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Kathy Kersten has a great article in today's Strib on a charter school in which religion isn't just taught, it's mandatory. After reading the article, I have numerous concerns. Here's the heart of Ms. Kersten's article:
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.
Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food, [food] permissible under Islamic law, and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.
Zaman maintains that TIZA is not a religious school. He declined, however, to allow me to visit the school to see for myself, "due to the hectic schedule for statewide testing." But after I e-mailed him that the Minnesota Department of Education had told me that testing would not begin for several weeks, Zaman did not respond, even to urgent calls and e-mails seeking comment before my first column on TIZA.
Now, however, an eyewitness has stepped forward. Amanda Getz of Bloomington is a substitute teacher. She worked as a substitute in two fifth-grade classrooms at TIZA on Friday, March 14. Her experience suggests that school-sponsored religious activity plays an integral role at TIZA.
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."
First off, it's troublesome that TIZA's executive director would directly lie to Ms. Kersten. That's clearly meant to hide something from the taxpayers who fund the school. That's really just the tip of the iceberg, though. I just googled Islamic Relief to find out more about them since IR is the school's sponsor. Here's what I found:
IRW was established in England in 1984 by Dr. Hani Al-Banna, who remains its President to this day. Al-Banna is a former trustee of Muslim Aid (MA), a global charity based in London. While Al-Banna was associated with MA, the group was a "partner organization" to the Al-Salah Islamic Association, a Gaza-based entity that the U.S. Treasury Department designated as a Key Support Node" for the terrorist group Hamas. (MS Director Ahmed Al-Kurd was also designated by the U.S. government as a "terrorist.") Moreover, while Al-Banna was involved with MA, the group was a partner to organizations directly related to the Muslim Brotherhood of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).
That they're sponsored by a Hamas-related organization is troubling. What's worse is that they're associated with MAS-MN. Here's what I wrote about MAS-MN this June:
It should be pointed out that Keith Ellison was the keynote speaker at the MAS-MN 4th annual convention. AAH Chairman Joe Kaufman wrote this press release asking Keith Ellison to denounce the anti-semitic remarks on MAS-Minnesota's website or to resign:
On the weekend of May 25th, Minnesota Congressman Keith Ellison gave the keynote address in front of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS-Minnesota), at the group's 4th annual convention. While Ellison spoke, the group was actively spreading vitriolic hatred and violence aimed at Jews, Christians and other non-Muslims via its website.
The following statements are found on the MAS-Minnesota site, www.masmn.org:
- "The Holy Prophet (and through him the Muslims) has been reassured that he should not mind the enmity, the evil designs and the machinations of the Jews..."
- "In view of the degenerate moral condition of the Jews and the Christians, the Believers have been warned not to make them their friends and confidants."
- "If you gain victory over the men of Jews, kill them."
- "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.'"
- "May Allah destroy the Jews, because they used the graves of their prophets as places of worship."
- "A Muslim must always worship Allah and wage jihad until death in order to reach his ultimate goal... Regularly make the intention to go on jihad with the ambition to die as a martyr."
On Monday, June 4th, the Chairman of Americans Against Hate (AAH), Joe Kaufman, phoned the local and Washington, D.C. offices of Congressman Ellison to demand that he denounce MAS. Kaufman has received no response from the Congressman or anyone in his offices.
Kaufman stated, "When Keith Ellison ran for office, he denounced the anti-Semitism of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam (NOI), a group that he was previously affiliated with. We demand that he do the same to the Muslim American Society. It is not only improper for a United States Representative to participate with such groups, but it is a danger to national security."
This is at least the second time Keith Ellison has spoken in front of the Muslim American Society. The other time was right after he was elected to office, in December of 2006. As well, the Executive Director of the MAS Freedom Foundation, Mahdi Bray, campaigned for Ellison.
For further information, read Kaufman's FrontPage Magazine article, "Keith Ellison's Dangerous Liaisons."
Let's tie this all together: TIZA is a taxpayer-funded school with ties to a terrorist-related charitable organization and an anti-semitic organization. TIZA also ignores the Supreme Court ruling that prayer must be student-led and voluntary. Is there any reason why this school should continue getting taxpayer funding? I can't think of a legitimate justification.
TIZA's executive director, Asad Zaman, has difficulty telling the truth. Here's another whopper:
Why does the Minnesota Department of Education allow this sort of religious activity at a public school? According to Zaman, the department inspects TIZA regularly, and has done so "numerous times", to ensure that it is not a religious school.
But the department's records document only three site visits to TIZA in five years, two in 2003-04 and one in 2007, according to Assistant Commissioner Morgan Brown. None of the visits focused specifically on religious practices.
Given the difficulty that Zaman has with the truth, I'd say that there's alot going on there that we don't know about. What's clear is that TIZA's students are being indoctrinated in Islam's teachings and beliefs.
It isn't a stretch to think that part of those beliefs are anti-semitic in nature. Whatever the case, Minnesota's taxpayers shouldn't be paying for this school.
Comments welcome at LFR. |
