Tom Facchine – Afraid To Pray at Work-My Jewish Co-worker

			When I was a new Muslim, one of the hardest things was to ask for time to pray during work. I used
to work in restaurants, and I used to work long shifts, sometimes 12 1314 hour shifts. And I needed
to pray. And like many people,
		

			as a new Muslim, for a while, I was too shy to ask. And so I would just wait until after work, and
then I would, you know, make them up at the end of the workday. And I think for people in that
situation, you know, you're afraid you're afraid of stigma, you're afraid of what people are going
to say you're afraid of being told no,
		

			you're afraid of sticking out, you know, all these sorts of things. But a lot of those fears are in
your head. And a lot of them aren't real. And when you put yourself out, I'm not saying it doesn't
happen. Sometimes you come across a prejudiced employer, or something like that. And they're going
to feel some sort of way about it, or they're going to try to even I don't know, make it difficult
for you to pray, but probably the majority of the time, it's going to be easier than you think. And
what's really required is that you just take a little bit of a leap of faith, advocate for yourself,
right? Advocate for yourself, and you'll be surprised at how some people will react.
		

			I used to work with a with a Jewish lady. And once I start, I started asking for my time to pray,
which my employer was fine with. They're like, yeah, sure, no problem. Just make sure someone is
covering you. On the floor. There was a Jewish lady that I worked with, and she started keeping
track of my prayer times. And she started telling me when it was time for me to pray. So then, she
would like take over because as I said, I was a waiter. And, you know, she's like, I've got your
tables, you go pray, you know, and even when I fasted, she'd be like, trying to break your fast,
		

			you know, so you will never experience those beautiful things. And you'll never
		

			show other people what it's like to be a person of faith, that prioritizes praying, that prioritizes
connecting to your Creator, if you don't take that little tiny leap of faith and ask for your right
really an advocate for yourself, just like anybody else who needs an accommodation, if they have a
medical condition or a disability or this or that the other, you have to communicate with your
employer, you have to find
		

			a compromise or some sort of accommodation, it's the same thing. You know, you need to just
communicate and be confident and assert yourself. And then you you will be amazed that at what
happens and if if you are in a situation where somebody tries to
		

			prevent you or they want to make it a big deal then even that, you know, Allah subhanaw taala might
be trying to show you that maybe it's time to move on to something else, or maybe we'll open up a
different opportunity to you, but you'll never know if you don't ask