Posted on 12/28/2005 10:54:52 AM PST by wagglebee
(AgapePress) - A federal appeals court is being asked to reconsider its ruling that allows public schools to teach junior high students how to "become Muslims." The Thomas More Law Center, a national public-interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is asking the entire Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on what can be done in public schools with regard to teaching Islam and other religions.
Several parents sued California's Byron Union School District for requiring their 7th-grade children to participate in a three-week class activity in which they not only had to study important Islamic figures and wear traditional Muslim attire, but were also required to observe the "five pillars" of the Islamic faith, adopt Muslim names, recite a portion of a Muslim prayer, and even stage their own "jihad" or "holy war." The plaintiffs' attorney, the Thomas More Law Center's Ed White, believes the school district violated the parents' and children's constitutional rights to free exercise of religion.
Earlier, White had asked a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit to overturn a previous San Francisco federal district court's ruling that the Byron Union School District did not violate the U.S. Constitution. However, the Ninth Circuit panel of judges upheld the lower court's determination in a brief, unpublished memorandum decision.
In that ruling, however, the panel overlooked and failed to rule on the plaintiff's claims that their free exercise and parental rights had been violated. The Thomas More Law Center has asked the three-judge panel to reconsider their decision and to issue a ruling on the claims not previously addressed. The Law Center has also asked all 24 active judges on the Ninth Circuit to consider and rule on the case.
White says the Byron Union School District never informed the parents about an exercise that would be grading their children on how well they observed the tenets of Islam. In fact, he points out, "The parents were never told that there was even a way to opt their child out of such an activity."
Actually, the only way the parents found out about the school's Islamic exercise, the attorney points out, was virtually by accident. He says a Byron Union District mom was "looking through her son's book bag and asked, 'Hey, what's all this stuff?' and the kid said, 'Oh, we're doing this in school now.' So the parents objected, but it was after the class [activity] was over."
So it was after the fact that parents learned how, for three weeks in 2001, their children were told they would "become Muslims" and had worn identification tags bearing their new Muslim names along with the Star and Crescent Moon symbols of Islam. The children received materials telling them to "Remember Allah always so that you may prosper," and they made banners to hang in the classroom, inscribing them with the Basmala, a phrase from the Koran used in Muslim prayers that is translated, "In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate."
Richard Thompson, chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, was disappointed by the San Francisco district court's ruling and the Ninth Circuit panel's decision to uphold it. He commented that if students had been instructed on Christianity in the same manner as they were on Islam in this case, the court would most likely have found a constitutional violation.
Ed White agrees. The parents' lawyer says the courts should not be allowing this apparent double standard on the teaching of religion in public schools. When the Byron Union School District's teachers taught the children other religions in the seventh grade," he asserts, "they didn't go into any of these activities. When they taught Buddhism or Christianity, they didn't engage in these simulations [of Islamic observances]. They didn't have to practice the faith, memorize various parts of the Bible, et cetera."
White has filed a petition for a rehearing of the case before the entire Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Chief counsel Richard Thompson says the appellate court needs to clarify in a published opinion just how far public schools can go in teaching about religion.
© 2005 AgapePress all rights reserved.
The indifference of groups like the ACLU and the Ninth Circuit to things like this just furthers the argument that the left would like nothing more than to destroy our Judeo-Christian culture.
It is not an "exercise." If these kids are told to recite the Islamic shahada they become converts to Islam. Period.
Want to revert back to your former religion? It is up to a Sharia court to decide whether you were tricked into making the shahada
So there's an upside?
A federal appeals court is being asked to reconsider its ruling that allows public schools to teach junior high students how to "become Muslims."
>>>>>>>>
Is this not disgusting to even have this be a question?
I don't think so. Some of my activities include associating with them. They're just bubbleheads.
If this doesn't awaken the students to the realities of the Middle-East, nothing will.
I can understand how something like this was signed off on to begin with.
Okay, Dave...sorry...I mean Akbar, you get an A- in Islamic dress, very bland, good, an A for remembering to pray 5 times a day, very good, and an A- for prayer, you only left out the "death to infidels" shout at the end. But I can only give you a C+ in jihad, because your bomb accidentally exploded, killing your partner John...sorry...Mahboob, and your sister is still alive because you didn't stab her enough times for refusing to don a burqua. Maybe the after-school madrassa will help.
ROFLMFAO!
Wow! What happened to separation of church and state? I guess like most other things, that can be thrown away in the name of left wing Political Correctness...
When I read this, I thought it was a joke - seriously...a public school can teach this in the classroom, but no one can say "Merry Christmas." Where is the ACLU? Why aren't they suing for their precious 'freedom from religion'?
Oh, I forgot! The school isn't teaching about Christianity, so we have to be tolerant!
We are the country we are because we are a Christian Nation, not a Muslim one.
LOL. :-)
A plethora of today's teachers are among the least intelligent in any college.
A prime example of the old saw “Those who can do – those who can’t teach.”
My friend brought to my attention that her son was in one of those classes here in Byron. We picketed the school and passed out handbills protesting the class. I was interviewed on the David Gold and Jay Seculow show about it.
Yes -- that's not what public schools are for...
Well damn! You need to jump right on in! -:)
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