By Yoji Cole

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After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, many American Muslims encountered increased hostility in the workplace, both overt and subtle. But that has changed in the last few years, as more corporations have become increasingly aware of the need for religious inclusion.

Lina Sayed's parents didn't want their 24-year-old daughter to face ridicule fresh out of school at New York University (NYU). Their concerns grew stronger after Sayed decided she would wear a hijab at her new job with JPMorgan Chase, No. 9 on The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^® list.

Sayed's parents warned her about job discrimination, especially in the wake of Sept. 11. Seeing that the nation's collective fervor to get "them" before they get "us" led too many people to turn on their Muslim neighbors and coworkers, Sayed's parents were worried she would be isolated or an easy target.

"You can't deny that when you walk into an office [wearing a hijab, the headscarf worn by Muslim women], that's the first thing people notice," says Sayed. But in a way, that's precisely what she wanted.

"A lot of Muslims are sensitive and insecure and a lot of people are discriminatory," says Sayed, who decided to start wearing a hijab after graduating from NYU and attending a Muslim conference that took place at the Manhattan Center in 2005.

"It was a great experience, and after that, I decided to wear it," says Sayed. "Wearing it was very natural for me. I've always been Muslim but I have never looked the part. You have to look the part to deal with being the part."

As we get further from Sept. 11, 2001, it appears that American Muslims are safer and more comfortable in the office. While reported discrimination cases against Muslims overall continue to increase, incidents in the workplace are decreasing.

The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported a total of 2,467 civil-rights complaints in 2006, compared with 1,972 complaints reported in 2005, a 25 percent increase in the total number of complaints from year to year. However, civil-rights complaints involving the workplace declined significantly from 25.4 percent of the total (5,009) in 2005 to 15.6 percent (3,849) in 2006.

"As we work with corporations, we're seeing an increasing recognition that religion is the next big issue to deal with in terms of the diversity field and an increasing recognition that they need to be given tools for handling it," says Georgette Bennett, president and founder of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. Bennett will be one of 12 national religious leaders, including Muslims, Jews, Christians, atheists and fundamentalists, as well as corporate and LGBT leaders, taking part in DiversityInc's upcoming Religion in the Workplace Roundtable. Check out the Nov./Dec. 2007 issue of DiversityInc magazine to read this groundbreaking dialogue.

This increasing connection to religion in the workplace is clear in Top 50 companies, who set the trends as national diversity leaders. Seventy percent of the Top 50 have floating religious holidays and 16 percent make special religious accommodations, such as prayer rooms. Almost no one else in corporate America does this yet.

Bennett mentioned IBM as a company that has responded well to the needs of Muslim employees.

IBM provides a washroom where Muslim employees can clean their feet and nasal passages in preparation for their daily prayers. The company also provides two picture identifications for a female Muslim employee. In one identification card, she's pictured without her hijab, and that one is only seen by a female security officer. The other identification card pictures her with her hijab and she uses that card once she has entered the premises.

Bennett adds that the younger generation of American Muslims is more acculturated and therefore more likely to assert itself while becoming more observant of Islamic customs, such as wearing the hijab for women or growing beards in the tradition of the Muslim prophet Muhammed for men.

And the increase in overall civil-rights complaints doesn't necessarily mean there is more or less discrimination, she says. "We don't know because, in all likelihood, a fair percentage of complaints we're seeing now are complaints about conditions that existed before but the victims didn't necessarily complain about it in the past," says Bennett. "Today there is more willingness to be assertive because the Muslim community is becoming more organized, so there may be a greater willingness to file complaints."

Sayed, who is a credit underwriter for JPMorgan Chase, is a perfect example. Since starting at the financial firm, she has seen much success. She prays five times a day, and colleagues are aware of her particular needs as a Muslim executive. For example, during Ramadan, Muslims traditionally fast, and Sayed's colleagues schedule lunch meetings with her needs in mind. Muslims need not be afraid to work for corporate America, she says.

"A place to pray, that was a big thing for me," says Sayed. "But I walked into my boss's office and told him and he went to human resources and figured out a place where I could pray. It's the Muslim's responsibility to express these things. If I hadn't told them, then I'd be sneaking in and out of conference rooms trying to find a place and people wouldn't understand what I was doing. Then you start to feel people are looking at you weird. When you're open about things and people can ask questions, it's less likely that they'll be discriminatory."

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