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April 1, 2004
Union Of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations Applauds U.S. Justice Dept. Defense
Of Muslim Girl’s Right to Wear
Head-Scarf to Oklahoma Public School;
Criticizes School District and Calls
for Legislation to
Protect all Americans’ Rights
to Wear Religious Clothing
Today, the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America applauded the U.S.
Department of Justice for defending the right of an 11-year-old
Muslim girl to wear a head-scarf to her Oklahoma public school
after she was suspended for doing so. The Muskogee School District
claims it took the action because it could make no exceptions to a
policy banning all head coverings, even those worn for religious
purposes.
The UOJCA applauded DOJ’s legal action which seeks to compel the
school district to change its policy on the grounds that it
violated the student’s constitutional right to the Free Exercise
of religion.
“We applaud the Justice Department’s vigorous defense of religious
liberty,” said UOJCA president Harvey Blitz, “this is a critical
issue to us and to all Americans and we deeply appreciate the fact
that since taking office, President Bush, Attorney General
Ashcroft and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Acosta
have placed religious liberty issues at the forefront of the DOJ
agenda.”
The UOJCA criticized the Muskogee school officials. UOJCA director
of public policy, Nathan J. Diament, stated:
The school district is
ignoring America’s “first freedom” by infringing on this young
girl’s right to religious observance. There is no rational basis
for the district to have this policy and we urge them to reverse
it immediately.”
Diament went on to note that the UOJCA, and a broad coalition of
religious groups, are actively supporting a bipartisan proposal
pending in congress – the Workplace Religious Freedom Act – which
would reinstate federal legal protections for adult Americans
wearing head-scarves or other religious clothing, as well as their
ability to observe other religious practices, in the workplace.
The proposal, sponsored by Senators Rick Santorum (R-Pa) and John
Kerry (D-Ma) and 20 other senators, is currently awaiting
legislative action. Diament stated:
It is important that
Congress take up this measure a champion religious expression for
all Americans – young and old. Perhaps we need to amend it to
explicitly include schoolchildren’s rights so that what we’ve seen
lately in France, which is so obviously at odds with America’s
foundational rights to religious freedom, cannot come to govern
our schoolchildren as well.
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