Is the West Ready for the New Muslim Middle Class?

by Susan Welch, Hewitt Research and Andrés T. Tapia -

Islam is the world’s fastest-growing religion, and the growing number of Muslims in the workforce is profoundly changing the world. So argues Tufts University professor Vali Nasr in Forces of Fortune: The Rise of the New Muslim Middle Class and What It Will Mean for Our World.  He details how Muslim entrepreneurs revived Turkey’s economy and built the “skyscraper economy” of Dubai. According to Nasr, middle class Muslims are business-oriented, and, at a macro level, may offer a gateway to reforming the Arab world.

Nasr’s analysis of middle-class Muslim attitudes toward productive business ventures is encouraging. But what about Muslims working West of Turkey and Dubai? The dynamics we can expect to see as growing numbers of Muslims enter predominately non-Muslim workplaces in the West are not all positive. At least three major problems are bound to arise:

■ Increased Instances 0f Overt Discrimination. In a U.S. poll, 58% of Muslim respondents said they’d experienced discrimination since 9/11. It’s no wonder, given that 40% of Americans reported having a negative view of Muslims. A 2008 Pew Survey of Global Attitudes found an increase in Islamophobia across the Western world. At least half of the populations of Spain and Germany and Poland, and well over a third of the population of France, admitted prejudice against Muslims. In the U.S., documented cases of violence and discrimination against Muslims increased 70% between 2002 and 2004.

■ Religious Misunderstandings. More than 75% of American Muslims reported being at least somewhat troubled by the issue of religious expression at work. In the United States, Christian religious holidays are observed with gusto, and major Jewish holidays are at least grudgingly recognized; yet few non-Islamic people even know that Ramadan is the Islamic calendar’s ninth month, designated the month of fasting. Fewer still realize that the concluding day of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, is a festival celebrating an end to the fast. In addition to holiday observances, daily religious practices present workplace challenges. Muslims pray, facing Mecca, five times a day. On Friday, the noon prayer is also accompanied by a sermon, requiring a bit more time.

■ Conflicts over Appropriate Dress. Muslim men may wear skull caps or turbans and have beards; women often wear head scarves. These forms of traditional dress favored by some Muslims may violate explicit or implicit employee dress codes.

Employers who become crossculturally competent can make the Western workplace more inclusive in ways that benefit Muslims and non-Muslims. Offering flexible schedules on holidays, providing a quiet spot for prayer or meditation, and communicating openly about what can be worn at work when, and why, will make for an environment where all employees feel honored–the kind of environment where you feel like you can be yourself. And as we’ve explored in previous posts, studies show that that is the kind of environment in which employees give the most.

But these moves toward inclusion, as important as they are, will remain superficial changes unless the core issues underlying Western attitudes toward Muslims are addressed. The recent waves of anti-Hispanic sentiment in the U.S. are instructive here. Hispanics, like Muslims, became associated with population shifts huddled on the horizon, driven by immigrants with higher birth rates. Some non-Hispanics reacted to these shifts with fear–fear of losing power and a desire to preserve things “as they are.” But those who understand the power of diversity and inclusion to improve everyone’s lives have, in organization after organization, been leading non-Hispanics through fear to inclusion.

Vali Nasr offers a promising vision of Muslims and non-Muslims working together to build prosperity. How ready will your organization be to respond to the new wave of Muslim workers he describes?

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