I think you guys are looking for a lamb under the bull, or whetvear that idiom is. This country is invading two Muslim countries right now, Muslims are painted with a large brush in the media, everyone is experiencing hard times, and lashing out at the ones they do not like.How many of you have to fire people? Whom do you throw under the bus when someone has to go? I've had to let go two out of my three maintenance guys in the last two years. None of them was any worse than the rest (or at least I had not caught them at it) Neither was a personal friend and I did not dislike either of them Yes, I had to decide, and yes, I did, and no, for legal reasons I did not and will not state how I chose.Both of them were of a particular creed/color/nationality, as humans tend to be, and they could have decided that I fired them because of that I did keep the Hispanic atheist, and guess what, if I have to fire him, he could decide that it's because I am a racist or a bible-thumper and he will be wrong, if only about the motivation.My best friend has to trim his department he went strictly by reverse order of hiring, but he will not admit that it's how he decided again to cover his ass. The second person he fired was female and very devout she made noises about being discriminated against and he told her that she could bring charges if she wanted to, but he would not give her his reasons without a court order.As for why the NYT gave that particular example? Well, maybe it was one of the few cases in which the subject's desire to conform to her religion was clearly what started the difficulties. It's hard to prove that someone is being fired for his religion, as opposed to the fact he's a dick.