Free Republic

An Islamic group has been banned from visiting classrooms in Seminole County schools after officials said it crossed the line between telling students about the Muslim culture and pushing its religion. The flap over the Academy for Learning Islam's visit to Lake Brantley High School also has caused the school system to re-evaluate who it lets into county classrooms to present educational programs and what they can talk about. By fall, teachers will have stricter guidelines. Speakers on religion, drugs, alcohol and nearly 50 other touchy topics will get closer scrutiny before they can speak on campuses, Superintendent Bill Vogel...

The Friendswood Junior High principal who outraged some parents by allowing an Islamic group to make a 40-minute presentation to students last month is now off the job. In a two-sentence statement sent late Wednesday, the school district said Robin Lowe "has accepted another administrative position effective immediately."

The curriculum at a charter school catering to Muslims complies with federal and state law, the state Education Department said Monday but it directed other changes be made in religious areas. The state said Tarik ibn Zayad Academy should change its busing schedule and its handling of Friday prayer services. The shorter prayer services on other days were found to be acceptable, but not the 30-minute service on school grounds on Muslim's holy day. The department said bus rides home should be available right after school ends; currently students must wait until after a voluntary after-school religious program. State law...

The state Education Department on Monday directed a Minnesota charter school to "correct" two areas related to religion at the school. Tarik ibn Zayad Academy, which focuses on Middle Eastern culture and shares a mosque with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, came under fire after a teacher alleged that the school was offering religious instruction in Islam to its students. Charter schools in Minnesota are publicly funded and must be nonsectarian. The allegations first surfaced in an article by Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten. The Education Department subsequently began a review of the suburban Inver Grove Heights school and...

Hey.. how do you folks feel about prayers in public schools? It's a controversial issue so just wanted to hear what you guys have to say on the matter. In favor/opposed and reasons.

The Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a public charter school in Inver Grove, MN that “offers tuition-free education to all students upon admission” is in full swing with Islamic centered traditions at taxpayer’s expense. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that the school serves halal food- Islamic permissible food-and that students participate in ritual washing and prayers. It offers Islamic studies and requires students to study Arabic as a second language. The school’s calendar also reflects that it is closed for an entire week in October in observance of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan.

The East Brunswick school board was within its rights to tell a football coach he cannot kneel and bow his head as members of his team have a student-led pre-game prayer, a federal appeals court ruled today.  The ruling from the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversed a lower-court ruling made almost two years ago.  All three members of the three-judge panel wrote their own opinions on the issue, which pits the right to free speech against the freedom from official establishment of a religion.The judges agreed the East Brunswick Board of Education's policy barring school...

Recently, I wrote about Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion. Evidence suggests, however, that TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers. TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is "establishing Islam in Minnesota." The building also houses a mosque. TIZA's executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.

Via the magic of Ms Rabbit,we get to look at a case involving Americans United for Separation of Church and State v Marcus Borden : a football coach who won the right to bow his head or kneel respectfully when his team prays.

See You at the Pole™ is a student-initiated, student organized, and student-led event. That means this is all about students meeting at their school flagpole to pray—for their school, friends teachers, government, and their nation. See You at the Pole™ is not a demonstration, political rally, nor a stand for or against anything. See You at the Pole™ is scheduled annually on the fourth Wednesday in September, which is September 26 in 2007. The suggested starting time is 7 a.m. If that doesn't work for your school, choose a time that will work for your school, but let everyone at...

Prayer at the pole WHO CAN BLAME teachers and administrators for being confused about the proper relationship between religion and public schools? From "winter concerts" to "spring break," it seems safest just to ban issues of faith from the grounds. No risk of lawsuits or angry phone calls from parents--and just one problem: Outlawing expressions of faith is not constitutional. Tomorrow's "See You at the Pole" event is a case in point. Begun in Burleson, Texas, in 1990, SYATP is a student-initiated movement that encourages kids to gather at the flagpole before the opening bell on the last Wednesday in...

Among many parents at Rosemeade Elementary, he is viewed as a nuisance. But David Wallace Croft says he is fighting against the influence of "Judeo-Christian monotheism." He defines himself as an atheist, an "optihumanist" and a Libertarian. Over the past several years, he has fought any signs of religion at the Carrollton school his three children attend. He complained about Boy Scout rallies held during school, fliers sent home about Good News Bible Club meetings and the inclusion of "Silent Night" and a Hanukkah song in holiday concerts. The rallies and fliers stopped, and in some cases the songs were...

SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego school that drew international attention for setting aside time for Muslim students to pray in the classroom will no longer do so, it was reported Friday. Instead, Carver Elementary's schedule will be reconfigured so students can say their required midday prayers during lunch. Courts have long upheld students' rights to pray on their own during lunch or recess, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. When the new school year begins, Carver will have two lunch periods, including one that will fall when Muslims typically say their midday prayer -- between 1 and 2 p.m., the...

A Louisiana school district that has been riddled with religious lawsuits got some backing Wednesday after a panel of judges overturned a decision that had formerly barred them from opening their meetings with prayer. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that the Tangipahoa Parish School Board – which has had five religious-related lawsuits brought against it in the past 13 years – could not be held accountable for an “offended observer” and has the right to have voluntary prayer at their meetings. According to attorneys from the faith-based legal group Alliance Defense Fund (ADF), the decision...

Political Correctness: Seems the ACLU couldn't care less that a San Diego public school has set aside 15 minutes of classroom instruction time for Muslim students to pray, while non-Muslims twiddle their thumbs. Right now it has no plans to legally challenge the budding madrassa as endorsement of a religion by government. Apparently the establishment clause only applies to the practice of Judeo-Christian rituals in public places. The special accommodations for Carver Elementary's nearly 100 Somali Muslims don't stop with organized prayer. The school cafeteria has banned pork and other foods that conflict with the Islamic diet.

As young people around the nation graduate from academic institutions of all types, I espouse that we all graduate in our understanding of what our Founders wanted for public education. A while ago, I read a few blogs in which skeptics were taking issue with information I presented in my column on our Founders' endorsement of the Bible being taught in public schools, which is even now happening in 373 school districts in 37 states, including my home state of Texas. Because my wife, Gena, and I are on the board of the National Council of Bible Curriculum in...

Religious expression in public schoolshttp://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051507.01A.praying_kids.346b298.html http://tinyurl.com/2f9gzw Web Posted: 05/14/2007 11:03 PM CDT J. Michael Parker Express-News Religion Writer Zach Van Veldhuizen believes Jesus should be honored in public schools. The MacArthur High School senior doesn't understand why prayers or other religious expressions at school-sponsored events would be a problem. But Katina Rajunov, a Clark High School senior, believes that religious messages given at school-sponsored events might make students of differing faiths feel excluded. Enter the Texas Legislature, which has joined the fray most commonly the province of school district officials, who often face a conundrum in the religious freedoms of...

12 Washington State High School Students Suspended for Public Prayer Group By Gudrun Schultz VANCOUVER, Washington, March 6, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A number of students who formed an interdenominational prayer group at a Washington state high school were expelled by the administration last week over their refusal to hold a morning prayer session in a closed room, The Columbian reported March 2. Twelve students at Heritage High School in Vancouver, WA, were suspended last Friday after continuing to meet for morning prayer in the commons area of the school, despite a faculty order that they stop causing physical "disruption" to...

No Prayer in School? Millions of Students Will Pray at "See You At The Pole" Gatherings ORLANDO, FL - Wednesday, September 27, is the official day for the 17th annual "See You At The Pole" prayer rallies. The rallies are student-initiated, student-led events where students gather before school to pray for their classmates, teachers, schools, families, communities, states and nations. Each year approximately three million students from all fifty states and more than twenty countries gathered around school flagpoles to pray. Students in the United States have often met with resistance from school officials who are not educated about constitutional...

There are signs of faith and prayer everywhere you look in sports these days. The huddle of players kneeling in prayer on the field after every NFL game. Basketball players making the sign of the cross before shooting a free throw. Fingers pointed toward the sky after home runs and touchdowns. Signs for chapel services in baseball clubhouses. Bible study and Christian fellowship groups at high school and college campuses across the country. "I don't think a relationship with the Lord only occurs in church or only in your own private lives," says Washington basketball coach Lorenzo Romar. "Every moment...

Marcus Borden walked into his office, turned off the lights and sat down in a chair. Faced with the biggest decision of his coaching career, the veteran East Brunswick High School mentor closed his teary eyes. Twenty-three years of memories — some of which were scattered across the walls in photos and plaques — came flooding back in a wave of emotion. Through the darkness, Borden could see the past. The future, however, was much less clear. "I just looked around and around and I said, "I'm in a bind here,' " Borden recalled of the moments leading to his...

Jack Howard for The New York Times The high school football coach Marcus Borden is suing the school district in East Brunswick, N.J., for banning him from leading his players in prayer. The team finished its season yesterday. EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J., Nov. 24 - In small towns across the land, high school football is a slice of Americana served up on Thanksgiving before the pumpkin and pecan pies...snip ...last year, the Bears lost to the Knights but went on to win the highly competitive Central Jersey Group IV championship. This year, the team has attracted national attention for reasons...

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the East Brunswick High School football coach can bend a knee and bow his head while his players recite pre-game prayers this season, ending a dispute that had mushroomed into a nationally recognized test of the separation of church and state. After nearly two hours of arguments, U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh sided with the coach, Marcus Borden, declaring "taking a knee" isn't praying and that the Middlesex County school district can't order him to stand still while his players perform a locker room ritual that spans decades. "Tradition plays a part, and the...

Candidate Kinky holds court at Bleacher's Cafe RUTH BRADLEY AVALANCHE-JOURNAL When Kinky Friedman walked into Bleacher's Sports Cafe Sunday afternoon, a cigar in his mouth, he stopped for a moment to take a picture with a constituent before taking his place on stage next to a sign reading "Keep Austin weird, make Lubbock Kinky." This is not your typical gubernatorial candidate. And that's the way Friedman wants it. "I think that most of us have come to the conclusion that we could use a non-politician to run the state of Texas," he said, a cigar in one hand and a...

Rudy Guiliani has marched in lockstep with liberals on affirmative action, gay rights, gay marriage, gun control, school prayer, tuition tax credits, liberal immigration policies, and he's reinforced it, time and time again. Just about everytime Rudy opens his mouth, offensive liberal words come pouring out. As Mayor, Rudy put liberals in high-paid city jobs, an indication what a Rudy WH would look like. Here then is Rudy in his own words: --The New York State Liberal Party on its endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for Mayor: "When the Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of...

Election Year Hypocrisy From Byrd On School Prayer WASHINGTON-Senator Robert Byrd opened himself up to charges of election year hypocrisy yesterday as he pushed for a school prayer amendment despite the fact his re-election campaign's largest financial backer is the anti-school prayer group MoveOn. "To those who have doubts that Senator Byrd has lost touch with the common sense values of West Virginia, I recommend they look at who is bankrolling his campaign. $800,000 is a lot of money from a group dedicated to stopping the very type of school prayer amendment Senator Byrd was praising. This is called hypocrisy,"...

American Muslim News Briefs Thursday, May 25, 2006 KY: High School Prayer Axed After Muslim Complaint Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS SHELBYVILLE - The principal of Shelby County High School said the school will not have formal prayer at graduation exercises next month after receiving a complaint from a student and the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. Principal Gary Kidwell met Monday with the Board of Education and a lawyer as residents held a prayer vigil outside. Tuesday, Kidwell said the school will break from the tradition of student-led invocations and benedictions at graduation June 2. The school "will be compliant...

The ACLU once again finds an very accommodating federal judge who found no problem in destroying the only absolute sovereignty for which this nation rests upon: the people. U.S. District Judge Joseph McKinley granted a temporary restraining order sought by a student who didn't want prayer to be part of the graduation exercises from a south-central Kentucky school some 110 miles southeast of Louisville. This didn't stop the principal at the beginning of the graduation ceremony from reciting the Lord's Prayer, prompting a standing ovation from a standing-room only crowd at the Russell County High School gymnasium. We can...

A group of Baptist leaders called on its members Friday to "speak positively about public education" in response to a conservative movement to pull Baptist children out of public schools. Fifty-six pastors and organizational leaders -- some from the conservative Southern Baptist Convention and others from the more moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship -- signed a letter supporting public schools. The document was posted Friday on the Web site of the Baptist Center for Ethics, a Nashville group that often criticizes the conservative direction of the Southern Baptist Convention. The letter said it's wrong for church leaders to urge their congregations...

(AgapePress) - A Texas high school has agreed to allow its Muslim students to pray during school hours. L.V. Berkner High School in Richardson had told its 30 Muslim students that praying on campus violated the U.S. Constitution's establishment clause, or the so-called separation of church and state.In an e-mail memo to all teachers and staff, the school's principal had stated previously that "No students are to be allowed to leave [the] classroom at any time to go pray." However, after the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty intervened on behalf of the students, the Richardson Independent School District (RISD)...

An Ohio high school that barred a Muslim from praying at school reached a compromise, allowing the Islamic ritual to be performed in certain classrooms at lunch as well as before and after class hours. The 17-year-old junior, whose name was not released, was assisted by the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. School officials initially told the student the mandatory prayers could not be performed at school. The performance of the salat, or prayer, five times a day is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Muslims are required to face Mecca when they pray...

There are signs of faith and prayer everywhere you look in sports these days. Players kneeling in prayer on the field after NFL games. Fingers pointed skyward after home runs, touchdowns and victories. Signs for chapel services in baseball clubhouses. Bible study and Christian fellowship groups at high school and college campuses across the country. "I don't think a relationship with the Lord only occurs in church or only in your own private lives," says University of Washington basketball coach Lorenzo Romar. "Every moment you walk, you want to live in such a manner that you are acknowledging God's presence....

An award-winning New Jersey high school football coach who was barred by his school district from partaking in pre-game prayers with his players has filed suit alleging that his constitutional rights have been violated. Marcus Borden's lawsuit, filed with the Middlesex County Superior Court, asks that the court prohibit the East Brunswick school district from enforcing its policy on prayer. Borden wants to be able to silently nod his head during team prayers before pre-game meals with players and to kneel on one knee with the team in the locker room before the games, actions that violate the current policy....

In May of this year, a Jonesboro student gave a prayer during a high school graduation ceremony at the Arkansas State University Convocation Center. During the prayer, which lasted four minutes, she gave an “altar call” to the community, asking those in the audience to come forward to accept Jesus Christ. “In the closing moments of this service, if you would like to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, here's your chance,” said senior Jessica Reed in a May 20, 2005 taped video of JHS graduation ceremonies. “We were contacted sometime after that by the American Civil Liberties...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- The American Civil Liberties Union is raising new allegations about the Aggie football program. The ACLU New Mexico filed a grievance last month against Aggie head football coach Hal Mumme. It alleges he discriminated against a released Muslim player by repeatedly questioning him about al-Qaida. It also alleges the football staff required the team to recite the Lord's Prayer at the end of each practice. The university hired a law firm to investigate. The ACLU is asking that the law firm hired also investigate a new allegation that the team had to recite the Lord's Prayer...

This whole pro-gay, anti-God thing has gotten so far out of hand to be surreal. There is a girl in Cal who is suing the govt to get the pledge of allegiance out of schools, while the ACLU back "tolerance day" while young children are taught that its OK to have a personality disorder that leads to same sex attraction. The ACLU has become public enemy number one not because they defend people's rights, but because they only defend the rights of the pro-gay, pro-abortion, anti-God cases. They are highjacking the country and forcing our children to feel like its...

Controversy erupts over pregame prayer: Parents allege East Brunswick football coach Marcus Borden violated federal laws protecting separation of church and state in public schools by initiating prayers Home News Tribune Online 10/9/05 By GREG TUFARO - STAFF WRITER gtufaro@eastbrun.gannett.com EAST BRUNSWICK — East Brunswick High School football coach Marcus Borden resigned in protest yesterday after school officials told the national-award-winning mentor he could no longer initiate or participate in team prayer. Offered no explanation for Borden's absence, confused players took the field against Sayreville on Friday night without their veteran head coach of 23 years. Borden opted to forgo...

Oct. 11 EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A veteran central New Jersey high school football coach has resigned after being told by school officials he could no longer lead his team in pregame prayer. East Brunswick coach Marcus Borden was told last Friday by Schools Superintendent Jo Ann Magistro that some parents had complained about prayers Borden initiated at pregame meals and before the games. After being told he would have to stop leading or taking part in the prayers, Borden stepped down from his position, just hours before his team's 21-0 loss to Sayreville that evening. "I'm very disappointed," Borden...

Marcus Borden, the head football coach at East Brunswick for the last 23 seasons, has submitted his resignation. Borden, who could not be reached for comment, was summoned to a meeting with Dr. Jo Ann Magistro, the East Brunswick Public Schools superintendent, on Friday after the issue of pre-game team prayer had been brought to the administration's attention. Trish LaDuca, the coordinator of community relations and programs for East Brunswick Public Schools, said the superintendent's office was informed early in the week that there was prayer activity taking place at the team's pre-game dinners.

Teachers, Parents, Students, Homeschoolers, Citizens-- This Wednesday 9/21 is See You At The Pole day, people all across the country are meeting at school flagpoles before school for prayer. A great way for teachers, parents and students to connect and encourage one another on campus....home schoolers, please also help defend and protect your rights on taxpayer-owned land by showing up! See You at the Pole is a student-initiated and student-led movement that started in the Ft. Worth suburb of Burleson, Texas, in 1990. Everything necessary for students to plan and promote a successful SYATP is available free at http://www.syatp.com. In...

"Yasmeen Elsamra had a simple request: While her classmates were eating lunch, she wanted to go off by herself for a few moments to pray. The 14-year-old was told she couldn't, and went home distraught that afternoon in October 2003. Praying five times a day is a cornerstone of her Muslim faith."

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Two First Amendment Center booklets containing instructions on handling religion in Alabama's public schools are being distributed to some 50,000 teachers statewide by the Alabama Education Association. The state teachers union is distributing the 16-page "The Bible and Public Schools" and the 20-page "A Teacher's Guide to Religion in Public Schools." An AEA spokesman, David Stout, said the goal was to dispel the notion that the Bible and prayer aren't allowed in public schools. Stout said yesterday no particular school event led AEA to distribute the booklets. He said the group was encouraged to do it by...

A local ACLU director equated al-Qaida terrrorists with members of a Louisiana school board seeking to open their meetings with prayer. Joe Cook of the ACLU of Louisiana spoke on camera with WAFB-TV, Baton Rouge, La., while staff and teachers of the Tangipahoa Parish district in New Orleans were at a seminar being informed of their free-speech rights by a member of the Alliance Defense Fund. Referring to the school board, Cook said, "They believe that they answer to a higher power, in my opinion. Which is the kind of thinking that you had with the people who flew the...

PONCHATOULA, La. — More than 1,000 Tangipahoa Parish teachers took a class on prayer in schools in an effort to avoid further lawsuits over the issue. The 18,000-student school system has been the subject of four federal lawsuits in just over a decade over religion in public schools. “A lot of you are under the impression that prayer has been removed from our school system,” said Superintendent Louis Joseph. “We can still pray but we just have to follow certain rules.” The School Board signed a consent judgment in August 2004 to settle a lawsuit filed by the ACLU over...

WASHINGTON - Supreme Court nominee John Roberts showed sympathy for the idea of permitting prayer in public schools in 1985, according to a memo released on Monday, writing that a ruling to the contrary "seems indefensible" under the Constitution. As a young lawyer working in the Reagan administration, Roberts wrote he would have no objection if the Justice Department wanted to express support for a constitutional amendment permitting prayer. Referring to a Supreme Court ruling issued earlier that year that struck down an Alabama school prayer law, he said, "The conclusion ... that the Constitution prohibits such a moment of...

As a young government attorney, John Roberts advised the White House to support congressional efforts to allow school prayer, arguing that a Supreme Court ruling striking down the practice "seems indefensible." In a Nov. 21, 1985 memo released Monday by the National Archives, Roberts was responding to a move by Congress to permit "group silent prayer or reflection in public schools." He said he would not object if Justice Department officials announced that President Reagan had no formal role in passing an amendment to that effect, but said he would support such a move. The Supreme Court's conclusion that "the...

NEW ORLEANS -- The American Civil Liberties Union has asked a federal judge to jail public school teachers and administrators for allegedly violating a court-imposed ban on school prayers. It's the fourth time the ACLU has told Judge Ginger Berrigan that officials in Louisiana's Tangipahoa Parish are flouting her prayer ban. This time, the ACLU said an elementary school teacher repeatedly held prayers in her fourth-grade class, encouraged students to bring their Bibles to school, held Bible studies in the school cafeteria and admonished students who didn't show up. In addition, the ACLU cited a prayer "in Jesus' name" that...

This one is done different from any of the other I have seen. It is neat. (Embedded image moved to file: pic27446.gif) (Embedded image moved to file: pic23805.jpg) Now I sit me down in school Where praying is against the rule For this great nation under God Finds mention of Him very odd. If Scripture now the class recites, It violates the Bill of Rights. And anytime my head I bow Becomes a Federal matter Our hair can be purple, orange or green, That's no offense; it's a freedom scene. The law is specific, the law is precise. Prayers spoken...

Bad news and Good News -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 3, 2005 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com I've got bad news and good news – as you probably gathered from the headline. The bad news is the church in America is asleep. The same church that inspired the War of Independence, the same church that helped shape America's heritage and destiny, the same church that birthed the greatest experiment in freedom the world has ever known ... that church today is on life support. I don't know exactly when it happened. But I know it has been comatose for too long....

NEW ORLEANS -- A U.S. District Court judge dismissed on Tuesday the two contempt of court motions filed against the Tangipahoa Parish School Board for prayers given during school functions -- an apparent violation of the court's February ruling banning public prayers there. In her order, U.S. District Court Judge Ginger Berrigan outlines conditions for her dismissal and gives the option for the ACLU to reissue the motions later. Berrigan wrote that she is convinced the school board respects the rule of law and intends to abide by "even unpopular court rulings pending further appeals." But the school system may...