Ninth Circuit Appellate Court asked to Reconsider its Ruling that it is OK For Public Schools To Teach Seventh Graders “To Become Muslims”
Mon, Dec 19, 2005 - ANN ARBOR, MI. – A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had ruled in a short unpublished memorandum opinion that it was constitutionally permissible for twelve-year-old public school students to be told they would “become Muslims,” has been asked to reconsider its decision by the Thomas More Law Center, a national public interest law firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The Law Center has also asked all twenty-four active judges on the Ninth Circuit to decide the case.
For three weeks in 2001, impressionable twelve-year-old students were told that they would become Muslims, memorized verses from the Koran, took Islamic names, wore identification tags that displayed their new Islamic name and the Star and Crescent Moon, which is the symbol of Muslims, were handed materials that instructed them to “Remember Allah always so that you may prosper,” completed the Islamic Five Pillars of Faith, including fasting, and memorized and recited the “Bismillah” or “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Praise be to God,” which students also wrote on banners that were hung on the classroom walls.

Richard Thompson, Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, commented, “This ruling is evidence of a double-standard when it comes to religion in public schools. If students had been instructed on Christianity, as they had on Islam, a Constitutional violation would have most likely been found. The appeals court should clarify in a published opinion just how far public schools can go in teaching about religion. Christians want to know.”

The Law Center represents several parents and their children who challenged the California Byron Union School District’s practice of teaching twelve-year-old students “to become Muslims.”

A federal district court judge in San Francisco had previously determined that the school district had not violated the constitution. Edward L. White III, a Law Center attorney, had asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ three-judge panel to overturn the district court’s decision.

The three-judge panel, however, affirmed the ruling of the district court in a short unpublished memorandum decision. In its unpublished decision, the three-judge panel overlooked, and did not rule on, the plaintiffs’ claims that their free exercise of religion rights and their parental rights had been violated.

The Law Center has asked the three-judge panel to reconsider its ruling and to rule on the free exercise and parental rights claims.

http://www.thomasmore.org/news.html?NewsID=392