The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Does It Again

Michelle Malkin has written a posting entitled What are your kids learning about Islam? which discusses a 9th Circuit Court decision and includes this quote from a newspaper article on the decision:

Edward White of the Thomas More Center, the attorney in the case for the two children and their parents, said he will ask the full appeals court for a rehearing. He said the panel failed to address his argument that the district violated parents' rights.

"What happened in this classroom was clearly an endorsement of religion and indoctrination of children in the Islamic religion, which would never have stood if it were a class on Christianity or Judaism,'' White said.

Malkin has posted excerpts of the actual Islam simulation curriculum in the referenced posting and also provides a link to more curriculum information.

Stop the ACLU has a related posting referenced by Malkin which sums up the key concerns:

...You can bet if the children were subjected to participate in a Christian themed role playing game such as a nativity scene in a [Christmas] Winter Break play that the Seperation of Church and State Clause of the Living Document would have had precedent. However, since its not Christianity, the 9th Circus found it o.k. to indoctrinate into children. Where is the ACLU on this one? Anyone? How is it that Gideons giving out little new testaments are found as a threat, but teaching children to recite Muslim prayers is not? So they had the choice to opt out, just like voluntary prayer, or reciting the pledge without using “Under God”, but somehow this is different. Please, Congress split this Circus up!

Can we find a teacher out there willing to make some Muslim students pretend to be Christians for a few weeks? You know, just to better understand the culture and all.

This just keeps on getting more and more absurd.

Here are some postings dedicated to offering counter-arguments to this nonsense:

Liberal Fundamentalism, Revisited
The Naked Public Square Revisited, Part I
The Naked Public Square Revisited, Part II
The Naked Public Square Revisited, Part III

The last posting is a more comprehensive overview of these issues:

Rediscovering Civility and Purpose in America's Public Discourse