From the Associated Baptist Press and BJC Staff Reports
WASHINGTON — The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and 34 groups April 17 urged a Senate panel probing racial profiling in America to include profiling of religious minorities in their study.
The groups wrote leaders of a Senate Committee on the Judiciary subcommittee advising that religious profiling can be “used as a proxy for race, ethnicity, or national origin.”
“We appreciate that most law enforcement officials discharge their duties honorably,” the groups said. “Yet, when law enforcement profiles individuals and communities based solely on their real or perceived religion, religious appearance, religious observance, or religious practices, it undermines Americans’ trust in those sworn to protect them and our nation’s commitment to religious liberty and equal protection of the law. Furthermore, such actions not only have the effect of discriminating against religion generally and religious minorities in particular, but also fuel divisiveness by casting suspicion over an entire religious community.”
“Our religious freedom depends on our willingness to protect the religious freedom of others,” said K. Hollyn Hollman, general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee. “Because of our Baptist history, we should understand the struggles of religious minorities and ensure that our government does not use differences in religious beliefs or practices to target individuals.”
Welton Gaddy of the Interfaith Alliance also endorsed the letter. In written testimony to the panel, he said that the 9/11 attacks caused a “dramatic rise in the inappropriate profiling of Arabs, Muslims, Sikhs, and South Asians” in the United States.
“Religious profiling is not only a betrayal of the trust that American Muslims put in their government, but in the trust that all Americans put in their government,” said Gaddy, a Baptist minister. “To profile individuals simply because they belong, or appear to belong, to a particular religious community turns First Amendment-protected beliefs and activities into cause for suspicion and is an affront to the freedom of religion, paramount in our nation.”
In the letter, the organizations described religious freedom as “one of our most treasured liberties, a fundamental and defining feature of our national character.”
“Our Constitution guarantees that we are free to hold any religious belief, or none at all, and we are free to join together in communities to exercise those beliefs if we so choose,” the letter said. “As a result, the United States is among the most religious, and religiously diverse, nations in the world. Our diversity of faiths and beliefs is a great strength.”
