Schools ban speakers who advocate U.S. overthrow
A lawsuit that challenged the adoption by San Diego public schools of a pro-Islamic agenda has been dismissed through a settlement requiring that all faiths be treated equally and banning any speaker “who advocates, by reputation, word, or example, of ideologies that seek to overthrow our economic and political way of life.” The settlement agreement was announced […]
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A lawsuit that challenged the adoption by San Diego public schools of a pro-Islamic agenda has been dismissed through a settlement requiring that all faiths be treated equally and banning any speaker “who advocates, by reputation, word, or example, of ideologies that seek to overthrow our economic and political way of life.”
The settlement agreement was announced by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, which represented parents who objected to the influence of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in their educational system.
The parents, organized as the Citizens For Quality Education San Diego, charged the San Diego Unified School District’s program in partnership with CAIR favored Muslim students in violation of the Constitution.
CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-funding case and has been designated by the United Arab Emirates as a terror organization. Evidence entered in the terror-funding case showed CAIR is a front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, which advocates a worldwide Islamic caliphate with no tolerance for other religions.
“This is a tremendous victory against radical Islamic indoctrination in America’s schools,” said Charles LiMandri, FCDF’s chief counsel. “This settlement agreement will serve as a warning to politically correct school boards nationwide to think twice about partnering with CAIR.”
The district’s “anti-Islamophobia Initiative” triggered the federal complaint.
According to FCDF, the “school board adopted the initiative in response to false claims by the notorious Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that President Trump’s election triggered an outbreak of anti-Muslim bullying.”
The legal team explained the foundation for the parents’ concerns.
“After intense lobbying by CAIR, the district’s left-wing board of education enacted the initiative in April 2017 under the bogus justification that President Donald Trump’s election caused a wave of Islamophobia to sweep through the schools. At the time, state records confirmed that there was zero evidence of ‘Islamophobia’ in the school district. Instead, the board based its decision on questionable Muslim student testimonies and fictitious ‘bullying’ surveys devised by CAIR.”
The case developed in May 2017 against the district on behalf of Citizens for Quality Education, San Diego Asian Americans for Equality and five families.
The groups charged that the school district gave Muslim students special protections and privileges not available to other students and empowered CAIR to radically revise the curriculum.
The objective allegedly was to indoctrinate students.
“The district has now permanently abandoned the plan and will not allow CAIR to propagandize to students,” the legal team said.
‘CAIR’s insinuation that there are hordes of MAGA hat-wearing students prowling the schools and terrorizing Muslim students is a study in mass deception,” said LiMandri. “Under the guise of promoting inclusivity, CAIR had unfettered power to target conservative Christian students and smear them as ‘Islamophobic’ if they don’t accept Islam. More broadly, the liberal school board ran roughshod over the First Amendment by empowering CAIR to indoctrinate impressionable children. We applaud our clients for standing up and fighting back.”
FCDF said: “Among a whole host of directives, CAIR’s full plan mandated student brainwashing on ‘how to become allies to Muslim students,’ forced parents and students to watch ‘diversity’ videos, and take tests on respecting Muslims. The plan also empowered CAIR to revise school curricula to portray Islam more ‘inclusively.’ For example, CAIR ordered district staff to pull copies of the children’s book ‘Curious George’s Ramadan’ from school libraries and replace them ‘Rashad’s Ramadan,’ which falsely teaches students that Allah is the same God of Christians and Jews.”
The settlement ensures the schools will take steps to provide that all students are protected equally from bullying and harassment.
The deal also requires teachers and staff to prevent guest speakers from promoting their own religious views.
The complaint had been pending in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
‘The true faith, Islam’
The influence of Islam in public schools has become a nationwide issue.
In May 2017, in Groesbeck, Texas, a couple moved their sixth-grade daughter to a new school after they discovered her history homework assignment on Islam.
In late March 2017, as WND reported, a middle school in Chatham, New Jersey, was using a cartoon video to teach the Five Pillars of Islam to seventh-grade students, prompting two parents to obtain legal services to fight the school district, which has ignored their concerns.
Teaching the five pillars of Islam also created an uproar in Summerville, South Carolina, and in Loganville, Georgia, last year.
WND also reported in March 2017 a high school in Frisco, Texas, set up an Islamic prayer room specifically for Muslim students to pray on campus during school hours. The same type of prayer rooms have been set up in high schools in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and other school districts.
In 2015, parents in Tennessee asked the governor, legislature and state education department to investigate pro-Islam bias in textbooks and other materials.
WND reported in 2012 ACT for America conducted an analysis of 38 textbooks used in the sixth through 12th grades in public schools and found that since the 1990s, discussions of Islam are taking up more and more pages, while the space devoted to Judaism and Christianity has simultaneously decreased.
In 2009, Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, a group that reviews history books, told Fox News the texts were “whitewashing” Islamic extremism and key subjects such as jihad, Islamic law and the status of women.
Also in 2009, WND reported the middle school textbook “History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond,” published by Teachers’ Curriculum Institute, said an Islamic “jihad” is an effort by Muslims to convince “others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research.”
In 2006, WND reported a school in Oregon taught Islam by having students study and learn Muslim prayers and dress as Muslims.
WND reported in 2003 a prominent Muslim leader who eventually was convicted on terror-related charges helped write the “Religious Expression in Public Schools” guidelines issued by President Bill Clinton.
In 2001, shortly after the 9/11 attacks, seventh graders in Byron, California, were taught a three-week course on Islam that required them to learn 25 Islamic terms, 20 proverbs, Islam’s Five Pillars of Faith, 10 key Islamic prophets and disciples, recite from the Quran, wear a robe during class, adopt a Muslim name and stage their own “holy war” in a dice game.
Parents went to court to uphold their right to reject the class for their children, but a federal judge ruled against them, and in 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to consider their appeal.
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