Author: Art Moore
Publication: WorldNetDaily.com
Date: November 25, 2003
URL: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=35809
Immigrants who fled persecution
rally to tell 'truth about Islam'
Hundreds of Christians who fled
Egypt to the United States claiming persecution under Islam showed up outside
a Southern California middle school yesterday to protest an extra-credit
assignment urging students to participate in the Muslim Ramadan fast.
The teacher at Royal Oak Intermediate
School in Covina, Calif., wrote parents of students in his world history
class, saying he wanted to take advantage of the Islamic holy month of
Ramadan "to promote a greater understanding and empathy towards the Muslim
religion."
But on a public sidewalk adjacent
to the school grounds yesterday afternoon, about 500 people, according
to organizers, gathered peacefully to "tell the truth about Islam" as classes
ended for the day.
A group called the American Middle-East
Christian Association maintains that at a time when discussions about Jesus
Christ have been barred from classrooms, the teacher is urging impressionable
school children to participate in a religion the group views as a threat
to America.
Ultimately, the protesters maintained,
the teaching of Islam in a public school is furthering the aim of making
America a Muslim nation.
About 450 of the protestors were
Coptic Christian immigrants from Muslim-majority Egypt, whose families
had suffered discrimination and persecution because of their faith, said
Steve Klein, who helped organize the event.
"Many of them were in tears, thrilled
that they could come out and assert their First Amendment free-speech rights,
which are found in no Islamic nation," Klein told WorldNetDaily. "They
had survived 14 centuries in Egypt by not getting involved in politics."
The public school is in the Charter
Oak School District in a mostly middle- class area at the east end of the
San Gabriel Valley.
Superintendent John Roach insisted
the teacher meant only to promote empathy with Muslims, not with Islam.
He conceded the instructor told
parents in his letter the assignment was about empathizing with the Islamic
religion.
"If I had the opportunity to correct
the letter before it was sent out, I would have changed that paragraph,"
he told WND.
Roach said he most certainly would
have put a stop to the assignment if it had been about promoting Islam
and can understand why some people would make an issue of it.
The letter to parents said students
"may choose to fast for one, two or three days. During this time, students
may only drink water during daylight hours. Once fasting is completed,
students are to type a ½ page summary of their experience. They
should describe how it felt to go without food during the day and connect
it to the theme of sacrifice. Fasting is inconvenient and sometimes uncomfortable,
many religions to consider it an important sacrifice."
The teacher said he wished "to emphasize
that this is an EXTRA CREDIT assignment and is by no means mandatory. For
those unable to fast, they may choose to type a 2 page paper in which they
compare different religions that encourage sacrifice during the year."
Roach went over to the school, which
has about 1,600 students, to observe the protest yesterday and estimated
the number of protesters to be about 150.
"If in fact we had been inculcating
one religion over another, I'm thrilled that there were 150 people who
recognize that that's what schools should not be doing," said Roach.
But the official said he was "saddened"
that organizers would mobilize all those people to "believe what we're
doing is training the next generation of al-Qaida."
Roach noted, however, the protest
was peaceful and orderly.
The Coptic Christians passed out
literature and talked to many parents about their personal experience of
persecution under Islam, Klein said, warning passersby that Islam is here
to take over America.
"Many parents were very curious,"
Klein said. "They were stunned by what their kids were being taught."
One parent objected to the protest,
he said, but "changed his tune" after the immigrants told their stories.
Many of the Coptic Christians who
showed up are articulate professionals, such as dentists and physicians,
said Klein, a former Marine officer who served in Vietnam.
After seeing how the First Amendment
works, he noted, they said they need to get together and organize to tell
their message further.
"These people who have suffered
have so much to offer [Americans] who are sleeping, refusing to recognize
the true nature of Islam," said Klein, who said he has organized hundreds
of protests, including many that have confronted Islam, through a group
he established called Courageous Christians United.
Roach said he's been contacted by
some of the Coptic Christians.
"Several people have called me on
the phone and spoken to me, wanting to make sure I'm teaching the Islamic
religion is a murderous, terrorist religion," he said.
But the superintendent argued, if
he were to teach that, he would be "just as guilty as I would be if I went
the other way."
"I can't impede a religion any more
than I can promote it," he said.
The teacher's letter to parents
opened, "As part of the world history curriculum, your student has recently
been studying the rise of Islam and the teachings of Mohammed. Fundamental
to the Muslim religion are the Five Pillars of Islam. They emphasize the
'word of God,' prayer, charity for the poor, fasting and the pilgrimage
to Mecca. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims refrain from food or drink
during daylight hours."
Roach insisted the seventh-grade
class presents a balanced view of Islam, covering mostly the social implications
of the religion's rise, as part of a world history curriculum that begins
with the Roman Empire.
As WorldNetDaily reported in January
2002, public school students at Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, Calif.,
apparently were taken on a deeper journey into Islam in which they pretended
to be Muslims, wore robes, simulated jihads via a dice game, learned the
Five Pillars of Faith and memorized verses from the Quran in classroom
exercises as part of a World History and Geography class for seventh-graders.
The class was included in the state's curriculum standards required by
the state board of education. These standards outline what subjects should
be taught and are included in state assessment tests, but don't mandate
how they're to be taught.
The Islam simulations at Excelsior
are outlined in the state-adopted textbook "Across the Centuries," published
by Houghton Mifflin, which prompts students to imagine they are Islamic
soldiers and Muslims on a Mecca pilgrimage.
