Today, it seems like there is a rise in
discrimination against different groups and cliques of people. I want to focus
with religious discrimination and how we may help lower discrimination against
each other. I would like to focus my efforts on the younger generations of
people, because they are the future. They are the people that need to change so
that we can be able to have a more peaceful and brighter future for the human
race.
The First Amendment
states, “Congress shall make no law respecting
an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” (“The
First Amendment”) This means that religious discrimination should not be used
in any situation including school and work. Could religions be experiencing
more discrimination than they have in the past? People feel as if they have
been discriminated at school and work because of what they believe in. This
happens because of different beliefs, culture, and opinions. They sometimes
contradict each other and force hatred and confusion to be brought up. How
could we help prevent this discrimination from spreading? One way that could
prevent discrimination from spreading is to gather all faiths together and
discuss and clear up what we all believe. On Facebook we are able to gather
many people together and discuss many things. So, Facebook groups could help
promote these discussions and help each other understand one another. Creating
a survey about how people personally feel about religious discrimination and
showing the results in a public place such as Facebook could help give a
realization to the general public of how we need to become less discriminating
could help as well.
The
United States of America allows the people to have the right to believe
whatever religion they choose, through the First Amendment. This means that
people should be able to practice their religion in any environment. Two places
that have been controversial with how and if religion should be practiced are
in the school and work place.
In
the article, “Parents say La. Public
School Discriminated against Buddhist Student,” written by Americans United for
Separation of Church and State, it gives an example of how people can be
discriminated at school: The son of Sharon and Scott Lane, who are Buddhist, complained
about having religious discrimination at school because of his Non-Christian
background. Their son was marked down on test scores, called “stupid”, and was
given tests about Christianity for his grade. The Lanes tried to negotiate with
the school, but they responded by telling the Lanes that they are on the “Bible
Belt” and that they should look for a school with more students that fit in
with him. With that response, the Lanes took the school to court, and won.
Because of the choices the school made, the consequences given to them were to
stop using religious teachings in school, stop discriminating against other
peoples beliefs, getting rid of religious books in the school curriculum, and
to stop sharing personal beliefs to the students. We can see that there can be
intense situations in school where people can become religiously discriminated.
This needs to stop so that everyone came feel welcome and safe no matter where
they are.
The
consequences given to the school was a good example of what should have been
done before the situation became a problem. The problem was that school leaders
and other students were going against another person and bringing up religion
in a government sponsored institution. We should help make everyone feel
welcome, no matter their background. It is okay that we share our beliefs in
the right manor and environment, but to share it to bring someone down is not
how it should be done.
In another article called, “Abercrombie
Religious Discrimination Case Less Than Cool For Supreme Court, Sikh Americans”
written by Gurjot Kaur, explains how religious discrimination is happening in
the work place. Samantha Elauf, a Sikh, applied for a job at Abercrombie and
Fitch but was not hired because she wears a hijab. Although Abercrombie and
Fitch have a “no headwear policy” (Kaur), Samantha had collaborated with a
current employee and friend about wearing a hijab to the interview and was told
it would not be a problem. She had no
idea of the rule when she walked into her interview. Kaur compares this problem
with another situation that happened in 2008. Another “Sikh Applicant” (Kaur),
who applied for a car dealership, was denied because he had a beard for
religious purposes. Later the car dealership made a policy of allowing beards
for religious purposes. This is how we should be taking these situations at
work places. We should not deny people to work because of things that they religiously
believe. What difference does it make that people will wear a hijab at a
clothing store or another person having a beard at a car dealership? Companies
and businesses would not have these problems if they would allow peoples
religious beliefs not be something that would stand in the way of a person
being jobless or not.
On the other hand, there are things
that are rising up that dismiss the idea of why we should not care about
religious discrimination. One big one is that people are starting to dismiss
the idea of religion. The writer of the website “A Good Life without Religion”
writes about how things would be better if religion was not involved in our
lives. In the introduction to the website it says, “… you're fed up with the way that religion
is creeping into all aspects of public life – into politics, education (faith
schools, for example), welfare services, and so on.” (Suffolk Humanists and
Secularists) People are getting sick of how religion is getting pushed into all
areas of our lives. They feel as if everything will become better if we all
came together and believed that there is no God. If this were to happen, we
would not have as many problems in schools or at work.
Though
the idea of no religion may attract to some people, it is unrealistic at this
time. So how could we help religious discrimination come to an end? One way
that could help is to make people aware of the situation. One way to do that is
on social media, especially on Facebook. A survey of could be made of how
people feel about religious discrimination and share the results on Facebook so
people can become more aware of religious discrimination.
With
Facebook, people can come together easier and make a group so that they would
be able to receive news feed and information about different religions so that
people can become more connected and understanding about each other. To allow
people to be updated on how the world needs to change to let everyone come
together. As well as to share each other’s beliefs so that discrimination on
false accusations on different beliefs will be understood. To inform others of
these things will help stop confusion and ridicule of different religions
because they will be able to understand more of each other. Another way is to
set up a survey people can take to let each other know how we feel about
religious discrimination. People do not like being falsely accused and bullied
of their beliefs and religion. If the survey’s statistics were to be shared,
people will be able to know that all people want to be treated equally even
though we are all different. I will count the efforts successful by how much
involvement people have in the group on Facebook. People will get involved by
asking and answering questions about each other’s faiths, commenting on quotes,
and sharing them on their “Walls”.
In conclusion, people are being discriminated
because of their religious beliefs. This kind of discrimination is happening
everywhere, such as: school and work. Because of the culture we live in, the
opinions we have, and contradicting beliefs that exist; we look down on each
other. We need to help stop others from allowing religious discrimination to
spread. This is possible if we are able to help understand each other. We can
do this by sharing how we feel and sharing our beliefs on a community social
media site and doing a survey on religious discrimination. By doing this, it
would stop court cases and hatred for one another.
Works
Cited
“First
Amendment”. Legal Information Institute.
Cornell University Law School, n.d. Web. 29
March 2015.
“Hello”.
A Good Life without Religion. Suffolk Humanists and Secularists,
2010.Web. 29 March 2015.
Kaur,
Gurjot. “Abercrombie Religious Discrimination Case Less Than Cool for Supreme
Court,
Skih Americans”. Huffington Post. N.p. 2 March 2015. Web. 13 March 2015
“Parents
say LA. Public School Discriminated Against Buddhist Student”. Church and State.
Americans United For Separation of Church
and State, April 2014. Web. 29 March 2015. “Religious Discrimination.” U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission. n.p., n.d.
Web. 12 March 2015
