On the job, their wayClashes are increasing between Somali Muslims and Minnesota employers. Can the loose-fitting garb be a safety hazard?

Ayaan Abdi is a janitor with Marsden Building Maintenance of St. Paul. About 300 of Marsden's 1,600 Twin Cities employees are from East Africa. The company has assigned spaces at some work sites to allow Muslim workers to pray five times a day - a practice that has caused friction in some other companies.

By Chris Serres

Fatuma Hassan has just enough rice in her near-empty cupboards to make it through the month. The anger she felt when she lost her job in May has given way to a dull, nagging hunger.

Yet this soft-spoken 22-year-old became an unlikely hero within the Somali community when she and five of her Muslim co-workers were dismissed last month from the Mission Foods tortilla factory in New Brighton for refusing to wear a new company uniform -- a shirt and pants -- they consider a violation of their Islamic beliefs. Read more ...

Source: Star Tribune