Your God or your job?  People might wonder which is more important to them, because people all around the world are being fired or not even hired because of the religion they follow, such as Samantha Elauf and Terri Ali. After the 9/11 attack, the San Bernardino shooting, the Paris attack and terror groups like ISIS, people are scared to let Muslims work for them. It doesn’t help that all these stereotypes are going around, that all muslims are terrorists. You never hear anything about being Jewish or Christian coming into effect when getting hired for a job.  

In 2008 a 17 year old girl, named Samantha Elauf interviewed for a job at Abercrombie kids, at a Tulsa Mall. Samantha Elauf was denied the job because her wearing the Hijab for her religion and to get closer to god, was against their employee “Look Policy”. Later on the The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued them on Elauf’s behalf. A federal judge in Tulsa ruled for Elauf and the jury ended up rewarding her $20,000 in damages. The jury felt empathy for Elauf which they should because the company had no reason to deny her just because she followed the tenets of her religion. Elauf said, "I was a teenager who loved fashion and was eager to work for Abercrombie & Fitch”(NewsOk). All she wanted to do was work for this company because she was inspired by the fashion they have. This is one example of how someone would have to choose what is more important, the job or their religion.

In addition, in 2015 a mass shooting happened in San Bernardino and a girl named Terri Ali, was fired from her job 2 days later. She had only been working for one day at the Livonia Dermatology clinic, where her job was to interact with the people who came here. After the mass shooting happened she got moved to the back room to work and just to print files, instead of interacting with the people. Two days later Terri Ali was fired via email from her office manager. Later on Ali sued them because she claims that they fired her because she was Muslim, the company disagrees that was the reason. She didn’t back down during the lawsuit, because she knew she was right and they were wrong for what they did. If the mass shooting never had happened would she still be interacting with those customers and patients, or would she still be suing them for what they did?

Lastly, everyone knows that there are 10 amendments that we are suppose to follow, but do people even know what they are? Judging by these stories, people don’t even know the first one. The first amendment guarantees the freedom of religion, practices, expression, and assembly. This amendment does not allow congress to promote one religion over another. It also doesn’t allow congress to restrict an individual's practice of religion.  In both Samantha Elauf’s and Terri Ali’s stories, the companies did not follow the first amendment, since Samantha was not employed because of her Hijab, and Terri was linked to fear of terrorism simply because she was Muslim. Why would we have the ten amendments if people can barely follow one of them? It seems people only want to know of amendments that are beneficial to them and ignore the ones that are not.

In conclusion, no one should be forced to choose between their religion and an opportunity to become, or stay, employed.  That is why we have freedom of religion and the First Amendment. In a perfect world everyone should have both. Right now this seems to be more of an issue for specific groups such as Muslims, but in the past it has happened to other religious groups such as the Jews, but as their religion and ways became more widely accepted they now don’t face the same issues in the workplace.  Hopefully within the near future we will all become more accepting.

Work Cited
"First Amendment Center." First Amendment Center. Web. 16 Feb. 2016. .
"First Amendment." LII / Legal Information Institute. Web. 16 Feb. 2016.
"Muslim Woman Files Lawsuit following Termination from Livonia Clinic." Muslim Woman Files Lawsuit following Termination from Livonia Clinic. Web. 16 Feb. 2016. .
"Tulsa Woman Wins Headscarf Case against Abercrombie & Fitch." NewsOK.com. 2015. Web. 16 Feb. 2016. .