USA Today – July 26, 2007
Some public schools and universities are granting Muslim requests for prayer times, prayer rooms and ritual foot baths, prompting a debate on whether Islam is being given preferential treatment over other religions.
The University of Michigan at Dearborn is planning to build foot baths for Muslim students who wash their feet before prayer. An elementary school in San Diego created an extra recess period for Muslim pupils to pray.
At George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Muslim students using a “meditation space” laid out Muslim prayer rugs and separated men and women in accordance with their Islamic beliefs.
Critics see a double standard and an organized attempt to push public conformance with Islamic law.
“What (school officials) are doing … is to give Muslim students religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now,” says Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center, an advocacy group for Christians.
Supporters of the accommodations say they are legal.
“The whole issue is to provide for a religious foundation for those who are observant while respecting separation of church and state,” says Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, based in Los Angeles. Many schools accommodate the Christian and Jewish sabbaths and allow Jewish students to not take tests on religious holidays, he says.
Barry Lynn, of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, says that the law is murky on these expressions of faith. And the American Civil Liberties Union says overt religious symbols such as crucifixes are not legal, but whether Muslim foot baths and prayer rugs fall into that category is not clear.
“That’s a difficult one, and it’s right on the edge,” says Jeremy Gunn, director of the ACLU program on freedom of religion and belief in Washington, D.C.
At the forefront of the movement is the Muslim Students’ Association, which has formed a Muslim Accommodations Task Force to push for foot baths and prayer rooms. At least 17 universities have foot baths built or under construction, including Boston University, George Washington University and Temple University, and at least nine universities have prayer rooms for “Muslim students only,” including Stanford, Emory and the University of Virginia, according to the MSA’s website. The association did not return calls seeking comment.
Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim and chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, which promotes separation of mosque and state, says he is concerned about the accommodations. “Unusual accommodations for one faith at the cost of everybody else doesn’t fall on the side of pluralism,” he said.
At George Mason University, non-Muslim students were asked to observe Muslim rules in the prayer area, such as keeping men on one side and women on the other and removing their shoes, according to Broadside, the school newspaper. Alissa Karton, assistant to the vice president for student life, said the article prompted the school to order students to roll up prayer rugs when not in use and move the dividers.
The University of Michigan agreed to install foot baths after talks with the MSA, said Terry Gallagher, director of public relations at the campus. Some Muslims ritually wash their feet before praying five times a day.
Daniel Pipes, founder of the Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank, sees the requests as part of a movement to force the public to acquiesce to Islamic law.
“The goal of Islamists is the application of Islamic law,” Pipes says.
In the San Diego case, a substitute teacher at Carver Elementary School alleged that teachers were indoctrinating students into Islam. The San Diego Unified School District determined that a teacher’s aide was wrong to lead Muslim students in prayer. Carver still has a special recess to allow 100 Muslim students to pray.
The ACLU, which has often sued schools for permitting prayer, says it is waiting to see what kind of policy the school settles on before deciding whether to sue. It says promoting prayers is unconstitutional.
“If you start carving out time in the school day that you would not do but for the need to let students pray, then it begins to look like what you’re trying to do is to assist religion,” says David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU in San Diego.
Thompson says such conflicts are bound to proliferate. He and other Christians, he says, are preparing to ask for equal consideration such as a Christian prayer recess.
“What you’re going to see out there is more of these kinds of cases as the Muslim community tests how far it can go in the public school system,” he says. “If this can happen for Muslims, it can happen for Christians and other religions.”
(c) USA TODAY
posted August 14, 2007 at 6:27 pm
“‘…then it begins to look like what you’re trying to do is to assist religion,’ says David Blair-Loy, legal director for the ACLU in San Diego.”
I found this quote interesting, because of its comment on “assisting religion.” Obviously, everything this article describes is meant to “assist religion.” But is there anything unconstitutional about “ASSISTING religion?” “PROMOTING it,” yes, but they are different issues. (For example, the recess thing certain assists religion, but promotes it? No way. Give kids a choice between solemn prayer and recess, I think we know what most will go for.
In general, I think that accomodations should be made for people’s faith—and all religions, because I really do think that people are generally more tolerant of minority faiths than Christianity. But then, there has to be a level of reason. Foot baths strike me as…odd. I don’t know if they’re “too far,” but certainly unusual. The recess I can kind of understand, since apparently the Muslim population of that school is rather high. (Teacher leading prayer is far more dicey, but then, someone has to, don’t they? And nobody’s being forced to attend…) Lots of complicated issues here.
God bless.
posted August 14, 2007 at 6:44 pm
Daniel Piper, founder of Middle East Forum, a conservative think tank, sees the requests for special prayer needs of Islamic worshippers as part of a movement to force the American public to acquiesce to Islamic law. He said, “The goal of Islamists is the application of Islamic law”. This very well might be a beginning of what he thinks. I’ve said before, and I’ll repeat if schools and Universities want to emphasize on religious matters they should be recognized as Religious Schools, and not put into secular places of learning or public schools. Muslim students have been here all along before 9-ll, and they blended into our schools and universities without all the religious hoop-la. In the Muslim countries everything revolves around Islam, we Americans are not going to revolve around the Muslim religion in our country, and the Universities that are doing this are probably looking at their tuitions coming in from this sector of people.
posted August 14, 2007 at 8:50 pm
As far as I know private schools can do what they want when they aren’t using public money to aid religion. I like the idea that, say, an RC school which obviously aids Catholicism when it can, would also aid other religions; that seems a sign of maturity.
But public universities should not be aiding religion; they should treat all students equally and in ways blind to religion. Clearly since classes are rarely held on Sundays that doesn’t always happen and won’t, but it’s the goal that should be aspired to. These things described are moving backward. I could easily be wrong but I believe Muslims are relieved of their prayer requirements when they can’t be fulfilled. Muslims have, as Henrietta pointed out, been attending our universities for decades, probably centuries, with little or no accommodation. What’s changed now? Perhaps it is competition for tuition money.
Whatever the reason, it’s a bad idea. And teachers should never be leading prayers during school in public schools.
posted August 14, 2007 at 9:42 pm
What you have here are sore losers. The Muslims came with reasonable requests for their OWN practices within the larger educational system. Those requests were unique and distinct from other communities and interest groups of the past, so there were no direct or obvious precedents directly regarding these matters.
In contrast, Christians groups pushed for unreasonable requests, like Christian prayers over public assemblies, or forced prayers during classes.
As a former MSA president who requested several measures within reason within the guidelines, such as reserving an empty room for prayers and weekly meetings, or forming a legitimate school organization and using hte budget to finance dinners open to the entire campus, I see today’s poopooers as spoil sports. Muslims are simply trying to accomodate themselves within the system, not take over.
posted August 14, 2007 at 9:42 pm
The Five Daily Prayers required by Islam are considered a pillar of the faith as important to Muslims as keeping kosher is to Orthodox Jews, or accepting Jesus as savior is to Christians. Prayer time is consider a sacred time for communing with God. Forcing Muslims to skip prayers because prayer time is in conflict with secular schedules would amount to forcing a Christian to renounce Christ or forcing a Jew to eat a Pork sandwich or pee on the Torah. Their is nothing inherently unconstitutional or un-American about allowing Muslim students to schedule their activities around prayers or setting aside the facilities in which to do so.
posted August 14, 2007 at 11:17 pm
Maybe I’m missing something here, but it seems to me the public schools cannot deny accommodations to one religious group and then turn around and grant accommodations to another. I really would not be offended by accommodations made to Muslims so long as those same accommodations were made to other religious groups. But that could really become a problem in scheduling and in other ways. I’m surprised the ACLU is being so slow on this when they have always in the past seemed ready to file a lawsuit when it was a Christian person who wanted accommodations. It has to be fair. Either accommodate everyone or accommodate no one. Public schools are not forcing Muslims to skip prayers because they can’t build their schedules around their practices any more than they are forcing a Jew to eat pork because tenderloin sandwiches are on the school menu, or forcing Christians to renounce Christ because they don’t sing Christmas carols in December at the school. This all smacks of favoritism to me.
posted August 14, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Did you notice, nnmns? We seem to agree on this one.
posted August 14, 2007 at 11:54 pm
WC, yes we do; I’m glad we can agree on some things.
posted August 15, 2007 at 12:20 am
Gee, I’d love to see these sorts of accomodations for Nativer American spirituality. Or Neo-Pagan.
This is crap – provide me with the full moons, new moons, solsitices and equinoxes off as holidays. Or how about proving me with an entirely ‘green’ workspace? Oh, and while we’re at it, I can only have all organic, local produced foods available in cafeterias.
If I fuss at someone for not recycling, which is a tenent of MY faith I’m told to piss off. I would just love to see what would happen if I insisted on having a foot wash built.
Can’t believe I’m with Christian advocates on this one, but you’d better spread around the accomodations. If Muslims can get these accomodations, EVERYONE should.
Special accomodations for anyone is bull – and to provide them to Muslims because of a backlash after 9-11? PLEASE!!!!!!!!!
Don’t push off Allah on me, or Moses, or Christ, or anyone other religious figure. I don’t push my Gods and Goddess off on anyone else.
posted August 15, 2007 at 1:01 am
When I was in elementary school many of the Catholic children got off school early one day a week to attend cathecism, we also had fish every friday in the school cafeteria because Catholics back then did not eat other meats on fridays. The church I grew up in had an anual convention every year and when I was in High School my friends from church and myself were allowed to attend and had excused absences from school for those day. One girl took an alternative PE class, when what was being offered was modern dance because dancing was against her religion. If these types of accomodations are still made for Christians and other religions then I don’t have a problem with similar accomodations for Muslims. If Muslims are allowed a special recess for prayer then Christians and people of other faiths should also be allowed that time for prayer. I don’t think that seperation of Church & State means that people can’t practice their religious faith in government owned facilities, only that the government can’t insist on a certain type of religion being practice or use government funds to promote the activity.
posted August 15, 2007 at 1:17 am
I’m finding this a bit unfair here.
If I began seeing foot baths and prayer rooms on my college campus I would begin to get concerned. Upon arriving at school it dawned on my that if I were Jewish and observing Koshar laws, then as a dorming student I would not be able to eat as there are no koshar options in any dining hall (except during passover) and all on campus students must have a meal plan. I’m not Jewish, but i’m sure there are effected students who have to limit their meals to salads and the vegan section. If observant Jewish students can’t have koshar meals, and Christan students can’t have the monday after Easter off so they can spend it with their family, then why should the campus have prayer rooms for Muslims? If you’re in college you should have to plan around prayer time anyway because in America, the work day doesn’t stop for anyones prayer ad school shouldn’t either.
posted August 15, 2007 at 1:19 am
Its alright to cry, crying get’s the sad out of you.
I like that ol’ song.
No one is forcing anyone to become Muslim, follow Islam, or obey Islamic law. There is an obvious distinction between Christian evangelical groups trying to force mandatory assemblies to pray to Jesus (as), which has happened, and Muslim groups using an empty room for prayer. Can you tell the difference? Perhaps you need to reenroll in some classes if you can’t.
If you attended college in the past 40 years, you may have noticed that there are all kinds of public college funds going to all kinds of groups- it promotes a diverse vibrant community. You have Latin groups, Asian groups, Rev Moon groups, Sci Fi groups, Gay groups, Young Republican groups. The only one you are complaining about are Muslims? Don’t want diversity? Take it up with your leaders who have supported diversity programs for decades to better integrate and stabilize minorities to encourage immigration, foreign investment, entrepeneuralism, and so forth.
But deny Muslim youth in America what is otherwise their legal rights? Well you must really want fightin’ in your streets then, huh? Because there are millions of young Muslims who have been raised in America under the perception that they can have a good life as long as they follow the rules and be good. But now if you change the system to say: all Muslims are bad by definition, then you have youth who will reject that. And as ritewing chickenhawk blackhearted deadenders spew hatred against Muslim youth, you are going to start gettingit back at you. That’s only human nature. That’s also American history.
Recent studies have shown that Muslims in America are less prone to violence or militancy precisely because they have been able to integrate and stabilize and secure a prosperous life in America. Take that away and you can expect worse than in Europe, because you will have youth who have tasted “freedom” and prosperity and opportunity and had it denied based solely on prejudice.
posted August 15, 2007 at 1:40 am
As for the rights of other minorities, its their onus to promote their own rights within the system. If a Jew wants kosher food available for him at a cafeteria, he needs to make that known. If that Jew eats nonkosher food or pork simply because there were no accomodations or only to assimilate with the daily menu, well, that’s really on him. That might suit him, but that’s not a standard of practice, belief, or principle I teach or encourage of my family.
As for the foot sinks, please. Muslims have a distinct hygiene etiquette which they are supposed to uphold. We’ve made do at regular sinks, but nonMuslims usually complain. But apparently someone allowed for some funds for minor foot sinks. No biggie given that 100s of billions are going to the rich.
Do Christians? Jews? Hindus? Buddhists have special hygiene etiquette? If so, then do you teach your children to adhere to it? If so, then is it distinct and require certain unique matters that are otherwise not available? If so, then make a legitimate request for it in your educational system. Otherwise, if you don’t wash your hands after you use the restroom, don’t care about bidets or washing your body, then don’t make a stink about those who do!!!:)!!!
BTW, nearly every school system accomodates individual religious holidays, its usually based on allowing personal holidays or leave. But the entire nation caters to Christian beliefs by having Saturday and Sunday off and thus the Jewish Sabbath, Christian prayer day, and all locales have Christmas off. The yearly calender is Gregorian based on Christian beliefs. Most public schools are named after Christian protestant European American men.
None of that is lost on the minorities of America.
posted August 15, 2007 at 9:53 am
Re: the Christianist who wants to institute a special recess for Christian students to pray during school time…
I don’t think this would jibe. There is no restriction in the Christian religion regarding what time one is supposed to pray, or how often. Christian children not having a prayer recess does not impact their ability to practice their religion.
Of course, that’s a reasonable position, so I don’t expect the Christianists to get it.
posted August 15, 2007 at 1:50 pm
~tv,
Please don’t tar all “Christianists” with the same brush! Most Christians are tolerant and reasonable. Unfortunately it seems that none of the tolerant and reasonable Christians choose to stand up for tolerance and reason. I choose to do so, but I am one small voice. I am trying to learn to roar…
posted August 15, 2007 at 7:36 pm
Usama, this article is about Muslims receiving special perks for their religion in schools and Colleges. It really isn’t about lets knock down Muslims. I quoted some man in the article who had an aside of not letting Muslim religion take over. I’m Christian and I don’t want to see Christian religion taking over in public schools, either. To get off of school because of a Holy Day is not disrupting the classrooms teaching or schedule. To have a room for prayer, and foot baths takes time to use, and disrupts study by all. These are places of learning, the public schools. Seperation of Church and state is necessary. Students can go to their own churches for their religion, and that means all people, in all religions. I attended a college in California with Islamic students, and they conformed to the colleges rules very well without suffering the loss of prayer rooms and footbaths. All the pushing for prayer by the fundamentalist Christians during the past few years has set this off, and it is interfering with the purpose of education. I’m sure my husbands alma mater, Chapman U. has all kinds of groups that have their own groups, and that is fine, as long as it does not infringe on study time.
posted August 16, 2007 at 9:02 pm
The question for me is, are the schools doing the special accomodations for this group because they don’t want to be accused of discrimination against Muslims?
As mentioned in other posts, many schools have been accomodating other religions for a very long time…Jews, Christians etc. If one group is given recognition, IMO all should. This is the USA, after all.
posted August 17, 2007 at 1:12 am
If Muslims are allowed an extra recess for prayer, why dont christians get an extra recess for bible study?
posted August 17, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Echoing what was said in the above article, the problem I see is if there is an extra, bending-over-backwards type of accomodation that favors one group over another.
With due respect to those who believe we live in “a Christian nation,” I don’t believe members of any religion in the U.S. (or secularists) ought to be treated as “first among equals.”
This seems like an excess of liberal “bending over backwards” to me. It reminds me of a discussion I had with a friend who thought that shariah laws ought to be observed in soccer leagues that included Muslim girls (so the Muslim girls wouldn’t feel “out of place.”) My response was “Over my dead body.”
posted August 18, 2007 at 12:30 pm
“If Muslims are allowed an extra recess for prayer, why dont christians get an extra recess for bible study?”
The answer is simple. Christians are not manadated to have Bible study at a certain time of the day every day.
Muslims have to pray at a certain time of the day every day.
Plus, since the Muslims are allowed to pray during that recess I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if the Christians decided to use that same time to have a bible study. Why do they have to carve out a whole different time for each religion?
I have to wonder how many elementary school students are complaining because they get an extra recess thanks to their Muslim classmates.
I’m guessing the answer is not many!
I think that there is a fine line between PROMOTING and ACCOMODATING reigion.
For example, I think that a Neo Pagan whose religion mandates recycling should be provided with recycling options: either be allowed to take recyclable items home to recycle them or be provided with recycle bins to deposit such items. I don’t think other students should be forced to recycle.
I think a Jewish student who can’t eat pork should be provided with Kosher options, or be allowed to opt out of a meal plan if Kosher options can not be provided. This is not forcing Judaism on anyone, as far as I know it’s not against anyone’s religion to eat Kosher food
I think that a Muslim who needs to pray at a certain time of day should be allowed a quiet space to pray and allowed the time to do that. If the teacher doesn’t want to suspend the whole class for the student to pray, that’s fine, the student should be allowed to leave the class to pray and then catch up after prayer, either by spending a few minutes after class with the teacher to get what he/she missed, or by asking another student to copy notes.
How does it count as in school prayer if no one is being forced to pray? It’s very different from reciting Christian prayers over the loud speaker for everyone to hear.
As for the teacher leading the prayer, I imagine it was a Muslim teacher acting as an Imam for the prayer. As long as the teacher doesn’t force anyone (Muslim or not) to pray, then I don’t see what the big deal is. Muslims are encouraged to pray as a group with a leader.
As for colleges and universitites providing foot baths, I don’t see this as promoting religion. Foot baths are not a religious symbol. They’re an accomodation, much like providing Kosher options or vegetarian options in the dining hall.
That’s my $0.02.