Religious discrimination complaints grow

The first ammendment prohibits the United States government from making any law that would prohibit the free exercise of religion.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of regligion, as well as race, color, sex or national origin.

But businesses and companies still discriminate religiously against workers. From before 2001 to 2008, the number of religious discrimination charges filed in the United States has increased by more than 30 percent, according to a USA Today article. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission received 3,273 charges of religious discrimination in 2008.

It’s not just people of religions that are new to the United States. Thousands of cases were filed. Among them were complaints filed by Christians.

A Missouri woman was fired from her small town public library in 2003 because she refused to work on Sundays, according to a Fox News article. Three years later, Connie Rehm, a Lutheran, regained her job after a judge ruled in her favor in court.

But Christians aren’t the only ones discriminated against in the workplace based on religion.
Muslims, the fastest-growing religious group in the United Sates, according to the State Department, have been increasingly discriminated against since Sept. 11.

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in June 2009 against Essex County for firing a Muslim corrections officer for wearing a head scarf with her uniform.

Being fired simply for following a religion is unacceptable. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 guarantees that employees won’t be discriminated against based on religion. The United States government should make sure businesses are adhering to that law.

Muslims have faced harsher discrimination in the workplace – from employers and fellow employees.

After the train bombings in India, one Muslim woman received an e-mail from a co-worker that began “Dear Muslim,” according to another USA Today article. A study by Yale professor Mona Amer shows that Muslims have worse mental health than Americans in general.

No one in the United States – a country that was founded by people escaping religious persecution – should experience anxiety or stress related to religious discrimination.

If the United States government is going to condemn other countries, like Bulgaria, for religious discrimination, it needs to take a look at the problem in its own country first.