Is a Muslim Name Bad for Business?
June 11 -- — It was a formal, devastatingly terse termination declaration that sent a chill down Hossam Algabri's spine.
"We regret to inform you that we have decided that it is not in our best interest to continue your banking relationship with us," said the letter, which arrived in Algabri's mailbox toward the end of November last year.
No explanations were supplied and none were solicited. Instead, the letter stated that the bank could, "at any time, for any reason, and without prior notice" terminate an account.
And with that, an otherwise trouble-free banking relationship between the 32-year-old Boston-based computer consultant and Fleet Bank came to an abrupt, inexplicable close.
For Faizah Zuberi, it was a phone call from an American Express customer service agent.
In a measured tone, the voice on the other end of the line listed a litany of documentation demands — tax returns of the past three years, employment statements, identification documents, financial statements — that the company needed within the next two weeks.
Failure to comply, she was informed, would result in her Amex credit card being canceled.
Like Algabri, Zuberi was baffled. The New Jersey doctor and her husband, Iqbal Siddiqui, had an excellent credit report. The couple had applied for an Amex card solely to shop at the local Costco store. The monthly payments were negligible, she explained, and had always been paid off on time.
She said there was something positively fishy about the inordinate documentation demands, and it wasn't long before an incensed Zuberi found herself yelling at an Amex customer service supervisor.
"I told him, 'Why are you asking for all this? How come I don't have these problems with my other credit cards?' " the Pakistan-born U.S. citizen told ABCNEWS.com. "I told him, 'You are discriminating against me because I am Muslim. How come my Chinese and Jewish friends have not been asked for all this?' "
In the long, frustrating weeks after he received the termination of service letter from Fleet, Algabri arrived at the same conclusion.
At the time of his account closure, the 32-year-old, who emigrated from Egypt to the United States with his family when he was 12, was an employee of a Boston-based software firm.
"There was nothing wrong with my account," he told ABCNEWS.com during a phone interview. "I just had paychecks coming in. All my money was spent here [in the United States], since my family is here. I had been with Fleet and its predecessor since 1992. I never had a bounced check, there were no problems with my account. It seemed very discriminatory to me."
A Quiet Wave of Complaints
Across the country, a growing number of American Muslims have been flocking to community groups and rights organizations complaining about what they charge are instances of financial discrimination.
The allegations cover a host of financial services, from terminated bank accounts and credit cards, to major money wiring businesses refusing to transfer their money within or outside the country.
"We have definitely seen a growing number of calls from concerned people calling to ask what's going on," said Dalia Hashad, a spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union. "They are shocked because they're making good salaries, paying fees, abiding by the rules, but they are being prevented from conducting their daily lives."
