, Hassan explains that this role emerged slowly: his colleagues know that he is a Sunni Muslim, as he frequently discusses his beliefs at lunchtime. In one case, he expressed his opinion on whether a mail delivery person had the right to refuse delivery on a Friday because of jumu’ah prayer. A question that arose was whether the prayer practice was similar to the Christian Sunday congregational prayer, and so would require the individual to be absent for the entire day. After seeking advice and referencing his own understanding of appropriate practice, Hassan determined that no, the employee should not have the right to an entire day, because such participation called for a one-hour absence, which could be compensated by moving the timing of the mail deliverer’s lunch break.

In a different case, Hassan determined that Eid celebrations warranted a few days off, relying on existing institutional policies concerning personal leave days. He framed this request as comparable to Christmas, and noted that the department has an equity policy and that one could alternatively have recourse to the Charter:

I told my boss that Eid can fall on this day or that day. So if it is this day, well in this case I won’t be in the office. And if it is this day, well, I told her, it is always more or less two days, ok? … I have personal days, and she said, ‘No, no. Take the time that you need with your family … It’s like our Christmas’.

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