I was at a conference on gender and sexism in science (btw I was forced to be there). The conference was given by a ~26 yrs old woman whose doing a master in physic at McGill University (Montreal). She was telling us a racist/sexist experience she once had during an interview. She told us that she was expected to work on the saturday by her bos. However, as a religious jew, she was forbidden to work on saturday. Then she explaines that her bos had some difficulties to understand how she could not work on saturday, because he really needed someone to work.
My question is: do you think its racist not to hire someone because he/she can't work on saturday due to their religion?
It's not racist for the simple fact that religion is not a race.
However, in any job, there are certain requirements that are expected in order to be qualified for a position. If the position requires that you work weekends, and your particular belief would prevent you from doing so, then you're obviously not the right person for the job.
As an example, what would make it discrimination is if it was a Monday through Friday work schedule, and the person was denied employment simply because of their religious beliefs, and not due to company needs.
I think you should have the right to hire who you want regardless of their religion. You should hire the person that meets the requirements to be successful at the job. If one of the requirements is to work on Saturday and you are not able to do that for whatever reason then you shouldn't be hired. Race to me is based on color, not religion.