Establishment Clause issue? Naah. Not when it involves Islam. Here is my column for Human Events this week:
Can you imagine a public school founded by two Christian ministers, and housed in the same building as a church? Add to that -- in the same building -- a prominent chapel. And let’s say the students are required to fast during Lent, and attend Bible studies right after school. All with your tax dollars.Inconceivable? Sure. If such a place existed, the ACLU lawyers would descend on it like locusts. It would be shut down before you could say “separation of church and state,” to the accompaniment of New York Times and Washington Post editorials full of indignant foreboding, warning darkly about the growing influence of the Religious Right in America.
But such a school does exist in Minnesota, in a different religious context, and so far the ACLU has uttered nary a peep.
Tax dollars are currently at work funding the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a popular, rapidly growing K-8 charter school with campuses in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine, Minnesota. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, as a Minnesota charter school implementing a statewide “performance and professional pay program” known as Q-Comp, Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy pocketed $65,260 in state money for the 2006-07 school year. The school’s website, meanwhile, boasts that it offers a “rigorous Arabic language program” and an “environment that fosters your cultural values and heritage.” Whose cultural values and heritage? According to the indefatigable investigative reporter Katherine Kersten of the Star Tribune, “there are strong indications that religion plays a central role” there.Which religion? Do you need three guesses?
The Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy was co-founded by two imams; is housed in the same building as a mosque and the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society (MAS); features a carpeted space for prayer; and serves halal food in the cafeteria. All students fast during Ramadan. They attend classes on the Qur’an and Sunnah, or Islamic tradition and law, after school. The school is closely tied to the MAS: Kersten observes that “at MAS-MN's 2007 convention, for example, the program featured an advertisement for the ‘Muslim American Society of Minnesota,’ superimposed on a picture of a mosque. Under the motto ‘Establishing Islam in Minnesota,’ it asked: ‘Did you know that MAS-MN ... houses a full-time elementary school’? On the adjacent page was an application for TIZA” -- the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy.
The existence of the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy is, of course, yet another manifestation of the witless multiculturalism that grants protected victim status to Muslim groups in view of the “racism” and “Islamophobia” from which they supposedly suffer. Latitude that would never be granted to other faith groups, particularly Christians, is readily given here.
But it’s even worse than that. According to a 2004 Chicago Tribune exposé, the Muslim American Society is the name under which the Muslim Brotherhood operates in the United States. And according to a 1992 Brotherhood memorandum about its strategy in the U.S., it is embarked upon a “grand Jihad” aimed at “eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”
Is Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy part of this “grand jihad”? A clue might come from the name of the school itself. Kersten notes that it was named after the eighth-century Muslim conqueror of Spain. Islam Online praised Tarek ibn Ziyad in a 2004 article as a “man of valor, a man of extraordinary courage and a true leader.” He is chiefly remembered for one incident in particular. Landing in Spain, he ordered the Muslim forces’ boats to be burned, and then told his soldiers: “Brothers in Islam! We now have the enemy in front of us and the deep sea behind us. We cannot return to our homes, because we have burnt our boats. We shall now either defeat the enemy and win or die a coward’s death by drowning in the sea. Who will follow me?” The soldiers, crying “Allahu akbar,” rushed ahead and defeated a vastly superior Spanish force.
Does the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy represent the same idea for those who founded it and now operate it -- the burning of the boats, representing the determination of Muslim immigrants to stay in the U.S., followed by conquest? In light of the Brotherhood memorandum and other evidence about the jihadist allegiances of the Muslim American Society, it is not an illegitimate question.
But what public official, in Minnesota or elsewhere, dares to ask it?
Gee, more reason for me to be proud to be Minnesotan. My state is rolling out the red carpet for Sharia and no one I talk to even has a clue.
But this story helps to reveal the truth that people don't want a separation of religion from state, but a separation of Judeo-Christianity from state. This Muslim school will likely be defended by the non-Muslims in Minnesota.
No, no and no. Funding a religious school with government revenues (no matter what the faith) is a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. It is unConstitutional.
In short, it is illegal.
Time to sue.
Staff of the MN ACLU
http://www.aclu-mn.org/home/staff/
Well, I think it's a wonderful idea. Are girls allowed to attend? You've probably seen this picture before, but what the heck-- I feel nostalgic, today. Scroll past the first entry to the second one by "rocketman".
http://www.plnewsforum.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/26503/
But,but, but... it sez separation of church and state, not separation of mosque and state, you see: not all religions are equal....
Since I live in MN, I am particularly disgusted by this.
For what it's worth, I think that people should write to the ACLU. If they receive a large number of emails/letters/faxes/phone calls, they will be forced to comment on the matter in some form...
Are people that live in the state writing to their elected officials?
"Can you imagine a public school founded by two Christian ministers, and housed in the same building as a church? Add to that -- in the same building -- a prominent chapel. And let’s say the students are required to fast during Lent, and attend Bible studies right after school. All with your tax dollars. "
Lent? Don't you mean the "Christian Ramadan"?
A few gems from the Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy website:
"One of the unique features of our school is the inclusion of Arabic in the curriculum. Arabic is the language of culture that holds together the peoples of the Middle East, South Asia, North Africa, and East Africa."
Hmm . . . Arabic is the "language of culture"--even in countries where the people speak Farsi, or Urdu, or a dozen other languages. Arabic is the language, specifically, of *Islam*.
Here's some whitewashing on the school's namesake:
"As an inspiration to our students, we have named our school after Tarek Ibn Ziyad, the Ummayad administrator of medieval Spain. Thirteen hundred years ago, serving in the multifaceted roles of activist, leader, explorer, teacher, administrator and peacemaker,"
Peacemaker, huh? No mention that Tarek Ibn Ziyad was the Muslim *conquerer* of the Iberian peninsula. "Peacemaker" here is about as appropriate as the frequent references to Allah's "compassion" when noting some especially violent and heartless act. Oh, there are many references to "compassion" on the site, also.
The Academy's logo is the name of the school spanning the globe. Make of that what you will.
They may have burned their boats but we haven't burned ours. Put them and their students on those boats (in chains, so they can't make mischief and harm the crew) and send them home to the umma. On the voyage home, make sure there's plenty of bacon and eggs (and nothing else) for them for breakfast.
I wonder if they say "...one nation, under Allah" during the Pledge of Allegiance...actually I doubt if they recite the "Pledge" at all. Also wonder if the school library stocks "Mein Kampf".
It seems the Walton Faimily of Wal-Mart fame also gave a $85,000 to the school:
http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?recipientID=7926
Take a look at the glorious General and read of his conquests. Does he look familiar? These people are laughing at face of America like bringing in a big Trojan Horse with a sign: "We are invading you."
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/moors2.html
Recent hilarity with University officials in the UK bending over backwards to promote 'Islamic Awareness' until they found out the subject matter and the venue they offered to hold it:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/ukcorrespondents/holysmoke/feb08/extremecreationists.htm
Allowing a presentation of creationism in a shrine to Darwin is a step too far, even if the speakers are Muslims, shame such reaction is not forthcoming on other subjects.
From the Guardian article a summary of the subject matter:
"The speakers, Oktar Babuna and Ali Sadun, represent Harun Yahya, a creationist organisation which claims there was no Stone Age, that God taught parrots to talk and that Darwinism is the root of all terrorism and must be eliminated."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/23/darwinbicentenary.evolution?gusrc=rss&feed=science
I personally find comparing the reaction to any criticism of Islam with any criticism of Darwinism very revealing!
Staff of the MN ACLU
http://www.aclu-mn.org/home/staff/
For what it's worth, I think that people should write to the ACLU.
I mean no disrespect to those who want to call on the ACLU for support, but they simply don't care.
They see only Christianity as the enemy and they will not act on this, at any level. They view Islam as a way to combat Christianity, and I wouldn't be suprised if they supported the school.
If you want to get their attention, try teaching abstinence in school or that marrage should be between a man and a woman........
Funding a religious school with government revenues (no matter what the faith) is a violation of the establishment clause of the First Amendment. It is unConstitutional.
Time to sue.
Lets hope someone does.
"The speakers, Oktar Babuna and Ali Sadun, represent Harun Yahya, a creationist organisation which claims there was no Stone Age, that God taught parrots to talk and that Darwinism is the root of all terrorism and must be eliminated."
Soooo...All those flint knives, axes and spearheads are just stones that coincidentally resemble one another, and happen to look as if they had been "knapped" deliberately, to serve as tools?
Parrots don't talk. They mimic sounds they hear.
The message above is intended for the ignoratti, namely Babuna and Sadun.
Actually, at least one parrot was much more than just a mimic.
Which is, as an example of evolutionary biology, very inconvenient for the Islamists (as well as the Xian creationists).
"The speakers, Oktar Babuna and Ali Sadun, represent Harun Yahya, a creationist organisation which claims there was no Stone Age, that God taught parrots to talk and that Darwinism is the root of all terrorism and must be eliminated."
.........................................
I'd like to see their definition of terrorism--I'm sure it does not include any savagery done in the name of "defending" Islam.
Are we allowed to swear, because that is fuckin unconstitutional!
Islamic elementary school = Madrassa
Briars -
There is no Trojan horse. The Trojans are inviting the Greeks in order to learn about Greek culture. They are throwing the gates of Troy open for all of Agaememnons greed!