Essay on Freedom of Religion ACT of 2017

Introduction

Every human being has some moral principles and norms that describe some standards of people's behavior and conduct. The principles are regularly protected and safeguarded as natural and legal rights in a state's and international laws. Due to the fact that the world is constantly evolving, it brings up new needs and threats to human beings. This factor leads to revision and amendments of the human rights it where necessary to safeguard human rights and ensure continuity of the world. One of the recent amendments in USA was done on Immigration and Nationality Act through addition of the Freedom of religion ACT of 2017 (H.R. 852) which stated that, an immigrant may not be denied USA entry, reentry, admission or any other immigrant benefits on the grounds of his or her religion or lack of religious beliefs ( Pro Publica Inc.). There have been some people who have been campaigning against this right saying that it may be misused. The paper below will try to convince these people that this right is necessary and will help to promote the national and world cohesion.

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The protection of human rights was one of the major building blocks of the foundation that helped the establishment of the United States more than 200 years ago. From that time, one of the central goals of U.S. foreign policy has been to promote the respect for human rights as they are written in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is understandable that existence of human rights assists in securing the nation, promoting the rule of law, countering crime and corruption, strengthening democracy and preventing humanitarian crises ( Bureau of Public Affairs). If this is what the nation's forefathers laid down and generations that followed to the current one have the above claims, then there is no reason for people to be against the amendment. Every U.S. citizen who respects what the forefathers set for the country should support the bill.

There are people who say that they are against the bill because there is some religion which when misused, it leads to radicalization where the individual can do anything to prove a religious point. They stated Islam as an example where due to the misuse of jihad, there has been an eruption of Islamic terrorists and terrorism where the radicalized jihadists practice mass killing including suicide bombing. These concerns are valid especially this time that the U.S. is trying to fight terrorism. What these claims don't put into consideration is that not all Muslims are radicalized jihadists or are ready for mass killing and denying all Muslim the right to immigrate to the U.S. will be unfair to the peaceful Muslim. It is true that there are some terrorists that may take advantage of this to get access to U.S. In the bill there is the part that acts on this where it says that the right may be limited when a consular officer, an immigration officer, discipline forces or the President determines that the individual may pose a threat to U.S. national security (Congressional Research Service).

There are cases where even without the right, terrorists have found their way to access the U.S. and perform their cowardice terrorist acts such as the 15th April 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and 11th September 2001 Aircraft hijackings, suicide attacks where many people were injured. The attracts were carried out by people of a specific religion, and there must have been some of the religion members who were against the act and if they were to be given equal rights with other immigrants, they can provide the U.S. government with potential intelligence information that can help the security forces to respond before the terror happens.

There are some people who come to the U.S. to invest or re-invest. In one way or another, these create employment opportunities to the U.S. people and provide government revenue through paying of taxes. Of late, every country has been trying their best to improve their economy through the opening of as many employment opportunities and increasing exports which ultimately increase government revenue and reduce joblessness (Greg, Joe and Debra 22). This is exactly what the investors will provide and they will help in selling U.S. and U.S. products to the outside world to boost the economy. When such people are denied the access to the U.S. on the grounds of religion, the country misses all the benefits stated above.

With the implementation of the bill, there would be less discrimination against some individuals along religious lines and this will help them feel important and equal to other immigrants. Without the bill, there would be discrimination where those that are being discriminated against may opt to cheat and be dishonest when it comes to some personal information. In such cases, those people will come and live among the citizens without anybody knowing their true details. This poses a threat to the security since when these people happen to be radical, nobody will know their intentions or pay close attention to them to know when they start being radical. This would give these people an opportunity to continue their radicalization without being noted. If the bill was to be implemented, most- if not all- people will give their true details and he will help the government and citizens to keep everyone on the look and detecting of radicalization would be easy for those who have the potential of being radicalized will be known from the start.

Some activists have raised concern about some religious practices and beliefs that are posed by some religions. Animal sacrifice plays a central role in Afro-Cuban religion but the practice is against some States' rules such as Florida, human sacrifice, and cannibalism practiced by the Aztecs as part of their rituals (Winkelman and Baker 294). This is against the rules of many States and countries. The activists against the bill said that if these religions are allowed into the country, they would come with their practices which are against the rules and beliefs of the U.S. people. What the activists forget is that the question of discrimination is not on the practices but rather the person him or herself since he or she belongs to a certain religion. The concern about the rituals can be addressed through the abolition of undertaking the rituals in the U.S. soil where when the time for such ritual comes, the people can go back to their country- where the practices are accepted- and do them there then come back to the U.S. to continue with the normal business that is accepted in the U.S.

Conclusion

As said before, there are many human rights that are embedded in the constitution but the paper concentrated on the support of Human Rights 852 (Freedom of religion ACT of 2017) that called for non-discrimination along religious lines when it comes to immigration to the U.S. As said, the U.S. upholds human rights and there is no reason to discriminate some religions; the security threat posed by some religious radicals can be controlled where the people of these religions can provide the U.S. with intelligence information about radical terrorists; investors come from different religions and no need to chase them away on religious grounds; and rituals that are against U.S. laws can be carried out in countries where they are allowed. Despite the fact that there are some disadvantages associated with the implementation of H.R. 852, there are some benefits and some disadvantages can be controlled. The paper concludes that there is no need to be against the H.R. 852 and everyone should support it.

Works Cited

Bureau of Public Affairs. Human Rights. 1 January 2018. Web. 12 May 2018.

Pro Publica Inc. H.R.852: Freedom of Religion Act of 2017. 1 January 2017. Web. 12 May 2018.

Congressional Research Service. H.R. 852: Freedom of Religion Act of 2017. 3 February 2017. Web. 12 May 2018.

Greg, Clark, Huxley Joe and Mountford Debra. Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Organising Local Economic Development The Role of Development Agencies and Companies. Cedex: OECD Publishing, 2010.

Winkelman, Michael, and R., John Baker. Supernatural as Natural: A Biocultural Approach to Religion. New York: Routledge, 2015.