9th Circuit Court Says Teaching Children To Be Muslims OK
Posted on November 18, 2005
Hat tip: My Pet Jawa
SAN FRANCISCO - Christian students and parents cannot sue a school district where some seventh-graders pretended to be Muslims for three weeks during a course in world history, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the role-playing game was not a religious exercise that violated anybody’s constitutional rights.
The decision was issued one day after the U.S. House of Representatives chastised the 9th Circuit for ruling earlier this month that parents can’t sue public schools for providing information about sex. That decision “deplorably infringed on parental rights,” said the House resolution.
Thursday’s decision came down in an unpublished memorandum, indicating the judges considered it routine.They reviewed the method used by one teacher in Byron, Contra Costa County, four years ago to teach the unit on Muslim history, culture and religion that is part of the state’s seventh-grade history curriculum.
Brooke Carlin encouraged her students to play at being Muslims - adopt Muslim names, recite a line from a prayer and give up candy or television to simulate fasting, for example. Students were permitted to opt out. On the final exam they were asked to critique elements of Muslim culture.
Jonas and Tiffany Eklund sued, along with their children. San Francisco U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed the suit two years ago, saying Carlin was merely teaching and not indoctrinating. Hamilton found that the students did not engage in actual religious exercises.
The 9th Circuit upheld her decision in a five-sentence ruling, saying only that the activities weren’t “overt religious exercises” that would raise concerns under the First Amendment prohibition of “establishment of religion.”
Senior Circuit Judge Dorothy Nelson of Pasadena and Circuit Judges Johnnie Rawlinson of Las Vegas and Carlos Bea of San Francisco signed the decision.
The unpublished memo format indicates the appellate judges did not believe they were breaking legal ground. Unpublished decisions cannot be cited in future cases.
But Edward White, who represents the Eklunds on behalf of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., called the ruling “an opinion without any precedent.”
He said the judges overlooked arguments he made about parental rights and freedom to exercise the religion one chooses.
You can bet if the children were subjected to participate in a Christian themed role playing game such as a nativity scene in a Christmas Winter Break play that the Seperation of Church and State Clause of the Living Document would have had precedent. However, since its not Christianity, the 9th Circus found it o.k. to indoctrinate into children. Where is the ACLU on this one? Anyone? How is it that Gideons giving out little new testaments are found as a threat, but teaching children to recite Muslim prayers is not? So they had the choice to opt out, just like voluntary prayer, or reciting the pledge without using “Under God”, but somehow this is different. Please, Congress split this Circus up!
Can we find a teacher out there willing to make some Muslim students pretend to be Christians for a few weeks? You know, just to better understand the culture and all.
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38 Responses to “9th Circuit Court Says Teaching Children To Be Muslims OK”
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Ninth Circuit: No Right To Sue Over Schools’ “Pretend To Be A Muslim For Three Weeks” Assignment
Whatever. Let’s just stop saying “separation of church and state” and call it “separation of Christianity and state,” because that’s all this clause seems to mean. In the opinion of our Judicial Overlords, of course….
Wow. I’m strongly for the separation of church and state. Maybe this story will convince my Baptist brethren how dangerous it is to abandon that ideal!
Howie
9th Circuit says Islamic Role playing OK
I reported on this outrage in previous articles, and we all know the 9th circuit is the most ovcer-turned court in the land, but this decision is blatantly biased!
From an article in SacBee.com:
Christian students and parents cannot sue a school…
[...] Thanks to Stop the ACLU for this story!   [link] [...]
Split it up? How about impeaching a few of the more disgraceful Constitutional violators? Then split it up.
The 9th Circuit Court: Consistent or Hypocritical?
Well, isn’t this precious! The 9th Circuit Court says teaching children to be Muslims is fine with them!Christian students and parents cannot sue a school district where some seventh-graders pretended to be Muslims for three weeks during a course in…
The 9th Circuit Court is at it again. How dressing up like a Muslim, reciting Muslim prayers and simulating Muslim religious fasting (I guess for Ramadan) in school doesn’t violate a prohibition respecting the advocacy of a Religion in public education is beyond me. Especially when the mere mention of Christmas, or anything remotely Christian, in a Christmas Carol at a school play does. The Justices of the 9th Circuit and their mush head bretheren at the ACLU must think the rest of the country is so stupid as not to see the hypocracy of all this. Examples like above have convinced me over the years that the courts are the biggest threat, along with the ACLU, to personel freedom and America culture today.
11 18 05
It just shows the comunazi hypocrisy of those moonbats!
My understanding is that if you once say “there is no god but Allah …” you are a muslim forever, and subject to shari’a. Does anyone have any facts on this? Did the teacher have the students recite it? In English or in Arabic? To an American teacher it may seem trivial. To Al Zarqawi it might seem to require action under the fatwa that says converting from Islam to anyhing else is a capital crime.
Brush up on your law, 9th Circuit Style!
From the Sacramento Bee(free registration required):Christian students and parents cannot sue a school district where some seventh-graders pretended to be Muslims for three weeks during a course in world history, a federal appeals court ruled Thurs…
[...] Via Stop the ACLU: Brooke Carlin encouraged her students to play at being Muslims - adopt Muslim names, recite a line from a prayer and give up candy or television to simulate fasting, for example. Students were permitted to opt out. On the final exam they were asked to critique elements of Muslim culture.Jonas and Tiffany Eklund sued, along with their children. San Francisco U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton dismissed the suit two years ago, saying Carlin was merely teaching and not indoctrinating. Hamilton found that the students did not engage in actual religious exercises.The 9th Circuit upheld her decision in a five-sentence ruling, saying only that the activities weren’t “overt religious exercises” that would raise concerns under the First Amendment prohibition of “establishment of religion.” [...]
Better yet, Jay: let’s have the Muslim students pretend to be Jewish children for a week. After all, they’ve always shown such eagerness to get along with their fellow descendants of Abraham.
Dick
So what’s next for our vaunted education system?
Why don’t we, during a class on the history of WW2, have the kids break into groups an play out different sides of the war, simply to give them a better understanding of the history behind the war?
We could have some kids be American GI’s, some kids be allies, some play the Japs, some the Italians and of course, no WW2 histroy lesson would be complete without a few Nazi’s and some Death Camp players.
We can have a few kids be civilians that, simply to simulate getting bombed out of their homes, must live in their yards eating whatever food they can scrounge from the GI kids, all the while the Nazi kids could lock the Jewish kids up until the assigment is over, making them do the chores the Nazi kids don’t feel like doing themselves.
Of course, any kids playing the French would have to walk around the whole time with their hands up begging not to be killed.
“Why don’t we, during a class on the history of WW2, have the kids break into groups an play out different sides of the war,”
They could do with a board game like Axis & Allies.
Nope nope nope…..they didn’t have a board game called Infidels and Imams in that history class….gotta keep things on an even playing field.
Imagine how much fun this concept could be…..makes studying history even more fun…..I can’t wait until they start teaching about the Vikings or The Golden Age of Piracy.
Gee. Wasn’t the teacher a woman?
Maybe some of the boy students could/shoud have beaten the teacher for not being subserviant to the boy students and not treaching in a Burqa.
[...] I haven’t read the more recent case, but I am intrigued by the suggestion in the post (made by Jay at Stop the ACLU) concerning whether the teacher’s actions might be viewed differently if she were encouraging Muslim students to act like Christians. [...]
9th Circus Court
Crossposted from Stop The ACLU While we mainly focus on the ACLU over at Stop The ACLU,we feel obligated to keep everyone aware of other issues as well, especially judicial activism. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is one of…
“Can we find a teacher out there willing to make some Muslim students pretend to be Christians for a few weeks? You know, just to better understand the culture and all.”
Really we need to teach the arab world about liberalism and feminism.
Actus, while feminism has become extreme here in America, I agree that they need to lean about equal rights for women.
[...] You can always count on the liberasshats of the 9th Circus to come up with all manner of illogical twists and turns when it comes to protecting the mythical separation of church and state (we’ve yet to see it mentioned in the Constitution), but their zeal is nowhere to be found if we’re talking about separations of mosque and state. [...]
hahaha [edited] idiots
CARNIVAL OF THE CLUELESS #22
This late, late edition of the Carnival is dedicated to Nyquil, Actifed,, Robitussin, and my sainted Irish grandmother’s concoction of one part Lipton Tea, one part (Irish) whiskey, and one part barley soup. Of course, Irish whiskey is one of th…
WHAT ARE YOUR KIDS LEARNING ABOUT ISLAM?
Via Ann Althouse and others comes news from the San Francisco Chronicle of yet another disturbing 9th Circuit court ruling: A Contra Costa County school was educating seventh-graders about Islam, not indoctrinating them, in role-playing sessions in whi…
I second the motion to have a teacher make a Muslim student be a Christian for three weeks. Wow - the fireworks would be huge!
If I, with merely a bachelor’s degree, could look at the opposite of the situation and see the illegality (and lunacy) of it, why can’t judgtes?
Monday Linkfest
A look at the top stories around the blogosphere.
The 9th Endorses School Prayer…to Allah
“What happened in this classroom was clearly an endorsement of religion and indoctrination of children in the Islamic religion, which would never have stood if it were a class on Christianity or Judaism.”
Monday Quickies
I’m still polishing my review of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but I’ll tell you now. Go.See.It. I have today off and I’m dashing off in a few minutes to finish my Christmas shopping. I loathe shopping in…
9th Circuit Court gives public school an Islamic e
*9th Circuit Court judges pat the heads of Christian parents* “Nice Dhimmis, nice little Dhimmis. You behave and go on home now. We’ll do the thinking for you.”
So I guess we’re gonna have the go-ahead now to teach Judaism and Christianity in cl…
California is like a different country these days. It seems they and the ACLU should cecede from the rest of us. If they tried to do this with Christianity or Judaism, we’d be accused of not being sensitive to Muslims in this day and age.
Linked post:
Now That Schools Can Teach Islam, They Can Teach Christianity Too
Link:
http://ginacobb.typepad.com/gina_cobb/2005/11/ninth_circuit_b.html
Islam In The Classroom: 9th Circuit Court Endorses Teaching of Religion In Public Schools
S.F. Chronicle reports: “A Contra Costa County school was educating seventh-graders about Islam, not indoctrinating them, in role-playing sessions in which students used Muslim names and recited language from prayers, a federal appeals court rul…
how about this: Islam is not a religion. It is a competing legal system, devised by a caravan raider/pedophile and used throughout its history to justify the worst treatmant of women, children, noncombatants, prisoners, and citizens of what ever place where it gained sway.
Now if one taught another competing legal system, say that of the Hebrews, or Morgan and Bartholomew Roberts rules for pirates it may not be unconstitutional.
Islam is ambiguous, so when you care to treat it like religion, it is a legal system. If you treat it like an alternative legal system (which disagrees with the US Constitution, and hence holds no sway here)it suddenly receives protection as a religion.
9th Circuit Court of Appeals: Islam Can Be Taught in Schools
This wins the prize for the most hypocritical thing I’ve seen all year. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that it was not overtly religious or unconstitutional for California schools to have children dress up as Muslims, recite Muslim prayer…
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Does It Again
Michelle Malkin has written a posting entitled What are your kids learning about Islam? which discusses a 9th Circuit Court decision and includes this quote from a newspaper article on the decision: Edward White of the Thomas More Center, the…
The 9th Circuit, part 8745
Via Michelle Malkin: The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a lawsuit by two Christian students and their parents, who accused the Byron Union School District of unconstitutionally endorsing a religious practice. “The Islam program activitie…
[...] Jay at StoptheACLU reacts to a 9th Circus Court ruling that says teaching children to be Muslims is OK. Wants to know if we can find a teacher out there willing to make some Muslim students pretend to be Christians for a few weeks? You know, just to better understand the culture and all. -Not holding my breath here. Posted 9:56 am No Comments » [...]
Ninth Circus at it again
The same court that ruled that saying the pledge of allegiance is unconstitutional, because it contains the words "under God"…