Islam versus Europe

...In reality the conflict situations in corporate life are often caused by the "religious issue", a euphemistic expression used to designate claims made employees of the Muslim faith. Indeed, although the word is rarely mentioned, so sensitive is the subject, reading a document published by EDF entitled "Reference points on the religious fact in the enterprise for the use of managers and HR officials", leaves scarcely any doubt. What are the specific cases discussed? "An employee refuses to shake hands with women because of his religious convictions"; "an employee asks to end work early because he is fasting"; "employees have prayer carpets in their lockers each day and without authorisation", etc.

Jean-Christophe Sciberras, president of the national association of directors of human resources, underlined, however, during his appearance in front of the High Council of Integration (HCI), that "religious claims are being made more and more forcefully, especially because of the recourse to immigrant labour from non-Catholic countries, starting in the 1960s".

"Undeniably, it's a problem that is growing," resumes Guy Trolliet, consultant on questions linked to religion in the enterprise and a specialist in the Arab-Muslim world. "Although their scope is highly variable, the number of managers confronted with these questions is constantly increasing but the companies are very nervous about discussing the subject. Some of them modify the figures, declare that everything is fine, a bit like the Observatoire de la laïcité [Observatory of Secularism] just did. Too many people don't want to admit the truth."

The testimonies, however, abound. An airport employee who doesn't want to push pallets loaded with bottles of alcohol; a young butcher who doesn't want to serve pork; workers who refuse to share a fridge with their colleagues; workers who demand to pray in an unoccupied meeting room, which will be transformed into a mosque a few months later; employees in a retirement home who refuse to take off their veil even though it upsets many of their elderly patients who are not accustomed to this "diversity", or even a hairdresser's salon reserved for women where a male inspector is not allowed to enter because he would "disturb their privacy".