The issue of textbooks and the involvement of CAIR in presenting Islam in public schools has arisen in Puyallop, Washington. (Hat tip to Creeping Sharia).
That textbook you see in the news report, History Today, has been the subject of objections in several communities in the US and now in Puyallop, Washington. It presents a happy-face, sanitized presentation of Islam and keeps the kiddies occupied with weeks of text and assignments.
Of course, it could be argued that kids should get a friendly introduction to all religions, in order to promote tolerance to all. Yet, the other major world religions are virtually ignored.
Public schools are supposed to stay free of promoting religion as part of the separation of church and state. That point can be argued separately. But if we are going to enforce that principle (which is generally enforced against Christianity since it is the predominant religion) then it must hold true for all. Having CAIR representatives or imams come to public schools and push their religion down the throats of young school children against the wishes of their parents is a clear violation of the principle of separation of church and state.
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3 comments:
This news report conflates at least three distinct issues:
The easiest one is accommodation of the religious duties of students. It has been well established law in the United States since Zorach v. Clauson, 343 US 306, 1952, that schools may release students from class for religious obligations. That notorious right-winger, William O. Douglas, wrote the decision. It was established in 1948, in McCollum v. Board of Education, that religious observances may not be conducted on school property during school hours. And it was established in Westside Community Schools v. Mergens that students may engage in voluntary religious organizations as an after-school extra-curricular activity on school grounds (1990).
Teaching the precepts of any given religion on school time is, of course, a violation of the First Amendment. CAIR may not understand that, because in the Ottoman Empire, all the religious minorities had their own defined place in the edifice of the state, rather than religion being kept separate. But that's the way it is here.
The content of the text book was not really thoroughly presented. If it presented Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Buddhism, then that's appropriate. Comparative religions are part of world history. If the book highlighted Islam, it is out of balance.
CAIR has no particular constitutional right to be INVITED to do a presentation in the schools. There is no constitutional reason its offer could not be accepted. I wouldn't invite them, because, whether or not they support terrorism, they are actively committed to proselytizing. I wouldn't invite one of Jerry Falwell's acolytes for the same reason.
Reference to 9-11 was pure bigotry, rather like saying Catholics are not wanted in our schools because they burned Protestants at the stake, or Buddhists are not wanted because some of the local Tamil population might be offended. (Remember the Buddhist massacre of Hindus in Sri Lanka?)
Siarlys,
What would be your take if Muslim students conducted their prayers outside the Cross Cultural center at UCI, which they do. We also have a chapel facility open to all faiths. How about if MSU students in opening their anti-Israeli events each May at UCI began with a prayer and reading from the Koran-in public? They regularly do this? Do you see a leagl problem on a public university campus? It's a serious question-not a rhetorical one.
It is a rhetorical question Gary, because individuals, or voluntary assemblages of individuals, are free to pray almost anywhere they wish. It is state action that invokes the Establishment clause. Indeed, the school administrators in the Mergens case, as well as the later case of the Good News Club in New York, asserted that they were required by the First Amendment to exclude use of school buildings by religious groups. The Supreme Court said no, religious groups could make use of school facilities on the same basis as any other group.
Beginning a CLASS with prayer would be a constitutional violation, at a publicly funded university. Beginning a voluntary extra-curricular activity with a prayer is not.
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