Business managers in France are experiencing
faith-related personnel problems.
In a recent survey, 43% of managers faced
this kind of difficulty.
In the same survey, 41% of managers expected
to encounter similar problems in future.
Some of what the managers are currently experiencing
or anticipating experiencing come from Muslim
employees: religious attire, such as hijab
or that do not meet business attire standards;
religious practices, such as multiple prayer
breaks during working hours; job performance
related to religious beliefs like refusing
to serve people in a way that violates some
religious doctrine.
Currently, 11.1% of the total population is
foreign born, with 7.8% being non-EU immigrants,
predominantly from North Africa.
After the conclusion of the Algerian War,
many supporters of the French government were
forced to flee Algeria for their safety following
the 1962 declaration and recognition of independence
from France.
Although there have been Muslim immigrants
from the EU and other non-African countries,
North Africa has been the biggest contributor
of the Muslim population.
France has refused to allow the wearing of
hijab in public schools.
It looks like the business community is now
facing a similar path.
In China, twenty-one people were killed in
clashes last April.
They were the deadliest since the July 2009
riots in the Xinjiang capital city of Urumqi,
which resulted in nearly two hundred deaths.
Xinjiang is an energy-rich province in western
China.
The Uighur Autonomous Region is China's largest
province.
Few Chinese government officials have learned
their Turkic language, understand their Islamic
religion, or their customs.
Officially being an atheist country, China
has a troubled history of suppression and
conflict with religions, most notably in Tibet,
where monks immolate themselves in public
as a form of protest to the Chinese occupation.
The government is also trying to suppress
the worldwide practitioners of Falun Gong,
a Buddhist sect that practices a qigong variant.
Meanwhile, on the Uighur side of things, those
people are one of China's fifty five officially
recognized ethnic minority groups.
As a result, Uighur women are exempt from
the one-child policy.
In the Begian city of Ghent, 50 km NE of the
capital Brussels, a 2007 city law, banning
the wearing of head scarves by city officials,
was overturned late last May.
The ban had prevented Muslim women wearing
headscarves from sitting at public counters
in city offices.
Several Belgian cities, including Antwerp,
Lokeren and Lier, have similar restrictions
on city employees at work.
Two years ago, Belgium banned wearing face-covering
veils in public.
The Ghent change happened because of recent
political and demographic changes in the city.
The city council is now dominated by Socialist
and Green Party politicians, a change from
the center-right 2007 party majority when
the ban was imposed.
Ten thousand people, in a city of 250,000
had signed a petition asking for the change
in policy.
That was five times the minimum petition requirement.
The city council vote was 29 against 22 in
favor of rescinding the ban on the wearing
of religious or political symbols for city
officials dealing with the public.
