Here's an exasperating story exposing not only the education establishment's double standards but also its "tolerance run amok" approach to militant Islam. It involves Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a publicly funded charter school in Minnesota, which has been engaging in coercive, illegal religious indoctrination.Katherine Kersten, columnist for the Star-Tribune, initially broke the story and then followed up with an eyewitness report from a substitute teacher:
...Arriving on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, she says she was told that the day's schedule included a "school assembly" in the gym after lunch.
Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform "their ritual washing."
Afterward, Getz said, "teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day," was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man "was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered."
"The prayer I saw was not voluntary," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."
Islamic Studies was also incorporated into the school day. "When I arrived, I was told 'after school we have Islamic Studies,' and I might have to stay for hall duty," Getz said. "The teachers had written assignments on the blackboard for classes like math and social studies. Islamic Studies was the last one -- the board said the kids were studying the Qu'ran. The students were told to copy it into their planner, along with everything else. That gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other."
After school, Getz's fifth-graders stayed in their classroom and the man in white who had led prayer in the gym came in to teach Islamic Studies. TIZA has in effect extended the school day -- buses leave only after Islamic Studies is over."...
An investigation of the school was finally launched but the subsequent actions have been milquetoast at best. (Check out the official findings here.) Indeed, Minnesota education officials bent over backwards to complement and appease the Tarek ibn Ziyad officials and would only concede there had been a "potential" violation of laws. They notified the school that it had to make a few cosmetic changes to its Friday prayer efforts, i.e., dealing with the lack of transportation service for students who opt out of prayers (if they are allowed to opt out!), but otherwise let things continue as they have: Muslim indoctrination, communal prayers with teachers present, and all with financial help from Minnesota's taxpayers.
Says Scott Johnson, blogging at Power Line, "Who is kidding whom? The Minnesota Department of Education's investigation is of the kind perfected by Inspector Clouseau."
How do you think things would go down if the prayers involved Christian students? Or if the curriculum being investigated included the Bible?
And, oh yes; here is another stark example of the double standard. Read this KSTP report (including a dramatic video clip) showing just how aggressive and intolerant the Islamic school's officials are about the free flow of information and then try to imagine anything similar happening if the TV crew had gone to any one of a dozen Christian schools in the area -- schools which are, of course, privately funded.
One other note: In the Power Line blog post mentioned above, Johnson describes how a particularly peeved Minnesota politician swiftly called for a resignation as soon as the story broke. But, get this, it wasn't a school official or an education bureaucrat whose head was demanded. No, the politician (one Mindy Greiling, a state representative who just happens to chair the House of Representatives K-12 Finance Division) wanted the resignation of Katherine Kersten, the Star-Tribune columnist for bringing the truth about the Islamic charter school to light! Amazing.
Johnson writes, "Greiling assured Minnesotans that everything at the school was A-OK based on her Potemkin Village tour of the school provided by principal Asad Zaman. We are still waiting to hear back from Greiling in response to our request that she identify any alleged error of fact in Kersten's column; we have also called on Greiling to resign."
Especially if you live in Minnesota, I would think a few letters would be very much in order: thank-yous to Ms. Kersten, KSTP and those blogs giving you the straight story...and a few "what on earth is going on with our money" letters to Ms. Greiling and the timid officials of the Minnesota Education Association.
For yet more on this matter, read through Katherine Kersten's own take (complete with the text of Greiling's angry letter calling Kersten a "thug.")
