Islam in the United States
The people of the United States have a firm 1st Amendment protection of freedom of speech from government interference that explicitly includes clothing items, as described by Supreme Court cases such as Tinker v. Des Moines.As such, a ban on Islamic clothing is considered presumptively invalid by U.S. socio-political commentators such as Mona Charen of National Review.Journalist Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor has referred to "the traditional American respect for different cultural communities and religions under the broad umbrella of universal freedoms" as forbidding the banning of Islamic dress. In his prominent June 2009 speech to the Muslim World in Cairo, President Barack Obama called on the West "to avoid dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear", and he elaborated that such rules involve "hostility" towards Muslims in "the pretense of liberalism".A 2010 survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that the vast majority of Americans – two out of three of those polled – oppose banning Islamic clothing.Most gyms, fitness clubs, and other workout facilities in the United States are mixed-sex, so exercise without a hijab or burka can be difficult for some observant Muslim women. Maria Omar, director of media relations for the Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America (IFANCA), has advised Muslim women to avoid these complexes entirely. Some women decide to wear something colloquially known as the "sports hijab". Similarly, Muslim women may feel uncomforable around other women with traditionally revealing American outfits, especially during the summer "Bikini season". An outfit colloquially known as the burqini allows Muslim women to swim without displaying any significant amount of skin.Compared to Western Europe, there have been relatively few controversies surrounding hijab in everyday life, and Muslim garb is commonly seen in major US cities. One exception is the case of Sultaana Freeman, a Florida woman who had her driver's license cancelled due to her wearing of the niqab in her identification photo. She sued the state of Florida for religious discrimination, though her case was eventually thrown out.
See also
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