Are you THAT unclear on what the phrase "free exercise" means in the context of the constitution? It means that you are free to practice your religion without governmental interference. If you have chosen to practice the Muslim faith, the government is not going to protect you from the tenets of the Muslim religion. It will, however, tell you that you don't have to be a Muslim. And it sounds especially coercive to less devout Muslim students who do NOT want to participate in the prayers. Perhaps some of them were hoping to have real religious freedom in the US and now the other Muslim students will be keeping them in line, religiously speaking, because they will be able to report back to parents or Imams.
It is no more coercive than offering a library. The fact that a school has a room full of books does not mean it is coercing students to go into that room and read those books. Entering the room is completely voluntary. If you don't want to go, don't. And if you don't go, who's going to know whether or not you're a muslim not following the rules. No one is taking attendance.
Do we really want to help an Imam enforce religious rules on students in our schools?
Again, it's not about enforcement. It's about opportunity. Without this room, those Muslim students who want to practice their religion do not have the opportunity to do so without disrupting the school day. The same is not true of the Christian religion.
The Muslims really need to open their own schools to exercise their rights, like other religious groups in America do. The less devout Muslim students in the public schools should NOT feel intimidated by those that more strictly adhere to their faith.
Many of do open their own schools, but that doesn't mean that the students should be exempt from attending public school. If a catholic student wants to go to private school, s/he is entitled to. S/he is also entitled to pray as long as s/he initiated it him/herself, doesn't not expect to hold an audience or use a public address system, and does not disrupt class.
This policy of allowing Muslim students a room to pray gives the Muslim student the same rights as that Catholic student and again, there is no ENFORCEMENT. No one takes attendence, no one keeps track. And if you don't want to go, no one notices.
We are told that the reason Muslim children need prayer rooms is that they are OBLIGATED to pray at certain times. We are also told that they are merely being given the opportunity to pray and if they were (like children of other faiths) NOT obliged to pray at certain times, they would not need the prayer rooms (i.e., they would not be given the opportunity to pray). Boy, is this confusing!!
In effect, the schools are "giving the opportunity" to those that are obligated to pray, even though the schools did not give the same opportunity to the children who, of their own free will wanted to exercise their faith freely, by praying. In other words, the religion that controls its adherents the most throughout the day, gets the help of the schools.
In practice, the Muslim children will notice whether or not a particular child went to the prayer room to pray. Also, there's a good possibility that Muslim students will be questioned by their parents or other significant adults (Imams?), to see if they have been going into the prayer room at the required times, during the school day. I think there is a good chance that Muslim students will be asked if their Muslim classmates are using the prayer room at all the right times, too.
If one of the Muslim children is asked whether a non-obedient friend is praying, will the child lie in order to protect his friend's right to freedom of religious expression? I'm fairly certain the child will have noticed if his friend doesn't pray at the appointed time in the appointed room.
It seems there has been a shift away from the old "separation of Church and state" argument and toward allowing free exercise of religion in schools. The Bill of rights is being fine tuned, and the Muslims are helping in this respect.
It is no more coercive than offering a library. The fact that a school has a room full of books does not mean it is coercing students to go into that room and read those books.
Since school libraries are not coercive, I wonder why this is news: LA Schools remove Korans with Anti-Semitic notes.
Some 300 translations of the Koran, donated to Los Angeles schools by a local Muslim foundation to promote religious understanding after Sept. 11, have been removed because of an accompanying anti-Semitic commentary, school board officials said on Thursday. The book, "The Meaning of the Holy Koran," is a 1934 translation of the Muslim holy text, which includes footnotes dating from that era which describe Jews variously as "arrogant" "illiterate" and "men without faith."