Here again we see the impostion of Islamic law and practice in the public square, or in this case, the public school. A similar situation exists at the TiZA school in Minnesota. The leading Canadian counter-jihad blog, Blazing Cat Fur, has the story:
I received this e-mail from Mark Harding. I phoned Valley Park Middle School, who in a panic directed me to call the TDSB directly @ 416-397-3000. The TDSB "Communications Dept." is so far incommunicado -they are away at a meeting. ....
"Islamic ritual prayers are done in my 13 year old daughter's middle school on every Friday.
Every Friday my daughter's school cafeteria changes into a mosque as dozens of Muslim boys and their imams (Islamic preachers) lead Islamic ritual prayers and no one else can even walk through the cafeteria.
Some imams (Islamic preachers) come from the outside of the school and lead Muslim students in the Islamic prayer and this happens at the school Cafeteria after the lunch on Fridays. All other non-Muslims are in classes in the afternoon when they are using the cafeteria as mosque. There is a mosque nearby but the Muslim kids pray in the school
School administration take part preparing the Cafeteria and making it into mosque every Friday and no one but Muslims can use the Cafeteria during the Islamic prayers on Friday.
And there are a number of other incidents involving Islam and other anti-Christian issues that I complained about, including a white convert to Islam who was a supply teacher and who openly promoted Islam and bashed Christianity last year!"
The school's name is: Valley Park Middle School, and the address is:
130 Overlea Boulevard
Don Mills On, M3C 1B2
Phone: 416 396 2465
Email: ValleyPark@tdsb.on.ca
"Mark, my other two kids also go to a different public primary school and the snack for all the kids in this primary school is all "Halal". My wife complained about it and she was told she can prepare her own snack for our kids but the school would not drop the Halal menu for all the students. All the school kids in this primary school have to eat halal snacks whether they are Muslim or not"
Update: It is confirmed thanks to reader Munimula, the Valley Park Middle School cafeteria is turned into a mosque and a local Imam is brought in to lead the children in worshipping Allah:
"Prayer Service, the school is providing a venue for the Muslim student’s to have prayers at school on Fridays. An Imam from the neighbouring mosque comes to our school and conducts the prayers. Prior to this, students signed out early on Friday afternoons to go to mosque. By staying at school, valuable instructional time is saved for our students."
During the early months of 2008, Philadelphia-based scholar of Islam and the Middle East Dr. Daniel Pipes chronicled the failed attempts of soul-music-mogul-turned-Muslim-activist Kenny Gamble (aka Luqman Abdul-Haq) to shake down the Philadelphia Housing Authority and create an all-Muslim enclave in South Philadelphia.
While the sordid affairs makes for fascinating reading – not least because it led to the resignation of Bush Administration HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson and the collapse of the attempted shake-down – its “happy ending” should not have lulled anyone into complacency.
Now comes the news that the Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman has given to Gamble two South Philadelphia public schools – Audenried High and Edwin Vare Middle School – to be converted by him into charter schools, with an estimated annual income to Gamble’s Universal Companies of 9 million Philadelphia taxpayer dollars.
Not surprisingly, this latest Gamble shake-down has all the trappings of a back-room deal, which has provoked South Philly residents and Philadelphia school activists to outrage. The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a respected newsletter and website “for parents, educators, students and friends of the Philadelphia public schools,” reports that “neither the public nor the SRC [School Reform Commission] will be given a say in plans to turn over the schools to Universal Companies.”
According to the March 10th Notebook:
The process troubles Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan, who has fought against the conversion of District schools to charters.
“The [District's] attitude is that it doesn’t matter what anyone says or thinks,” he said. “The deal is done.”
The first SRC vote on the Promise Neighborhood Partnership schools will come in April, when the members vote on authorizing the charters for Audenried and Vare.
“The match and the charter [for Audenried and Vare] will be approved at the same time,” Childs said.
The SRC now has only four members following the recent resignation of Ambassador David Girard-diCarlo last month. Chairman Robert Archie has confirmed that he will recuse himself from any eventual votes involving Universal because of his longstanding personal connection to founder Kenny Gamble. He has served on Universal’s board and his law firm, Duane Morris LLP, has represented the organization in business dealings.
Because of SRC rules, that means that the votes of all three remaining commissioners will be required to grant the charters.
Community members have also been shut out of the bequest of the schools to Universal.
According to the March 13th Notebook:
[M]any of the roughly 100 people in the audience [at last week's community meeting with Universal], frustrated that the Universal takeover was presented to them as a fait accompli, remained focused instead on the School District’s process for deciding Audenried’s future.
“From what I read, [the plan for the school] sounds good,” Jim Helman of the Grays Ferry Partnership, a coalition of seven community groups in the area, said after the meeting. “[But] I think the School District went about this conversion to a charter school all wrong, Instead of consulting with the community, they’re now informing the community of something they already decided.”
Still other residents don’t want Universal in control at all.
Audrey Martin, a resident of Grays Ferry, said that Nunery was missing the point.
“We don’t want this,” said Martin, referring to the charter conversion plan itself. “We want you to keep these teachers. These kids are close to them, and that’s what makes a difference.”
As part of the District’s “Promise Neighborhood Partnership” model for turning around Audenried and Edwin Vare Middle, all of the current teachers will be force-transferred, then given the opportunity to re-apply to work for Universal – minus their union benefits. They will not be guaranteed a job in another school in the District, which might need to lay off some teachers due to a massive drop in state and federal aid.
Entirely left out of this whole discussion, of course, is what kind of schools the Islamist-inspired Universal would run, and where the $9 million in annual Philadelphia taxpayer funds would be spent.
As Pipes pointed out in his 2008 series on Gamble and Universal, the company’s website openly proclaims:
[T]he whole of Universal Companies is a testament to faith:
By the Blessing and Mercy of Allah (SWT), the efforts of Universal Companies serve as a national model for what can be done with commitment, compassion, focus and careful planning and execution. Just another proof positive of the words of the Qur’an where Allah (SWT) states: Let there arise from among you a small group of people, inviting to all that is good. They enjoin the good, and forbid the evil, and it is they who attain success”. (3:104)
"It shows how we mischaracterized, we willfully misunderstand Islam. Yes, on the face of it, yes, Arabic is a language. In a sense there would be no difference between opening a foreign language school -- a Spanish language school or a french language school -- but in fact Arabic is more than a language. It is explicated the language of Islam, so in that sense it is part of the Islamic religious imperial project. Radical Islam advances through the Arabic language. And you go all kinds of places that aren't in the Arab world now, like Pakistan, Indonesia, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada and the United States, and you will here those Imams preaching in Arabic. Arabic is not just another language like French or Italian, it is the spearhead of an ideological project that is deeply opposed to the United States."
The Mansfield school district has backed off plans to implement an Arabic studies program after almost 200 people showed up with questions at a parents meeting at Cross Timbers Intermediate School on Monday night.
Superintendent Bob Morrison apologized for not communicating with parents and invited them to be part of developing the curriculum.
"Nothing will be taught in the classroom until the curriculum is rolled out," said Richie Escovedo, Mansfield district spokesperson.
The Arabic studies program, funded by a federal five-year $1.3 million Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant, was to begin this semester at Cross Timbers, then spread to Davis Elementary and Howard Middle Schools in the fall and to Summit High school by the fall of 2012.
Arabic culture was to be integrated into the curriculum in elementary and intermediate schools, then offered as a language credit in the middle and high schools. Davis, Cross Timbers and Howard are feeder schools to Summit High School.
"Part of the grant language brings in targeted instruction that will be embedded in the classes," Escovedo explained. "Algebra comes from the Arabic world. You talk about things while you’re doing your lessons. Instead of a Valentine's cake, you might make a Moroccan dessert."
Parents attending Monday night's meeting ranged from supportive to upset, said Willie Wimbrey, assistant principal at Cross Timbers.
"We had people who were animatedly fearful of anything to do with Islam," Wimbrey said. "Others want their children exposed to everything. Others who say we teach about Christmas, why not other religions? All cultures and major religions are taught throughout the state."
Cindy Henderson, whose son Kolton is in the fifth grade at Cross Timbers, said she wasn't as upset about the content of the program as she was about the way it was implemented.
"The parents weren't notified," Henderson said. "We should have been told and excited about the grant. The school knew about it, but it wasn't publicized. Unless you were digging on the website, you wouldn't know about it."
Her son is excited about learning about the Middle East, but Henderson doesn't think Arabic studies should be mandatory.
"I don't think we should spend all our time on one culture," she said. "I think we should spread it around and be fair. I don't like it being stuffed down our throats."
In a federally funded program, students will now be required to take Arabic. Mandatory Arabic? Your taxpayer dollars at work to advance Islamic culture. In addition to language, thegrant provides "culture, government, art, traditions and history as part of the curriculum." Islamic supremacism on the march in the public square.
Steyn explained the real implications of an "Arabic school and the Arabic language" here in my interview with him.
"It shows how we mischaracterized, we willfully misunderstand Islam. Yes, on the face of it, yes, Arabic is a language. In a sense there would be no difference between opening a foreign language school -- a Spanish language school or a french language school -- but in fact Arabic is more than a language. It is explicated the language of Islam, so in that sense it is part of the Islamic religious imperial project. Radical Islam advances through the Arabic language. And you go all kinds of places that aren't in the Arab world now, like Pakistan, Indonesia, Central Asia, the Balkans, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada and the United States, and you will here those Imams preaching in Arabic. Arabic is not just another language like French or Italian, it is the spearhead of an ideological project that is deeply opposed to the United States.
MANSFIELD (CBSDFW.COM) – Some Students at Mansfield ISD schools could soon be learning Arabic as a required language. The school district wants students at select schools to take Arabic language and culture classes as part of a federally funded grant.
The Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant was awarded to Mansfield ISD last summer by the U.S. Department of Education.
As part of the five-year $1.3 million grant, Arabic classes would be mandatory at Cross Timbers Intermediate School and Kenneth Davis Elementary School. The program would also be optional for students at T. A. Howard Middle School and Summit High School.
Parents at Cross Timbers say they were caught off-guard by the program, and were surprised the district only told them about it in a meeting Monday night between parents and Mansfield ISD Superintendent Bob Morrison.
The DOE has identified Arabic as a ‘language of the future.’ But parent Joseph Balson was frustrated by the past. “Why are we just now finding out about it?” asked Balson. “It’s them (Mansfield ISD) applying for the grant, getting it approved and them now saying they’ll go back and change it only when they were caught trying to implement this plan without parents knowing about it.”
Trisha Savage thinks it will offer a well-rounded education. “I think its a great opportunity that will open doors. We need to think globally and act locally.”
Some parents had concerns over religion. “The school doesn’t teach Christianity, so I don’t want them teaching Islam,” said parent Baron Kane. During Monday’s meeting Morrison stressed the curriculum would not be about religion, but about Arabic language and culture, similar to the Spanish curriculum already in place in the district.
Kheirieh Hannun was born in the Middle East but raised in the U.S. She believes giving students the option to learn Arabic will give her son and others like him the option to learn more about their culture. “It was surprising, but I think it’s okay, and it will help come down on the stereotype.” Hannun says she is hopeful the class could broaden the minds of not only students, but also parents.
The FLAP grant was awarded to only five school districts across the country, including Mansfield.
WINNIPEG — A dozen Muslim families who recently arrived in Canada have told Winnipeg's Louis Riel School Division that they want their children excused from compulsory elementary school music and coed physical education programs for religious and cultural reasons.
"This is one of our realities in Manitoba now, as a result of immigration," said superintendent Terry Borys. "We were faced with some families who were really adamant about this. Music was not part of the cultural reality."
Borys said the school division has alerted Education Minister Nancy Allan about the situation since music and phys-ed are compulsory in the province's elementary schools.
There have been no issues so far with children of middle-school or high-school age, he said.
The families accept physical education, as long as the boys and girls have separate classes, but do not want their children exposed to singing or the playing musical instruments, Borys said. The division has suggested they could instead do a writing project to satisfy the music requirements of the arts curriculum.
However, a local Muslim leader says there is no reason for young kids to be held out of music or phys-ed classes based on religious and cultural grounds.
"Who is advising them? My first concern would be who are these new immigrants talking to?" said Shahina Siddiqui, executive director of the Islamic Social Services. "This is the first time I am hearing this; I'm not very happy about it."
Siddiqui said there is no problem with elementary-school children taking coed phys-ed, at least "not with little kids under the age of puberty."
She said when some middle-school and high-school students have asked not to mix genders, they have been accommodated by schools.
Siddiqui acknowledged that music can be an issue — but only for a few people.
"Music is controversial in our community; this is a North American phenomenon," she said. "There is a minority view that music is forbidden. (That view) is not accepted by the majority."
Borys said that there had been one or two requests for kids to be excused previously, but this year a dozen families came forward at six schools.
Borys said that school division contacted a member of the Islamic community whom the parents suggested, consulted the Manitoba Human Rights Commission and looked at what other jurisdictions are doing about accommodation, particularly Ontario.
Uh, this is the twisted asshattery of the media. The craven NYC Council canceled the hearing that we were going to protest. Nothing like rewriting the news in a manner that is void of truth or objectivity.
As noted last week, opponents of Park 51 were planning to hold their first protest in months on Tuesday. The protest was meant to be held in a committee room at 250 Broadway, during a City Council hearing on Wal-Mart. But last week, that hearing was postponed until January 12, so the Park 51 protest has also been put off.
According to New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the new venue would be larger, due to the intense interest in Wal-Mart and whether the company will open stores in New York City.
Park 51 [Cordoba] opponent Pamela Geller says her protest was meant to address the "hypocrisy," as she saw it, in council members questioning Wal-Mart while not questioning the idea of a mosque and Islamic community center near Ground Zero. According to Geller, the council "caved" out of fear of anti-Park 51 [Cordoba] demonstrators.
"She [Quinn] said we needed a bigger room," said Geller. "I don’t believe that. I think they were afraid that we would overwhelm them -- I don’t mean that in a physical way -- and they cancelled."
The reporter, Arun Venugopal, got that wrong too. The Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said “We needed a bigger room.” “We heard from unions all across the city, small business leaders from across the city." I said that was a transparent lie. They needed a bigger room because we would overwhelm them. They need a bigger room because they are afraid of us.
However, Jamie McShane, a spokesman for Quinn, said he didn't know who Pam Geller was and that he hadn't been aware of any protest at the hearing related to Park 51.
Geller hadn't expected the protest to be "huge," citing the conflicting schedules of many opponents, some of whom live in other states or have day jobs. But she said the re-scheduled protest would simply take place whenever the Wal-Mart hearing is scheduled.
File this under "what were they thinking?" Look at 1,400 years of Islamic expansionism, supremacism and imperialism, and what did they think would happen? Look at the Middle East -- once entirely Christian, now entrely Islamic save for the tiny Jewish state. What did they think would happen?
Look at Europe today. What did they think would happen?
Look at the Islamic persecution of Christians in Indonesia, Egypt, Sudan, Darfur, Lebanon, etc........ what did they think would happen?
As Muslimenrollment increases at Christian schools, especially in Europe, so too does interfaith conflict at such institutions. A recent piece in Le Figaro highlights the stresses placed on French Catholic schools in particular. For example, the report describes how one had set up a crib for Advent, but "a Muslim parent demanded its removal, saying 'a Muslim cannot hear that Jesus is the Son of God.'" At another, Muslims walked all over a well-intentioned but hapless administrator:
A headmistress … offered Muslim students a room in which to pray and to help them avoid being caught in rain in the school courtyard. The students have turned it into a prayer room and invite other people who have nothing to do with the school to pray with them. Since then the director has been unable to use this space for other activities.
Of course, Christian schools also share many of the challenges faced by secular ones, such as students refusing to swim during Ramadan due to fear of swallowing water (an old standard). No word from Le Figaro on whether Muslims in French Catholic schools respond to lessons on evolution or the Holocaust any more positively than their public school counterparts do.
A 2008 New York Times article explains that France's hijab ban in state-run classes has pushed Muslims to Catholic schools, which are not bound by this law and must accept students of all faiths to qualify for subsidies. Yet even the less critical Times piece could not ignore the ensuing cultural friction. For example, it relates the story of one Catholic school's headmaster who, after a series of accommodations, finally had to "put his foot down when students asked to remove the crucifix in a classroom they wanted for communal prayers during Ramadan."
Christian schools elsewhere are caught in a similar cycle. NIS News reported in 2008 that "two Amsterdam secondary schools with a Christian basis are to close during [Eid al-Fitr] to accede to their Muslim pupils." A year later, a Dutch Catholic elementary school with a handful of Muslims was planning to serve halal food at a Christmas meal, but officials reversed course following parental outrage. In the UK, bishops have recommended that Catholic schools include prayer rooms and washing facilities for Muslims. The Times of London has also noted that at least one Muslim-heavy Church of England school "no longer observes the requirement to have an act of daily collective worship that is 'consistently and recognizably Christian.'"
The latest outrage in a textbook case of Islamic supremacism in a taxpayer-funded Islamic school is the thug-like Muslim intimidation and bullying of anyone who challenges this publicly funded madrassah. I have been covering this school since early 2008.
This is a "teachable moment" for the ACLU, which has generally refrained from tackling issues of separation of mosque and state despite its war on Christianity and the separation of church and state. TiZA is an egregious violation of the separation of mosque and state, which is why the ACLU is suing the school. Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. Charter schools are public schools, and by law must not endorse or promote religion. But TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.
TiZA 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.
Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food -- permissible under Islamic law -- and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.
Here is what one teacher at TiZA 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," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."
Katherine Kersten of the Star Tribune continues her seminal, brave and singular reporting TiZA vs. the search for truth. Here's an excerpt of her latest, read it all (hat tip George).
In June 2010, the ACLU returned to court to quash what it described as yet another TiZA attempt to intimidate current and former employees from speaking about what they had seen at the public school. TiZA's "Staff Handbooks include a secrecy clause, and related threat of legal action for violating it," according to the ACLU's court filings. TiZA "wields [these provisions] as a sledgehammer to keep former employees quiet about what they saw at the school." As a result, "former TiZA employees have expressed fear about speaking to the ACLU."
According to the ACLU, TiZA's refusal to agree not to enforce the secrecy clause "sends the ominous signal that current and former employees who talk to the ACLU may be forced to defend themselves against a baseless, expensive lawsuit."
On Oct. 1, Judge Donovan Frank agreed -- affirming an order the ACLU had earlier won barring TiZA from enforcing the confidentiality clause in the context of this litigation.
The court's order and memorandum spoke volumes: "It appears that information related to TiZA's business, finances, operations and office procedures is public data and cannot be kept secret." "The relevant question ... is why TiZA, a public charter school, does not want to allow its former and current employees to participate in the informal discovery process to ascertain the truth about how TiZA operates."
The court's strong language in response to TiZA's actions was unusual: "[I]ntimidation and threats will not sit well with a fact-finder such as a jury." As a result of the school's actions, "[T]he Court may be required to draw adverse inferences about how TiZA operates as a result of TiZA's efforts to keep information about its operations secret. ... [TiZA's] behavior during the discovery process thus far ... has not been consistent with a good faith search for the truth."
The ACLU has characterized TiZA's recent actions regarding the secrecy clause as "only the last in a long line of intimidation efforts." Not quite. Last month, an attack was launched from a different front.
Several organizations that are not even parties to the lawsuit went to court in an attempt to disqualify the ACLU's lawyers -- Dorsey & Whitney -- from representing the ACLU on grounds that Dorsey personnel had previously communicated with Zaman about entities involved in the litigation. The organizations include the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS-MN), MAS-MN Property Holding Corporation and the Minnesota Education Trust (MET).
"The ACLU believes Mr. Zaman's testimony relating to control of virtually every significant event at TiZA, MAS-MN, MET and MET's subsidiaries, coupled with his efforts to hide such control, constitute powerful evidence against TiZA's denials that it is a Muslim school and that it funnels state and federal money to other Muslim organizations."
Every time we read about this lawsuit, we have to pinch ourselves and say: We're talking about a public, taxpayer-funded school.
Feb 28, 2010 ... Atlas readers are very familiar with the supremacist Islamic academy, Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove ... atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/.../executive-director-of-taxpayer-funded-islamic-school-tiza-academy-we-could-just-kill-you-yeah-tell-y.ht...
Mar 13, 2010 ... "Basically, TiZA is being sued for the Muslim-ness of its students," it said. ...TiZA families seek to join in legal fight over religion at ... atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/.../the-ummah-fights-for-islam-in-public-school.html
TiZA charter school in Inver Grove Heights countersues state's ACLU ... In a countersuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, lawyers for TiZA argue the ... atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/litigation_jihad/
Apr 9, 2008 ... Recently, I wrote about Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Charter schools are public schools and ... atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/04/muslim-prayer-i.html
Jul 22, 2009 ...TiZA, which also has a campus in Blaine, received an estimated $4.7 million in state aid this year, including more than $520000 in annual ... atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/.../unethical-congressman-keith-ellisons-pilgrimage-to-mecca-paid-for-by-islamic-nonprofit-claims-didnt-.html
Jul 30, 2009 ...TiZA's suit is in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed in January, which argues the school violates the First Amendment by sharing space with ... atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/.../publically-funded-islamic-charter-school-counter-sues-the-aclu-for-defamation.html
Mar 9, 2008 ... Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) -- named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain -- is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove ... atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/.../secretive-world.html
Proselytizing (da'wah) to our children on a class trip?
In late May of 2010, Wellesley, Massachusetts public
middle school students took a field trip to the Islamic Society of Boston
Cultural Center -- a controversial Saudi-funded mega-mosque run by the Muslim
American Society of Boston. There, the students were separated by gender and the
boys were asked to join the Muslim adults in their prayer. Several of the public
school boys took part. (hat tip Dan F)
The implications of this cannot be understated. This is an outrage. Your taxpayer dollars going to brainwash our children to Islam. It's bad enough that the history books have been whitewashed of the over a millennium of jihadi wars, land appropriations, cultural annihilations and enslavements.
This morning we are releasing to our supporters and to the public a disturbing video (LINK) showing Wellesley Massachusetts public middle school boys taking part in Muslim prayers during a field trip to a mosque. The video raises serious questions about permitting school children to visit the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center - the controversial Saudi-funded mosque in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.
It also raises questions about the behavior and intentions of mosque leadership. The mosque is controlled by the radical Muslim American Society (MAS).
In a May 2010 visit, the students were presented with Islamist propaganda, which falsified history by minimizing oppression of women in the Muslim world and whitewashing the role of Jihad in Islamic territorial conquests.
The most outrageous incident occurred during the Muslim mid-day prayer. The students were separated by gender. Then, some of the public school boys, along with the Muslim men, bowed and prostrated themselves with their heads touching the floor in traditional Muslim prayer.
This is yet another one of a series of incidents at the mosque which demonstrate the deceitful nature of its leadership. Under the guise of an educational field trip, the MAS subjected public school children to a subtle form of proselytizing. The combination of bad faith by the MAS with poor judgment, and perhaps incompetence, by school officials is responsible for this breach of the separation of church and state.
The Boston mosque, like the Ground Zero Mosque in New York City, has been embraced by local political leaders including Boston Mayor Menino and Massachusetts Governor Patrick. Our political and civic leadership is reluctant to deal with the reality of Muslim radicals in our community promoting their Islamist agenda to our children, preferring instead to adopt a feel-good politically-correct posture.
After you watch the video, please:
Forward this notice - the film is linked - to all of your friends and lists.
Make a point to send it to your community's religious and communal leaders and ask that they publicly condemn what happened at the mosque.
Follow press coverage of this issue and write supportive letters to the editor.
This incident is a wakeup call for school and elected officials. Our schools must provide honest and unbiased teachings about Islam and take a more vigilant approach in screening for extremist groups like the MAS, which might use educational initiatives to promote Islam to our public school students.
Mr. Joshua Frank, the Principal of Wellesley Middle School, must inform his students' parents of the incident and consider adopting an unbiased and scholarly curriculum on Islamic history that is based on historical facts and isn't developed or presented by Islamic religious groups with an agenda.
We call on Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and responsible school officials to launch an investigation into the relationship between the Roxbury mosque and Massachusetts public schools, as well as to take immediate corrective action.
We think that this local issue will now become linked to the "new beginning" in America's fight against radical Islam here. For the past five years we have been working to demonstrate how the leaders of the Saudi-funded mega-mosque in Roxbury are not the moderates that Mayor Menino and Governor Patrick believe them to be. Now, the ground zero Mosque controversy in New York has raised public awareness - to the national level -- of how highly educated and charming radicals succeed in promoting their agenda with the enablement of our political leaders and mainstream media.
Check out this "instruction sheet" to Muslims on how to islamicize their public schools. There is no separation of mosque and state -- mosque is state in Islam.
If this guide shows us anything, it's what idiots they take us for. This is, of course, an outrage. None of this should be introduced into the public school. If this is what Muslim parents want, they should send their children to madrassah.
This is an Islamic site -- Sound Vision Islamic Products and Information http://www.soundvision.com/Info/education/pubschool/pub.guide.asp.
Does your child need a prayer room to perform Zuhr in during lunchtime? Does he need time off for Juma? Or do you want to convince a teacher or principal to give your daughter the day off for Eid-ul-Fitr?
Whatever Islamic obligation you want accommodated at your child's school, it must be done in a methodical, clear and proper manner.
Shabbir Mansuri is founding director of the Council on Islamic Education in Fountain Valley, California.
He provides tips and advice on how to get religious accommodation for your child.
Step #1: know the laws about religious freedom
Knowing what laws and regulations govern the issue of religious accommodation is crucial before attempting to reach the right authorities. It is also important to understand what is defined as a "reasonable limit" on religious freedom.
In the United States, one of the strongest arguments in favor of seeking religious accommodation for your child is former President Bill Clinton's 1995 statement of principles addressing the extent to which religious expression and activity are permitted in public school. This was given to every school district in the US.
Get the help of other officials if necessary to properly understand these laws. A good place to check with is The Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. They have produced a booklet entitled A Parent's Guide to Religion in the Public Schools. You can call them at .
Step #2: get the support of a teacher
"[The first thing I would do is] arm myself with that piece of information and then set up a meeting with the principal of the school along with one of my favorite teachers at the school who will be very supportive, requesting that my son or daughter should be either permitted to [for example] go out to perform Juma prayer at a local Masjid and/or be allowed to perform Juma prayer along with other Muslim students on the school campus," says Mansuri.
Getting the support of a teacher is crucial. It indicates to the principal that the religious accommodation you are seeking will not interfere with your child's performance as a student.
Mansuri says that in most cases, these two steps are all that are needed to get religious accommodation from your child's school.
However, if the principal refuses to grant the accommodation, step three will be necessary.
Step #3: leave a paper trail, but first, be really nice
"If you find the meeting is not going anywhere then leave a paper trail, meaning, write letters. But before I do that, I would try to do it in a very non-confrontational way by simply sitting down with the principal and a teacher," says Mansuri.
"Try to understand this process where I want to make sure this is not us versus them, but simply the notion of my exercising my constitutional rights in the most respected [way] with compassionate manners, leaving my ‘baseball bat'," he explains, referring to an approach that is harsh and confrontational.
Mansuri even suggests inviting the teacher and principal over for dinner as a gesture of goodwill.
Step #4: writing to the supportive teacher
"My first letter would be to my kid's favorite teacher to ask the person's advice," advises Mansuri. "The letter will be to request to meet with teacher, and it will indicate I want to discuss with you my child's religious needs and I would like to share with you what our president has instructed the teachers and schools to accommodate them." (See a sample letter to the teacher)
Following the meeting, a thank you letter to the teacher should be sent. It will also indicate you would like to set up second meeting with the school's principal, and ask the teacher if s/he would be kind enough to go with you to discuss the topics the two of you talked about in your first meeting (see a sample thank you letter to the teacher).
"This will leave two or three letters," notes Mansuri, but in each letter "the tone of my letter should be my bringing the information as politely as I can. (I am trying to) maintain my rights for the schools to accommodate my child's religious needs. So it's a non-threatening letter."
Step #5: meeting a second time with the principal
Before attending this second meeting with the principal and teacher, "I would also arm myself with the district's education code along with the state educational code as it relates to the topics that I'm going to discuss," says Mansuri.
This can be done by simply calling your district and the state office and asking them to give you the specific educational code that relates to the religious obligation you are seeking accommodation for. That office would fax you the information the same or next day.
Once again, Mansuri stresses that the approach in discussing the matter a second time with the principal should not be confrontational.
"While meeting with the teacher and/or principal, I'm not trying to win an argument by telling them how much I know but rather giving them a very clear understanding that while I understand my rights as a parent, I'm simply there to help them accommodate my child's needs that they are supposed to do anyway," explains Mansuri.
"Make it a win-win situation, not an us versus them situation, and that in itself is the message of Islam."
By this step, Mansuri says your child should have his/her need(s) accommodated.
Step #6: if necessary, repeat these steps with the school district’s superintendent
You can repeat the letters and meet with the school district superintendent if the principal still does not accommodate. The superintendent is responsible for all schools in a particular district. Once again, the approach must remain polite and non-confrontational.
Since the president's instructions were issued to districts, it is possible superintendents may be more familiar with them. This should mean your son or daughter will get religious accommodation with no further problems.
Robert Bobb, special manager for the sinking (and stinking) Detroit Public Schools, is quoted in this article in Arab American News as saying that the Cleveland School in Detroit,
"which is now Detroit International Academy, made changes to accommodate Muslim students from diet and dress code perspectives and also had prayer rooms as well, which is a model that can be applied to future schools if need be."
QTP queries,"Doesn't the 'P' in Detroit Public Schools stand for public? Special diet, dress codes and prayer rooms to accommodate Muslim students in the American taxpayer-funded public schools? And this is the nation's worst performing public school system, so academically-bereft, financially unstable and ravaged by years of well-known, widely-documented corruption and graft that the governor had to appoint Robert Bobb as special financial manager, a sort of educational receivership, to avert outright bankruptcy. Is this the way to solvency for US schools? Church-state separation was such a quaint idea in its time."
As every American knows, there must be a separation of church and state. Which is why the ACLU was suing the school. Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota. Charter schools are public schools, and by law must not endorse or promote religion. But TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.
Well, the families want to get into the fight against our most basic, cherished American principle.
The Muslims in the Islamic public school are taking off the gloves.
The dhimmi media paints it as "seeking to protect their rights" -- as what? Muslims? Certainly it is not protecting their rights as Americans. It is against the law for my taxpayer dollars and your taxpayer dollars to be used to fund indoctrination into a supremacist ideology.
Look how they use our Constitution, our democracy to kill it.
Seeking to protect their rights, a group of TiZA students and parents want to join the lawsuit between the American Civil Liberties Union and the school, which has locations in Blaine and Inver Grove Heights.
In a formal move to join the legal battle over religion at their school, several families at Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) have asked a judge to let them intervene as parties in a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota.
The ACLU claims that the charter school, which has locations in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine, has violated the U.S. Constitution by crossing the line between religion and public education.
But in a motion filed Wednesday, 10 Muslim students and four of their parents argue that the ACLU is seeking to eliminate "democratically and legally obtained" religious accommodations, such as pork alternatives on the lunch menu, a conservative dress code and the time and space to pray at school.
"The accommodations offered at TiZA are the same accommodations the [families] believe are required at TiZA and are the same accommodations the [ACLU] alleges are prohibited at TiZA," the motion said.
"Basically, TiZA is being sued for the Muslim-ness of its students," it said.
The families seek to join the lawsuit as parties, which would allow them to conduct discovery, file motions and otherwise assert their rights, said their attorney, Erick Kaardal. They do not propose to file any counterclaims, he said.
The ACLU exists to defend the Constitution, said Teresa Nelson, legal counsel with the ACLU. "For them to suggest that we are somehow trying to get a decision that would violate the Constitution -- frankly, that's unwarranted," she said.
If families feel that their rights to religious accommodation are being violated, she said, "the appropriate venue for them is to initiate a civil action against TiZA."
In court documents, parents said they send their children to the school for a quality education, not religion, but still want their families' religious needs to be met. The school is a "safe, non-sectarian, cultural learning environment for immigrant families" and should not be closed, they said.
Several said they were unhappy because, in response to a state investigation, the school has reduced the time set aside on Fridays for Muslim students to pray, from 30 minutes to 10 minutes.
"The ACLU lawsuit threatens more reductions," said Javed Mohammad, who has two sons at TiZA, in a court document.
This is Islamic supremacism. Forcing the imposition of Islam on the secular society by the strong arm for the front of the Muslim Brotherhood, unindicted co-conspirator, CAIR.
Here we go! Lewiston, the city that has struggled for years ever since federal government contractors, such as Catholic Charities, chose it as a site for refugee resettlement and after a secondary migration of mostly Somali refugees picked this city in “welcoming” Maine, the joys of multiculturalism have come home to roost. And, darn, just when town fathers thought citizens were finally getting the memo that diversity is strength something like this happens.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) the subject of an important new book entitled, “Muslim Mafia:Inside the Secret Underworld That’s Conspiring to Islamize America,” has the audacity to threaten to bring action against a school district that supposedly denied a Muslim girl the right to pray during school. Here is the story from the Sun Journal today. Hat tip: Mars
LEWISTON — A national Muslim civil rights organization has filed a formal request with the Lewiston School Department to allow a middle school student to pray on school property. The group also wants Lewiston to modify existing policy and provide “constitutionally protected religious accommodation,” such as a designated prayer room.
The group has also requested the school department institute diversity training for school staff, and to ensure the middle-schooler won’t face retaliation because of her request to pray at the Lewiston Middle School.
According to the Washington, D.C.,-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, seventh-grader Nasra Aden had been routinely “praying discreetly during her free time or lunch break in a corner of a school hallway.” But, on Tuesday, CAIR asserts a teacher told Aden “never to pray on school property” after Aden was seen preparing to kneel in prayer in a corner of one of the hallways.
After Aden told her mother, Jamad Warsame, what happened, Warsame spoke with school Principal Maureen Lachappelle and asked the school to accommodate her daughter’s desire to pray. According to CAIR, Warsame’s request was rebuffed and she has been “forced to pick up her daughter every day and take her to a nearby park to pray.”
Lachappelle said Aden is not being forced to leave school to pray, but that the district accommodated her mother’s request for her to leave the campus this past week for prayer.
Lewiston Superintendent Leon Levesque, who learned of CAIR’s written accusations hours after a press release had already been published on various Web sites, said, “Students are free to pray quietly during class if they choose as long as it’s not disruptive,” because “prayer is constitutionally protected in schools.”
“A stunning scenario of lack of multicultural competency” —they have learned the lingo!
In a written statement, Ismail Warsame called school officials’ alleged actions in responding to Aden’s effort to pray “a stunning scenario of lack of multicultural competency” and “clear violation of our constitutional rights to free religious expression.”
Warsame also accused Lachappelle of hanging up on him as he was asking whether the school department would accommodate the family’s request to accommodate the specific religious needs of certain students. Lachappelle acknowledged she did end a phone conversation with Warsame abruptly because “he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
According to Lachappelle, after an involved conversation about the school’s position on allowing silent prayer, she said she told Warsame that “this is what the ruling is. We’re disagreeing, and I’m following district policy. I feel we need to end this conversation.”
Readers should know that we have had reports from many cities about the fact that some Muslim men do not respect female school teachers and administrators, so that may explain what happened in this phone conversation.
Ibraham Hooper threatens: Do what we say, or else!
CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper said Friday that if the Lewiston School Department did not address its four requests to allow prayer, modify school policy, institute training and protect Aden from retaliation, “we wouldn’t really have much choice but to take the case further” because “the student has the legal right and the constitutional right to pray in school in a manner that is not disruptive to the learning environment.”
First let me say that I cheered when the ACLU finally filed a lawsuit in January against a publicly funded Islamic school. The suit "argues the school violates the First Amendment by sharing space with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, promoting prayer in school and endorsing Muslim clothing rules and dietary practices". It was a "when pigs fly" moment. I hadn't cheered the ACLU in................ decades. They are notorious for suing Christian organizations in the petty exploitation of the separation of church and state (i.e., suing to remove nativity scenes on public ground, removal of a cross that was first erected in 1934 by a group of veterans, opposing family festival day events and displays containing religious and nonreligious artifacts, including a menorah, a red sleigh, Kwanza symbols, the list goes on and on) while remaining conspicuously silent on the egregious acts of advancement of Islamic supremacism in almost every aspect of American life.
So what did the Islamic school do? Sued, of course. Litigation jihad.
Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food - permissible under Islamic law -- and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.
[...]
"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," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."
Islamic publicly funded charter school. Got it? Your taxpayer dollars at work.
BTW, Why are children covered up? Are they sexual objects?
A student holds up her answer during a third-grade math exercise Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy. (Pioneer Press: Nathan Berndt, file)
Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy claims the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota has defamed the Inver Grove Heights charter school and is trying to damage its relationships with parents and prospective employees.
In a countersuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, lawyers for TiZA argue the ACLU has made maliciously false and defamatory statements that have injured "the good name of TiZA" and its reputation.
The statements also have sparked threats of violence against TiZA staff members, the suit contends.
TiZA's suit is in response to an ACLU lawsuit filed in January, which argues the school violates the First Amendment by sharing space with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, promoting prayer in school and endorsing Muslim clothing rules and dietary practices.
"The ACLU's claims are meritless, as TiZA has followed state and federal regulations," said TiZA legal counsel Erick Kaardal. "TiZA hopes the court will prevent the ACLU from inflicting further interference and defamation with a permanent injunction."
Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU-MN, declined to comment Tuesday night because the organization's lawyers were still wading through the new legal filings.
The countersuit by TiZA also claims that the ACLU has unlawfully interfered with contracts the school has with its sponsor, families and employees.
The ACLU knowingly made public statements that were untrue about the school, and those "false statements and innuendo has caused potential employees to rescind their respective employment applications with TiZA," school officials contend in the suit.
Since the January ACLU lawsuit, TiZA officials claim, at least 10 prospective educators withdrew applications in the middle of the hiring process. As a result, the school has several open positions.
TiZA, founded in 2003, has about 480 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. The school has campuses in Inver Grove Heights and Blaine. It received about $4.7 million in state funding this past school year.
Tuesday's filing is the latest twist in the school's legal battles. TiZA also sued state education officials July 16 in Ramsey County District Court over allegations that some of its teachers lack proper licenses.
Rep. Mindy Greiling, DFL-Roseville, who chairs the K-12 Education Finance Division Committee, said the state funds were intended to help charter schools rent space.
She said she is troubled by the large grants to the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whether or not the money can be tied directly to Ellison's trip.
"It calls into question the sensibility of the people who lead the school," Greiling said. "And to send Keith Ellison off to Mecca just compounds it."
State officials say the arrangement illustrates long-standing concerns about the relationship between charter schools and the affiliated groups who hold their leases.
Chas Anderson, deputy commissioner for the state education department, said that state law does not regulate how lease dollars are spent by such property-holding corporations.
"While this type of relationship is legal, it is nonetheless concerning," she said of the TiZA payments.
TiZA, which also has a campus in Blaine, received an estimated $4.7 million in state aid this year, including more than $520,000 in annual lease aid. The school also got more than $873,000 in federal charter school grants last year.
Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the Minnesota ACLU, said the flow of any public funds to a sectarian group that funded a public official's trip to a religious site heightens the questions Samuelson's group has raised about the separation of church and state.
WAYNE — Rola Awwad wants a private space for her 10-year-old son at Albert Payson Terhune Elementary School to exercise his right to Muslim prayer.
Adam Awwad, 10, praying at the Circassian Benevolent Association in Wayne after being driven there from school by his mother. The school district had offered to let him pray at recess — either outside or in a classroom while classmates are there. And that, says Awwad, is "unacceptable."
All students are constitutionally guaranteed the right to pray during the school day as long as it doesn't interfere with learning. But Wayne is struggling with what accommodations to make if a Muslim student requests privacy for prayer.
"They're having great success of implementing Shariah law, I could give you a thousand examples," Guandolo said.
He said small concessions like installing foot baths, and colleges forced to have separate swimming times for Islamic men and women so not to offend Muslims, are other parts of the strategy.
Prayer is not required on a strict schedule and Muslim prayers are commonly “made up” after work or school in Islamic countries including Iran.
.... prayer is not required on a strict schedule and Muslim prayers are commonly “made up” after work or school in Islamic countries including Iran, I decided to investigate the facts behind Islamic Law, foot baths and prayer requirements.
[...] Islamic authorities agree that foot baths are not required to fulfill their washing rituals prior to prayer and that provisions have been clearly defined. According to Islamic Law, you have a symbolic washing alternative or you can wash in one location and pray at another and this one washing can last you through an entire days prayers.
.....Provisions were made to “make up” prayers to accommodate people at work or school, allowing prayers to be postponed.
Miley says everyone at that meeting, including parents, agreed that stepping out
during class to pray would be disruptive. He says he doesn't understand why it's
an issue this year.
More on Somalia Muslims forcing Islam down the throats of Americas, KUDOS to the Minnesota school officials that refused to submit. Allah snackbar!
MUSLIM PARENTS, WILLMAR SCHOOLS REACH AGREEMENT ON PRAYER TIME - Ambar Espinoza, Minnesota Public Radio, 9/16/08
A few Somali parents in Willmar complained that the public schools weren't
allowing their Muslim children to step out of class for daily prayer. Some
didn't send their children to school last week in protest.
Today, school officials said they won't change their policy, which allows
students to pray during lunch time and between classes. For now, families have
reluctantly agreed to send their children to school, but the issue may resurface
later in the school year.
This is the first school year Somali parents have had an issue with Willmar
public schools over when their children can pray. A few children informed their
parents that they weren't allowed to step out of class to pray.
The daily prayer schedule is calculated based on the number of daylight
hours. Chris Schumacher is the Executive Director of the local chapter
of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The civil rights
organization serves the Muslim community on issues dealing with religious
discrimination.
Schumacher says in Minnesota prayer schedules can vary widely, because the
daylight hours during winter are so few compared to summer. (MORE)
Recently, I wrote about Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion.
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.
Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food - permissible under Islamic law -- and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.
[...]
"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," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."
Islamic Studies was also incorporated into the school day. "When I arrived, I was told 'after school we have Islamic Studies,' and I might have to stay for hall duty," Getz said. "The teachers had written assignments on the blackboard for classes like math and social studies. Islamic Studies was the last one -- the board said the kids were studying the Qu'ran. The students were told to copy it into their planner, along with everything else. That gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other."
After school, Getz's fifth-graders stayed in their classroom and the man in white who had led prayer in the gym came in to teach Islamic Studies. TIZA has in effect extended the school day -- buses leave only after Islamic Studies is over. Getz did not see evidence of other extra-curricular activity, except for a group of small children playing outside. Significantly, 77 percent of TIZA parents say that their "main reason for choosing TIZA ... was because of after-school programs conducted by various non-profit organizations at the end of the school period in the school building," according to a TIZA report. TIZA may be the only school in Minnesota with this distinction.
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.
TIZA's operation as a public, taxpayer-funded school is troubling on several fronts. TIZA is skirting the law by operating what is essentially an Islamic school at taxpayer expense. The Department of Education has failed to provide the oversight necessary to catch these illegalities, and appears to lack the tools to do so. 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.
Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) -- named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain -- is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Its approximately 300 students are mostly the children of low-income Muslim immigrant families, many of them Somalis.
The school is in huge demand, with a waiting list of 1,500. Last fall, it opened a second campus in Blaine.
TIZA uses the language of culture rather than religion to describe its program in public documents. According to its mission statement, the school "recognizes and appreciates the traditions, histories, civilizations and accomplishments of the eastern world (Africa, Asia and Middle East)."
But the line between religion and culture is often blurry. There are strong indications that religion plays a central role at TIZA, which is a public school financed by Minnesota taxpayers. Under the U.S. and state constitutions, a public school can accommodate students' religious beliefs but cannot encourage or endorse religion.
TIZA raises troubling issues about taxpayer funding of schools that cross that line.
Asad Zaman, TIZA's principal, declined to allow me to visit the school or
grant me an interview. He did not respond to e-mails seeking written
replies.
TIZA's strong religious connections date from its founding in 2003. Its
co-founders, Zaman and Hesham Hussein, were both imams, or Muslim religious
leaders, as well as leaders of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota
(MAS-MN).
Since then, they have played dual roles: Zaman as TIZA's principal and the
current vice-president of MAS-MN, and Hussein as TIZA's school board chair and
president of MAS-MN until his death in a car accident in Saudi Arabia in
January.
TIZA shares MAS-MN's headquarters building, along with a mosque.
[...]
"A visitor might well mistake Tarek ibn Ziyad for an Islamic school,"
reported Minnesota Monthly in 2007. "Head scarves are voluntary, but virtually
all the girls wear them." The school has a central carpeted prayer space, and
"vaguely religious-sounding language" is used.
According to the Pioneer Press, TIZA's student body prays daily and the
school's cafeteria serves halal food (permissible under Islamic law). During
Ramadan, all students fast from dawn to dusk, according to a parent quoted in
the article.
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