The United States of America: once a small colony, now one of the world’s most powerful nations; a nation that has been fraught with wars, protests and continuous conflicts between religion and state. This essay will investigate the relationship between the religion and state, discuss the states declaration’s about this relationship and the practice of these declarations. Americans, after the September 11 attacks, have marginalised the Muslim community, which is largely due to their Christian origins and misinterpretations of Islam.
Christianity has been in America since the Colonial Era (1600’s - 1700’s), and for over three centuries has dominated and deeply engrained itself into American Society . Islam, however, has only been introduced recently, and this has caused Islamic Believers (or Muslims) residing in America to be misinterpreted. After the September 11 bombings in 2001, there was a huge hatred for Muslims as they were interpreted as a religion that promotes destruction in the name of ‘Jihad’, or as it is often mistranslated as ‘Holy war’ . Although, the meaning of ‘Jihad’ is much wider than just ‘Holy war’, it is an internal struggle, within each Muslim, “…to be a good Muslim as well as advance the cause of Islam.” The Western understanding of ‘jihad’ however has been twisted to become related to terrorism. Whereas, Christians claim to promote the qualities of hard-work, honesty and moderation, and are therefore highly thought of in American Society, not only because of their supposed all encompassing teachings, but also because of their dominance as a religion in the Western World.
In 2000, Christians made up the majority of the population in America. Shown by the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS)...
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Religion has always been a topic that makes people uncomfortable, it has sparked wars, legal cases and arguments. This is a controversial issue that reigns havoc in many countries and because of this American citizens are afforded religious freedom through the US constitution. The goal of the United States government has never been to make our nation irreligious but to uphold the values of religious freedom.
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It has been suggested that there is currently a culture war taking place in the United States. Depending on who you listen to, you will get vastly different descriptions of the two sides. Some will insist that the fight is between the upholders of strong Christian, moral values and godless, secular-minded, moral relativists. Others will tell you that defenders of religious freedom and rational thought are battling religious fundamentalists who wish to impose their radically conservative views on the whole of the American populace. Regardless of which way you view the debate, the entire so-called “culture war” boils down to a basic disagreement over the place of religion in public life. In light of President Bush’s recent nominations of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court, I believe it is prudent to have a thorough discussion of the Constitutional principle of separation of church and state, because how the Supreme Court rules on issues related to this principle in the future will have a profound impact on how we define ourselves as a country. In order to conduct a thorough inquiry into this debate, I believe it is necessary to start at the beginning and attempt to discern how our founding fathers viewed religion’s place in public life, and how they relayed this view in the First Amendment. After I have done this, I will try to apply some of the principles I have gathered to current hot-button social issues which are likely to come before the Supreme Court in the not too distant future.
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To open this discussion, I would like to start with the civil liberty of freedom of religion. This liberty was identified in my original Constitution essay through the mentioning of the separation of church and state clause. The reason for my including of this liberty, and my stressing of its importance, is that I feel that the government interprets this liberty in a one sided fashion because of the incorrect interpretation of the already in place separation of church and state clause. I also include it because I believe that recently the attacks upon religion have metastasized and tha...
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Islam in America has historically been misunderstood, and this is due to the misconception of culture and religion as well as lack of education and incorrect portrayal in the media, which gives a skewed idea of Islam. Especially in the United States, Islam has been seen as the “terrorist religion” or a religion for the extremists and a religion in which freedom is not an option. Among the countless misconceptions, the basis of stereotypes by Americans is due to the mix up between religion and culture. Furthermore, the media only fuels fire to these misunderstandings and lack of factual information about Islam causing Americans to lash out on American Muslims without reason.
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F. Hasan, Asma Gull (2000). American Muslims; The New Generation. New York. The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.
Islam is the second most popular religion in the world, made up of 1.6 billion Muslims, representing approximately 23% of the earth’s population. With these statistics, there should be a clear understanding of the Muslim faith. However, despite its huge following around the world and the growing Muslim communities, Islam is foreign to most North Americans who are familiar with Christianity or Judaism. Islam and Muslims have become an area of major concern to the people and media, especially after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. There are many misunderstandings about religions in general, but Islam especially. Many believe that the western world is advanced, enlightened and liberated, while Islam is primitive, ignorant and oppressed. Some misconceptions about Islam are due to the wrong beliefs and actions of Muslims, and others are due to a
Not a month went by without any reports on hate violence targeting the Muslim community. Murders of Muslims followed by threats and vandalisms on Mosques and temples to people being assaulted and called “Terrorists” or a “Bin Laden” were present. Not only that, but “many houses of worship, have been forced to employ increased security measures three years after six worshippers were gunned down at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin”, reported by Deepa Iyer on her article “The stories Americans tell about 9/11 leave out discrimination against Muslims”. Words of hate had become actions of hate. These kind people were scapegoats of the real terrorists and the faulty ideologies employed by these groups of people. There is no cure for the extreme prejudices. You cannot control the thoughts of the people, therefore you cannot control the actions of the people, and this goes both ways. The racisms had become so relevant and significant that one of the significant topics during the Presidential campaigns is on the Muslims. The campaigns are beginning to account for the problems of Islam. Gregoy Krieg of CNN reported that “GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump said he would consider compelling Muslims to register in “database” and that some mosques might be shut” and his fellow Republican candidate Ben Carson on his comparison on Syrian refuges to “rabid dogs” to Democrat
"The ACLU and Freedom of Religion and Belief." American Civil Liberties. (2013): n. page. Web. 2013.
The turbulent world we live in today has countless imperfections. John Esposito, a professor in Georgetown University, states both alternative and intriguing ideas on the future of Islam and its upcoming era of reformation. The main issue is the extremists and fanatics who use Islam in order to justify their terrorist actions. Furthermore the Western media has stained the religion of Islam to the point where Muslim-West foreign relations have declined since the 1970’s. As stated by Esposito within his book, “The Future of Islam”, Islam had become the center stage of media networks and many news agencies; one witnessed “an explosion of interest in and coverage of Islam.” Islam has since then become a sensationalized topic and also has become the headlines of the 21st century’s history. Esposito further states how this misconception of Islam is a controversial and important role in today’s politics. Today’s Muslim population of over 1.5 billion people plays an integral role in today’s global history and Western society. Esposito’s main objective of this book is to explain “how we got to where we are and what we need to understand and do to create… ‘a new way forward’.” Esposito also explains throughout his book how Islam has been both a “source not only of compassion, morality, and virtue but also of terror, injustice, and oppression.” His ideas can be thought of as both promising and controversial to say the least.