Accommodating/Appeasing Muslims in the School Systems

Below are a few interesting and disturbing links to information on the ways in which public schools and educational systems are accommodating/appeasing Muslims worldwide.

Looks like everyone is bending over backwards to accommodate Muslims, but not Christians. Why is there no howling about 'Separation of Church and State'? Is there a pattern here? This isn't "accommodation" at all, but appeasement, pure and simple. And we know from history that appeasement never works. Read on.

Look at this publication from an Islamic website:

How to Get Religious Accommodation in the Public School System: a 6-Step Guide
Here's what it says in a nutshell: Six-Step Guide with tips and advice on getting a school to accommodate Muslim religious demands, such as giving a child a prayer room during lunch, or giving time off for Juma, or giving a day off for Eid. Not to mention wash basins for foot washing. Giving, giving, giving.

Step 1: Know the laws and regulations regarding the issues of religious freedom and accommodation of religion.

Step 2: Get support of the teacher. Then meet with the principal and the favorite teacher, requesting that your child be allowed to perform prayers on campus, for example. If you do not get what you want, proceed to Step 3.

Step 3: Leave a paper trail, but first, be really, really nice. Write letters to leave a paper trail. Be non-confrontational, you are only exercising your constitutional rights in the most respectful way. If need be, invite the teacher and principal over for dinner as a gesture of good will.

Step 4: Write to the supportive teacher, meet with the teacher, ask advice, discuss child's religious needs, share President Clinton's instructions to school districts on accommodating religious needs. After meeting, send a thank you letter to the teacher. Set up a second meeting and discuss your demands again. Be polite and non-threatening, you are only trying to accommodate your child's religious needs.

Step 5: Meet a second time with the supportive teacher and the principal. Bring state and local educational codes that relate to religious accommodation. Express your parental rights, but make it a win-win situation for everyone. By now, your child should have his religious needs accommodated.

Step 6: If necessary, repeat theses steps with the school district's superintendent. Write more letters and have more meetings until you get what you want.

[So the basic steps are to know the US laws, then ingratiate yourself to the school officials, meet with school officials, write letters to school officials, coerce school officials, then repeat these steps over and over again until you have the level of "accommodation" you desire.]

Muslim Accommodation in US Public Schools:

Ramadan in Public Schools - Public schools and universities across the country are considering Muslim students’ requests for religious accommodation during Ramadan, the holy month of prayer and fasting, which continues through Oct. 12. Accommodations can include separate rooms where fasting students can go during lunch; places for students to perform daily prayers; the consideration of requests to make Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that ends Ramadan, a school holiday; and the installation of footbaths in restrooms to make it easier for students to follow prayer rituals.

Most school officials try to grant such requests, according to observers, but such accommodations also bring challenges from those who claim they violate church-state separation by giving one religious group special treatment.

Religious Freedom in Public Schools - How much can Muslim parents and students ask public schools to accommodate? Learn about The (Bill) Clinton Directive of 1995.

Oregon: Five Pillars of Islam Taught in Public Schools - Another school has been "teaching" Islam by having students study and learn Muslim prayers and dress as Muslims, and a lawyer who argued a previous dispute over this issue to the U.S. Supreme Court said such methodologies wouldn't "last 10 seconds" if it were Christianity being taught.

New Hampshire: City School Board to Review High School Crusader Mascot - The school board will review the mascots of Central and Memorial high schools, after a former student complained they are offensive to some minorities.

Texas: Muslim Prayer Protected in Texas Public School - On November 8, 2005, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty wrote the principal of L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson, Texas (outside Dallas) to demand that he immediately “cease and desist from [the] school’s illegal decision to punish Muslim students” for exercising their right to pray.

North Carolina: Church Removes Crosses & Covers Up Windows to Accommodate Islamic School - At the insistence of the Islamic school and with the acquiescence of church's leaders, two large crosses were removed and stained glass windows with Christian symbols were covered up.

North Carolina: No More Bibles for the School Children - In an effort to appease the American Civil Liberties Union, that's what school officials in two counties in North Carolina (Cumberland and Harnett) essentially said to Gideons International recently. Before someone complained and the ACLU threatened legal action, the Gideons would simply place the Bibles on a table for students who may choose to pick one up. But not anymore!

California: Jailed Terror Suspect Helped ACLU Draft Schools’ Anti-Christian Rules - Abdurahman Alamoudi, an alleged senior terrorist operative, is behind bars on an 18-count indictment. But he can take satisfaction in the fact that a court in California has just given the green light to schools following ACLU’s religion-in-the-classroom guidelines, which he helped to formulate. A federal judge has now upheld the constitutionality of an intensive three-week course in California government schools that requires children to choose a Muslim name, wear Islamic garb, memorize verses from the Koran, pray to Allah, play “jihad games, and simulate worship activities related to the Five Pillars of Islam.”

California: San Diego Debate over Muslim Prayer in Public School - A San Diego public school has become part of a national debate over religion in schools ever since a substitute teacher publicly condemned an Arabic language program that gives Muslim students time for prayer during school hours.

California: San Diego Public School Stops Scheduling Class Time for Muslim Prayer - When the new school year begins, Carver will have two lunch periods, including one that will fall when Muslims typically say their midday prayer -- between 1 and 2 p.m., the newspaper reported.

California: Appeal on School’s Lesson in Muslim Culture is Rejected - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday by evangelical Christian students and their parents who said a Contra Costa County school district engaged in unconstitutional religious indoctrination when it taught students about Islam by having them recite language from prayers.

Minnesota: Minneapolis College to Use Tax Dollars to Accommodate Muslim Students - The Star Tribune in Minneapolis has reported that Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) is planning to install facilities to help Muslim students perform ritual foot washing before daily prayers. The school's president says it’s no different than providing a fish option for Christian students during Lent. But Jan Markell, founder and director of Olive Tree Ministries in Minneapolis, says adding something to a cafeteria menu is a far cry from spending taxpayer dollars on something designed to benefit one religious group.

Minnesota: Muslim Parents, Willmar Schools Reach Agreement on Prayer Time - A few Somali parents in Willmar complained that the public schools weren't allowing their Muslim children to step out of class for daily prayer. Some didn't send their children to school last week in protest. (September 2008).

Today, school officials said they won't change their policy, which allows students to pray during lunch time and between classes. For now, families have reluctantly agreed to send their children to school, but the issue may resurface later in the school year.

Michigan: Michigan School System to Accommodate Muslim Food Regulations - On February 25, 2001, The New York Times reported that "officials are working on a plan to serve food that is halal, or permitted under Islamic rules," in several schools in Dearborn, Michigan, by this fall. The lack of halal meat in Dearborn has forced scores of students to throw out lunches, school officials say.

Florida: School Adds Muslim Holiday - A charter school in Florida has added an Islamic holiday to its calendar of days off next year. The move came one month after the school's district drew national attention with a decision to avoid pressure from Muslims by eliminating all closures coinciding with religious holidays. The decision later was reversed after massive protest.

Florida: Schools to Observe Ramadan Holiday? Muslims Seek Student Day Off Asking Board to Adjust Calendar - The Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations made its case to the Hillsborough County School Board this week, looking for Nov. 4, 2005, to be made a non-student day in honor of Eid al-Fitr, a holy day marking the end of Ramadan.

Virginia: University Convocation Told of Allah, Not Jesus - Speakers at the Virginia Tech convocation called on Allah and Buddha in their efforts to minister to the survivors, family and friends of victims of the shooting massacre at the school – but Jesus wasn't mentioned by name.

Virginia: Pagan Christmas Ritual Pressed on Young Kids; Elementary-Age Children Given Handout Pushing Heathen “Yule” Ritual - A public-school handout urging young children in Virginia to attend a "Pagan ritual" tomorrow to "celebrate Yule" is sparking objections from concerned parents.

Pennsylvania: Kindergarten Cops Rule: Witches In, Bibles Out - A court decision that opens the doors of Culbertson Elementary School in Pennsylvania to books about witches – but rejects the Bible as being too "proselytizing" – is being challenged. The Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund has submitted amicus briefs in a lawsuit filed when a kindergarten student, under an assignment in which parents were invited to read their child's favorite book, was denied permission to have his mother read a Bible story.

Ohio: School Allows Muslim to Pray - An Ohio high school that barred a Muslim from praying at school reached a compromise, allowing the Islamic ritual to be performed in certain classrooms at lunch as well as before and after class hours. The 17-year-old junior, whose name was not released, was assisted by the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

Illinois: School Backtracks, Will Allow Bible Reading by 3^rd Grader - When Rhajheem's father, Leslie Haymon, followed up with questions to a substitute teacher and other school officials, they confirmed that Rhajheem was not allowed to read the Bible during reading time, as the church and state must remain separate in the classroom. After being contacted by the Thomas More Law Center, school officials in Chicago have backtracked on their ban on Bible reading during free "reading time" for a third grade class, assuring the student's parents that their ban based on the bogus separation of church and state was nothing more than a "misunderstanding."

Louisiana: Praying School Board Likened to Terrorists by ACLU - A local ACLU director equated al-Qaida terrorists with members of a Louisiana school board seeking to open their meetings with prayer.

Kentucky: Scriptures Removed from School’s Restroom - Bible verses painted in a Western Kentucky school restroom to cover up graffiti have been removed after a parent complained to school officials.

Muslim Accommodation/Appeasement in Schools Around the World:

United Kingdom: Schoolboys Disciplined for 'Refusing to Pray to Allah'

United Kingdom: British Girl Banned from Wearing Cross at School

United Kingdom: Less Christianity, More Islam and Hinduism in Schools

United Kingdom: School Bans Pig Stories

United Kingdom: Christmas should be ‘downgraded’ to help ‘race relations,’ says Labour Party think tank

United Kingdom: Muslim majority schools ‘pose security threat and should be closed’

United Kingdom: Muslim teacher who denounced students for celebrating Christmas has been made a government schools inspector

United Kingdom: Parents angered as every pupil given halal school meals

United Kingdom: School in retreat over ‘halal-only’ Christmas

United Kingdom: School nativity plays under threat

United Kingdom: Schoolgirl goes to court over chastity ring

United Kingdom: Schools ‘need to accommodate Muslim needs’

United Kingdom: Jews far more likely to be victims of faith hatred than Muslims

Scotland: University OKs pagan festival, bans Christian event

Norway: Norway “Pig” Replaced with “Fox” in Kindergarten Fairy Tales

Saudi Arabia: Christians Still ‘Swine’ & Jews ‘Apes’ in Saudi Schools

Saudi Arabia: Don’t Exercise, Girls – You Might Become Lesbians!

Sudan: The Teddy Bear Incident

Netherlands: School Scraps Nature Course as Pigs Enrage Muslim Pupils

Canada: Quebec Day-Care Lunch Menu Discriminates Against Muslims

Qatar: Disney’s Piglet & Winnie the Pooh Banned in Middle East

Spain: Spain publishes primer on Islam for 6-year olds in public school

France: The Islamization of French schools

Indonesia: Five years in jail for teaching Sunday School: Indonesian housewives in hot water after kids invite Muslim friends

Sweden: School slammed for using Bible in reports

Sweden: Creationism to be banished from Swedish

Afghanistan: Taliban campaign targets girls’ schools

But wait, there's more!

If indeed we are trending inexorably toward more and more accommodation/appeasement of Muslims in our public schools, then will our schools eventually devolve into de facto Muslim schools? Just in case this worst-case scenario occurs, let's have a look at how present-day Muslim schools are organized and administered.

Read on:
Incitement, anti-semitism & hatred of Israel in Palestinian school textbooks
The textbooks used in the Palestinian Authority school system, from elementary through high school, are replete with strong expressions of hatred towards Israel, negation of its right to exist and praise for the struggle against it, as well as antisemitic expressions against the Jews.

Thus, Palestinian youth are educated from birth in an atmosphere of religious and nationalist incitement, with no trace of anything positive regarding Israel, which results in a deepening of their hatred towards Israel, a fanning of the flames of violence and encouragement and justification of terrorism against the State of Israel and against Jews.

Saudi Schoolbooks Still in dispute 5 years after 9/11
The September 11 attacks in which 15 of the 19 suicide hijackers came from Saudi Arabia triggered a torrent of US accusations that the Muslim kingdom's education system was fostering Islamic extremism.

Five years on the debate continues. Saudi educators argue that the problem lies in misinterpretation of religious texts or their "exploitation" to justify intolerance.

What are Islamist schools teaching?
New York City: An investigation by the New York Daily News in 2003 found that books used in the city's Muslim schools "are rife with inaccuracies, sweeping condemnations of Jews and Christians, and triumphalist declarations of Islam's supremacy."

Los Angeles: The Omar Ibn Khattab Foundation donated 300 Korans (titled The Meaning of the Holy Quran) to the city school district in 2001 that within months had to be pulled from school libraries because of its anti-Semitic commentaries. One footnote reads: "The Jews in their arrogance claimed that all wisdom and all knowledge of Allah was enclosed in their hearts. … Their claim was not only arrogance but blasphemy."

Ajax, Ontario, 50 kilometers east of Toronto: The Institute of Islamic Learning is a Canadian emulation of the extremist Deobandi madrassahs of Pakistan. It focuses exclusively on religious topics, has students memorize the Koran, demands total segregation from the Canadian milieu, and requires complete gender separation. Former students complained about the school's cult-like devotion to its head, Abdul Majid Khan, and complained that it is a "twisted religion."

The Muslim Community School in Potomac, Md., imbues in its students a sense of alienation from their own country. Seventh-grader Miriam told a Washington Post reporter in 2001, "Being American is just being born in this country." Eighth-grader Ibrahim announced that "Being an American means nothing to me."

A textbook used at the Islamic Saudi Academy of Alexandria, Va., in 2004, authored and published by the Saudi Ministry of Education, teaches first graders that "all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews [and] Christians." An ISA class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was recently indicted for plotting to assassinate President Bush.

The U.S. government revoked the visas in 2004 of sixteen people affiliated with the Institute for Islamic and Arabic Sciences in America, of Fairfax, Va. In the words of the Washington Post, "That decision followed accusations that the institute, a satellite campus of al-Imam Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University in Riyadh, was promoting a brand of Islam that critics say is intolerant of other strains of the religion as well as Christianity and Judaism." In addition, the IIASA is under investigation for ties to terrorism.

The Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences of Ashburn, Va., referred to as a "purported" educational institution in an affidavit justifying a raid on the school, had its financial records seized in 2002 on suspicions of links to terrorism.

Christians still 'swine' and Jews 'apes' in Saudi schools
Saudi Arabia has been accused of continuing to foster religious hatred in its schools, despite its repeated assurances since the September 11 attacks that it would rewrite textbooks that refer to Jews as "apes" and Christians as "swine".

The charges come after Freedom House, a non-partisan American research group which monitors civil rights worldwide, examined textbooks that it smuggled out of Saudi Arabia. The group found that despite promises of change from leading Saudi officials, including Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, and Turki al-Faisal, the ambassador to America, schoolbooks in the kingdom still promote hatred of those who do not practise its strict form of Wahhabi Islam.

Non-Muslim students at Islamic school forced to wear headscarves
Female students at a new Islamic school will be made to wear head scarves regardless of their religion, it was revealed yesterday.

But girls who are not Muslim will still have to abide by a rule insisting all female pupils cover their heads as part of the uniform.

Muslims: Ban non-Islamic schools
Demands for a ban on “un-Islamic” activities in schools will be set out by the Muslim Council of Britain today.

Targets include playground games, swimming lessons, school plays, parents’ evenings and even vaccinations. And the calls for all children to be taught in Taliban-style conditions will be launched with the help of a senior Government education adviser.

UK: New Muslim schools come under criticism for alienating pupils from mainstream
Britain's chief inspector of schools has threatened the closure of some Muslim schools, which he says are not preparing pupils for their responsibilities as citizens in a multi-religious and pluralistic society.

The inspector's comments have offended the Muslim community and provoked a debate on the merits of the national education curriculum and what it means to be a good citizen. The education official also criticized a number of Christian schools. Demand for faith-based education has soared in Britain, and the number of such schools has nearly doubled over the past two years.

NYC officials accused of withholding information on Arab school
New York City officials have not been open or candid, critics say, about a controversial public school set to open in Brooklyn next month that will teach Arab language and culture -- the Khalil Gibran International Academy.

A local group, Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition, fears the school will become a Muslim-oriented school that promotes a religious and political agenda to its incoming sixth-grade class. Administrators have claimed otherwise, but the coalition has received few details about the school's curriculum, faculty, textbooks and students, so its questions are still unanswered.

The suspicions are fueled by comments made by the school's incoming principal, Debbie Almontaser, as well as by some of her allegedly radical Islamist associations. She has said, for instance, that U.S. foreign policy is "racist" and that the U.S. "triggered" terrorism by not being a fair mediator in the Middle East.

Church removes crosses and covers up windows to accommodate Islamic school
With membership and contributions plummeting, the session of Caldwell Memorial Presbyterian Church voted unanimously in April to lease the congregation's largely unused gymnasium and education building to the Charlotte Islamic School in Charlotte, N.C.

Encouraged by the congregation's pastor, Dr. Charles McDonald, the session figured the 14-month lease was both an act of toleration and a budget-booster. But toleration turned out to be a one-way street.

At the insistence of the Islamic school and with the acquiescence of Caldwell's leaders, two large crosses were removed and stained glass windows with Christian symbols were covered up. And, while the congregation accepted the initial decision about leasing the facility to the Islamic group, the cover-up of the congregation's Christian identity has drawn some heated response, as reported by The Charlotte World on May 21.

Non-Muslim children forced to attend classes on Islam in Pakistani schools without parental permission
"Islamiyat" (Islamic studies) is compulsory for all Muslim students in state-run schools but there is no parallel curriculum in other religions. The education board has introduced "Akhlaqiyyat" or Ethics to cater to them but most of the state-run schools in Karachi do not allow non-Muslim students to take it up. In reality, teachers often force these students to sit in Islamiyat classes. This takes place even though no written permission has been acquired from the parents of the child in question.

Pakistani school shut, blasphemy alleged
A nursing school was shut down and its Christian principal and four Christian students suspended after Muslim pupils accused unknown people of desecrating verses from the Quran, officials said Saturday.

Military: New Iraqi school for girls had bombs built in
American soldiers discovered a girls school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged "death trap," the U.S. military said Thursday.

The plot at the Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya was a "sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims," military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said.

Muslim majority schools 'pose security threat and should be closed'
An influential government education adviser said today that schools dominated by Muslim children should be closed and replaced with 'multi-faith' academies to integrate pupils.Sir Cyril Taylor, chairman of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said the concentration of ethnic minorities and religious groups in certain schools had created a 'strategic security problem'.