TRI In The News

Concern Over Muslim Prayer in West Shore Schools Raises Questions About How Districts Respond to Students' Religious Needs

January 10, 2012

From Penn Live

The possibility that Muslim students in the West Shore School District might be allowed to pray during the school day has angered some parents, even though nobody is sure that it’s happening.

The issue came up when a parent was on Bob Durgin’s radio talk show with a letter from a staff member who attended a training session on multicultural awareness Dec. 9 at the school district. The session addressed, in part, the issue of Muslim prayer, according to the letter. Durgin devoted several of his talk shows to the subject.

District officials are not saying much about it. Spokesman Ryan Argot quoted policies regarding religious expression, but would not comment on whether Muslim students were being excused from class to pray or whether the district is considering such an option.

And last year, at least one Muslim student left Red Land High School in the district partly because she was not allowed to leave class to pray.

The district solicitor did not return a phone call, and school board members did not respond to email requests.

The flap apparently has raised some issues about how school districts respond to students’ religious needs.

Legal experts for the left-leaning Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the right-leaning Rutherford Institute said Muslim students whose religion requires prayer at certain times of the day should be excused to pray in an empty room at that time, as long as students of all religious beliefs have similar options.

The U.S. Department of Education website explains in greater detail what constitutes allowed religious expression, including that schools “may excuse students from class to remove a significant burden on their religious exercise, where doing so would not impose material burdens on other students.”

DEBUNKING SOME CLAIMS

One woman who called The Patriot-News said she thought Muslim students were being offered special privileges. She did not want her name used because she said she feared repercussions to her family’s business.

The woman noted that the district stopped hosting baccalaureate services last year, and she said students are not allowed to sing religiously-based songs at the holiday concert.

“It’s accommodating one religion in lieu of all the others,” she said of Muslim prayer.

Not all of her criticisms are true. For instance, the Dec. 19 concert for Cedar Cliff High School included “Ava Maria,” a medley of traditional Christmas carols and the Christian hymn “In Dulci Jublio.”

One woman posting on a Facebook page about the issue said students are “not even allowed to say God in school,” which is also not true, according to federal Department of Education guidelines.

The parent on the Bob Durgin show, named only “Mike,” also said he felt the school district was allowing students who are Muslims privileges it was denying others.

“God forbid you put a Christmas tree, Santa, a Menorah or a nativity in the classroom,” he said on air.

The woman who called the newspaper said she was particularly angered by the secrecy surrounding the issue.

“They seem more concerned about it leaking out,” she said. “You get tired of this nonsense. We’re supposed to have open communication.”

She said schools are disregarding the will of the majority.

“You have these very vocal minorities making it hell for the majority,” she said.

‘WE SHOULD BE FLEXIBLE’

Akram Khalid, president of the central Pennsylvania Ahmadiyya Muslim community, said he has been invited to schools to explain Muslim faith requirements, but he tells members of his mosque to follow the school’s rules and not make trouble.

Ahmadiyya Muslims preach tolerance of other beliefs and have as their motto, “love for all, hatred for none.”

“We should be flexible,” Khalid said. “The whole world is like a mosque. We can pray anywhere.”

He suggests Muslim students double up on prayers after school if they are disturbing other students. He believes the Muslim requirement to pray five times a day can be adjusted.

A DIFFICULT ISSUE

That philosophy is not shared by all Muslims, however.

Leena Sharif is a Muslim student who felt the need to pray five times a day at set hours. She said she left Red Land High School last year in ninth grade when the guidance counselor would not allow her to leave the room to pray once a day during school. She is now being cyber-schooled at home.

The Muslim way of praying requires going through a set of movements, she said, which would be distracting and awkward in front of other students.

Neither she nor her family decided to fight the decision.

Leena’s mother, Rihainna, said she realizes the issue is a difficult one for schools.

“They’re going to get smacked either way,” she said.

The children of Mabashir and Saima Mumtaz attend Derry Township schools, where everyone knows they are Muslim and they say they have had few problems with bias. Adeel Mumtaz, 12, said he has been asked to explain his faith during a social studies unit on religion, but he has not been praying in school.

Ayesha and Subrina Ahmad are Muslim students from Derry Township who attend Trinity High School, a Catholic school.

Ayesha said other students were curious but discovered they share many beliefs. She said she waits until she goes home to say Muslim prayers.

Mabashir and Saima Mumtaz urged people to get to know their Muslim neighbors.

“Islam teaches there is no coercion in religion,” Mabashir Mumtaz said. “The face of real Islam is one of peace and tolerance. People will pick up on that vibe.”

WEST SHORE SCHOOLS' POLICY

Outside of quoting school policy, West Shore officials would not say if any special accommodations are being made for Christian or Jewish students.

Argot said school policy “neither prohibits nor promotes student expression of personal religious beliefs.”

He quoted school board policies 204 and 220. One “recognizes the rights of students to express themselves in word or symbol and to distribute materials as part of that expression” but limits that right by “the need to maintain an orderly school environment and protect the rights of all members of the school community.”

The second policy allows students to be released from class for up to 36 hours a year for religious instruction and allows students to be excused for religious holidays.

It is true that Cedar Cliff and Red Land high schools will no longer host baccalaureate services after a complaint that the program could cross constitutional boundaries separating church and state. Before, staff helped plan the religious ceremony in the high school auditorium.

That is a different situation because it was school-sponsored, said Alex Luchenitser, associate legal director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Student-led baccalaureates are allowed, and West Shore students put together a baccalaureate last year with the help of area churches.

Students in the West Shore are also now allowed to wear clothing with religious messages or other personal expressions after a 2010 lawsuit filed by the family of a student who had been asked to turn his anti-abortion T-shirt inside-out.

Luchenitser said schools may, but are not required to, make special accommodations for students’ religious expressions. If they do, they must treat all religions equally, he said. It can get tricky when different religions require different rituals.

‘A LOT OF CONFUSION’

John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, said the issue can be complicated, but he sees no reason for people to be outraged by Muslim prayers as long as all religions are treated the same.

Courts in the 1960s prohibited readings of Bible passages by teachers in morning devotionals, but court rulings in the past decades have tried to clarify what counts as allowed religious expression. For example, it would be lawful for schools to excuse Muslim students briefly from class to enable them to fulfill their religious obligations to pray during Ramadan.

Christian students may read Bibles during study hall, say grace before lunch, share their faith with other students, hand out literature, write essays about their faith for assignments, lead Christian after-school clubs and be excused from classes they find morally objectionable, such as sex education, according to the U.S. Department of Education. They are allowed to talk about God.

“As the court has explained in several cases, there is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect,” the federal Department of Education website says.

Jeff Robbins, chair of the religion and philosophy department at Lebanon Valley College, said decisions about accommodating religious rituals are often made on a practical basis.

“If they can accommodate without imposing a burden, schools are willing to do that,” he said.

He said such issues can be “fodder for the culture wars” because “any accommodation is seen as an assault on the normal state of affairs.”

“There’s a lot of misinformation and confusion about the rightful place of religion in public discourse,” he said. “Our American system keeps a delicate balance between the separation of church and state and the guarantee of religious freedom. That’s the genius of the American system, but it can make for a series of difficult decisions on the local level.”