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Shariah in Academia
TiZA Charter School is Dogged by Suits, Criticism
The Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) has been sued by the ACLU for promoting Islam in a public school, as well as endorsing Muslim clothing rules and dietary practices. Charlie Kyte, executive director of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators, says "I have deep concerns that we have a religious institution and a public school that seem to be way too close to each other." The Muslim American Society shares space with TiZA at its Inver Grove Heights campus, and appears to have paid for Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison's 16-day pilgrimage to Mecca in 2008. TiZA received about $4.7 million in state funding this past school year.
Fresh controversy is swirling around the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy after the revelation that an Islamic nonprofit with ties to the Inver Grove Heights charter school paid for a Minnesota congressman's pilgrimage to Mecca.
State education officials last year investigated a substitute teacher's allegations that the public charter school promoted Islam in the classroom. The officials determined no laws had been broken, but they recommended the school modify its Friday communal prayers and provide after-school busing at different times for students who were not participating in religious activities.
The public spotlight has not eased. TiZA is now involved in two lawsuits: The American Civil Liberties Union has sued the school, and TiZA has sued the state Education Department.
MSA National Condemns Suspension of Muslim Student Union
The suspension of the Irvine Chapter of the Muslim Student Association is now up for debate and the national headquarters is fighting back. Lisa Cornish, UC Irvine’s director of student housing, found that the Muslim Student Union had “planned, orchestrated and coordinated in advance” an effort to disrupt a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren on Feb. 8 about U.S.-Israeli relations. The Muslim Student Association was the earliest known public front organization of what would later become the US Muslim Brotherhood and many USMB leaders were active in the early days of MSA.
The national headquarters of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) has condemned the recommendation by a University of California official that the it Irvine Chapter be suspended for one year as a result of its members having disrupted a speech by the Israeli Ambassador in February. According to the MSA announcement:
(MSA National – 6/15/2010) – The Muslim Students’ Association National condemns the recommendation for a one-year suspension of the University of California, Irvine Muslim Student Union (MSU) made by the Senior Executive Director of Student Housing due to allegations that the MSU violated sections of theUniversity policy.
The allegations arise from a UC Irvine-sponsored event in February featuring Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren. Several UC Irvine students stood up and protested during the event regarding Israeli policies toward Palestinians. TheUniversity alleges these students acted on behalf of the MSU, but the MSU repeatedly denies these claims, reiterating that the students acted on their own accord.
Muslim Scholar, Fomerly Barred, Coming to New York
Tariq Ramadan, a Muslim scholar banned from the U.S. for donating money to a charity that funded Hamas, is allowed to speak at Cooper Union this month. He will speak at a conference entitled “Secularism, Islam and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West,” presented by the American Association for University Professors, the ACLU, PEN American Center and Slate. Ramadan is the grandson of Hassan al Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood.
A prominent Muslim academic barred from the United States for six years under the Patriot Act will speak at a panel at Cooper Union next month, his first public appearance since the restriction was lifted.
The scholar, Tariq Ramadan, will speak at “Secularism, Islam and Democracy: Muslims in Europe and the West,” presented on April 8 by the American Association for University Professors, the American Civil Liberties Union, PEN American Center and Slate.
Another Wild Night on Campus Reminds College Administrators That They Daren't Displease Their Islamist Students
Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the US, went to the University of California’s Irvine to make a speech but was harassed and booed off the stage by members of the Muslim Student Union and their supporters. Critical of fearful, complacent college administrators, journalist Stephanie Gutmann says, “Columbia University, my alma mater, is famous for passively standing by when a pro immigration-policy reform speaker was literally driven off the stage by a bunch of youngsters who seemed to have just discovered the joys of thuggery. After one too may incidents where extra security details had to be hired, Columbia started preemptively canceling speakers, like the PLO-member-turned-Zionist, Walid Shoebat, who was invited to speak then canceled about an hour before he was supposed to take the stage. The latest example is Nonie Darwish... who was recently invited then dis-invited by Columbia and Princeton after, as the editor of Former Muslims United put it, administrators were ‘intimidated by the adverse comments of Muslim and Jewish chaplains about Darwish’s ‘extremist views’ on Islam as a totalitarian ideology inimical to the human rights of women, gays and unbelievers.’”
The Daily Telegraph
February 9, 2010
By Stephanie Guttman
Irvine, California
Here’s another reason already-wobbly university administrators will think twice before bringing a speaker to campus opposed by radical Muslim groups. Michael Oren, the urbane, New Jersey-born Israeli ambassador to the US, went to the University of California’s Irvine campus Monday night to attempt to make a speech. (The subject of the speech is almost irrelevant.) “Attempt” is the operative word here. As you can see this video, the angry young men scattered strategically through the room scarcely let him finish a sentence. They are pleaded with: “Now that you’ve gotten that out of your system, now that you’ve made your point, please let him talk,” wails one administrator, but Oren finally leaves the stage surrounded by a phalanx of security men.
Oren eventually came back to finish a presentation, but not the one he had planned. It had to be cut short because of all the time lost waiting for the room to quiet.
Using the American MSM news-writer’s favourite device, the passive voice combined with a milquetoast adjective, the Associated Press described the incident as “a raucous lecture” — as if the lecture itself was wild and crazy, or as if the lecture somehow erupted into raucosity by itself.
In the wake of the Detroit bomber, London University has hired Daud Abdullah to teach a 22-week course entitled "Introduction to Islam". ‘Last year Dr Abdullah, who is also deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, signed the controversial ‘Istanbul Declaration.’ This applauded Hamas, demanded ‘jihad and resistance’ against Israel, sought a ‘complete victory for all of Palestine,’ stated that ‘everyone standing with the Zionist entity [ Israel ]’ should be treated the same as the Israelis, and said that the sending of ‘foreign warships into Muslim waters’ was a ‘declaration of war’ which must be ‘fought by all means.’"
Daud Abdullah has been appointed to teach a 22-week course entitled "Introduction to Islam" at Birkbeck, a college of the university. The move will add to growing concern in the wake of the Detroit bomber case that London University is becoming a haven for Islamic radicals.
Last year Dr Abdullah, who is also deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, signed the controversial "Istanbul Declaration." This applauded Hamas, demanded "jihad and resistance" against Israel, sought a "complete victory for all of Palestine," stated that "everyone standing with the Zionist entity [Israel]" should be treated the same as the Israelis, and said that the sending of "foreign warships into Muslim waters" was a "declaration of war" which must be "fought by all means."
The then Communities Secretary, Hazel Blears, claimed the declaration advocated "violence against our troops" and "attacks on Jewish communities all around the world" and broke off relations with the MCB when they refused to sack Dr Abdullah.
