Put bluntly, America has a long way to go before she's discrimination-free. Not counting discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or sexual alignments, there's discrimination in America towards just about every religion present within, excluding Christianity.
As a brief summary, atheists are excluded from the Boy Scouts of America, and several courts have upheld this. Muslims face increasing discrimination in major metropolitan areas, largely originating from white evangelicals who don't know any Muslims, and violent crimes happen particularly frequently around presidential elections. Satirical religions, whose purpose is to create discussion and inspire critical thought of commonplace beliefs, often are subject to incomprehensible amounts of hate-mail and the creators of them often receive threats to life, limb, or property, be they directed at the creators or their loved ones. Jews have had the run of it through history, and it doesn't show any signs of stopping for them, with a recent year being the worst for them in the records of the Anti Defamation League, and a surprising increase in Neo-Nazism. See previous articles for further details. In spite of the general populace's desire for equality for all, the law doesn't actually doesn't provide any measures to prevent the spread of prejudiced beliefs on any count, though it does have provisions in place to prevent those prejudiced beliefs from having any further impact on people. For instance, one cannot discriminate in hiring and must accommodate religious practices whenever reasonable to do so. See previous posts for details. Perhaps, with luck, a little more time will breed more understanding. If understanding doesn’t kill the noxious weed of prejudice and discrimination, nothing will. Though all signs aren’t necessarily pointing up, if there’s one thing one learns in the mountains, it’s that for every downhill you descend, there is a longer, steeper uphill to climb later. With effort, we can hopefully pull ourselves up out of this rut in which our society finds the ability and willingness to overlook discrimination and prejudice.
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It's no mystery that the Jews have had a rough history. From being exiled from their home in early ancient history to having the Plague blamed on them to Hitler's genocide, there is no pretending that being Jewish is a cakewalk.
In 1913, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was founded by Jews in America as a means to measure and combat antisemitism in the United States and eventually the globe, also extending their efforts into all discrimination of minorities. The ADL periodically performs Audits of Antisemitic Incidents to track antisemitism, presumably both in the United States and in other nations. Its most recent Audit of Antisemitic Incidents yielded "more than 2,100 acts of assault, vandalism, and harassment, an increase of 12 percent over the previous year." Since 1979, the inception of the Audit, there has been no higher recording of these violent incidents of antisemitism. These violent outbursts have targeted 91 individuals and killed 5 more. Understandably, American Jews have been on an unprecedentedly high alert when they're under such heavy threat and after two shootings at synagogues, one in Pittsburgh and one in Poway. There was even an incident in 2017 involving a crowd of 500-600 people bringing the Nazis back. There were Swastika flags waving, Nazi salutes held high, and many shouts of "Sieg Heil!" and "The Jews will not replace us!" It isn't like no one's trying to help, the ADL makes great efforts to stop antisemitism as it happens and to educate people on Judaism to prevent such antisemitism. Learn more at ADL's website: www.adl.org/what-we-do/anti-semitism/antisemitism-in-the-us In a surprising twist to absolutely no one, a lot of people don't like when their deep-seeded beliefs are openly mocked, and few more explicitly exemplify this than those whose religions are made farce by parody religions.
Once again, I'll be focusing on Pastafarianism, though this time it's simply because they make it too easy for me. Some of the hate-mail that is sent to Mr. Bobby Henderson (founder) is published on their official website (linked below). A certain Kevin B was quoted saying "Please do not delude yourself that people of real faith are not interesting themselves in where you and the other FSM assholes live, and where your loved ones attend school or work or etcetera. I'm not making any threats of any kind, as I am a non-violent Christian. However, all of the people with my beliefs are not so willing to tolerate your silliness. My advice is to shut down this pathetic folly before people far less tolerant of your mockery of their spirituality take an active interest in your membership on a very personal level." Kevin clearly states that he isn't making a threat, that this is an advisory, but that is doubtful at best considering his first sentence. An advisory says "Be careful because you're in danger," while a threat states "You're in danger, bub, so you'd best tread lightly. In fact, don't move at all," and this letter falls firmly in the field of the latter. To be fair, Mr. Henderson did take this opportunity to simultaneously mock Kevin B and be the bigger man by making the statement that this threat isn't subtle and that he should have left an anonymous note, even going so far as to grade Kevin B's letter at a C, but meanwhile stating that he should be given the benefit of the doubt, that maybe he's just had a day of it, and that he just needs the noodly love of the FSM. As someone who delights in getting a rise out of people, I can confidently state that such is exactly what Mr. Henderson is seeking in his response. It would be repetitive to quote all the other hate-mail Mr. Henderson has received and posted, because they almost all go along the same lines. Some are more in-depth or misinterpret principles of quantum physics, but they're pretty much all the same. No other parody religion has picked up as much steam as Pastafarianism, nor has any made their hate-mail as public, but it is a reasonable assumption that all or most of them have had similar or equal backlash as Pastafarianism. https://www.spaghettimonster.org/category/hate-mail/ Naturally, free speech is protected, even in discriminatory or hateful situations. Being racist, though unethical, is perfectly legal, as is being Islamophobic or Antisemitic or prejudiced of any other religion. However, just like with race and sex, religion has some legal protections, arguably more when you factor in the first amendment.
According to a detailed page from the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), not only must employers not fire, hire, or elect not to hire based on religion but they also must accommodate people for any religious practices that do not cause "undue hardship" which is defined as "more than a minimal burden on operations of the employer's business." That means that unless it affects productivity, infringes on other employees' rights, or would cause any excess of workplace hazard, be it in the individual themselves or their coworkers, the employer legally must accommodate an individuals religious beliefs. For instance, the EEOC gives a few examples. A Sikh who doesn't cut or trim their (facial) hair is allowed to do so even if it is in violation of the dress code, as is a Rastafarian who wears dreadlocks or a Jew who wears a yarmulke. Of course, if having long hair puts one in danger and there's no way around it, not even a hair net, then they can be required to cut their hair or stop working in the hazardous location. That's a general example, the principle applies whether it is hair causing the issue or something else. It applies if the issue is danger or productivity or equal treatment of other employees. Furthermore, a person doesn't have to be a practicing member of a religion or regularly attend a service or really even provide any proof that they believe in a religion. They don't even have to practice an legally recognized religion or anything formal. Someone could have a personal moral philosophy, design a religion around that, give it a few rules that help you abide by the philosophy, and your employer can't question it. It is your religion, and they have no authority to tell you otherwise, which can also be found on an EEOC page, though a slightly different one. All religious practices, well-known or just invented, are legally protected from employers. You're also protected from harassment and segregation, of course. Your employer cannot assign you to a non-customer position because of a real or perceived "customer preference." Your employer also cannot abide coworkers, supervisors, customers/clients, or anyone else harassing you for your religious beliefs. Harassment, it must be clarified, does not include singular instances of offhanded remarks but does include repeat offenses that create hostile work environments or result in negative consequences for the victim, like being fired or otherwise having punitive measures employed upon them. If you're not a fan of the EEOC, all the same information can be found all over the place. It isn't hidden, these are laws that you're supposed to know so you don't accidentally break one and so that you can protect yourself with them if someone breaks it in relation to you. All of the information comes initially from Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, generally abbreviated to Title VII. The bite-sized adaptations of Title VII I used can be found at: https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/fact-sheet-religious-discrimination There is a frankly shocking number of so-called "parody-religions," all of which are very humorous if you have the temperament for them. Most don't have enough limelight to have any discrimination, but there is value in knowing about them and their perceptions because they also all make reasonable statements about the nature of religion from an outsider's perspective. I'll be giving you the run-down of what some of the more prominent ones are and what they're saying about religion, so brace yourselves. Full disclosure: some of these are deliberately crude and go out of their way to be insensitive towards religion. There will be a lot of sacrilege discussed moving forward. Seriously. A lot.
Perhaps the most prominent is the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), also called Pastafarianism, which basically saw all the different things the other parody religions were doing and put them all together. The basics are that the invisible, intangible Flying Spaghetti Monster created the universe and all things in it in the meatball shape much as it is today with the deliberate and mysterious design to appear billions of years old instead of the thousands that it really is. A pirate named Mosey was blessed with a vision of the FSM after being fed under-cooked pasta. He then spread his religion, setting up shop somewhere east of Europe. Over time, various denominations broke off of the main denomination (including Nin-jah, or ninjas). The full history of the religion is both way more in-depth and unimaginably funny. The purpose of the religion is to point out flaws in reasoning in other religions or their rhetoric. For instance, if you replace the word "God" with "Flying Spaghetti Monster" in any passage of the bible, it will sound ridiculous to think someone might believe that, even though it is functionally no different. It also pokes holes in some of the arguments that defend his existence, basically making the FSM another version of Russell's Teapot (an unfalsifiable object that one claims to exist, believing that because no one can disprove the unfalsifiable statement, it must be true). Basically, if God is invisible and intangible, you can't prove he doesn't exist, so he must exist. The same logic applies to the FSM. It also uses satire to argue against the connection between causation and correlation, stating that because pirates became less common over time and global average temperatures were rising simultaneously, pirates must have been keeping the global environment in balance. This, among other things, were argued for at the religions inception in a letter to the board of education at a university in Kansas from Bobby Henderson, a student at that university who didn't believe creationism should be part of the curriculum for a scientific class. Perhaps theology or philosophy, but not science. He argued that if creationism were taught, it should be the "true" one outlined in that letter. It is important to understand that the religion never admits to being satire, although it is most obviously nothing but that. In fact, that's what the defining characteristics of parody religions are: satire about religion. Learn more about Pastafarianism at their website spaghettimonster.org. Look around. It's an infuriating web design, but you'll live. Others exist of course. The Invisible Pink Unicorn (IPU) is a similar satire about the existence of God using the same logic as the FSM and Russell's Teapot (no, I won't source that, it isn't that relevant, you can fight me). Dudeism (which you'll learn about at dudeism.com) is like Pastafarianism in that it takes an existing belief system and modernizes it. Where Pastafarianism modernizes and satirizes Christianity, Dudeism modernizes and satirizes Daoism. Last Thusdayism mocks creationism assuming it can discern anything true about the world. For instance, the statement that the world was created last Thursday exactly as it was then with only the illusion of having existed for billions of years is exactly as believable as God creating the world a few thousand years ago and used dirt to create Adam and one of Adam's ribs to create Eve. Googlism makes an argument that Google is more suited to be God than any traditional deity at churchofgoogle.org. None are as all encompassing, however, as the Church of FSM, so we'll be focusing on that next week when we look at their reception. Unless we don't because there just isn't anything interesting there. We'll see when I get around to researching it. Imam Bachir of Islamic Center of the Quad Cities fame may have been lucky enough to not have experienced any discrimination or severe prejudice for his religious belief. That, sadly, is not a shared experience for all Muslims in the country.
An article from the National Public Radio (NPR), O'Hare International, for example, has seen an increase in reports of discrimination targeted towards the Muslim-American communities since the Supreme Court upheld President Trump's travel ban from early in his presidency. In fact it was a 25% increase in Chicago, which, I might add, has a one of the largest Muslim communities in the nation. But that’s nigh nothing when compared to the cities Dallas and Atlanta have seen an increase by 50% and 70% respectively. That same article cited a report from ISPU (don’t ask who ISPU is) reported that Jewish and Hispanic people were the least likely to hold Islamophobic views and that white evangelicals were the most likely. It also found (hold your breath) that people who hold Islamophobic views probably don’t know any Muslims themselves. All that can be found at www.npr.org/local/309/2019/05/03/720057760/study-shows-islamophobia-is-growing-in-the-u-s-some-say-it-s-rising-in-chicago-too The Associated Press also reported on a series of seminars hosted by Greenville Avenue Church of Christ in Richardson, Texas, not far from Dallas, whose advertisement flyers referred to several dangerous “isms,” including some religions like Judaism, Atheism, and Islamism, as well as alcoholism, liberalism, and emotionalism. While few would argue that alcoholism is dangerous, it is itself dangerous to refer to any belief systems, including religious beliefs, as dangerous. The leader of the congregation did apologize for the phrasing, though he did not claim fault for the interpretation but instead said it wasn’t his intention to offend anyone and that anymore words carry much meaning and one must be very careful when saying something. Take that as you will, that he was simply unaware of his words’ effects on others or that he doesn’t feel responsible for what was said. The AP article is linked here: apnews.com/article/2faab89bdf3d440387f3413395f1df5f A recent interview with Bachir, the Imam at the Islamic Center of the Quad Cities, shed much light on Islam--both its beliefs and its presence in the United States and its perception.
It is common knowledge that Christianity and Islam have butted heads since their inceptions, from the Crusades to the Christian dominant America's troubles with Islamophobia. Interestingly, these two religions are extremely similar in almost all respects. As nigh everyone knows, these arguments come from the differences in belief of these religions, which is rather ironic. There were a few minor variations in the creation of man, and almost all other differences are such petty differences that the clash between the religions is almost comical. Consider the idea that Eden isn't a place on Earth but instead a testing ground for Adam and Eve before they're sent to Earth, admitting to not knowing what angels look like, or believing that Jesus was the Messiah, just not the son of God. These are some of the biggest differences between the beliefs of Christianity and Islam, and a religious feud over such things is frankly preposterous. The similarities are innumerable, and far outweigh the differences too. Both are monotheisms that believe in the same one Abrahamic God, though the name of God changes depending on who you ask. Muslims will tell you his name is Allah, while Jehova and YHVH or Yahweh are used in Christianity and Judaism. Both Christianity and Islam state that Jesus was the Messiah, or Christ, what exactly that entails is the only difference. That God created the universe and that there is a life after death, the quality of which is determined by your time on Earth, are all common threads between all Abrahamic religions as well. The question is what makes Islam really different, what makes it count as its own religion and not just a denomination of Christianity or Judaism, and that really boils down to prophets. Islam has a much stronger focus on the role of prophets as a whole. The prophets' role, particularly Muhammad's, was to confirm that which was already said by the other prophets and to reaffirm the word of God. Jesus, Moses, Adam, and Muhammad are all particularly important in the Islam faith. Muhammad, as said, was the last prophet whose job was to reaffirm the teachings of other prophets, Moses, according to Bachir, is the most referenced prophet by Muhammad, and Adam and Jesus are part of a particular system of people and their parentage. Jesus, Adam, Eve, and all other people as a collective unit form an almost poetic rhyming scheme in their parentage. Adam was created from no parents, Eve from only a man, being Adam, Jesus from only a woman, being Virgin Mary, and everyone else as a collective unit being born of both man and woman. Try not to think of Adam as Eve's parent and it is all good. Though I don't understand its importance as a whole, in our conversation Bachir spent much time clarifying this point. At a certain point, Bachir asked me my own religious beliefs. I then told him that I was generally Atheist, that I don't think there necessarily is a god (lower case because here it isn't a proper noun, don't worry I'm not slandering the principles of a god) nor do I believe there necessarily isn't one. Bachir went out of his way to make sure that I still felt welcome in his Mosque and said that it was entirely up to me what I believe. He even recited a favorite adage of my mother's: "God gave you a brain, use it." Well, her's is more a command not to be an idiot, where his was a welcoming of all mindsets, but that is an irrelevant distinction at this point. This openness and acceptance to other religions both surprised me and pleased me, but it also piqued my curiosity. It made me wonder if there were Islamic missions or conversion works. He told me that Islamic conversion wasn't like Christian conversion (more accurately, it wasn't like his perception of conversion, which would have been more accurate even thirty or forty years ago, but has since grown somewhat outdated). A Muslim will teach you about their religion, but won't make attempts at converting you to it. They want you to come about your conversion naturally and from within yourself. They don't "force" the matter, as Bachir put it several times. When I asked Bachir if he himself had had any encounters with discrimination or prejudice, he said, to my incredible surprise, that he had not personally experienced any real discrimination. There were miscommunications, as he called them, from time to time, but he found that he usually got along well with almost everyone. While it delights me that he was lucky enough to escape severe prejudice, the same cannot be said for everyone. Bachir went on to tell me that it is usually around presidential elections that the prejudice is the worst. He recalled and recounted John McCain's running committee sending out CD's with foul misinformation about Islam and slandering all Muslims. During that time, a girl wearing a scarf (though he never actually said if the girl was really Muslim or not) was attacked by a man throwing a wine bottle at her. If he had hit her head it could have been a fatal injury, I was told. I finally asked what he wanted everyone to know about Islam, and all he said was that if you want to know anything, learn it from Islam itself. Don't go to Fox New's website, instead read the Quran or ask your local Imam (our local Imam, if you haven't gathered, is a very friendly and kindly gentleman of the name Bachir and can be found at the Islamic Center of the Quad Cities, right near Black Hawk College, I implore you go speak with him if you have even any questions, he couldn't be more of a delight to speak with). And he said don't take Islam for what the radical few do, take it for what the peaceful masses do. He compared radical Islam to Hitler's Holocaust, saying that even though Hitler called himself a Christian, he wasn't exemplary of all Christians, and that he wasn't even really a Christian because his behaviors didn't show understanding of those taught by Jesus, and that the same could be said for radical Islam. Bachir even pointed out that one of the original definitions of the word Islam is peace, and that like Christianity and Judaism, among so many others, Islam is a religion propheteering peace and tolerance, not violence and hate. Bachir. Personal interview. 28 January 2021. The Boy Scouts of America is held to very high esteem for training boys into fine, respectable young men by teaching honorable behavior and practical abilities through outdoor skills involved in camping, hiking, boating, and a wide variety of other endeavors. However, the organization is not without its share of controversy. From banning young gay lads and leaders to only accepting boys assigned such at birth, the BSA has alienated many groups in favor of being a more traditional boys' club.
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