School Pushes Islam

In clear violation of the Seperation of Church and State...

Some say schools giving Muslims special treatment

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.

In the veiw that the 14th Amendment extends not only to state and local governments, but to schools, and government run businesses, this is a HUGE violation of the 1st Amendment. Not only is time being set aside for a religion practice with the explicit approval of the schhol, but one religion is getting special priviledges that other religions wouldn't get.

Even a Muslim advocate of seperation of Mosque and State sees issue here:

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.

While advocates say it's quite legal, decades of legal jurisprudence say otherwise. Schools building special prayer rooms for Muslims is advocacy of the religion, and is in clear violation of the 1st Amendment. That the ACLU is being cautious (for once), only shows the double standard that Jasser was talking about, not their famous "dedication to the constitution."