A few months after President Donald Trump took office, the campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies has expanded on an unprecedented scale. Civilians and military authorities have been removed from their position with justification for “diversity adoption.” Web pages dedicated to historical figures from diverse backgrounds have been wiped out from government websites. The program aimed at improving diversity and inclusion has ended. Federal funds for the school are conditioned on principals who sign anti-DEI certificates.
The private sector is following. After the company announced it would end DEI targets and abandon the DEI program. But while these announcements have been made in the past few months, the truth is that the process of abandoning its commitment to diversity and inclusion began long before Trump took office.
Last year, numerous anecdotes revealed that all-out employers were violating their own DEI standards by acting at a disadvantage against Muslim and Arab employees.
In May, Hesen Jabr, a nurse tapped to win an award from Nyu Langone Health, was accused of “smashing the ceremony and putting others at risk” after speaking about the effects of genocide on Palestinian women, including mothers and grandmothers.
In October, two Arab Muslim employees, Abd Mohamed and Hotsam Nasr, were fired for being thoroughly organized for Palestinians killed in Gaza, who claimed Microsoft had violated the company’s policies, despite reportedly following the company’s standard procedures for similar events.
Earlier this year, we compiled data collected from complaints filed with us throughout 2024 at the Council on Islamic Relations of America (CAIR).
Cair received 1,329 job discrimination complaints in 2024, which was higher than education-related complaints. It has become the first reported category in the organization’s 30-year history.
The rise is clearly linked to an increased suppression of critical perspectives on Israeli attacks on Gaza, which many entities, such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Special Committee, have determined to be consistent with the actions of the genocide.
In the last three months of the year, which coincided with the start of the Israeli war on Gaza, such complaints spiked at the end of 2023, registering 662 reports of employment discrimination. By comparison, in all 2022, only 563 such reports have been received.
Most often, employers target identity-related speeches, targeting Palestinian, Arab, Muslims and other employees. In many cases, these same companies or institutions allowed this type of speech to employees of other ethnic and religious backgrounds.
For example, at Google, employees are generally encouraged to participate in the company’s “open culture” and embrace racial identity and sexual orientation in the workplace. However, Arab and Muslim employees report being instructed to “restrict themselves from commenting in support of Palestinians.”
At Maryland Middle School, instructors reportedly expressed their opinions on a variety of topics, from racial justice to the war with Ukraine. However, Hajur El-Haggan, an Arab Muslim employee, was disciplined when she expressed her opinion on Palestine.
At California medical centers, hospital staff wore badge reels with messages such as “Black Lives Matter.” However, Yasmin Bischul, who is visible in the descent of the Middle East and North Africa, was chosen to wear a “free Palestinian” badge reel.
In an unusual example where Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims seem to be encouraged to share identity-related speeches in the workplace, such expressions are only accepted to the extent that they are involved in a campaign to destroy Palestinian and Muslim heritage, they do not express any criticism of Israel.
It was reported that it would have been okay for Hesen Jabr to “refer to (her) mother and (her) grandmother” during his award recognition speech, but she insisted that “it should have stopped there.”
After the Palestine-related events were postponed by the administration, employees at Minneapolis Hospital learned that they were allowed to “normalize Palestinian culture” unless they were recognized as “activities” against the destruction of Israel in Palestinian cultural heritage.
As with the circumstances affecting minority groups, we know that this employment discrimination crisis will not only affect Muslims, Palestinians, Arab employees, or others who have been exposed to Islamophobia or racism to speak out about Palestinian rights.
If Muslims, Palestinians and Arab voices are on the sidelines very easily and quickly ignore the whole workplace culture to appease foreign nations, we fear the worst hasn’t come yet.
What this moment demands is that people of diverse faiths, backgrounds and experiences find solidarity on shared terms and resist attempts to punish freedom of speech, as always in an age of political division.
The views expressed in this article are the authors themselves and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.