Philadelphia Weekly

As he chats with a reporter inside a Dunkin' Donuts on City Line Avenue, Iliyaas Muhammad would relish a small cup of water. But being a devout Muslim isn't easy, and he has to hold out another hour or so.

"No eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset," the 43-year-old Upper Darby resident explains before allowing that yes, he's thirsty.

Muhammad might add that, in his view, fasting during the holy month of Ramadan (which runs from Sept. 1 to 30 this year) represents one of the lesser challenges an African-American Muslim faces.

A pleasant, diminutive man, Muhammad wears a beard, shaves his head and sports a "prostration mark"--a blemish on his forehead caused by repeatedly brushing against a prayer rug. He worships at the Germantown Masjid, a mosque that earned headlines last May when its leaders refused to bury the alleged triggerman in police officer Stephen Liczbinski's slaying.

On this sunny Wednesday afternoon, Muhammad has just left the Bala Cynwyd car dealership where's he worked as a custodian since 2005.

It hasn't been an easy three years.

Muhammad claims some of his co-workers have rubbed his skull condescendingly and called him "Bubba." He says one placed anti-Islamic cartoons on a tool closet he frequents. Another laughed uproariously when Muhammad greeted a fellow Muslim with the traditional "As-Salamu Alaykum." And a supervisor once asked him whether his cell phone contained a bomb.

Muhammad claims there have been other indignities.

Last year he filed a complaint that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is still investigating, and he says things have simmered down of late, though co-workers continue to spill trash "accidentally" to make his days harder.

"Jobs are hard to come by," he says of his decision to stay on.

Like PW, Justin Peyton doesn't know the entire story of Muhammad's on-the-job difficulties. But the 28-year-old executive director of Philadelphia's chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is certain that American Muslims continue to encounter discrimination seven years after 9/11.

"I don't want to say it's common but it isn't uncommon either," he says.

Peyton says Philadelphia CAIR investigated 56 incidents of alleged anti-Muslim discrimination last year, including Muhammad's (CAIR withdrew from the case after Muhammad retained a private attorney), and has probed 46 so far in 2008. Underwhelming numbers, perhaps, but Peyton says CAIR is fairly discerning in terms of accepting cases.

As to the sorts of discrimination Muslims encounter locally, Peyton says many involve women who want to wear the the traditional Islamic women's headscarf or niqab (the veil some Islamic women wear over their faces) at work. (See p. 22 for more.)

"We get issues where they've applied for (or taken) a job and the employer tells them either the hejab or niqab has to be removed in order for them to gain or continue employment."

More often than not the employer's rationale is skewed, Peyton says.

"Then it's our job to step in and say, 'Hey, there are requirements for religious accommodation.'"

In one recent case SEPTA advised a male employee he was violating the dress code by cuffing his pants above the ankles, an Islamic practice. After CAIR wrote a letter on the man's behalf, SEPTA relented.