Dallas Morning News:
About 2,900 religion-based charges were filed with the EEOC last year, a 13 percent increase from the previous year and double the number of cases in 1992.
The spurt of cases may actually stem from greater diversity in the workplace, said Dianna Johnston, assistant legal counsel for the EEOC. Employees are "much more open about their religion and make it part of their overall life," she said.
Ms. Johnston said the increasing demands of the workplace heighten the likelihood of conflict since prayer times can coincide with work hours. The most prevalent religious discrimination charges include time off for religious activities and wearing religious garb like a headscarf, she said.
Islamic prayer, which involves a specified cleansing and prayer routine, also causes confusion for those unfamiliar with the practice. Islam mandates five daily prayers in the direction of Mecca. Two of these prayers, early and late afternoon, often fall during work hours.
North Texas has up to 180,000 Muslims, the second largest population in Texas next to Houston and the seventh largest Muslim community in the United States. Many work in information technology and engineering jobs in Dallas and are now assuming management positions.
"Today you even have leadership and management training workshops associated with Muslims," said Mohamed Elibiary, president of the Freedom and Justice Foundation, based in Plano. "They are trying to climb the corporation into management whereas in the 1990s they were just happy to have a stable job."
Muslim backlash after 9/11 had a profound impact on the community, Mr. Elibiary said, and only now are Muslims becoming comfortable enough to showcase their faith again. He attributes it to American disenchantment with the Iraq war and the war on terror.
"As Americans started losing confidence, they stopped fearing their Muslim neighbor," he said.
Elbiary also says here: "Reading Rod [Dreher]'s piece, I finally grasped why [Sayyid] Qutb [founding member and main philosopher of the Muslim Brotherhood - father organization of Islamic Jihad, Hamas and Al-Qaeda] is so feared. It’s always easier to direct our fears at one focal point then face our challenge. ... Many Westerners who've read Qutb's and many others' work, see the potential for a strong spiritual rebirth that's truly ecumenical allowing all faiths practiced in America to enrich us and motivate us to serve God better by serving our fellow man more. At that point, America will have a spiritual product that’s exportable and satisfactory to the spiritual marketplace’s demand. So I'd recommend everyone read Qutb, but read him with an eye to improving America not just to be jealous with malice in our hearts." Obviously, management-speak and Arabic have a lot in common.
Beyond a rising comfort level, more companies are taking a global approach to how they do business, said Dr. Khurshid Qureshi, president of the Association of Muslim Scientists and Engineers.
"They want Muslims to work for their companies," he said. "The prayer rooms aren't mandatory, but they are fringe benefits."
Meditation spots still aren't commonplace. DiversityInc, a magazine that puts out an annual report on the Top 50 Companies for Diversity, found that 16 percent last year had special religious accommodations.
Mustafaa Carroll, executive director of the Dallas/Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations, estimates that less than half of the region's companies have prayer rooms. He said it's often something that doesn't occur to an employer until a Muslim employee mentions it....
And of course CAIR is there to suggest backing up that "mention" with filing a complaint with the Employment Equal Opportunity Commission.
