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. [They did quite a bit more than simply recite prayers, as you’ll see below. —ed.]I remember my daughter going through this course in junior high, but it wasn't as immersive as the course described above. She had to learn the 5 pillars of Islam and other clearly religious stuff, but didn't have to take a Muslim name or do some of the other stuff described above.
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.
Can you imagine the outcry if students were required to learn the Four Spiritual Laws of Christianity? The ACLU wouldn't take that case, except in opposition.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment