WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST MUSLIMS, ARABS, AND OTHERS SINCE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

This article examines Title VII workplace discrimination in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, disasters. There were 63 federal court cases that alleged discrimination against Muslims, Arabs, and people from selected parts of the world such as the Middle East and South Asia. Discrimination was alleged to have occurred in failing to accommodate workers’ religious practices, in treating people unequally, and in allowing for the existence of hostile work environments. Some workers alleged they had been retaliated against for exercising their fights to file complaints of discrimination. The study did not find a major wave of discrimination cases and found the courts to be remarkably consistent in the application of the law. There is no doubt that the world changed on September 11, 2001 when terrorists crashed commercial airliners into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania. Since the terrorists had come from the Middle East, an immediate concern for many was whether there would be a severe backlash against anyone in the United States who had roots in the Middle East and/or was Muslim. Would a backlash be felt in the workplace? While the events of that single day in 2001 were extraordinarily dramatic, there were some other trends that had a bearing on the situation. Some observers perceived that the United States was experiencing a resurgence in religion and spirituality and that this trend was influencing the workplace through people “witnessing” for their faiths [1]. A second trend was the sizable growth in the Muslim population in the United States. Just as this population was expanding rapidly, the potential existed for a strong backlash against these very people.