Rutherford Institute Sues Oklahoma School on Behalf of Muslim Student

KPOM ^ | October 30, 2003 | The Associated Press

[yonif]

School officials in Muskogee say they're disappointed that the district is being sued for not allowing an eleven-year-old Muslim girl to wear a religious head scarf.

The Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties group, filed the federal lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of the family of Nashala Hearn.

The lawsuit alleges the school district violated the sixth-grader's rights to free speech and free exercise of religion.

The lawsuit also asks that school officials revise their dress code to accommodate students' religious dress and to expunge the girl's two suspensions.

School officials say the head covering violated their dress code that bars wearing bandanas, hats, caps or other headwear in the school building.

[Tall_Texan]

I'm glad to see it. She harms no one by wearing her scarf and some of these dress codes are too strict. Plus, it immunes some of the attacks on the Rutherfords as being only a right-wing Christian lawsuit agency. They stand for religious freedom and that should include the rights of little Muslim girls to wear head scarfs.

[jim35]

This'll be a slam-dunk for our courts. It's not as if this discrimination was against an unprotected religion (Christianity).

[SunStar]

I agree.. Would they suspend a Jewish student wearing a kippah? Or a Christian student with a Crucifix?

Most likely.

[SunStar]

They stand for religious freedom and that should include the rights of little Muslim girls to wear head scarfs.

We should be careful what we ask for in this country.

[sheik yerbouty]

An hijab is a political statement. It was first used in Cairo university as a political statement bu Egyptian Islamic Jihad and its minions.

[Tall_Texan]

Afraid she's going to pack a bomb under her scarf? Grow up.

[Modernman]

It really is an either/or situation- either everyone has the right to wear an unobtrusive religious ornament, or no one does. It doesn't matter that Islam might be unpopular these days.

[FreedomPoster]

Where do you draw the line? Is a full-face Burkah that prevents identification acceptable? That's what that gal in the FL driver's licence case wanted.

[Modernman]

Where do you draw the line? Is a full-face Burkah that prevents identification acceptable? That's what that gal in the FL driver's licence case wanted.

And she lost, I believe.

I really don't see any way around letting this kid wear her head scarf, at least not constitutionally.

[Sloth]

That's what that gal in the FL driver's licence case wanted.

And she's perfectly free to wear one, she just has to forego having a driver's license.

A compulsory education situation is totally different. I'm with the kid on this one. A head scarf does not disrupt anything & it is none of the school's business.

[SunStar]

Afraid she's going to pack a bomb under her scarf? Grow up.

No, I really don't care if a little girl wears a head scarf. What I will care about is the way that Muslims will tear this country apart using our liberal legal system, all in the name of diversity.

[Tall_Texan]

There's a difference between wearing religious clothing that does not interfere with the purpose of the gathering and wearing clothing that does.

You obviously can't drive a car and wear a burka over your head. So it's silly for a drivers license to portray her this way. It's not the same thing as a little girl learning in a public school while wearing a scarf.

Most of the Muslims I have met in America are rational people and are in America *because* they don't want to live under the extremism of the mullahs and ayatollahs. It doesn't mean they want to surrender their entire religion or the clothing they were raised to wear. I don't agree with Muslim teaching but I have nothing personally against Muslims exercising their faith as I would expect Muslims to accept my rights to exercise my faith as long as it harms nobody else.

There's no point to lumping all Muslims into one stereotype any more than it is to lump all Christians or Jews into one stereotype. That's lazy thinking.

[Master of Orion]

I would draw the line here

[FreedomPoster]

What if multiple students are wearing them, and a teacher can't tell who's really in class taking a test?

I'm OK with a headscarf, by the way, even though I do believe it's likely more of a political statement, as sheikyerbouty notes. But I draw the line at masks.

[bereanway]

Sounds to me like this is a simple dress code issue and not one with any religious overtones. The school has a dress code which doesn't allow hats, bandannas etc. I think the school has a right to enforce a dress code.

[RightWingAtheist]

By far the sanest and most fact-based post on the subject of Islam I have ever read on FR. Bravo!

For what it's worth, I support the right of Muslim and Orthodox Christian girls to wear headscarfs, just as I support the right of Jewis boys to wear yarmulkes and ringlets, and Catholics to wear crosses, even if I don't share any of their beliefs. Funny how expressions of faith in any form are considered distracting, but kids who shave their head down the middle, and dye the remainder fluorescent green, and who get 7 tongue piercings are considered normal.

[BlueString]

"There's no point to lumping all Muslims into one stereotype any more than it is to lump all Christians or Jews into one stereotype. That's lazy thinking."

Or lumping all Nazis and communists into one stereotype.

Just because they subscribe to dogma that urges them to murder Christians and Jews wherever they find them (Koran 9:5), doesn't mean we shouldn't have tolerance for them...

Get real.

In the 40's you would probably have had the crap beaten out of you if you showed up to school wearing a swastika, but now we are more than happy to bring the enemy into our homes.