Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Over Islamic Indoctrination In School
Posted on October 3, 2006
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday by evangelical Christian students and their parents who said a Contra Costa County school district engaged in unconstitutional religious indoctrination when it taught students about Islam by having them recite language from prayers.
The court, without comment, left intact a ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last November in favor of the Byron Union School District in eastern Contra Costa.
The suit challenged the content of a seventh-grade history course at Excelsior Middle School in Byron in the fall of 2001. The teacher, using an instructional guide, told 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, had them memorize and recite a passage from the Quran and made them give up something for a day, such as television or candy, to simulate fasting during the month of Ramadan. The final exam asked students for a critique of elements of Muslim culture.
The students and parents who sued argued that the class activities had crossed the line from education into an official endorsement of a religious practice. A federal judge and the appeals court disagreed, saying the class had an instructional purpose and the students had engaged in no actual religious exercises.
Of course the ACLU are disappointed that the Courts are allowing such blatant endorsement and promotion of religious activities right? Wrong…this case went all the way to the Supreme Court and never even raised an eyebrow at the ACLU. However, they didn’t miss the chance to fight “Praying parents, and Prayer at the Flagpole”. The ACLU said those were clearly unconstitutional. Yet they have no official statement on this case.
I think the obvious flag that rises in this case is the double standard. I doubt this would have escaped the ACLU’s attention if the religion being promoted were Christianity. Thomas More Law Center noticed the same thing.
…but according to Richard Thompson, Chief Counsel of the Law Center, “There is a double-standard at play in this case. If the students had done similar activities in a class on Christianity, a constitutional violation would surely have been found.”
He said that, “If the public school’s practice is upheld on appeal, all public schools should begin teaching classes on Christianity in the same manner as the Islam class was taught in this case.”
Added Edward L. White III, trial counsel with the Law Center: “Rather than teach students about Islam, which is constitutional, the public school crossed the constitutional line and began indoctrinating students.”
“The public school”, he said, “placed students into the position of being trainees in Islam, which is impermissible in a public school.”
So what about that seperation of church and state stuff? Does that only apply to Christianity? I’m shocked the Supreme Court didn’t find this case important enough to hear on its merits.
They might very well take it up in the future, though — and you might be surprised how they rule. If you’re counting on Scalia and Thomas to torpedo a public school’s Islamic play-acting class, you’re not thinking very strategically. Cases like this present Christians with a golden opportunity to introduce elements of religious teaching back into the state curriculum by using the left’s double standard towards Islam against it. Now that this case is on the books in the Ninth Circuit as precedent, expect Christian immersion classes to follow.
» Filed Under ACLU, Church And State, News
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10 Responses to “Supreme Court Rejects Appeal Over Islamic Indoctrination In School”
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Of course, as far as the ACLU is concerned, it only applies to Christianity. Without knowing more, I’m not about to indict the SCOTUS yet. There may be another case coming down the pipe that is felt would be a better test…there’s no way to know at this point.
Now we need to have some teacher who has enough courage to teach christian values the same way as this teacher did and see how far they would get and then quote this same case as defense.
Double standards are the ACLU’s game. I wonder why the Supreme Court didn’t hear the case.
I’m shocked the Supreme Court didn’t find this case important enough to hear on its merits.
I’m not particularly familiar with the case, so I will simply cite the same passages that you did.
Feel free to disagree with their assessment, but please don’t try to pretend that they didn’t state a reason.
The question is what you define as religious exercises. Remember the 9th Circuit courts ruling on a symbol that the ACLU wants tore down. That is certainly not a religious exercise. Did I find the 9th Court contradicting itself?
I do think they should start doing the same thing with Christianity. Do you know how many Christian sects there are? They could a different one each weak and talk about diversity. They could cover all the varieties than the super majority of Americans attend. That would leave out all the non Christian religions that are not significant in number. Atheist would have to be represented but then they already are since people are forced to pretend to be atheist in public.
Many schools already do this. It’s called Comparative Religions and it’s perfectly legal. It’s a social studies class.
You should be aware that the same role playing technique was used to teach about christianity in the same class. From an article in the Contra Costa Times:
Maybe this explains why the Supreme Court refused to hear this case.
camanintx, I usually don’t agree with you, but that was a good find. If that is the case, it was used equally, I don’t have near as much problem with it. It still raises serious questions, but that is significant.
I concur, Jay. That was a good find by camanintx and I don’t doubt that it played a huge role in their decision. It sounds like this class was essentially a Comparative Religions class.
latest report is that it was a 7th grade history class…i’ve linked that report at my site