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Heading off to the airport was not an unusual way for Omar Alghabra to start his day. As a Mississauga-based product manager for one of the world's largest U.S.-owned multinational conglomerates, his work often had him boarding planes for meetings south of the border. And that's just what Alghabra expected to do as he drove to Toronto's Pearson International Airport one morning in February 2003. He looked forward to arriving in New Orleans later in the day for his department's annual business review. But Alghabra would never reach his destination. In fact, he wouldn't even get on a plane.
Alghabra, of Syrian descent but born in Saudi Arabia, had heard of people being stopped at the border as part of a post-9/11 registration procedure for entry into the United States. It targets those born in certain countries, including Saudi Arabia, even if they hold Canadian passports. But in the months following the 2001 terrorist attacks, Alghabra, a 34-year-old Canadian citizen who has lived in this country since 1989, had never been forced to undergo the fingerprinting, photographing and interrogation.
This day, though, as Alghabra attempted to pass through U.S. airport immigration, an officer told him to step aside because he qualified for the procedure. After some arguing, Alghabra refused. "I said, 'This is discriminatory. It's racist. I'm not doing it,'" he recalls. The immigration officer's reply was firm: "If you don't do it, you're not going through."
Alghabra didn't get to the United States, and, in his case, he didn't lose his job because of it. But if you ask Muslims and Arabs about their experiences in the Canadian business world since 9/11, many insist they've suffered. The fallout from the recent terrorists bombings in Madrid, they worry, could make things even worse. From highly skilled newcomers who say employers won't even glance at their resumés to long-time citizens like Alghabra who feel their jobs could be on the line, Muslim and Arab Canadians say they're under increased pressure--and it's affecting their role in the workplace. And with Islam as Canada's fastest-growing religion (in fact, it is now the second most prominent faith in the country, after Christianity), Canadian corporations can no longer afford to ignore this key segment of the workforce.
Discrimination against Muslims and Arabs is not a new phenomenon. Sept. 11 simply placed these groups, who previously had blended in with the many minorities present in Canada, under greater scrutiny. And community leaders say there are steps companies can take to prevent discrimination, whether intentional or not, against the half a million Muslims who live in this country.
In Alghabra's case, his corporation, which he asked not be named, took several critical steps. First, it offered to give him an equivalent job that wouldn't require travel to the United States. But after much thought, Alghabra decided to comply with the American requirement--until he discovered he'd have to go through the procedure not only every time he entered the United States, but also every time he left. So Alghabra went to his human resources department and, with its help, found out he could apply for a waiver through the U.S. Embassy that would allow him to bypass the procedure.
Alghabra's company supported him, but there are others who haven't been as lucky. Mohamed Elmasry, national president of the Canadian Islamic Congress, says that what the United States is doing amounts to racial profiling--and makes it easy for Canadian companies to discriminate. "If a company finds that one of its employees is targeted at the border and causing them problems, most likely they will try to get rid of him," he says.
The official line from both governments is that the procedure does not generally apply to Canadian citizens, regardless of their place of birth. The U.S. government is currently modifying the terms of who qualifies for the procedure, but still, there are no measures in place to protect Canadians. What it comes down to is the judgment of immigration officers. Aside from rallying government and citizen support to topple the procedure, Muslims and Arabs want to see more corporations standing up for their employees, just as Alghabra's did. "The government hasn't done enough," says Riad Saloojee, executive director of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations.
As important as it is for companies to address discrimination originating from outside, they also need to take a hard look at the culture in their office environments. "There is a climate of suspicion that follows people around--not just Arabs or Muslims, but anyone who falls into generic Middle Eastern-looking stereotypes," says Rula Sharkawi, communications director at the Canadian Arab Federation. Bill C-36, Canada's anti-terrorism act, she adds, has only fuelled this suspicion, because it lacks basic checks and balances and disregards aspects of the rule of law. "There is a feeling of needing to defend your faith and ethnicity," Sharkawi says.
A case that leaves no doubt in her mind is that of a highly skilled Arab surgeon who was offered a job at a prominent Toronto hospital. "But only on the condition that he change his name to something less Arab-sounding," Sharkawi elaborates. The surgeon instead accepted an unconditional offer from a U.S. hospital. The fact that a reputable organization would impose such a racist measure makes it clear, as far as Sharkawi is concerned, that hiring an Arab is, for some, considered undesirable.
The discrimination is not always so blatant, and sometimes surfaces as a joke--for example, an employee asking his Muslim or Arab co-worker if he has a pilot's licence. Elmasry says this type of inappropriate behaviour simply breeds misguided stereotypes. He wants companies to issue guidelines that make it clear that such comments are inappropriate, and emphasizes that similar remarks about Aboriginal Peoples or African-Canadians would never be tolerated. But because of the geopolitical climate, he says, Muslim bashing is acceptable.
Elmasry also thinks the media, to a large degree, encourages negative stereotypes by bombarding society with the images of what a Muslim or Arab person looks like. But in reality, the Muslim world is far more diverse than many think, and most Muslims look nothing like Osama bin Laden. In fact, Islam reaches all the way around the world, from Indonesia to Somalia and Pakistan to Turkey, and many Muslims blend seamlessly into society.
It's the Muslims who don't blend in who often become victims, because their beards or head scarves make them easy targets. And because Islam is a ritualistic faith, some Muslims pray at work or fast during Ramadan. In the pre-9/11 environment, these actions were largely considered cultural or spiritual. "Before, nobody really had an issue with it," says Faisal Kutty, general counsel with the Canadian Muslim Civil Liberties Association and a board member with the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations. Today, however, he sees a "sharper focus" on practising Muslims. "It's like, if you're just like us, it's OK. But if you are practising, then they say, 'Hang on--is this guy the Taliban type?'"
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