Muslims and Religious food issues

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I have a autistic son and sadly our wonderful Special Needs Nanny is leaving us in July. Now we have an application from a a Muslim lady who sounds ideal as a replacement. Her background and experience put her far above anyone else at least on paper. The only thing is DS1 loves bacon and he needs to have it for lunch (frequently!). DS1 can speak a little and within reason, we try to respond to his requests to help improve his language. He asks for bacon a lot ! Would it be awkward for a Muslim to serve bacon to a non muslim child? I hope this doesn't sound like an odd question and I certainly don't want to offend anyone but I don't think I could ask a question like that at the interview stage so I though maybe muslim mumsnetters could help!

Thanks if you can help

I very much doubt that , if she is observant, she would be prepared to handle bacon or any pork product, as it is seen as unclean. Not a muslim btw.

I would raise the issue with her, it seems a reasonable thing to do

Some wouldn't have a problem with it. I wouldn't, but could never be called devout by any stretch of the imagination.

If you interviewed her and liked her I think it would be entirely reasonable to ask her how she felt about her feeding him a diet with pork in.

(Am also not a lawyer, so may need to be corrrected on this point.)

HTH

how do you know she is muslim? did you discuss it? only, my dad is 'muslim' and called mohamed but he loves a bacon butty.

That's a very good question ruddynorah - She is Jordanian so I am just leaping to conclusions. I probably will raise it at the interview stage but just don't want to make a big issue out of it - after all, he does like quorn bacon sometimes !

then there you go. to look at and by my name, maiden name anyway, i could be presumed to be muslim, but i was actually raised catholic. so, great to have thought about this, considering her country of origin, but no need to assume

riven has raised a good point - there could be all sorts of reasons why someone might not want to handle bacon. I would like to know to avoid embarrassment later but i see now that a question about meat/pork shouldn't necessarily be seen as specific to a religious belief - assuming she has any of course !

I am a muslim but if i could help a child who is autistic i would be prepared to handle bacon.I think this would be a big deal for a lot of muslims.

OP - I have known a lot of Muslim friends who have handled pork items before (admittedly not in the UK, this was over in Asia)they used to tell me as it was part of their job, i.e they worked in bars/restaurants that it was OK. I am sure this is open to personal interpretation and yes like it has been mentioned there could be all reasons as why someone might not want to handle bacon or any other ingredients.

it's down to her personal choices. i think you need to make it clear, that if she dooes tak ethis job on, she will have to make him a bacon sandwich on occasion. since youare only asking her to make it, not eat it, i think it is perfectly reasonable.
if she is very uncomfortable with it, then she wont take the job on.
if i had to do this for a child such as your ds, then i think i would happily do so. an nt child, never.

Thanks for all the kind replies. I will let you know how the interview goes. We are teaching DS life skills so he doesn't just get the bacon sandwich, he has to get the bacon from the fridge and help to lay it on the grill so possibly he can go independent if necessary. It might even be an incentive for him !