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Independence Day Weekend

Americans celebrate our independence with annual traditions.

Based on the current state of our country, which item best represents what you will be doing this holiday weekend?

Modernize my home to be energy efficient according to O’s standards
Lowering the asking price on the sale of my home. AGAIN
Writing another letter to my Congressional Rep – that I know they won’t read. AGAIN
Tuning out ANY coverage of Michael Jackson
Scheduling any potential surgeries I think I may need
Updating my family’s passports
Using Hamburger Helper for my July 4th BBQ
Going to warehouse store to buy normal incandescent light bulbs – in bulk
Tuning out ANY coverage of “the one”

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Four Radical Chinese Muslims Transferred to Bermuda

Four Chinese Uighers (radical Chinese Muslims) were recently transferred to Bermuda. Do you think it's a good idea to release Gitmo detainees to idyllic vacation retreats?

Yes
No
Not Sure

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June 6, 2008

Exclusive: Junior High ‘Islamic Sensitivity Training’ in Friendswood, TX

Roberta Leguizamon

On May 22nd, Friendswood Junior High School in Friendswood, TX, approximately 30 minutes outside of Houston, hosted a "presentation" on Islam, given by two female members of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR). District spokeswoman Karolyn Gephart explained the 7th and 8th grade students were given a lecture on the "food, religion, dress, beliefs and famous Muslims."

Rhiannon Meyers of the Galveston Daily News reported the presentation was held after an "incident" involving students at the school.

Superintendent Trish Hanks refused to give any details about the incident that happened a month ago, except to say in a prepared statement that the Houston chapter of Council of American Islamic Relations told school officials they considered it a hate crime and had reported it to the FBI.

Asmara Siddiqi, the council's communications director, said the organization did not contact the FBI.

"In normal circumstances, we do report hate crimes to the FBI, but in this particular case, the school decided to resolve the issue," she said.

Friendswood Superintendent Trish Hanks told the Daily News what happened next was due to a major miscommunication between herself, CAIR and Friendswood Junior High School Principal Robyn Lowe. According to a letter Hanks wrote to the Daily News, after CAIR's threat to go to the FBI:

Lowe and Sherry Green, Friendswood district's assistant superintendent, attended a meeting with representatives of CAIR. At the meeting, CAIR requested an opportunity to present factual and basic information about Muslims to students at Friendswood Junior High School because the school is predominantly Anglo Christian.

Anticipating this request, I had instructed Green that the district would welcome a presentation to administrators and staff only, but not to agree to a student presentation.

However, apparently Principal Lowe did not get the memo that the children were not to be involved, and she scheduled the presentation during class time, with the students present.

The presentation prompted a number of parents to begin a letter-writing campaign to the district. This is because holding such presentations - beyond the obvious "separation" issues involving religious study in a public classroom - without first notifying parents of the date, time and substance of the presentation is expressly against the school district's policy. Meyers reported:

By district policy, parents are supposed to be informed about the purpose and content of presentations so that they can keep their children out of the presentation if they think the material might be offensive or inappropriate.

Hanks apologized profusely for the district's failure to uphold the community's trust and promised:

This was an isolated incident and a mistake. I am implementing corrective actions to ensure that a similar situation does not occur again.

Apparently the letter-writing campaign worked. Friendswood owned up to a mistake, promised to make amends, and swore it won't happen again. So what's left to be said?

Plenty.

Saying "God bless you" when someone sneezes could be considered offensive if uttered in the halls of elementary academia these days. So it's simply ludicrous to argue that there is nothing wrong with holding a school-sanctioned 30-minute presentation on the "culture" (read: religion) of Islam, including their beliefs (read: the 5 Pillars of Islam and why we pray and dress as we do).

Yet here, CAIR is browbeating a school district into letting them lecture children on the niceties of Islam. Meanwhile some parents who spoke out against the presentation are being lambasted for being unreasonable Islamophobes. (One parent who allowed the Daily News to use her name and report her concerns has been harassed, threatened and even placed on hate-watch lists as a result.)

Then there is this idea that somehow, due to an incident in a school cafeteria between a couple of students, an entire junior high school should be subjected to a "sensitivity training" on Islam. If Jewish children are picked on for wearing a yarmulke, is the local rabbi rushed in to explain its cultural or religious significance? If a student wears a crucifix to school and someone teases them, does the local Catholic diocese threaten to call the feds unless allowed an audience for "instruction?"

You know, maybe they should.

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Roberta Leguizamon earned her BA in Journalism from the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University and is a former contributing editor for FrontPage Magazine. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.

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