Thread: Islamic prayers finally dropped

Islamic prayers finally dropped
Elementary made accommodations as Arabic charter students arrived
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Posted: August 1, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=56945

San Diego's Carver Elementary School

Officials at a public elementary school in San Diego are dropping special times for Islamic prayers and classes segregated by sex, changes they had made when students from a failing Arabic-language charter school joined them a year ago.

An investigation was launched into what was done at San Diego's Carver Elementary after a substitute teacher, Mary-Frances Stevens, filled in there. She reported a teacher's aide was leading children in an Islamic prayer and that she was given a lesson plan allowing an hour of class time for Islamic prayers.

Now Superintendent Carl Cohn has issued a statement that there were reasons for many of the changes, such as the scheduling of classes around Islamic prayer time, the removal of pork from the lunchroom menu and the establishment of boys-only and girls-only classes, and critics misunderstand what was going on. Nevertheless, he wrote, some of those changes now are being dropped.

"The district is, and must demonstrably be, neutral toward religious belief and practice, leaving to our school children and their parents decisions about religious faith," he said in the memo to Carver Principal Kimberlee Kidd.

He said Carver teachers and staff "must not encourage student prayer or make any statement that could be construed to be endorsement, encouragement, or promotion of prayer." Nor, he said, should teachers "discourage" voluntary prayer.

He also said during recess and lunch students are free to play, study, talk, read, dream "or pray." Third, teachers and staff must not participate "visibly or audibly in praying" with student groups. And he said the district may not schedule class time specifically around Muslim prayer times.

It was last September when Carver added classes limited to a single gender, and daily 15-minute breaks during class times for voluntary prayers. It had just absorbed a failing Arabic language charter school that served mostly Somali Muslims.

But officials said the school schedule will be set up now so students can say their required midday prayers during their lunch periods, and single-gender classes will be eliminated.

Cohn noted in his memo that such classes are legal, but they had become a "serious distraction" to the educational process and would be discontinued. Offering Arabic as a language study at the school for students grades kindergarten through eighth grade will continue, but he noted that the Quran may not be used as a text.

In a statement released on the Internet school officials said pork disappeared from the school menu simply because it was not "well-accepted."

"It's possible that some of the lack of acceptance may be due to religious backgrounds in the diverse San Diego community but the district was not asked or pressured to remove pork products for that reason," the statement said.

The school that closed, MidCity Charter Academy, had approached San Diego about joining the district, whose officials concluded it was an opportunity to help an immigrant population become engaged in an American school.

Carver was picked partly because it had enough space for the 150 extra students. The changes that followed included offering single-gender instruction and a recess time "during which children could choose to engaged in self-directed activities, including silent prayer."

In a commentary on Pipeline News, the district came in for some criticism for its actions.

"In true multicultural fashion, the school has gone to extreme lengths to accommodate its new students; the curriculum features the teaching of Arabic – the language of the Quran – single gender classes for girls as well as organized prayer ... for Muslims only," the report said.

"A new dhimmi class schedule – expressly designed to kowtow to Carver's new students – was instituted. It created an extra 15 minute recess period as part of an hour set aside so that Carver’s Muslims can pray en-masse while in class. Additionally, the school cafeteria menu no longer serves pork or other foods which conflict with fundamentalist Muslim diet restrictions [halal]," the report said.

It noted even the "winter holiday" was changed to include Muslim traditions.

An editorial at Investor's Business Daily also took issue with the school actions.

"In effect, Carver administrators have carved out a school within a school expressly for Muslims, elevating them above Christian and Jewish students. They've had 15 minutes of instruction time taken away from them, so Muslims can roll out their prayer mats," the editorials said. "It amounts to a special privilege afforded a specific religion, which plainly does not have our best interests at heart."

Officials estimate the district spent about $450,000 to cover additional costs of setting up the changes at Carver.

The controversy had been highlighted numerous times by talk show host Roger Hedgecock.

WND also has reported previously on the growing influence of Islam in the public schools in the United States.

The American Textbook Council, which analyzes textbooks, has concluded that the situation is the consequence of "the interplay of determined Islamic political activists, textbook editors, and multiculturally minded social studies curriculum planners."

It has gone so far that correcting the situation now becomes a problem, because "educational publishers and educational organizations have bought into claims propounded by Islamists – and have themselves become agents of misinformation."

Even Middle East Forum director Daniel Pipes has repeatedly expressed concern about the "privileging of Islam in the United States" and warns the stakes go well beyond 7th-grade texts.

Part of WND's reporting on the situation included a case in Oregon, where parent Kendalee Garner objected to having her son being taught Islam, including the memorization of the "Five Pillars" of Islam and dressing up as a Muslim.

That episode followed a U.S. Supreme Court decision just a few weeks earlier not to review a lower court's ruling that a similar class requirement in the Byron Union School District in California, where students were instructed to "become Muslims" was "cultural education."

An editorial at Investor's Business Daily also took issue with the school actions.

"In effect, Carver administrators have carved out a school within a school expressly for Muslims, elevating them above Christian and Jewish students. They've had 15 minutes of instruction time taken away from them, so Muslims can roll out their prayer mats," the editorials said. "It amounts to a special privilege afforded a specific religion, which plainly does not have our best interests at heart."

Officials estimate the district spent about $450,000 to cover additional costs of setting up the changes at Carver.

I have run out of adjectives to describe the outrage that these stories bring. Every person in the field of education is knowledgeable about Supreme Court decisions on prayer in schools. Apparently these people mistakenly believe that only Christian prayer is banned. Unbelievable.

Offering Arabic as a language study at the school for students grades kindergarten through eighth grade will continue, but he noted that the Quran may not be used as a text.

How about offering extended English class time and leaving the Arabic language studies to the parents!

How can these folks be expected to assimilate unto us when we cater to their every desire and whim?

Originally Posted by MW

Offering Arabic as a language study at the school for students grades kindergarten through eighth grade will continue, but he noted that the Quran may not be used as a text.

How about offering extended English class time and leaving the Arabic language studies to the parents!

How can these folks be expected to assimilate unto us when we cater to their every desire and whim?

Our government which is elected to represent American citizens and uhold the Constitution has decided Americans are to assimilate into every culture that is brought here. Each one of these cultures are granted special privledges to enable them NOT to assimilate into America.

Well that's a start, now they need to put pork back on the menu and teach these kids that this is America and Americans eat pork, they will see it when they go to stores and it will be on menus when they go out to eat, learn to deal with it!!!!!!

MD wrote:

Well that's a start, now they need to put pork back on the menu and teach these kids that this is America and Americans eat pork, they will see it when they go to stores and it will be on menus when they go out to eat, learn to deal with it!!!!!!

I agree, but more importantly, I don't think removing pork from the menu is fair to the rest of the children. Why should they be deprived?

Originally Posted by MW

MD wrote:

Well that's a start, now they need to put pork back on the menu and teach these kids that this is America and Americans eat pork, they will see it when they go to stores and it will be on menus when they go out to eat, learn to deal with it!!!!!!

I agree, but more importantly, I don't think removing pork from the menu is fair to the rest of the children. Why should they be deprived?

That's exactly right MW, why should American children do without just to apease others. This is very wrong!!!

I am considering asking my State Board Of Education to consider putting Holy Water Fonts in the entrances of all schools. Do ya think I have a chance they will consider my request?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-
muslim30jul30,1,1405314.story?track=rss

School to install foot baths for Muslims
Students at a Michigan university have been washing their feet in bathroom sinks before prayers. Critics see preferential treatment.
By P.J. Huffstutter, Times Staff Writer
July 30, 2007


Prayers
click to enlarge
When Majed Afana needs to pray while attending classes at the University of Michigan in Dearborn, the 19-year-old Muslim usually will duck into the campus library's bathroom, strip off his shoes and awkwardly strain to wash his feet in the sink.

Water often pools at his feet, he says, making it slippery to balance on one foot.

Some of the sinks have started to pull away from the wall, in part from years of use by others like him — who, according to their faith, must clean their feet before praying five times a day.

So when the school recently approved installing two foot baths in a pair of new unisex bathrooms to accommodate the needs of male and female Muslim students, the local Islamic community started planning ways to raise the estimated $25,000 cost.

But the university told them not to bother — it would pay for the foot baths.

"I think it's great," said Afana, a pre-med student at the commuter school, where a reported 11% of the 8,600 students are Muslim.

"What we've been doing all these years has been dangerous and can be a safety hazard."

The university says it's tapping student infrastructure fees for the unisex bathrooms, which will also have diaper-changing stations and facilities for mothers to nurse infants, because this is an issue of trying to make its bathrooms safer and improve plumbing — not of endorsing a religion.

The fees are part of the school's general fund, paid by students — not by taxpayers — and often used for campus maintenance and general construction.

"We see this as a reasonable accommodation to a customary practice of a growing number of our students and visitors on campus," said Terry Gallagher, a university spokesman.

But critics have been flocking to conservative blogs and Michigan radio talk shows to rail against the plan.

Critics insist that such efforts are giving Islamic followers preferential treatment over other faiths.

"Plumbing? You must be kidding. That's an after-the-fact justification for something that is being done for the purpose of meeting a religious demand," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington.

"You start permanently changing your architecture for one religious group, you have to do it for all. After all, what's the difference between a foot bath used as part of a ritual and a fountain that can be used for a baptism?" asked Lynn.

"Considering there are 2,000 different religious groups in America, that's a very slippery slope."

Yet the American Civil Liberties Union, a fierce advocate for separating church and state, seems to be giving the foot baths a nod.

Though the plan raises a red flag because it's illegal for schools to use public funds to install religious symbols such as crucifixes, ACLU of Michigan officials said, the question of whether Muslim prayer rugs or foot baths fall into the same category remains fuzzy.

"We have never encountered a situation where the motivation seems to be a response to a practical cleanliness and safety issue," the ACLU of Michigan said in a statement. "Indeed, if the university refused to allow Muslim students to wash their feet in the sink without there being a viable alternative, we would have concerns about whether the university was unconstitutionally interfering with students' right to practice their religion."

The university first considered the idea of installing the foot baths two years ago, when school officials learned that students and visitors were using regular sinks to clean their feet before praying.

Gallagher said the practice was "causing a lot of wear and tear on the library bathroom" and on a second facility near the school's two "reflection" areas where students gather to relax. Muslim students often meet there throughout the day to pray, as do Christian organizations, he said.

What's happening in Dearborn, a suburb of about 96,600 west of Detroit, is part of a national trend, as a number of public schools seek to meet the needs of Muslim students.

At least nine universities in the U.S. have rooms on campus dedicated to Muslim prayers, and more than a dozen schools have either installed foot baths like the ones proposed in Dearborn or are in the process of constructing them, according to Farhan Latif, a University of Michigan graduate student and advisor to the Muslim Students' Assn. at the Dearborn campus.

"We are a multicultural campus and need to reflect that," said Latif, who also works as an admissions counselor on campus.

"What's the big deal?"

Countered Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank based in Philadelphia: "Muslims have the same rights and obligations as other citizens.

"But they don't have special rights … and this is clearly a religious accommodation."

Go for it ht, and tell them you like extra sausage on your pizza.

This is absurd!!! More pandering to those from other countries, instead of catering to the NEEDS of American students.