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Practicing faith in U.S. schools still a dream
for Muslim students
Tuesday February 28, 2012 05:43:52 PM,
IINA
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Columbia (Missouri, USA): Ten-year-old Eman trembled as she raised her hand.
She had a pit in her stomach, the same pit she got every day after
lunch when she had to ask her teacher if she could be excused to
say her afternoon prayers. Her public grade school in Columbia,
Missouri, did not have an official policy on religious
accommodations. Sometimes her teacher let her leave, and other
times she made her stay in class.
The little girl’s afternoon prayers depended on the whim of an
adult who didn’t fully understand her religion.
Eman, now a 22-year-old sociology major at the University of
Michigan, is an observant Muslim. She worships on Friday. She
doesn’t eat pork. She wears a veil and participates in five daily
prayers prescribed by the Quran. Although it has become easier to
practice her faith since she graduated from elementary school, the
demands of her faith are not well-understood in American society.
There are more than 2.75 million Muslims in America, and the
number is growing rapidly, according to recent Census data. One
result of the growth is that public school districts around the
country must grapple with questions of how to accommodate Muslim
students. Issues include whether to provide places for prayer,
halal food in cafeterias and scheduling around important Muslim
holidays.
Although most Americans defend religious freedom as a foundational
principle, many admit to being uncomfortable with Islam, according
to a 2010 report by the Pew Research Center. Fully 38 percent of
those surveyed said they had an unfavorable opinion of Islam. This
discomfort with Islam may cause some Americans to hesitate on how
much accommodation they think the state should afford to orthodox
faith communities.
But that isn’t the only holdup on religious accommodations. Some
also say providing Muslim students with prayer rooms and special
food constitutes an organized attempt to push Islamic law in
public settings. In fact, some of the most outspoken critics of
accommodation for Muslim students are Christian groups. “What
(school officials) are doing … is to give Muslim students
religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right
now,” Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel at the Thomas
More Law Center, a Christian advocacy group, told USA Today.
But protecting the freedom of religious people to worship can’t be
applied selectively, argued Luke Goodrich, deputy general counsel
for the Washington, D.C.-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
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