Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Violation of separation of church and state at Minnesota Islamic public school

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school run out of the headquarters of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota and run by an imam, Asad Zaman, teaches Islamic studies and has mandatory prayers led by a non-student.

See, Christians--this is what the separation of church and state legally prohibits schools from doing with your tax dollars. Get it?

UPDATE (April 11, 2008): Very many conservative bloggers, including Michelle Malkin and the morons at Stop the ACLU, are protesting TIZA and asking why the ACLU isn't doing anything. In fact, the ACLU was on this issue before any conservative bloggers were, though they are hampered by the lack of a plaintiff. These bloggers are blatantly expressing their hypocrisy. If the ACLU was so much as sending a warning letter to a charter school promoting Christianity, they'd be protesting it. But since it's Islam, the ACLU can't possibly do enough.

5 comments:

Reed said...

For those Christians who advocate the blurring of the line between church and state, is the fear of the spread of Islam sufficently strong to lead to a change of heart?

sfc mac said...

"If the ACLU was so much as sending a warning letter to a charter school promoting Christianity, they'd be protesting it."

You've GOT to be joking. One of the cornerstones of the ACLU is direct confrontation of ANYTHING remotely resembling Christianity in public schools. I'm agnostic, and even I can see their (and your) hypocrisy.

Einzige said...

Are you sure you've understood Jim's point, sfcmac?

The only hypocrites I see in all this are the conservative bloggers.

Perhaps you can clarify your position. Exactly what is the source of Jim's hypocracy?

Einzige said...

Oh, jeez, my spelling is bad this morning!

Lippard said...

Perhaps you misunderstood what I said, because I don't understand your comment.

What you quoted from me is saying that in any case where the ACLU protests Christianity in charter schools (and I mean that also to apply to government-run public schools), the "Stop the ACLU" crowd protests it. I didn't say that the ACLU doesn't do so--of course they do!

So where's the hypocrisy? My point is that the ACLU is right to take the same steps to fight Establishment Clause violations, no matter what religion is involved. They send a letter, and if that doesn't work they get a plaintiff and file a lawsuit. If they can't get a plaintiff, they can't sue, which is why there are cases of small communities getting away with things like teaching creationism in public schools.

So please explain what hypocrisy you are talking about.