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From learning the minute but unique differences of different denominations, we saw that these often negligible lines between denominations can often greatly changed the culture of certain sects. Though a new survey finds that most Americans oppose the idea that business owners should be able to refuse services to gay or lesbian people due to their religious beliefs, the survey also shows how in the past strong majorities within all religious groups were in favor of religiously based service refusals, including 46% of white mainline Protestants, 44% of black Protestants, 52% of Hispanic Protestants and 55% of white Catholics. However, as our society and general acceptance of minorities and people different than us in this country has broadened, more and more of a majority of these sects started believing in non-discrimination policies for LGBT Americans. This also extends to the political sphere which I am very vested in, and how political alignment and religion can play a role in how one would perceive this issue. As we’d expect, in the political arena, the split is much more distinct. Somewhere around 65% of conservatives supported the business owner’s right to refuse, compared to 44% of moderate Republicans and 35%  of liberal Republicans. Democrats, by contrast, are united in their opposition to service refusals. Though our country has made great strides in religious and political freedom, when walking the line between politics and religion, one must be very careful because as we’ve seen, when the majority of a religion opposes a minority for their beliefs, that minority often times end up persecuted and marginalized.

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After learning more about the Jehovah’s Witness and the persecution they have faced in modern America, I am more sympathetic to their message and what they're trying to do. To this day Jehovah’s Witnesses are under threat for practicing their religion, which is a problem I believe should not be apparent in our modern culture. These missionaries who are simply trying to talk to you about their religion, run the risk being attacked while doing so central obligation of their faith. I have personally interacted with these people and have always given them the time of day and let them express their message. But for example, Jehovah's Witnesses have been driven out of Russia to more tolerant countries like Germany and Finland. They can face harsh punishments such as when Russian courts sentenced a Danish citizen living in Russia to six years in prison for something as trivial as the Witness shoveling snow from his church's property. Not only do these actions violate international laws that protect religious freedom, but it also goes against the progressive ideas that are bringing our society forward. I’ve always heard very anti-Witness rhetoric coming from most people when the topic of them comes up, however, some go so far as to attack them, setting their dogs on them or even pulling guns on them. Of course, like other major religions we’ve learned about the Jehovah's Witnesses riddled with controversy such as church elders being accused of covering up child abuse however, this does not represent the religion as a whole. Though we might not always be appreciative of people trying to convey their ideas onto you, taking it to the extreme of abusing and treating them as lesser people is never an extent that is permissible if we’d like people of different religions to live in harmony.

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The tension and differences between the two denominations of Islam have an important topic of discussion in our lectures. The unique difference of who they believe should be allowed to be Shah has spun the, originally tolerant and peaceful religion, into a people ridden with schism and hatred. Atheists in the region began facing persecution from Islamists who wish to push their ideal and religion on others. Iraq's atheists have been forced underground specifically by the Sunni. I believe that with the growing amount of “nones” in this world, atheism will soon overwhelm the entire country of Iraq due to the wrong practices of Islamic parties. Many normal people in the Middle East are afraid of being discovered as non-believers, or atheists. This issue is especially pervasive because as we learned, although Islam is the state religion and it has put in place rules against the slander of any faith. Though atheism itself is not illegal in Iraq, these peaceful people who are not promoting hatred or intolerance towards any other religion are afraid of reading certain literature or even using their real names. Islam used to be a religion of peace, but ISIS behaved like barbarians enslaved, raped and killed thousands in the name of their hatred for their Muslim brothers who are part of the Shiite denominations. Since my father, being forced out of his home country of Lebanon due to his religion, this resonants heavily with me because the same intolerance and constant warfare is still prevalent. It is easier said than done, but some sort of understanding between these denominations has to be met before any of the senseless killing and tragedy ends.

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Pete Buttigieg, a Democratic candidate for president, is a religious gay man who believes his party has been losing the debate over religion and spirituality to Republicans for far too long and is talking about God and sexuality in an unconventional way. Buttigieg has been using faith-based language to combat the Christian right on their own territory. The candidate has received backlash from conservatives in the last few days after he questioned Vice President Mike Pence for remaining silent about President Trump’s disapproval of same-sex marriages and gay rights. Buttigieg is making an argument that I agree with, the idea that marriage is a “moral issue.” Buttigieg is working to creating a more compassionate, understanding, self-aware and more decent relationship between the US government and the LGBT community. Fortunately, compared to when the issue was unspoken of 40 years ago, in the past decade and a half the issue of gay marriage has been a galvanizing issue for both sides. I believe the debate is largely important for civil rights, individual freedoms, and how one can make live their lives in a way that opposes certain people’s religious beliefs while still being faithful to one’s own. The criticism Buttigieg received, however, is a reminder of how quickly mobilized evangelicals and other conservatives can be when they believe their faith and values are under attack. As we talked about in lecture, Trump and the support he received from the Christian right in 2016, was a major factor in the president’s huge margins with white evangelicals. If politicians didn’t pander to certain demographics who hold intolerant ideas simply to gain votes, our country may be more progressive and open to marginalized people.

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Though when one talks about religion and politics and America, specifically Christianity, most think of the alt-right religious groups who push their fanatical spiritual ideas through their politics, there is also an unspoken group of Democrats who believe their religious ideas are worth advocating for. The religious left consists of a bloc of Democratic voters who are waiting to be mobilized in the next election. For example, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat from Massachusetts and Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, has also been vocal about their Christian faith during these elections. From what we’ve learned, there is a large group of Americans who are faithful yet progressive who are waiting for a push for the social change they desire to see in our changing country, me being one of them. The issue is that though there is already an existent religious left, it cannot operate in the same way the right does due to its lacks the funding, numbers and public exposure of the religious right. In 2017, the Pew Research Center found that about 59 percent of Democrats voters describe themselves as Christian. As we’ve learned about in lecture many presidential candidates use religious rhetoric and faith-talk, largely due in part to the presence of these religious voters, specifically in the Republican coalition. As we’ve seen the left is less capable of mobilizing force from the religious left as it has been on the right. Republicans have been so successful due to the fact that they created a unified identity for right-wing Christian voters, no matter their denomination. The religious right includes many different Christian denominations such as the evangelical groups and “evangelicalized” white Catholics. The main common ground between their alliance is opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage. The main issue holding back the religious left is that it has no such unified identity because there is no main issue all their groups can agree on as their main priority for their political platform. The Republican Party has millions of religious voters to raise support from, however, Democrats have a much more fractured, increasingly nonreligious base. From what we've seen in class, religion motivates political activism and organization, the religious left lives on.

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A new phenomenon is happening in American in recent history due to the more and more frequent poor behavior organized religion partake in that goes against a lot of what the younger generation in the west align themselves with. According to a recent survey, there are now as many Americans who claim “no religion”, around 23 percent as of 2018. As we learned in lecture, these are people who refer to those who are unaffiliated with any organized religion. According to the report, this is a trend that has been rising steadily, reportedly growing nearly 270 percent in the last 30 years, which speaks to the amount of with organized religion westerners are beginning to feel. These people who identify as “none” brought up many of the recent controversies organized religion have found themselves in as the reason for their growing weariness, such as the thousands of Catholic priests sexually abused innocent children for decades, Islamic jihads, have been the rallying cry for killing people who do not hold the same beliefs as them, white supremacist groups,who have become more apparent during the Trump-era. Contrary to our progressing society, religion as a whole usually rejects the LGBTQ community and the idea of letting people who they don’t approve of getting married. Although religions weren’t meant to be intolerant, hateful, and corrupt, there are far more who use it as a guide to better themselves and as a moral compass. Westerns are growingly embracing the idea that organized religion has much to do in terms of progressing their ideas to align more with the changing world.

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As we’ve seen from our readings, their is much dichotomy in the current state of our nation between the christian-right and Muslim-Americans. Early this week on April 14, Qanta Ahmed proclaimed that Ilhan Omar was a disgrace to Islam and she doesn’t represent the Muslim religion as it is in America. The representative from Minnesota's fifth congressional district has made comments that have made her seem like an embarrassment and a disgrace to other American Muslims with her terrible and shocking, anti-semitic and now anti-American comments. Omar, a Democrat, holds herself out as a proud Muslim however, yet time and time again she has been on record projecting a twisted, false perception of Islam, a religion that in reality stands for the values of justice, peace, and good behavior. Unfortunately, since Omar is in the public light she gives millions of Americans a false impression of what Islam is and what we Muslims believe and stand for. Many Americans see her as a hypocrite since she is often criticizing unfair, bias opinions against Muslims yet spreading harmful lies about other religions and people, bringing dishonor to the tolerant and overall, moderate religion of Islam. This upsets me since I have friends who are Muslim who feel strongly about this bias; often times it is Omar’s abnormal views on Islam fueled by unfair opinions of other people that make her and other Muslim seem twisted. This is what contributes to the skewed views of all Muslims in America that we discussed in our lectures about Islam in America. In recent news, Omar made some insulting comments regarding the tragic Islamist terrorist attacks in New York on Sept. 11, 2001 that killed almost 3,000 people, many who were also Muslims. At an American-Islamic Relations fundraiser, Omar told the council that  “CAIR was founded after 9/11 because they recognized that some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” Omar almost seems to make light of this national tragedy which makes it seems like Muslim in America all sympathize for the terrorist’s motives as well as trivializing the loss of their fellow Americans that day. From our lectures, we learned that many Americans have biases to Muslim-Americans due to the magnitude and widespread effect of the attack and when a figure of the religions makes comments like those it simply reinforces those certain American’s biased perceptions. Since many Americans aren't exposed to the religion of Islam and its culture, they often base their entire perception of a group of people, like Muslims, by what they see these public figures preach.

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As a person who wears religious jewelry, I find it very important that if someone’s religious accessories are not overbearing they should be free to wear it in public and express their faith. Unfortunately, in an effort to make religious freedom and secularism more of a statement within the government, the Canadian province of Quebec proposed a ban on religious clothing if you are a public employee. However, as we learned in class, often times when efforts are made to remove religion from the public’s view, persecution and unfair rules are a byproduct of such measures. The measure was introduced late last month and would prohibit people such as teachers, nurses, bus drivers, and others who interact with the public from wearing symbols of religion while at work, basically restricting their abilities to express themselves through their religion and forcing some to blatantly go against what their religion tells them to do. This law would extend to items of clothing like Sikh turbans, Christian jewelry, and Jewish yarmulkes, however, the main debate over the controversy has been over hijabs worn by many Muslim women in Quebec which has been a reoccurring issue for Muslim women living in the West. Because Muslims are one of the fastest growing religious groups in Canada, the legislation will affect. From what we’ve learned about the religious values western societies were built upon, it would be a disgrace for a western country to legalize discrimination against citizens based on their religion. Furthermore, the debate pits two ideas we have learned about in lecture against each other. The idea of secularism against one another, one being the stricter European interpretation of religion and the other being the North American version of religion where society embraces the idea of religious freedom no matter who. Though it may seem like this law treats all people of religion the same, it still alienates them as a whole and historically has always affected Muslims to a harsher degree in western countries.