“Better safe than sorry” is a proverb that could well apply to those Arabs and Muslims working or living outside their home countries, especially those in the West. It also applies Islamic organizations with offices abroad, who despite their long presence in foreign countries seem to have no knowledge on how the law operates. As a result, they often find themselves facing difficult situations.
It is unfortunate that the millions of Arabs and Muslims living in the West — 20 million of whom are in Europe including six million in France alone — continue to put themselves in trouble because of their ignorance of the nature of the laws in those countries.
I witnessed a number of cases where Arab and Muslim individuals as well as organizations found themselves in extremely awkward situations because of their ignorance of the legal system.
In the majority of those cases the individuals and organizations involved were dragged to courts and faced criminal charges because they acted in good faith but out of ignorance and carelessness. They did not know what they used to take for granted in their home countries amounts to violation of the law in other countries.
Even if the violations committed by these individuals amount to misdemeanors or are of insignificant nature, the enemies lying in wait are ready to find in these enough reason to teach Arabs and Muslims a lesson by dragging them to courts or landing them in prison.
What matters is tarnishing the reputation of the offender. In most cases, the individual or organization involved would be cleared of any charges after the courts find out they acted in good faith but by that time the damage would have been done and this is what the enemies want.
In the end, it is the mistake of those individuals and organizations who should know they have to abide by the law even if it contradicts their personal convictions and what they have been accustomed to in their home countries.
I recount here a case that is both funny and sad. It involved an Islamic charity organization operating in a secularist African country that ran a clinic that had a Christian male nurse among its staff. The man embraced Islam but then recanted and went back to his old religion. When the organization knew of the case they fired him on the grounds he recanted. The man complained to the local labor office, which ruled that he should be reinstated because the law does not punish people for changing their religion.
The organization refused to rehire the man and went back to the labor court. The court ruled he was arbitrarily fired and ordered the organization to pay him a compensation that was double what he could have earned for his service. Again, the organization stalled. In the end the court confiscated the clinic ambulance, sold it for $80,000 and paid the man. The ambulance was lost and still the organization refused to change its mind.
