Sean Martin
December 30th, 2005, 03:48 AM
Public school teaching kids to 'become Muslim'
Parents and children challenging a California school district for its practice of teaching 12-year-old students to "become Muslims" are asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling in front of the entire panel of judges.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit – widely regarded as the nation's most liberal federal appeals court– upheld a San Francisco federal district court's ruling that the Byron Union School District did not violate the U.S. Constitution. (What about separation of Church and state? SDM)
The Thomas More Law Center, however, contends the panel did not address the plaintiff's claims that their free exercise and parental rights had been violated.
The Law Center says that for three weeks, "impressionable 12-year-old students" were, among other things, placed into Islamic city groups; took Islamic names; wore identification tags that displayed their new Islamic name and the star and crescent moon; handed materials that instructed them to 'Remember Allah always so that you may prosper'; completed the Islamic Five Pillars of Faith, including fasting; and memorized and recited the 'Bismillah' or 'In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,' which students also wrote on banners hung on the classroom walls.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48107
Parents and children challenging a California school district for its practice of teaching 12-year-old students to "become Muslims" are asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling in front of the entire panel of judges.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit – widely regarded as the nation's most liberal federal appeals court– upheld a San Francisco federal district court's ruling that the Byron Union School District did not violate the U.S. Constitution. (What about separation of Church and state? SDM)
The Thomas More Law Center, however, contends the panel did not address the plaintiff's claims that their free exercise and parental rights had been violated.
The Law Center says that for three weeks, "impressionable 12-year-old students" were, among other things, placed into Islamic city groups; took Islamic names; wore identification tags that displayed their new Islamic name and the star and crescent moon; handed materials that instructed them to 'Remember Allah always so that you may prosper'; completed the Islamic Five Pillars of Faith, including fasting; and memorized and recited the 'Bismillah' or 'In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate,' which students also wrote on banners hung on the classroom walls.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48107