9th (short) Circuit

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled the Pledge of Allegiance phrase "under God" unconstitutional, recently ruled that a California public school may put their students through Muslim role-playing exercises. A list of some of the exercises as laid out by Investor's Business Daily, include:

Reciting aloud Muslim prayers that begin with "In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful . . . ."

Memorizing the Muslim profession of faith: "Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger."

Chanting "Praise be to Allah" in response to teacher prompts.

Professing as "true" the Muslim belief that "The Holy Quran is God's word."

Giving up candy and TV to demonstrate Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.

Designing prayer rugs, taking an Arabic name and essentially "becoming a Muslim" for two full weeks.

These exercises are apparently part of a "World Religion" course. Interestingly, the education consultant for the school is Susan L. Douglass, whom according to Investor's Business Daily, is a devout Muslim activist on the Saudi government payroll. Ostensibly, her husband also taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy just outside Washington, D.C. and still teaches there.

The judge who wrote the decision was nominated by Bill Clinton and determined that this was not a violation of the Establishment Clause because it wasn't an indoctrination of religion but rather a teaching about "culture".

I once did a lengthy post on the Establishment Clause. If you've already picked the lint out of your navel and twiddled your toes, perhaps you might like to read it and see if these role-playing exercises pass the Constitutional test.

For those adroit enough to not click on my link, I'll save you the time. These exercises are quite easily a violation of the Constitution via the Establishment Clause. It is very clearly a state sponsored promotion of a specific religion. I don't care if it's part of a class on world religions or part of home economics, forcing kids to say that "Allah is the only true God and Muhammad is his messenger", is a coercive means of promoting the Muslim relgion. It's a slam-dunk.

It boggles the mind how the 9th circuit can reconcile their ruling that a general statement such as "under God" is indoctrinating while a far more specific reference here to "Allah" is not.

Do you really think this court would have found it constitutional to engage in role-playing that included forcing kids to say, "Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Him"? Or which included making the sign of the cross and praying the Hail Mary? Not on your Christian keister, mister! And, quite frankly, they'd be correct.

I hope this decision makes its way up to the Supremes so they can give it the smack-down it deserves.

HT: Michelle Malkin