U.S. school district caught promoting Islam

A legal team has dispatched a cease-and-desist letter to a school district in Washington state that promoted Islam through a Ramadan policy that provides special privileges for Muslim students.

It’s the second district in the state found to have the special policy in just the last week.

The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund confirmed it has written to Michelle Reid, superintendent of the Northshore School District in Bothell, Washington, to insist that the policy be revoked.

The policy directs teachers to create “safe spaces” for Muslims, plan with Muslim students to let them “quietly slip away” from class for prayer, “privately offer information” about nutrition during their Ramadan fast, give “a lesson” on Ramadan and privately ask Muslim students what accommodations they want.

FCDF warned that if the district does not revoke the policy and begin compliance with the First Amendment, “then parents and students will have a legal cause of action against you and the school district.”

While students are allowed to practice their religion, the team said, and “nothing in the Constitution prohibits public schools from accommodating students’ religious exercise,” public schools are not allowed to have policies or practices that “convey a message that a particular religion, or a particular religious belief, is ‘favored.’

“Administrators and teachers must never be placed in the position of monitoring a child’s compliance with a particular religious requirement, such as prayer, dietary restrictions, or wearing a head covering,” the letter said.

The First Amendment requires, in those circumstances, neutrality on religion, the letter said.

FCDF said the district must “restore the rights of non-Muslim students of faith to be treated equally under the law” and review all instances in which the school’s Ramadan policy was enforced.

The letter followed “multiple complaints” to FCDF from members of the Bothell community as well as a teacher.

It was the district’s Diversity & Equity Department that recently issued the guidelines for Muslim students during Ramadan.

“The school district’s so-called Ramadan ‘accommodations’ run roughshod over the First Amendment and are a blatant insult to students of other faiths,” said Daniel Piedra, FCDF’s executive director. “Under the mantle of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion,’ school officials have exalted Islam as the state-sponsored religion. Teachers and parents are outraged, and they should be.”

Just days earlier, FCDF sent a similar letter to the Dieringer School District in Lake Tapps, Washington, about the same issue.

The Ramadan policy had been recommended by the terror-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations.

After CAIR wrote to that school suggesting various changes in policy and practice that would benefit Muslim students, district Supt. Judy Martinson implemented CAIR’s suggestions as official district policy. She distributed the CAIR letter to school principals, who in turn circulated it to all teachers and staff, FCDF said.

The guidelines included having teachers greet students in Arabic for their Ramadan holiday.

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Holocaust revisionism at Williams college

KC Johnson has an excellent piece at the Tablet about a recent controversy at Williams College involving the refusal of the student government to recognize a pro-Israel student group, and the College's administration's subsequent reaction. Perhaps the most striking part of Johnson's piece is the following:



The Holocaust bit speaks for itself. The "genocide against Palestinians" trope, regarding a population which has had among the highest population growth rates in the world, whose standard of living improved dramatically during the Israeli occupation but before Oslo gave them (limited) self-rule, is a great example of people believing something because they want to believe it, regardless of the facts. I've challenged many folks on social media regarding this particular trope, and have concluded that this trope is essentially is evidence-proof, and can only really be explained by a pathological hostility to Israel that not surprisingly often has a strong antisemitic component.

This sort of ignorance mixed with malice reminds me of a prior post of mine about Oberlin College, involving leftist students who dismissed the Holocaust as merely an example of "white on white crime."

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UK: Going to university pays off faster for women than for men, new analysis finds

Within five years of graduating, women on average earn more than they would have if they had not gone to university.

However, almost one in five (18.6 per cent) male graduates are still paid less five years after they finish university than if they had taken a vocational qualification or gone straight into the workplace. 

The analysis, published by the think-tank Onward, is based on the Longitudinal Education Outcomes data published by the Department of Education (DfE).

The dataset, published for the first time last year, includes the tax records of thousands of university graduates after one, three and five years of completing their degree.

It comes ahead of the publication of the Augar review, expected this week, which is likely to recommend that tuition fees should be cut.

Last February Theresa May ordered a review of post-18 education led by Philip Augar, a former equities broker. The Prime Minister came under pressure on the issue after it was felt that the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's pledge to abolish tuition fees won support from young voters in the last general election. 

Ministers have previously criticised universities for running “threadbare” courses in a rush to get “bums on seats”.

The Education Secretary recently criticised the proliferation of “low value, low quality” courses which churn out graduates who go into poorly paid jobs and are unable to pay back their student loans.

The study by Onward found that men who have taken degrees in Creative Arts, Communications, English, Agriculture, Psychology, Philosophy and Languages at some universities will earn less than the national living wage, on average, five years after their graduation.

Male students studying Creative Arts from Bolton University earn an average of £14,400 five years after graduation, which is lower than the full-time national living wage.

Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of Universities UK, has said that it is “irresponsible” to discourage people from studying at university when there are “such clear benefits” for graduates, business and public services.

“Students are right to expect value for money and universities are striving to deliver this and address any concerns,” he said. 

“However, salary outcomes shouldn’t be the only measure of value. Many graduates work in vital roles in the public and charitable sectors or creative industries that make hugely valuable contributions to society and enrich our lives.”

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