Washington, September 25: American Muslim workers have filed a record number of complaints in the first nine months of 2009, according to a new report.
According to the report released by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Muslim workers in the US have filed over 800 complaints of discrimination during the period, which shows a 20 percent rise comparing to the same period in 2008.
While only two percent of the US population is Muslim, one quarter of the job discrimination complaints with the government came from Muslims.
One incident saw the clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch refusing to hire a female Muslim employee because she would not remove her headscarf.
In another incident, a hotel in phoenix, Arizona has been sued for allowing an Iraqi Muslim worker to be insulted by other workers because of his religion.
“I mean this is America in the 21st Century. It is very very unfortunate that ignorance and lack of compassion and respect for Muslims in America has mushroomed to this breaking level,” Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Nihad Awad told Press TV on Friday.
“We have people being called ‘Osama,’ ‘terrorist,’ ‘al-Qaeda’ in the workplace, by their co-workers or not being hired just because of their hijab,” Awad added.
–Agencies