- This article examines Islamophobia in the workplace and how it is dealt with. It offers practical guidance for Muslims, calling them to confront bigotry and hate with knowledge, faith and principled resistance.
It happened again.
You stand innocently by the microwave, reheating last night’s peri-peri chicken, admiring the tulips outside the window and savouring the gift of silence.
Lakshmi enters the kitchen and interrupts your thoughts. She begins instigating small talk, then launches into her habitual afternoon tirade. Her Year 10s had been feral. Teachers are fleeing the profession in their droves, she’s not surprised, she says.
“Yep,” you nod, “everyone’s either quitting or moving to the Middle East.”
“I would never move to Dubai,” she sneers. “They’re cruel for not letting non-Muslims eat in public during Ramadan.”
Right on cue, Yasmin materialises, grinning gormlessly. “Islam is a racist religion,” she announces with the confidence of someone who has clearly never picked up a book in her life. The irony. “Most Arabs in the Gulf aren’t even Muslim anymore, they just pretend out of fear,” she says.
Lakshmi piles on. “I feel sorry for them. And honestly, look at the state of these Muslim countries, they’ve completely sabotaged themselves.”
Yasmin is an ex-Muslim from Saudi Arabia. Lakshmi is a softly spoken aunty who teaches Maths and is close to retirement. She wears an OM necklace around her neck.
Both are completely unaware of who they are talking to.
You provide Yasmin with shotgun responses, not cooked up from your mum’s kitchen like the utter gibberish that has just left her mouth, but from academia, facts and statistics. You calmly but confidently tell her about the final sermon delivered by Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w.), in which he affirmed that no race holds superiority over another. The spluttering incredulity in which she replies is stark. She’s unprepared. She’s not used to this.
You offer Lakshmi a few home truths as well. She’s eager to talk about Muslim nations “sabotaging themselves,” while conveniently sidestepping the atrocities committed against Muslims and other minorities in India by the Hindutva.
An injustice has been done to you. You feel ambushed. You defended your religion and your bleeding, oppressed brothers and sisters, only to be suddenly branded a troublemaker. But you don’t care. As a Muslim, standing for truth and justice is a spiritual obligation. Besides, you couldn’t give a scooby-doo about the two morons standing in front of you. Your concern is the kids.
These architects of division wear the faces of paper tigers, but behind the classroom door their roar is real: lessons twisted into indoctrination, whispers of subordination planted in young Muslim minds. Perhaps what unsettles you the most is how those echoes can travel far beyond the classroom; settling into thoughts, shaping hearts, and haunting the futures of the students they reach.
On paper, the process seems straightforward enough:
- Islamophobic/ anti-Muslim behaviour occurs at work
- Islamophobic/ anti-Muslim behaviour is reported to HR
- A fair investigation is carried out
- Justice is served.
For Muslims, however, the story is vastly different. That grievance that you poured your heart and soul into writing for three days straight, and the process which follows it, is far more complex. And, let’s be honest, in most instances; catastrophically disappointing. I mean, when it comes to Muslims in higher places, the opposing side always arm themselves with sh*t-hot Rottweiler lawyers, and our people rarely get anywhere. After all, we operate in a climate where making absurd, derogatory remarks about Islam and Muslims isn’t just tolerated; it’s fair game.
But surely there’s hope? In 2021 Dr Salman Butt of Islam 21C won a landmark case against the then Home Secretary, mine, yours, and everyone’s favourite Islamophobe, Priti Patel. This proved that even the unlikeliest of underdogs can bite back with the permission of Allah. Furthermore, in 2025, when GB News peddled falsehood regarding Islam endorsing child marriage, renowned Muslim interlocutor and YouTuber, Mohammed Hijab, persisted in perusing legal action and holding them accountable. This resulted in a forced apology from GB News and a humiliating public retraction. In 2025, Hijab also overturned an entry ban into the Netherlands initiated by Dutch Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber and Justice Minister David van Weel.
Having said this, like Uhud, we were never supposed to win every battle. But we will certainly win the final battle. And when Islamophobes are challenged in the workplace, even if a grievance against them fails, their squirming and breaking a sweat is worth every word you wrote. Muslims should never behave as though they are powerless. This test from Allah is a call to resist disinformation relentlessly about the very core of our being, our faith – to challenge misrepresentation, and to insist that slander be met with accountability. Because silence only emboldens those who profit from hate. Moreover, speaking up for Islam is incumbent upon every Muslim. And, if you choose to look at your shoes when hearing such egregious comments, your soul is empty. Regardless of the outcome, as a Muslim, you did the right thing: without fear of poverty and with tawwakul in Allah.
Here are a few suggestions I’ve penned to make your grievance as strong as possible:
1. Stay factual, not emotional: Remove sentences starting with “This made me feel…,” emotion weakens your grievance.
2. Document everything: Include dates, times, and witnesses (as long as they are fair-minded).
3. Show impact professionally: Frame it within organisational policies, e.g., “policy violations,” unfair treatment, or breaches of equality, diversity, and inclusion.
4. Gather evidence: Ask the perpetrator to repeat their statement because what they said was unclear; record it on your phone if possible.
5. Maintain an objective tone: Keep the grievance professional at all times.
6. Identify patterns: If multiple incidents occurred, highlight recurring behaviour.
7. Bring support: Include a third party, like a union representative, in HR meetings.
Throughout my career as a teacher, I have navigated a minefield of Islamophobic and anti-Muslim commentary in every institution I have entered, from colleagues to those swaggered in suits, boots, and authority.
It’s taken me a while to crystallise this in my mind but Godless people will go to the ends of the earth to be duplicitous for the sake of money and/or a career. Many reveal their true colours when they are in the company of like minded people or when they know you’ve resigned – they feel safe to spew their bigotry. I now possess a deeper understanding of this type of person and the hatred and ignorance that consumes their bandwidth.
Moreover, it has unlocked something psychologically within me. I often wondered why Allah azza wa Jal would repeatedly place me in the path of such chilling, grifting, anti-Muslim bigots. I now believe Allah swt has shown me these people for a reason, even more frequently than the average Muslim. Consequently, these experiences have given me great clarity about the work that needs to be done. They have shaped me into someone determined to roar louder for my oppressed Muslim brothers and sisters.
I will show compassion and kindness to everyone but if you speak about my religion in a hateful, demeaning or disrespectful manner or if you speak about my people unjustly; expect a firestorm of a reaction from me. This is crucial. It’s not about reporting incidents to Jenny in HR; it’s about having the knowledge, the skills, and the words to fight back when Islam is under attack. These are the words that endure, the ones the angels record in our favour when we use them with sincerity: “She did the best she could. She said what she did because it meant everything to her.” And these are the very words that will linger forever in the mind of the Islamophobe.
In such unprecedented times, we cannot afford to face the world unarmed. Knowledge, courage, conviction, wisdom and authenticity have become more important than ever.
