Religious freedom is an integral part of how we think of ourselves as citizens of the United States. We are a secular country. Our history lessons teach us that we were founded on strong principles of religious freedom by people fleeing religious persecution. Our founders placed these fundamental concepts in Article One of the Bill of Rights.
I recently had the opportunity to reflect on our basic assumptions that the government shall not make laws establishing a religion, nor interfere with the right to practice one's religion, when I traveled to Turkey as part of an interfaith dialog group. Our group brought together Americans and Turks. Together we traveled throughout Turkey. We visited holy places for Christians, Jews and Muslims. We drove across the beautiful Turkish countryside and we talked, and talked, and talked about the differences in our religious beliefs and the different approaches our countries take to the concept of being a secular nation.
Under the leadership of Mustafa Ataturk in the 1920s, Turkey moved rapidly toward westernization and secularization. Many observant Muslims will tell you that overnight their government and laws became hostile to religion. Wearing headscarves is discouraged, and women, who work in private or public schools, attend university or work for the government may not wear traditional headscarves in those places. The call to prayer is not broadcast over the loudspeakers in the airports. Yet, in one school we visited, children practicing for a school concert were learning a song that praised Allah. The airports have prayer rooms so that Muslim travelers can pray in a clean environment. In this 98% Muslim country, the tensions around religious freedom are never far below the surface.
Our founders were seeking to find a balance to this tension when they crafted the First Amendment to our Bill of Rights. We do not permit school-led prayer in our public schools, but we also do not restrict the faithful of any religion from wearing signs of their religion to work. Employers must make reasonable accommodations to permit observant employees to practice their faith. This carefully crafted amendment has long been the subject of passionate disagreement, controversy and court action. But, it gives us a framework to protect the rights of religious minorities from the imposition of religion, and it permits the faithful to practice their religion without fear of persecution.
Other countries will of course come to other balances, but the opportunity to visit another secular nation with the purpose of interfaith dialogue has reaffirmed for me the importance of the work we do here at the ACLU of Mississippi. We protect the delicate balance our founders created that protects the rights of faithful in a majority religion as well as those of religious minorities.
~Bear Atwood, ACLU-MS Interim Legal Director
