In an effort to make Muslim students feel welcome, the teachers of a New Jersey school met with Islamic teens to organize an event. However, what the school is allowing the Muslim students to do has some saying it’s gone too far.
A New Jersey school district is in hot water after allowing Muslim high school students to disrupt class to “convert” their non-Muslim peers, WND reports. The accusation arose when the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) sent a cease and desist letter and a public records request to the West New York School District in New Jersey to confirm whether the administration was “unlawfully promoting religion.”
The FCDF announced that it has requested documents relating to an incident in which two Muslim students were given permission to interrupt classes in order to teach students about Islam. The organization claims that the proselytizing was done “under the guise of teaching [students] about Ramadan.”
It’s an undeniable fact that America is the freest, most diverse, and most accepting nation in history. Not only do our laws protect even the tiniest minority from persecution but our efforts to preserve the open exchange of ideas has ensured that every individual is free to live out their life as they please.
Unfortunately, our benevolence and tolerance have extended so far that some are taking advantage of it. In fact, we’ve been so focused on making perceived disenfranchized minorities comfortable that we’ve offered them special privilege not afforded to the majority.
The FCDF revealed that district officials also allowed Muslim students to hang a large banner, which read, “Wishing our dearest Muslim brothers and sisters” to “Have a blessed Ramadan!” and that “Allah continuously shower you [with] love and wisdom.” The organization sent district officials a “cease and desist” letter to remove the banner.
“The district removed the poster but left intact massive bulletin boards designed by Muslim students to teach students about Ramadan,” the organization said.
The FCDF soon discovered that the bulletin boards directed students to a website managed by the North Hudson Islamic Educational Center’s “Dawah Committee,” which states that its primary mission is to convert non-Muslim public school students to Islam. The website later added an admission that the two students who had interrupted class were doing so for the purpose of proselytizing.
On the website, the committee praised the two Muslim students involved “for their outstanding dawah educational awareness in the public schools. We pray that other students and parents will follow suit in the near future. May Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala reward them manifold.”
The FCDF is prepared to take the matter to court but first seeks to obtain the records of the recent incidents. The organization still awaits the release of the documents detailing the events.
“When public school districts enact policies or otherwise expose students to religious indoctrination, they choose to place ‘diversity’ and ‘cultural awareness’ over the First Amendment,” said FCDF Executive Director Daniel Piedra.
The organization insists that the administrators are allowing outside religious groups to utilize the public school system as a pulpit for Islamic teaching. The FCDF insists that districts refrain from favoring one religion over another or inviting in religious organizations for the purpose of educating students.
“FCDF will not tolerate this intentional effort to propagandize to schoolchildren. We will continue to warn all school districts to reconsider any policy or action that tramples on our children’s constitutional rights.”
The FCDF continues to monitor school districts in order to ensure that children aren’t being proselytized under the guise of educational purposes. As part of its Project for Constitutional Rights in Education, the organization is pushing districts to educate their administrators on the “threat of Islamic indoctrination and religiously preferential ‘anti-Islamophobia’ bullying programs.”
It’s clear that one religion is being pushed and favored in this public school system. As such, the school officials are acting as either ignorant vessels or willful instruments for the promotion of Islam.
