‘Gaining steam’: Terror ‘front group’ accused of strong-arming U.S. schools into promoting Islam
A government watchdog organization is warning that a terror “front group” and “a radical Muslim charity” has strong-armed a massive school district in Maryland into installing a promotion of Islam into its school schedule.
The watchdog, Judicial Watch, also pointed out the quick response from state lawmakers to advance a plan that allowed the school district to alter its calendar to meet the demands of the Council on America-Islamic Relations.
Judicial Watch explained what happened was that the district had made provisions for a scheduled day off from class, originally to recognize the Muslims’ Eid al-Fitr holiday, on March 20. But that was changed to a class day to make up for one of the five days of instruction lost to a major winter storm.
Muslims objected, and the district submitted to their demands.
“The Council on American-Islamic Relations a radical Muslim charity, reared its ugly head and Montgomery County Public Schools officials as well as other legislators in the Old Line State caved in to its demands of recognizing Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on March 20,” Judicial Watch reported.
There are around 156,000 students on 211 campuses.
Because of the five days lost to blizzard conditions, school officials changed the March 20 designation from a day off to a classroom day.
Muslims immediately “waved the discrimination card,” Judicial Watch said, and one report documented how CAIR chapter chief Zainab Chaudry insisted that the makeup day was “troubling news.”
She likened it to having students attend class on Yom Kippur, Easter and Christmas.
She said, “We want the same dignity and response for the Muslim community as well.”
Emergency legislation immediately was orchestrated in the state legislature, “to provide the school system with the flexibility to adjust the calendar,” Judicial Watch reported.
CAIR claimed Eid al-Fitr is a “sacred holiday” for “thousands” of families in the school district.
“We extend our gratitude to Superintendent Dr. Thomas Taylor and the Montgomery County Board of Education for working diligently with the Montgomery County Delegation to find a solution that protects both instructional integrity and religious accommodation,” CAIR said in a statement.
Judicial Watch reported: “Alarmingly the group’s influence is gaining steam in American primary and secondary education which are foundational in shaping young minds. A few months ago Judicial Watch reported that CAIR is partnering with public schools in at least two states to help make them ‘more inclusive.’ The pro-Hamas organization that represents itself as a human rights group is going after kids with a purported plan to bring inclusivity to public schools in Pennsylvania and Delaware. CAIR will use ‘An Educator’s Guide to Islamic Religious Practices’ to teach American children that jihad is an internal struggle to become a better person and not violence committed in the name of Islam. The guide also asserts that the oppression of Muslim women ‘is not related to their adherence to Islam but rather tied to customs and traditions.’ Another educational guide that will be utilized is titled ‘Remembering and Reflecting: Teaching September 11, 2001 in Diverse Classrooms’ and directs teachers not to use what it calls ‘inaccurate and inflammatory’ terms like Islamic terrorists, jihadists or radical Islamic terrorists to avoid validating the claims of the 9/11 attackers by associating their crimes with Islam and Muslims. When covering topics—like Guantanamo Bay, the Iraq war and Afghanistan invasion—related to the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks the guide says to include discussion of the bigotry and hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs.”
The watchdog noted that CAIR had been named “as a co-conspirator in a federal terror-finance case involving the Hamas front group Holy Land Foundation.”
During Barack Obama’s reign in Washington, CAIR was allowed to purge FBI training materials of anything it found offensive.