Store worker 'refused to touch Bible'
Pastor Dale Morgan
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Store worker 'refused to touch Bible'*
By Nick Britten
Last Updated: 2:29am GMT 16/01/2008
Marks and Spencer has launched an investigation after a customer claimed
a Muslim shop assistant refused to handle a Bible she was buying.
Sally Friday said she felt “humiliated” after going to the till to pay
for a First Bible Stories for her young grandson.
She said the woman behind the till refused to touch the book once she
realised what it was, and made a reference to a fellow worker about
being “unclean”.
Mrs Friday, 69, said: “The young lady was absolutely fine with the other
stuff I was buying but when it came to the Bible she refused to touch it
and asked me to put it in the shopping bag myself.
"She turned to another worker and said something about being unclean and
at first I thought she was referring to a skirt I was buying and that
there was a mark on it. Then she asked me to put the Bible in my
shopping bag myself.
"It took me a while to realise what was happening and I felt humiliated
that someone could censor what I was buying.
"If she was refusing to touch it on religious grounds then that is not
on. We are a tolerant, Christian country and I could not see a Christian
shop assistant refusing to touch something from another religion.
"If you are paid to do a job like that then you should get on and do it."
Mrs Friday, from old Basing, Hants, bought the Bible in the Reading
branch of M&S on December 28.
She said Marks and Spencer had apologised and she was happy that they
were investigating the incident.
Shop sources said the assistant may have been referring to her hands
which were dirty and she did not want to touch the book for fear of
marking it.
A Marks and Spencer spokesman said: “We are surprised by the allegation
and are investigating it thoroughly.
"It appears there has been a misunderstanding over what was said. We
have apologised to Mrs Friday.”