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By Amalia Rehman / Muslim Link Contributing Writer
On June 7, 2008, several dozen Muslims and public school actvists gathered at the Newseum in Washington DC to discuss religion in public schools.
The symposium was sponsored by the Freedom Forum's First Amendment Center and the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs. The symposium, “Belief and Religion in the Public School System” is part of the Freedom Forum’s commitment to educate the public about first amendment freedoms.
“The Muslim community is breaking new ground …in how we think about religious freedom.” stated Charles Haynes of the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center. “Muslims are at the forefront of the movement to changing our ideas about religious accommodation in public schools. In the early 20th Century Catholics and Jews were both effected by the protestant influences of the public school system. Later on, the Jehovah Witnesses came into the public school system with new concerns about celebrating birthdays and other holidays that did not comply with their beliefs. Today, Muslims are at the forefront of a new set of accommodations”. Mr. Haynes went on to say that Muslim children need accommodation for head coverings, like Jewish boys who wear skull caps. Additionally, Muslim prayer requirements and particularly Friday congregational prayer possess other important considerations.
Mr. Haynes has had a long standing friendship with Imad Damaj, an instructor of pharmacology at Virginia Commonwealth University and an affiliate of the Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs which is a local, non-profit organization committed to participate in the religious, social and civic aspects of our community. Their discourse over the past few years culminated in the symposium held June 7th at the Newseum in Washington DC. This event included Charles Haynes, Imad Damaj, Susan Douglass (Education Consultant, Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Georgetown University), Jeremy Gunn, ( Director, Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, ACLU) as the speakers.
One of the materials handed out to the participants, who consisted of about 30 to 50 Muslim community leaders, was a publication written by Charles Haynes titled, “Finding Common Ground”. Mr. Haynes describes this as a culmination of his years of work with a variety of organizations and groups, both conservative and liberal, where he had to negotiate consensus statements regarding religious issues under the First Amendment. Mr. Haynes explains that the Freedom Forum is a non-profit organization interested in only educating the public. They do not litigate or lobby for any political interests.
The goals of the symposium held on Saturday were to inform Muslim leaders how the First Amendment and religious liberty work, to offer support in how to address these issues in the public school setting and, hopefully, to develop these seminars to include other spheres such as religious accommodation in the workplace.
Mr. Haynes stressed the importance of this issue of religious accommodation, particularly in light of the recent Supreme Court decisions which have weakened the First Amendment rights of religious accommodation. Some states have gone ahead and created their own laws to reinforce religious accommodation rights and to force compliance, while others have not done so. Therefore, in some states it is harder to get religious accommodation than in others. Mr. Haynes also explained why, a school carefully monitors a child’s food allergy and makes sure that child does not eat the wrong food while the school may not take much action to ensure a child does not eat pork products. In the first case, the public school is libel for the safety and well-being of the child while in the latter, the public school takes the position that they are not in the position of enforcing religious restrictions on any public school student. The school is required to provide full disclosure regarding the contents of the food products, but they can not enforce a religious practice. Therefore, a religious dietary restriction is not monitored and enforced like a food allergy. One of the awkward positions a public school may find itself in is when the desires of a parent are not the same as the student’s. There are times when parents may view the public school system as undermining the parents or their beliefs. Therefore, the public school system shies away from enforcement of parental requests which they view as enforcement of religious practices, not as religious accommodation.
Attendees of Saturday’s event included a group of educators and community leaders from as far as North Carolina. The main concerns of the attendees seemed to focus on four issues: dietary concerns, modesty and classes like physical education and health classes, absences for religious holidays effecting perfect attendance records and, last but not least, how Islam is presented in world history classes. Susan Douglas addressed this last issue and stated that Islam needs to be taught from an historical perspective in the public school system, which too often is not the case. Mr. Haynes’ publication, “Finding Common Ground” offers a section called, “Parents Guide to Religion in the Public Schools”.
In speaking with Taalibah Hassan, an educator, activist and community leader in the Woodbridge, Virginia area, she explains that “Now we need to bring this back to the community. Tell parents to get involved in PTA, back to school nights, conferences with your child’s teacher… start a rapport from the start…If a problem comes up we have already started communication so we don’t get a reputation as people who just show up when a problem comes up”. Ms. Hassan went on to say that by volunteering and getting to know public school officials, we can get them to be more responsive to our interests such as getting Arabic accepted as a foreign language requirement in our schools. One way in which Ms. Hassan has bridged this gap is by having the director of the Talented and Gifted Program from the public school visit the Islamic Sunday School where she was the principal. This opened up communication and led to volunteers from the Muslim community in the TAG program. Ms. Hassan is also excited about continuing this dialogue with general community members by inviting Imad Damaj to offer a workshop at her local mosque.
In a response to the question about how 9/11 has effected the atmosphere of religious accommodation, Mr. Haynes stated that 9/11 has had a profound effect on this issue for the Muslim Community and that the Muslim community has been suffering the backlash since that event. Mr. Haynes went on to explain that this treatment of the Muslim community “is wrong and evil”. Its supporters are of two kinds, those that had an agenda to undermine and destroy Islam and those that act out of ignorance and fear. In the case of the former, 9/11 fed their agendas and they are taking full advantage of it. Mr. Haynes is hopeful that the work of the Freedom Forum and the knowledge of one’s rights will lead to fair religious accommodation and the proper representation of Islam in the public school system, thus painting a true picture of Islam.
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