The Sikh community in the United States has launched a concentrated effort to mobilize support for the Workplace Religious Freedom Act (WRFA) legislation introduced by ideological rivals Senators John F. Kerry (D-MA) and Rick Santorum (R-PA), in a rare show of bipartisanship.

Kerry has unsuccessfully introduced this bill in every Congress since 1996; each time, the measure that would place a greater legal burden on employers to prove they have legitimate reasons when infringing on an employee’s expression of his or her faith, and not providing “reasonable accommodations” for the observance of one’s faith such as refusing to work on the Sabbath or wearing religious garb, has failed to pass.

At a Capitol Hill press conference, flanked by leaders of a coalition of religious and civil rights organizations, including the Sikh Council on Religion and Education – a Washington, DC-based organization – the American Jewish Committee, the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, among others, Kerry declared “No American should have to choose between practicing their faith and working at their job.”

He said, for example, “It is wrong for Catholics to lose their job because they don’t want to work on Christmas Day, and they could work out an arrangement in the workplace that is not disruptive.”

Santorum, one of the most conservative lawmakers in the U.S. Senate, said, “We want to make sure that when people go to the workplace, it is a workplace that’s respectful of their traditions and of their beliefs.”

He argued, “This is an attempt to balance the scales. This is not a bill that attempts to elevate religion over all other rights; it simply is an accommodation.”

Kerry dismissed a reporter’s contention that his sponsorship of the legislation was part of a campaign to make Democrats seem more faith-friendly, a perception that some felt they were not and may have cost Kerry – the Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 – the White House.

Laughing loudly, Kerry pointed out, “Look, I started this years ago. I believe in this because I have constituents – two Catholic ladies who lost their jobs because they wouldn’t work on Christmas – and I said, you know, ‘What’s going on?”’

A clone of the Senate bill (S-677) was also introduced in the House (HR 1445) co-sponsored by US Representatives Mark Souder (R-IND), Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and Piyush “Bobby” Jindal (R-LA).

Souder defended Kerry’s argument that the move had nothing to do with partisan politics, declaring the WRFA “a rare kind of bipartisan moment.”

The lawmaker, and avowed religious conservative in the House, noted that when the bill was first introduced in the House, more Democrats than Republicans had co-sponsored it. Souder acknowledged that the bill could face more opposition from Republicans than Democrats because even though many of his colleagues shared his ideological and religious conservatism, they were also employer friendly and wouldn’t want to do anything that could be perceived as jeopardizing “employer friendliness.”

Thus, he said it was imperative that “we have to work on the Republican side as well, if not a little harder. There, we may face some business opposition.”

Jindal, in lending his support to the Act, said at the press conference that “our nation was founded on the principle of ‘Freedom of Religion’ not freedom from religion. As such, America should be a place where people are not forced to choose between keeping their faith and keeping their job.”

He asserted that the legislation was a “bipartisan, bicameral bill which re-establishes the principle that employees must reasonably accommodate the religious needs of employees.”

Jindal pointed out the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “required employers to account for the religious needs of their employees so long as it does not impose an undue hardship on the employer. However, since then court rulings have created a situation where virtually any hardship is considered undue.”

Dr. Rajwant Singh, the founder president of Sikh Council On Religion and Education and the executive director of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation, told India Abroad that “we have sent out letters to all the gurdwaras around the country and are mobilizing grassroots support in the Sikh community to get activated on this issue.”

“We want to show that this bill can help Sikhs combat workplace discrimination and also prejudice, which we have been subjected to much more regularly after 9/11.”

Singh said the support and response from the Sikh community across the country has been overwhelming and that “many Sikhs are writing letters and emailing their congressmen and senators urging them to support this bill.”

“We have sent thousands of form letters to Sikh leaders and community activists all around the country and gurdwara presidents have also been approached to assist in this task.”

He said the Sikh Council On Religion and Education and other Sikh community organizations were planning “a special dinner event in mid-May on Capitol Hill to pursue Sikh issues and the concerns that we have and we are hoping to have more than 300 prominent Sikh leaders from all across the nation to gather on Capitol Hill to lobby for this particular bill.”

Singh said, “We are in touch with young Sikhs from the second generation to become more active on this issues and also to contact their lawmakers and work this issues at the college level and at their workplaces to get as much support as we can in terms of co-sponsors in the Senate and the House.”

He said working in coalition with other groups to generate support for the measure “also helps us to be part of the mainstream of American issues, because this is not just a Sikh related issue, and virtually every community is impacted.”

Singh expressed confidence this time the legislation has every chance of being adopted because “of the climate change in American politics. There is a surge of religious values issues in the air and people are talking more openly about their faith. And there is also tacit support from the Bush administration to support such faith-based initiatives and faith-related issues. Santorum is close to President Bush and is a favorite of the Christian evangelicals, who are such a powerful group and are strongly supporting this bill.”

But some civil rights organizations such as the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign, have opposed the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, arguing it would give employees too much flexibility to flout local laws and also, in turn, to discriminate against others’ religious beliefs.