Forty minutes on religion
A senior figure in Manila’s business establishment was meant to assess Arkān for a role. The interview moved elsewhere almost immediately. Then came a blunt question: “I know this might sound stupid, but what is your religion?”
Arkān answered that he was Muslim. Instead of turning to the role or his qualifications, the conversation remained on faith. The author says it continued for forty minutes. What followed took the interview far beyond anything the job itself could explain.
The mechanism is the replacement of job-relevant assessment with religious questioning. The interviewer asked about stoning, four wives and why Arkān had not remained Catholic — questions unrelated to his qualifications or the role.
The seniority intensifies the imbalance: Arkān describes the interviewer as a senior figure in Manila’s business establishment, and says the questioning lasted forty minutes.