Post 9-11 Workplace Discrimination Claims Continue

August 7, 2005

Source: Salt Lake Tribune / USA Today

http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_2922645

On August 7, 2005 USA Today reported, "Nearly four years after the terrorist attacks, Muslim, South Asian and Arab-American employees continue to report discrimination on the job. Compared with the first two years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the number of employees saying they have been discriminated against as a form of backlash because of the attacks has declined. But charges continue to come in, indicating that Arab-American and other workers still feel discriminated against. 'People are being called "terrorist" at work, things of that sort,' says Arsalan Iftikhar, national legal director at Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations... Nearly 280 claims of discrimination in the workplace were received by CAIR in 2004, and the workplace was the second-most-common location for an alleged incident. The first was government agencies. At the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, about 980 charges alleging post-9/11 backlash discrimination have been filed through June 11 since the 2001 attacks. Most involved firing and alleged harassment."