Islam is Emerging as a State Religion

Posted by johnhouk on Mar 11, 2008
 John R. Houk
© March 11, 2008

In this day in America the Left and Secular Humanists will do their utmost to prevent Christian worship, prayer and symbolism out of Public Schools for the oft misperception of the term “Separation of Church and State.” That term is not found in the original U.S. Constitution nor in any Amendment to the Constitution and especially it is not found in the first ten Amendments known as the Bill of Rights.

As you can probably deduce, I highly disagree with the Left’s extreme incursion in Public Schools and Public Institutions. I agree religion should not be promoted as Establishing a State Religion which is the only intent of the First Amendment; however to completely eradicate religion and especially the religion in which America has its heritage from is ridiculous. The Founding Fathers NEVER had any intent of preventing the principles and morals out of publicly funded institutions, they simply objected to establish any particular Christian Denomination as the State Church and they wanted Americans to have the freedom to believe as they see fit whether they were religious or atheistic or what ever.

Now that is my introductory rant on what I think the Left and Secular Humanism has done in attacking the efficacy of Christianity in Public Institutions.

Now let us get to the point. The Left and Secular Humanism is so intent on multiculturalism and anti-Christianity that they dispose of their own concepts of “Separation of Church and State” when it comes to funding a religion in Public Institutions foreign to America’s heritage. This is particularly true of the religiously politically correct moniker of the religion known as Islam (I prefer the 19th century moniker for it is closer to the truth – Mohammedanism).

Mohammedanism is being taught in Public Schools to the extent that students are made to practice Mohammedan rituals in the name of multiculturalism. For example: the observing the Mohammedan religious holy days of Ramadan again under the guise of understanding and accepting another multicultural way of living. I don’t have a problem with understanding another culture, especially the Mohammedan culture. Americans need to understand the nature of how Mohammedanism grew into a significantly large religion and how intolerance forbids the free thought non-Mohammedan beliefs in Mohammedan culture.

HOWEVER teaching students rituals is like promoting its faith. This is the very thing the Left and Secular Humanism does not allow Christianity to do in Public Schools under their belief of the Separation of Church and State.

It gets worse! Now American tax payer money is actually paying for Arabic Culture schools for foreign children of Arabic descent or immigration complete with speaking in Arabic and Mohammedan prayer moments and a curriculum financed by Saudi interests which include the Wahhabi Sunni school of thought which is the radical Islam of Mohammedan terrorists like al Qaeda, the Taliban and Hamas – all listed terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department.

The most controversial school of this nature is in New York – the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA). Daniel Pipes points out that teaching Arabic culture is a good thing; however the way Arabic curriculum is scheduled to be taught is in a way that glorifies Pan-Arab nationalism or in my interpretation – glorifies Mohammedanism as the supremacist religion of the planet and denigrates other cultures. Alicia Colon writing as a critic of the curriculum that the pro-KGIA people have accused critics of KGIA as being hate mongers and bigots. The pro-KGIA people point especially to Stop The Madrassa as a preeminent hate group however when Colon investigated the website she found nothing comparable to hate. It is a website critical of promoting Mohammedanism and skewing the academic truth on the American dime. In all this Colon wonders, “Where is the ACLU?” After all the ACLU is in the forefront organization keeping Christianity out Public Institutions and Public Schools is high on that ACLU list of persecution. Colon was also astounded that the pro-KGIA people were sending her HATE mail of the deviant quality that made anti-KGIA critics look like saints.

KGIA was so last year; however that Public Institution’s example is beginning to be set up in other parts of America.

The State of Minnesota is now funding the same kind of Arabic Public School and according to an Act For America e-newsletter I received recently may be even on a worse scale than the KGIA.

The Act For America e-newsletter points out that the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) is on the public dime for foreign Mohammedans too poor to attend the private Madrassa school in the same area yet are taught the same anti-American radical Islamic message.

And since I had to check a source, viz. the Stop The Madrassa blog; I have discovered that the blog has posted same article as Act For America did by Katherine Kersten of the Star Tribune which links Muslim American Society (MAS) with TIZA. Hello! The MAS has been linked to radical extremist terrorists and Islamists like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

JRH
**************************
Currently, some ACT! for America chapters in California are collecting and reviewing public school textbooks because of growing and justifiable concerns that Islam is receiving disproportionate coverage vis a vis other religious beliefs, and because frequently the way it is presented glosses over and even mischaracterizes the historical and doctrinal record of Islam.

For instance, one world history textbook devotes over 50 pages to Islam and about a half dozen pages to Christianity. Another textbook asserts that Muslims only use force in “self-defense.”

The story below raises another question: Are Islamic schools being funded by tax dollars?

[Note: if you want to go view the story online, you will have to register with the Star Tribune after you click on the link below.]

ACT FOR AMERICA
____________________________

Are taxpayers footing bill for Islamic school in Minnesota?

By KATHERINE KERSTEN
Star Tribune
Last update: March 9, 2008 - 10:20 AM

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) -- named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain -- is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Its approximately 300 students are mostly the children of low-income Muslim immigrant families, many of them Somalis.

The school is in huge demand, with a waiting list of 1,500. Last fall, it opened a second campus in Blaine.

TIZA uses the language of culture rather than religion to describe its program in public documents. According to its mission statement, the school "recognizes and appreciates the traditions, histories, civilizations and accomplishments of the eastern world (Africa, Asia and Middle East)."

But the line between religion and culture is often blurry. There are strong indications that religion plays a central role at TIZA, which is a public school financed by Minnesota taxpayers. Under the U.S. and state constitutions, a public school can accommodate students' religious beliefs but cannot encourage or endorse religion.

TIZA raises troubling issues about taxpayer funding of schools that cross that line.

Asad Zaman, TIZA's principal, declined to allow me to visit the school or grant me an interview. He did not respond to e-mails seeking written replies.

TIZA's strong religious connections date from its founding in 2003. Its co-founders, Zaman and Hesham Hussein, were both imams, or Muslim religious leaders, as well as leaders of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS-MN).

Since then, they have played dual roles: Zaman as TIZA's principal and the current vice-president of MAS-MN, and Hussein as TIZA's school board chair and president of MAS-MN until his death in a car accident in Saudi Arabia in January.

TIZA shares MAS-MN's headquarters building, along with a mosque.
MAS-MN came to Minnesotans' attention in 2006, when it issued a "fatwa," warning Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that transporting passengers with alcohol in their baggage is a violation of Islamic law.

Journalists whom Zaman has permitted to visit TIZA have described the school's Islamic atmosphere and practices.

"A visitor might well mistake Tarek ibn Ziyad for an Islamic school," reported Minnesota Monthly in 2007. "Head scarves are voluntary, but virtually all the girls wear them." The school has a central carpeted prayer space, and "vaguely religious-sounding language" is used.

According to the Pioneer Press, TIZA's student body prays daily and the school's cafeteria serves halal food (permissible under Islamic law). During Ramadan, all students fast from dawn to dusk, according to a parent quoted in the article.

In fact, TIZA was originally envisioned as a private Islamic school. In 2001, MAS-MN negotiated to buy the current TIZA/MAS-MN building for Al-Amal School, a private religious institution in Fridley, according to Bruce Rimstad of the Inver Grove Heights School District. But many immigrant families can't afford Al-Amal. In 2002, Islamic Relief -- headquartered in California -- agreed to sponsor a publicly funded charter school, TIZA, at the same location.

TIZA claims to be non-sectarian, as Minnesota law requires charters to be. But "after-school Islamic learning" takes place on weekdays in the same building under MAS-MN's auspices, according to the program for MAS-MN's 2007 convention. At that convention, a TIZA representative at the school's booth told me that students go directly to "Islamic studies" classes at 3:30, when TIZA's day ends. There, they learn "Qur'anic recitation, the Sunnah of the Prophet" and other religious subjects, he said.

TIZA's 2006 Contract Performance Review Report states that students engage in unspecified "electives" after school or do homework.

Publicly, TIZA emphasizes that it uses standard curricular materials like those found in other public schools. But when addressing Muslim audiences, school officials make the link to Islam clear. At MAS-MN's 2007 convention, for example, the program featured an advertisement for the "Muslim American Society of Minnesota," superimposed on a picture of a mosque. Under the motto "Establishing Islam in Minnesota," it asked: "Did you know that MAS-MN ... houses a full-time elementary school"? On the adjacent page was an application for TIZA.

In addition to the issues raised by TIZA's religious elements, there are reasons to be concerned about the organizations with which it is connected.

Group linked to Hamas

Islamic Relief-USA, the school's sponsor, is compared to the Red Cross in several TIZA documents. In 2006, however, the Israeli government announced that Islamic Relief Worldwide, the organization's parent group, "provides support and assistance" to Hamas, designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist group.

Meanwhile, MAS-MN offers on its web site "beneficial and enlightening information" about Islam, which includes statements like "Regularly make the intention to go on jihad with the ambition to die as a martyr."

At its 2007 convention, MAS-MN featured the notorious Shayk Khalid Yasin, who is well-known in Britain and Australia for teaching that husbands can beat disobedient wives, that gays should be executed and that the United States spreads the AIDS virus in Africa through vaccines for tropical diseases.

Yasin's topic? "Building a Successful Muslim Community in Minnesota."

TIZA has improved the reading and math performance of its mostly low-income students. That's commendable, but should Minnesota taxpayers be funding an Islamic public school?
_______________________
Islam is Emerging as a State Religion
John R. Houk
© March 11, 2008
______________________

Are taxpayers footing bill for Islamic school in Minnesota?
Katherine Kersten • kkersten@startribune.com Join the conversation at my blog, Think Again, which can be found at www.startribune.com/thinkagain.

© 2008 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

Leave a COMMENT.