A Muslim employee of a suburban Philadelphia market has been imprisoned for refusing to sell pork products to the store’s customers. Adbul Alim Hanif was arrested Wednesday at Sunrise Market in Folcroft, PA by local police and has since been placed in the county prison. This occurred after customers complained that their meat orders were always missing pork products whenever Hanif prepared them.
The store’s owner, Jim Capretti, said that Hanif refused to even handle any of the pork products due to religious reasons. He said he was thankful when the court order came down threatening his employee with arrest and imprisonment if he continued to restrict the meat rights of the patrons of the business. “Really, it’s a relief,” said Capretti. “I know people may not think it’s a big deal that one town had one store that had one employee that refused to sell one type of product, but what if more meat department employees got the idea that they could make up their own rules? They needed to make an example of Hanif.” He went on to add that he recently saw a woman cry because she couldn’t buy cotechino and therefore “wouldn’t be able to make a proper Italian hoagie.”
Capretti expressed annoyance at those who thought that a prison sentence is too harsh for Hanif’s crime. Some have questioned if someone else could have sold meat instead of Hanif, but Capretti rebutted that idea by saying, “But selling meat is his job.” He continued: “All sorts of people are coming at the local government and courts with this nonsense of ‘Why couldn’t the store just fire him if he refused to do his job?’ Well, what they don’t understand is that firing someone requires a ton of paperwork. It’s a huge pain in the butt.”
Hanif was described as an excellent worker, always polite to his coworkers and customers alike, and was always on time for his shifts. Capretti said that he was willing to do whatever it took to help the business, except for handling pork, which he wrote on his application, said several times during his interview, and repeated when he was told he would be working behind the meat counter. Hanif was unable to be reached for comment, but it can be assumed that he would have said, “Kill the infidel!”
Life has gone on at Sunrise Market. They struggled to fill in the gap left by Hanif at first, but after a few days they realized it only took a few minutes of training to show one of the other employees to work behind the meat counter. The loins are once again coming out chop chop!