Posted: 04/10/08

Is a Taxpayer-Funded Muslim School Coming to a Neighborhood Near You?

By Jan Markell

www.olivetreeviews.org

I love my home state of Minnesota and don't want it to take on the title of "the late-great state of Minnesota." It seems to be a trend-setter when it comes to all things Islamic.  Our state elected the first Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison. And the slow but steady Islamization of Minnesota has been in the news for more than two years.

And it is again. One of our best investigative reporters in the Twin Cities is Katherine Kersten.  On April 9 she broke a story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune that a wall of silence has been broken concerning a taxpayer-funded Muslim school in the Twin Cities.

It is the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights, a suburb of St. Paul. Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion. Kersten states, "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," says Kersten.

Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food -- permissible under Islamic law -- and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.

Kersten was not encouraged to visit the school by Ziyad, but now a substitute teacher has come out and spilled the beans. Prior to a school-mandated assembly, the teacher 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, the teacher 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," she said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred." She also noted the kids were studying the Koran. School buses did not leave until all "Islamic studies" were over.

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.  And is a school like this coming to a neighborhood near you, funded by your tax dollars? The Department of Education in Minnesota has visited the school three times, so what's up?  Probably political correctness. According to federal guidelines on prayer in schools, teachers at a public school cannot participate in prayer with students -- yet they are according to the whistle-blower teacher.

As Kersten concludes, "Schools cannot favor one religion by offering services for only its adherents, or promote after-school religious instruction for only one group. In addition, there's a double standard at work here.  If TIZA were a Christian school, it would likely be gone in a heartbeat. TIZA is now being held up as a national model for a new kind of charter school. If it passes legal muster, Minnesota taxpayers may soon find themselves footing the bill for a separate system of education for Muslims."

Where is the outrage? 

By Jan Markell Click here for bio and archived articles