Sue Carlton: Of Muslims and protests, schools and religion, church and state

St. Petersburg - Tampa Bay Times | October 17, 2012 | Sue Carlton

[Cincinatus' Wife]

In the latest religious battle in Hillsborough County schools — call it Eastergate -a federal magistrate says a fourth-grader should have been allowed to pass out invitations to classmates for an Easter egg hunt to "learn the true meaning of Easter."

And that telling him no violated his right to free speech.

I figured this news would have conservative Christian activist and current School Board candidate Terry Kemple — whose group was behind billboards that called the separation of church and state a lie—cheering.

Hooray for the First Amendment!

Though, actually, what he said was: "It was an accurate ruling."

It got me wondering, though. Would his reaction be the same if a Muslim student tried to invite classmates to learn the true meaning of Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan?....

[SNIP of her rant]

....Kemple fought against holding classes on Good Friday. Now trying to unseat longtime incumbent board member Carol Kurdell, he has been very vocal in speaking out against the head of the local Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, who last year was invited to talk to an advanced placement world history class.

So I asked him: You're for free-speech rights for a student having a Christian-themed party, but not for a guy who might teach teenagers something about a major religion?

Kemple insists the battle is not anti-Muslim, but anti-CAIR. He and others who show up to protest at board meetings say CAIR has ties to terrorism, a charge CAIR denies.

So I ask the Ramadan question: Would the judge's Eastergate ruling apply equally to a Muslim student's holiday?

"The answer to the question is yes," he said. And this is a more moderate tone than you might expect from someone who has compared CAIR in the classroom to inviting someone from the North American Man-Boy Love Association, a pro-pedophilia group, or the Ku Klux Klan.....

[rmh47]

I'd like to read the whole thing.

Need a link to the original article.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Thanks!!

http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/sue-carlton-of-muslims-and-protests-schools-and-religion-church-and-state/1256723

[GeronL]

We already have seen reports of schools putting a room aside for Muslim kids to pray in and stuff. The “what if” is stupid since ONLY Christians were being shut down.

[pacific_waters]

ANother westerner who’s been sucked into the religion part of islam and fails to see the politically subversive part of islam. Christianity at no time undermines the freedoms we enjoy. Islam inherently opposes them. As has been said, the constitution is not a suicide pact.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hillsborough School Board again hears complaints about Muslim visit to classroom "TAMPA — For a fourth time this year, the Hillsborough County School Board heard complaints Tuesday about last fall's visit by a Muslim leader to Steinbrenner High School.

Appearing three days before a board workshop to discuss classroom visitors, 21 speakers called for a policy banning the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

As in past meetings, some alleged the group has ties to terrorist groups — which CAIR denies — while others attacked Islam itself.

.....Hassan Shibly, the CAIR leader who met with Steinbrenner's world history students, was not at the meeting. And he said he will not be at Friday's 2 p.m. workshop, as he will be leading weekly prayers at a mosque.

"I don't think the School Board should allow their meetings to be used as a platform for anti-Muslim bigotry," Shibly said later.........."