But a day of talk about religion in the workplace on the 46th floor of a Bay Street office tower attracted everyone from corporate human resource directors to small business owners. May snagged funding and support from the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, KPMG and the federal and Ontario governments. Skills For Change persuaded more than 200 people out to its day-long conference in Toronto Nov. 9.

While corporate Canada has managed over the last 30 years to create policies and programs to address racial, cultural and even sexual diversity in the workforce, the secular business world remains uncomfortable talking about religion, said May.

Uncomfortable or not, the corporate world is going to have to deal with religion, said Shirazi.

"The ground is shifting below your feet. It's a tsunami... If you haven't seen it, you will," he said.

It's Muslims who have been leading the way. Simply because Islam requires Muslims to pray five times per day, an increasing number of employers have found themselves setting aside "quiet rooms," "reflection rooms" and "meditation rooms." Through his company, Multifacet Diversity Solutions Ltd., Shirazi has advised employers as large as IBM Canada, Scotiabank and the Conference Board of Canada on religious diversity policies, including how to set aside a room for prayer.

But the movement to allow public expression of religion at work isn't limited to Muslims, and it will only increase as immigrants and the children of immigrants become an ever larger part of Canada's workforce, said Shirazi.

"Spirituality isn't being lived in mosques and churches. It's being lived at work," he said.

If Canadians are going to work together they're going to have to understand each other — and that includes understanding the core beliefs that contribute to their identity, said Skills for Change program co-ordinator Rashid Osman, a Somali Muslim.

"We are aliens living in the same place," said Osman. "We don't understand each other... Diversity is very important to the future of Canadian society."

The greatest barrier to more religion-friendly work places is fear, said Christina Zaharia, support centre manager with Tridel Corp.

"People are very quiet, maybe scared to say what religion they practise," said the Romanian Orthodox manager.

Tridel is anxious to accommodate all its workers' religious obligations, because it wants its 500 employees to feel part of the family, said Zaharia.

As an entrepreneur trying to build a company, Noorein Ladha found the discussion of religion and work enlightening. Though his 3D engineering and drafting solutions company OptimumARC Inc. has only one employee, Ladha sees the importance of creating a good environment for all employees.

"Companies are built on a good foundation. You establish good policies in the beginning, then you don't have to keep changing them," he said.

In a large corporation, diversity policy isn't about making allowances for people. It's about getting the best and the most out of a committed worker, said the Bank of Montreal's Mark Adler.

"Engaged people are productive people," he said.

A quiet revolution of prayer rooms in office towers is reversing a trend over the last 30 years to exclude religion from the workplace and public life in Canada, said Shirazi.

"It's changing, whether you want it to or not," he said.