The Qur’an is the Official Textbook of the 9th Circuit

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21.11.2005

The Qur’an is the Official Textbook of the 9th Circuit

Kent schools disallow student-run religious clubs from using its facilities to meet, yet teaching Islamic prayer is now a part of the standard curriculum in Contra Costa County, California, and it has the full blessing of the worst court in the land: The 9^th Circus Court of Appeals. Where is the ACLU? Oh yeah, expounding on the evils of Christianity in public.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY
Court clears school of pushing religion with lesson on Islam
- Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, November 18, 2005

A Contra Costa County school was educating seventh-graders about Islam, not indoctrinating them, in role-playing sessions in which students used Muslim names and recited language from prayers, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit by two Christian students and their parents, who accused the Byron Union School District of unconstitutionally endorsing a religious practice.

"The Islam program activities were not overt religious exercises that raise Establishment Clause concerns,'' the three-judge panel said, referring to the First Amendment ban on government sanctioning a religion.

During the history course at Excelsior School in the fall of 2001, the teacher, using an instructional guide, told the students they would adopt roles as Muslims for three weeks to help them learn what Muslims believe.

She encouraged them to use Muslim names, recited prayers in class and made them give up something for a day, such as television or candy, to simulate fasting during Ramadan. The final exam asked students for a critique of elements of Muslim culture.

Michelle Malkin found some images of the curriculum in question:

Giving students role-playing exercises is a fun and exciting way of teaching, but forcing them to pray in school whether it be Muslim or otherwise, of is the most egregious offense against the First Amendment. As we see, however, with the 9^th Circuit’s rulings against Christian students at Kentridge High School, yet for this Contra Costa County school to force prayer to unwilling students, it obviously shows only one thing, the court’s blatant disregard for the Christian church and the United States Constitution.

13:55 | In Blog aufnehmen | News and politics

Kommentare (5)

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	Nova_Nebula schrieb: Wa allekum salam! Worry not about the correction; some of the best minds I've known in my life were not good spellers. I find little correlation between intelligence and spelling ability. When you make a point to spell things out, spell them out right. Other errors in the past can at least be chalked up to speed, seeing red, etc. Just don't take that to mean I believe in an inverse correlation either... The Koran is a holy book. It is not exclusively prayer any more than the Bible. They are both text; historical, ethnographic, linguistic, sacred. One verse from the Koran is not necessarily a prayer, and that distinction should be made. Nor are proverbs prayers. One of the best classes I ever had was reading the Bible as historical text. The Book of Daniel was light on prayer, but it was our_approach_to the text which offered the delineation. Sorry if that's too "intellectual" or "elitist" for you to take. As for the word "should", I suggest you study a broad range of lesson plans, teacher guidelines, etc. to survey the use of the term. It ends up having a kinder, gentler ring than "will", so is used more often. 25 Nov.
	Balki_UW schrieb: Thank you for the correction. It appears my spellchecker blew that one. What does the word "should" mean? The district said that they are not asking for the complete the entire prayer rights, but they are also saying the "...should analyze one verse form the Qur'an and memorize 5 proverbs...". It's forcing teachers to do it, even though they are saying not to. What kind of crap is that? It's like talking to Bill Clinton. What does "IS" mean anyways? It is teaching Islamic prayerin school, pure and simple. 23 Nov.
	Nova_Nebula schrieb: I know this is literally mincing words, but: V-O-L-U-N-T-A-R-Y I would say in response to you, that if someone spoke up and said they refused to recite a Muslim prayer, they were not forced to. But I won't, because that was not my assertion. I won't lest we once again argue past each other. The papers Malkin dredged up seemed to confirm the point I was trying to make, but you either took out of context (less likely) or somehow read into my words (considerably more likely). Again: "Owing to the sensitive nature of imitating another's form of prayer, your group will NOT be asked to directly simulate this activity." So do you care to respond to what I actually wrote? Lla yhennik! 23 Nov.
	Balki_UW schrieb: You are so silly, Nova. First of all the Kentridge group was a VOLENTARY group. Spell it out with me: V-O-L-E-N-T-A-R-Y. In case you don’t know what that means, it means that all students in the high school were not forced to participate in the club, and therefore, were never forced to pray or recite from the bible. Second, last time I checked, the majority of state populations may be Christian, but 100% of the public schools were to be government-is-religion…er, religion-free zones. So says the ACLU. So where is the liberal outrage? And why is the 9th Circuit so two-faced? I have to believe it is from poor legal stewardship. Thank you, Michelle Malkin for bringing this story out in the open. She'll get all the hat tips she needs from me. 23 Nov.
	Nova_Nebula schrieb: Sallah o'allekum! I did not read the opinion/response if one was written as to why they did not listen to this, so I don't know what reasoning they used to differentiate it from the inverse case if students were forced to read from the Bible. In cases such as these, the Supreme Court has never outlawed Christianity, but merely tried to prevent the majority from dictating and prosyletizing their beliefs on a minority. Last time I checked, California wasn't 51% Muslim, and was probably closer to 1% Muslim. That has ever been their stance, much to my chagrin, in my personal struggle to persecute Christianity. ;) "Owing to the sensitive nature of imitating another's form of prayer, your group will NOT be asked to directly simulate this activity." Hmm.... but they could. Disturbing indeed. I might have to write a letter of protest. But the interesting thing that calms me here is that they ask the students to critique or critically analyse things religious. My God, if they did, that might lead them to start thinking critically about Christianity... THEN WHAT??? Speaking from a personal point-of-view, I find it difficult to separate Arab and Muslim culture; roughly as difficult to separate Jews from Judaisim. Anyone who has heard the call to prayer from 300 mosques or known secular Jews might agree. I think they might have avoided some problems by saying they were studying Arab culture. More specific, less religious sounding, and you could have used the same material. Allahu Akbar! to Michelle Malkin; she'll get no hat tip from me... 22 Nov.

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