Pigs fly. Hell freezes over. ACLU sues Muslims over publicly-funded madrassa
Mirabile dictu! The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the government-subsidized Muslim charter school in Minnesota.
You’ll recall that Katharine Kersten did terrific investigative reporting of the CAIR-supported public school, called “TIZA” (Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy). In a rare stand against their left-wing fellow travelers, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the academy’s use of taxpayer dollars to promote Islam:
The Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says it’s suing a charter school that caters to Muslim students.
The ACLU names Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TiZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education in a lawsuit in federal court that says the charter school is using taxpayer money to illegally promote religion.
The charter school, which has campuses in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine, has fallen under fire after a substitute teacher claimed the school was offering religious instruction in Islam to its students.
After investigating the school last year, the Education Department said the school hadn’t broken any laws. In a statement issued Wednesday, the department saiad they’re ‘carefully reviewing the lawsuit and will thoroughly respond.’
“We will continue to monitor the operations of TiZA Academy and, in response to issues raised about the school over the past year, we are in the process of drafting legislation to address these concerns,” wrote Deputy Commissioner Chas Anderson.
The state’s report directed the charter school to “correct” two areas related to religion at the school.
“The Minnesota Department of Education goes to great lengths to make clear to charter schools and their sponsors that, while schools should appropriately accommodate students’ religious beliefs, they must be ‘nonsectarian’ under the state’s charter school law,” Anderson said in May.
The department noted concerned about the school accommodating communal prayer and providing transportation to an after-school religious program for its approximately 300 students.
“We have directed the school to take appropriate corrective actions regarding these matters and will continue to provide oversight to ensure that the school is in compliance with state and federal law,” Anderson said.
More from the Star-Tribune:
“TIZA has received millions of dollars of taxpayer money to support what is, in essence, a private religious school,” said Charles Samuelson, state ACLU executive director.
The school, which has one campus in Inver Grove Heights and a smaller site in Blaine, had about 430 K-8 students last year, most of them Muslim. The public charter school, founded in 2003, receives per-pupil funding from the state that the ACLU said is expected to total $3.8 million for the current school year…
…Samuelson said the school took government aid money and paid it to a holding company which then donated it to the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. The money was used to pay for rent, according to the suit. He said that the school, holding company and the society were all incorporated on the same day by the same people, which Samuelson said was a conflict of interest. “They created legal fictions, but it’s the same organization,” Samuelson said.
The suit also alleges that there are prayers on the walls of the school entry and that teachers have participated in student prayer activities, which is forbidden in public schools. Samuelson said the school has used its website to seek volunteers to lead prayers. He also said that students and staff are required to dress in attire that conforms to Islamic religion.
The school has issued a handbook instructing staff to not discuss what goes on at the school, Samuelson said. “You cannot have a broad secrecy oath” in a school funded with public dollars, he said.
The ACLU investigation was prompted by a column about the school’s practices by Katherine Kersten, a former columnist for the Star Tribune, Samuelson said.
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You DEFINITELY have to be judicious, dare I say…conservative?. But glad you liked.
It was fresh cinnamon curl, had to grate it so, was Far-right conservative…LOL
#89 NO you’re wrong MOST of the founders WERE DIESTS Jeff was correct! And you were correct about Jefferson. But, Jeff was absolutly 100% correct!
None of the Founding Fathers were atheists. Most of the Founders were Deists, which is to say they thought the universe had a creator, but that he does not concern himself with the daily lives of humans, and does not directly communicate with humans, either by revelation or by sacred books. They spoke often of God, (Nature’s God or the God of Nature), but this was not the God of the bible. They did not deny that there was a person called Jesus, and praised him for his benevolent teachings, but they flatly denied his divinity. Some people speculate that if Charles Darwin had lived a century earlier, the Founding Fathers would have had a basis for accepting naturalistic origins of life, and they would have been atheists. Most of them were stoutly opposed to the bible, and the teachings of Christianity in particular.
Yes, there were Christian men among the Founders. Just as Congress removed Thomas Jefferson’s words that condemned the practice of slavery in the colonies, they also altered his wording regarding equal rights. His original wording is here in blue italics: “All men are created equal and independent. From that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable.” Congress changed that phrase, increasing its religious overtones: “All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” But we are not governed by the Declaration of Independence– it is a historical document, not a constitutional one.
If the Christian Right Extremists wish to return this country to its beginnings, so be it… because it was a climate of Freethought. The Founders were students of the European Enlightenment. Half a century after the establishment of the United States, clergymen complained that no president up to that date had been a Christian. In a sermon that was reported in newspapers, Episcopal minister Bird Wilson of Albany, New York, protested in October 1831: “Among all our presidents from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not of more than Unitarianism.” The attitude of the age was one of enlightened reason, tolerance, and free thought. The Founding Fathers would turn in their graves if the Christian Extremists had their way with this country.
It certainly is interesting the turn comment threads can take, isn’t it?
xlr8bmw said:The attitude of the age was one of enlightened reason, tolerance, and free thought.
We could use some today.
As a man who enjoys chili…I can’t imagine anyone but a closet liberal complaining. ” What ! No tofu? “
Time-out for me: Time to listen to some ‘Weird Al’
#105 You’re correct and that’s why I posted what I did. You were correct and that’s how our founders wrote our very constitution with those thoughts in mind.
Somewhere along our path as a nation and evolution we lost that!
My wife, sadly, does not eat red meat. So often I end up making an abomination known as “vegetarian chili” (though no tofu. Even she realizes that is an affront to God). Actually, it is perfectly tasty for what it is, but nothing can replace the unctuous texture and flavor of half ground pork, half ground beef.
But the cinnamon works in either recipe.
OK, i’m officially astonished
I remember hearing an interview two or three years ago done with an attorney who used to work for the ACLU. He said that the ACLU makes a point to pick up some cases that makes it look like they are a legitimate organization without an ideology. Looking at ACLU’s past, I tend to believe what this guy had to say. I definitely will be interested to see the outcome of this case.
YES
http://www.dailymotion.com/Al_Yankovic/video/x3257e_close-but-no-cigar
A moment to lighten up, while we can. The muslims would issue a fatwah.
BTW: It’s safe for work too…
Okay. Do you know of a time when there has been someone wrongly persecuted for espousing natural law where the ACLU chose not to get involved?
That would at least be an important first step in establishing the bias you claim.
And to be fair, I am willing to give you wide wide berth on what constitutes “natural law”, seeing as there are about as many definitions of that concept as there are political philosophers.
Aug. 20th 1778 George Washington wrote to Thomas Nelson:
” The hand of providence has been so conspicuos in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to achnowledge his obligations.”
xler8bmw,
Where did you get your false information that our founding Father did not think G-d had a hand in mankinds affairs?
Extremeists Christians? Are those the Christians that want to rape your wife, and cut your head off for not worshiping a false moon god.
Sarc/off
They’re guilty by omission.
Chap . I can’t prove a negative. If you can, I’ll engage you as my lawyer.
I know I said this before, but I have personally been inside that school. It is a freakshow.
#117 LAW SCHOOL AND YOU??????
It must be great to post something you don’t know what it means!
John Adams The second president of the United States was John Adams, lawyer and diplomat. Adams’ public career lasted more than 35 years. He was second only to George Washington in making a place for the young United States among the nations of the world. In his devotion to the country he was second to none.
“As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables, tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that ever existed?”
-letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27, 1816
“The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity. Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity.”
“Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?”
“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”
.
.
I don’t want you to prove a negative. I want you to show that there have been a series of controversies involving natural law that fall into the purview of the ACLU’s mission and that they have failed to act on these cases.
That is just the first step, of course. But a necessary one.
#120,
The meaning is clear. The hand of providence is G-d actively working in mens lives. George Washington believed that. By reading his letters, you too can understand he was not a DIEST.
Now, stop rewriting history to suit your agenda. That is what moon god worshipers do all the time.
#129 DID I SAY THEY WERE ALL DIEST NO BUT, MOST WERE!
SO YOU’RE EDUCATION ON THIS IS WHAT??????????
NO ONE IS REWRITING HISTORY! WHAT I POSTED IS FACT SORRY TO DISRUPT YOUR LIBERAL AGENDA!
THE POINT IS THAT THEY HAVEN’T or do you want me to research all of their request for assistance. I can’t show a negative.
Leatherneck: I feel sorry for your History teachers lack of education.
Now, stop rewriting history to suit your agenda. That is what moon god worshipers do all the time.
http://www.deism.com/washington.htm
Have a nice day…
Deist’s are not Atheists.
#122 HERE IS A NEWS FLASH GW WAS A PROBABLY A DIEST TOO!
The father of this country was very private about his beliefs, but it is widely considered that he was a Deist like his colleagues. He was a Freemason.
Historian Barry Schwartz writes: “George Washington’s practice of Christianity was limited and superficial because he was not himself a Christian… He repeatedly declined the church’s sacraments. Never did he take communion, and when his wife, Martha, did, he waited for her outside the sanctuary… Even on his deathbed, Washington asked for no ritual, uttered no prayer to Christ, and expressed no wish to be attended by His representative.” [New York Press, 1987, pp. 174-175]
Paul F. Boller states in is anthology on Washington: “There is no mention of Jesus Christ anywhere in his extensive correspondence.”
“Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by the difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be depreciated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.”
– letter to Edward Newenham, 1792
.
The founders were afraid of this. They wanted behaviour-based science.
Let’s move on to a lighter category…Zombies?
#125 Jeff his parents should ask for their tax dollars back!
Leatherneck you deserve a refund on your education!
When in the Course of human events………. the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them,
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives………
The ACLU will avoid using this as a foundation of an argument.
Yes Zombies
The point is they haven’t what? Gotten involved in controversies that you fail to identify? Can you please point to some actual controversies where someone spouting some theory of Natural Law has faced discrimination by the government?
You again seem to be forgetting that the ACLU will not support or condemn the message. They merely seek to support the right for the speaker to say it.
Jeff, if you think zombies are “light” or “funny” well…lets just say I will feel real sorry for you as your brains are being devoured.
On a side note, I look forward to the day when MM has an actual thread about zombies and having the comment thread devolve into a discussion of TARP or MSM bias or something else ironically off topic.
zombies YUM
“American Idol” is on.
DAMN so is “Lost”
I need a court decision on this.
family man
you need TIVO!
Have you guys read “Daily Sacrifice – Prayers of George Washington”? They are not the prayers of a Deist. I can make a website saying that FDR was a conservative and that the New Deal got us out of the Great Depression, but that don’t make it so.
138# Buy a clue…….
I went to school for this crap AND YOU!
FDR was a socialist/DEMOCRAT and distorted our constitution!
Teddy was Republican and CONSERVATIVE!
I believe it was Washington himself when taking his oath of office who unprompted added the phrase “so help me God”. Not the act of a deist or otherwise. I see several mentions of the fact that he was a Freemason, with the claim that he refused the sacraments because of it. I’m not a mason, but I’ve known many (including my father), and I find that entire line of thought absurd.
*GASP*
Am I to believe my eyes? Did I read this correctly? The ACLU is suing a non-Christian organization for using public funds to push religion?!?
Well, it DID snow in parts of Phoenix a couple of weeks ago…
Islam, as is most any religion with a deity that competes with the State, is a threat to socialism; ergo, it must be stopped, according to the socialists.
“I am for socialism, disarmament, and, ultimately, for abolishing the state itself… I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and the sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.”
~Roger Baldwin, founder of the ACLU
YUP!
xler8bmw said:
Whoa, settle down there!
xler8bmw said:
Ironic, considering what follows after this quote…
xler8bmw said:
Notice he didn’t say that Christian revelation is just fables, but that fables had been added to revelation. That is, he does not (at least in this quote) deny that there has been divine revelation.
I am not a deist, but a Christian. I agree with this quote! A lot of man-made garbage has been added to revelation, twisting true Christianity. That is why Christianity has been used and abused by wicked people to do great evil throughout Christianity’s history. Which is precisely what this quote says.
xler8bmw said:
Again, this quote does not deny that Jesus is deity. What it denies are all of the man-made doctrines and creeds (such as found in various church/denominational traditions, which are not found in the Bible) that try to use Jesus to establish their credibility. Again, I completely agree with this quote.
xler8bmw said:
Christian teachings have been twisted by unscrupulous church leaders from the beginning of Christianity. Even New Testament writers write about false teachers that were already in the Church, leading people astray, and misrepresenting the teachings of Christ.
xler8bmw said:
Many Christians agree. It isn’t about religion, it is about having a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you have other quotes, or should we just dismiss your point as FAIL?
Thank you Trollman for enlightening this poor lost soul. He,xler8bmw, should have studied the curious traits of lemmings as he will eventually drive his bmw over the eternal cliff.
Once in a blue moon, the ACLU actually does something right. It’s something to cherish; they’re that rare.
Trollman so did you miss the point GW was possibly a diest?????
I thought social conservatives support school prayer. I guess that only applies to Christian prayer.
You see the school wasn’t promoting killing Jews and Americans so it had to go. This will open up the field for another charter school that is “Hammas friendly.”
Bluesoc is famously ignorant of conservative thought and merely spouting liberal agit-prop.
It is correct that conservatives want an end to the government monopoly of K-12, to be replaced with the same free choice we get in college and hospitals where there seems to be no problem with government funding of such institutions which are affiliated with religion, like Notre Dame University and the numerous Saint Rita’s etc Hospital, or are simply privately owned. What conservatives do not support is limiting taxpayer funding to government K-12 schools with no choices for students, a focus on placating teacher’s unions and not education, and an overt hostility to religion along with funding the NEA, which is overtly anti-conservative, and denying funding religious affiliated schools which provide the same basic core curriculum, give students of all religions free choice, and are overtly pro-religion. There is an obvious double standard that allows government funding of health and higher ed. in religious affiliated Universities and Hospitals, but an absolute ban on doing the same for K-12. I resent that I have payed over $200,000 in local property taxes to the local schools for the last 20 years and because I chose religion friendly Catholic schools to educate my children, almost none of my tax money went to my children’s schools forcing me to pay after tax income (more discrimination) to pay for K-12 schooling. The fact that my children are better educated and more disciplined as a result, is an obvious benefit to society. The fact that virtually all Washington politicians, like President BO, find the government K-12 unacceptable is all the proof one needs to support funding parochial and private schools.
It is a shame they let Kersten go. This story is one example of many where she did her homework and uncovered the facts of the story and reported them straight up. She was publicly critisized by many of her liberal collegues at the Star and Sickle because they are either too lazy to investigate or when they do find the facts they are omitted because they may not shine favorable light on their liberal causes. Kersten was one of a very few left that reported with integrity even though she was mocked for it.
It would seem to me, Politicalguano, that you would disagree with the ACLU’s lawsuit. Is that correct?