The US Number Two Religion - Essay Example

US citizens are adopted to a big number of, say, representatives of Judaism, as there are many Jewish senators, congressmen, businessmen, and other important people, but Islamic tradition in the second place on the list of religions is still a surprise. The other religions that constitute major parts in this regard are Buddhism and the already mentioned Judaism. There is also Baha’i religion present in the USA, but this is not a very large group of people, and the state of affairs with Hindus is just a little bit better – they are a bigger religious society.

The US citizens are concerned with such a big popularity of Islam in their country, because, in the course of the latest news coming from the place of the world which Islam is typical of, some ethnic and religious groups want to create sharia law in Islam as a major system of the Islamic law, and its severe control over the person’s life makes people think whether it is or it is not a limitation of one’s freedoms. The reason for such a diversity of religious traditions in the US is that there are different nations present in this country, which, obviously, have their typical religions which they have brought with them when moving to the US: Buddhism is typical of the Asians, Islam is typical of the Arabic people, Judaism – of the Jews and so on.

Islam, however, might have gained more supporters among the African Americans of the southern states who converted, or reverted, to Islam. The point of concern here is that the image of religious America is not complete because the people who usually identify themselves as non-believers, such as atheists or agnostics, are not included in religious charts when conducting surveys of such a type, and the share of people belonging to this category is considerably big. Here there is also an opinion that, though these people do not believe in a particular God suggested by the mentioned religions, they can be spiritual, and their behavior may coincide with the codes and norms of the religions.

The religious traditions may bring some benefits for people: Baha’i traditions, for example, presuppose doing meditations, prayers reading and other rituals altogether, and this is an instrument of people unity, being a single collective. This is a relatively new religion, and this may be a reason for some to people think that this religion is totally different from the traditional ones which originated centuries ago. The discussion also tackles the matter of what the religious rules are and whether they should be necessary and mandatory for everyone in the churches, as faith is a matter of a person rather than a matter of fulfilling some rituals.