I agree with you, Maggie, especially your comment above about this not being an issue until a lawyer got involved.  Who the heck cares?  People face dress codes every day, in the workplace or elsewhere.  A friend of my daughter’s is a dental assistant with some sort of large Buddhist symbol tattooed on her forearm, and her boss does not want it showing.  She must either wear long sleeves (in AZ), or, as she has been doing, checking out the price of removal.  But I suppose in today’s world of trivial pursuit, this could be a potential lawsuit.

Isn’t it ironic that Muslims, especially women, are coming from countries where they are fortunate to be able to have their most basic human rights respected, and would probably never even have a voice in a court at of law, but come to this country and start challenging trivialities at every turn.  There are a lot of wacky judges out there; take the darn thing off, get your name change (whatever that’s all about), put it back on.  Done.  So what??  She has accomplished something she would probably not even be able to do in her country of origin.  And, for the record, there seems to be truckloads of laws regarding Muslim women, and what they are and are not allowed to do, and I don’t agree with them and would hope that same judge would not either if she was abused, denied an education, sold off in marriage at  ten years old, etc. whether that is part of their religion or not.

I live in Chicago, and just this morning there was an article about a Muslim man who went to Wisconsin, bought 4 lambs for $400, hogtied them, threw him in his truck and drove back to the city where the plan was to have them slaughtered according to his religious practice, and eat them for Ramadan.  Only problem, he decided to kill one in his garage, and that didn’t sit too well with the neighbors, who called the cops.  He’s sitting in handcuffs for 8 hours trying to figure out what the problem is!  I’m going to admit it - I think this is hysterical.  I may be in "outrage overload," and, if so, I’m glad.  There are some things that call for outrage, like our messed up health care system, or gangs taking over neighborhoods and terrorizing people, and hundreds more, but I think our world has been trivialized to an extent that it is not good for our kids.

At one time, certain restaurants had dress codes; didn’t they even sometimes give a man a sportcoat if he didn’t have one on?  Schools around here have dress codes (everyone the same to cut down on gang trouble,) even stores have signs "no shoes, no shirts, no service," and that’s fine.  I think we should all just file one giant class action lawsuit for whatever slights, humiliations, or rejections we have ever faced in this life and get it over with.

Obscure Pentecostal groups within southeastern sates, mostly in Appalachia; handle copperheads and other poisonous reptiles during their religious services. Perhaps as many as 2,000 Americans in about 40 churches practice this risky religious ritual.

Jediism is a non-theistic new religious movement based upon the philosophical and spiritual ideas of the Jedi as depicted in Star Wars media.The real-world Jedi assert the existence of the Force, and advocate adherence to the Jedi code. According to recent censuses in some English-speaking countries, over 500,000 people declared their religion as Jedi, in addition, a few Jedi churches/temples exist around the world.

Haitian Vodou or Vaudou is a syncretic religion originating from the Caribbean country of Haiti, located on the island of Hispaniola. It is based upon a merging of the beliefs and practices of West Africanpeoples. To make just a couple examples, there are many religions in this country. To say "Luckily the snakes have not taken over any religion" is biased and that is my point, everyone wants to have respect and considerations of certain religions and their customs and not others, how hypocritical of so many on this site. I will add I am all for gay marriage being legal in this country.