By Saadia Faruqi
Today
is religious freedom day in the United States, a day celebrating the
anniversary of the passage of the Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom by
President Thomas Jefferson in 1786. This piece of legislation effectively
accomplished two things: it prohibited taxing people to pay for the local
clergy, and it protected the rights of the public to express their religious
beliefs without suffering discrimination. While two centuries ago most Americans
were of the same faith, mostly Christian, in today’s America this concept of
freedom of religious speech on an individual level becomes even more important.
A former Internal Revenue Service worker in Houston has settled a federal lawsuit that alleged she was fired for insisting she be allowed to wear a three-inch Kirpan [a kirpan is a ceremonial knife worn by followers of the Sikh faith - editor].