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Saturday, December 13, 2003
JUDICIAL JIHAD
Judge rules
Islamic education
OK in California classrooms
Dismisses suit opposing requirement students recite Quran, pray to
Allah
Posted: December 13, 2003
1:00 a.m.
Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Requiring seventh-grade students to pretend they're Muslims, wear
Islamic garb, memorize verses from the Quran, pray to Allah and even to
play "jihad games" in California public schools has been legally upheld by
a federal judge, who has dismissed a highly publicized lawsuit brought by
several Christian students and their parents.
As WND
reported in July of last year, the suit was filed by the Thomas More Law Center against the
Byron Union School
District and various school officials to stop the use of the "Islam
simulation" materials and methods used in the Excelsior Elementary School
in Byron, Calif.
In her 22-page ruling announced Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Phyllis
Hamilton said Excelsior is not indoctrinating students about Islam when it
requires them to adopt Muslim names and pray to Allah as part of a history
and geography class, but rather is just teaching them about the
Muslim religion.
When WorldNetDaily
first reported the story in January 2002 – shortly after the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks committed by 19 Islamist terrorists – major
controversy ensued nationwide.
The World History and Geography class in question is part of a
curriculum being taught to seventh-graders all over the state, and is
included in the state's curriculum standards required by the state board of education.
Although the standards outline what subjects should be taught and will be
included in state assessment tests, they don't mandate how they're to be
taught.
In the three-week course, Excelsior teacher Brooke Carlin had students
assume Islamic names, recite prayers in class, memorize and recite verses
from the Quran, and had them simulate Ramadan fasting by going without
something for a day. The final test required students to critique Muslim
culture.
The Islam simulations at Excelsior are outlined in the state-adopted
textbook "Across the Centuries," published by Houghton Mifflin, which
prompts students to imagine they are Islamic soldiers and Muslims on a
Mecca pilgrimage. The lawsuit also alleges students were encouraged to use
such phrases in their speech as "Allah Akbar," which is Arabic for "God is
great," and were required to fast during lunch period to simulate fasting
during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
Nevertheless, the judge ruled the program was devoid of "any devotional
or religious intent," and as therefore educational, not religious in
nature.
'Double standard' decried
However, Richard Thompson, chief counsel for Thomas More, points to
what he calls an obvious double standard.
"While public schools prohibit Christian students from reading the
Bible, praying, displaying the Ten Commandments, and even mentioning the
word 'God,' students in California are being indoctrinated into the
religion of Islam," he told WND on filing the lawsuit. "Public schools
would never tolerate teaching Christianity in this way. Just imagine the
ACLU’s outcry if students were told that they had to pray the Lord's
Prayer, memorize the Ten Commandments, use such phrases as 'Jesus is the
Messiah,' and fast during Lent," he added.
According to Thompson, "Although it is constitutional for public
schools to have an instructional program about comparative religion or
teach about religion and utilize religious books such as the Bible in
courses about our history and culture, the Byron Union School District
crossed way over the constitutional line when it coerced impressionable
12-year-olds to engage in particular religious rituals and worship,
simulated or not."
However, Byron Superintendent Peggy Green defended the program:
"Dressing up in costume, role-playing and simulation games are all used to
stimulate class discussion and are common teaching practices used in other
subjects as well."
And Excelsior Principal Nancie Castro maintained, "At no point do we
teach or endorse religion; we teach about religions' impact from a
historical context. ... This is the state-approved curriculum, using
state-adopted textbooks and has been part of the instructional program in
California for over a decade."
Appealing to the 9th Circuit?
Yesterday, Thompson told WND that his legal team believed from the
start that, regardless of who won the first round, this case would go to
appeal – and that is exactly where he wants it to go. With some irony,
Thompson points out that the appeal would go to the 9th Circuit Court of
Appeals.
"This is the court that said, in the 'Under God' Pledge case, that the
mere _expression_ 'One nation under God' [recited in a public school]
violates the Constitution," said Thompson. "It will be very interesting to
see how they deal with this Byron School District case where students are
basically required to become Muslims for three weeks!"
While the Thomas More Law Center is intent on appealing the case, it is
awaiting word from the plaintiffs as to their intent.
Related stories:
District
sued over Islam studies
Publisher
responds to book criticism
Islam
studies spark hate mail, lawsuits
Islam
studies required in California district