This is certainly a week of “unbelievables!” The Minnesota ACLU has filed a lawsuit against TIZA charging among other things that the Islamic school is promoting religion with taxpayer funding. (Hat tip: Mars)
The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed suit Wednesday against a publicly funded charter school alleging that it is promoting the Muslim religion and is leasing school space from a religious organization without following state law.
The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis against Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, known as TIZA, and the Minnesota Department of Education, which the ACLU says is at fault for failing to uncover and stop the alleged transgressions.
The delicious article in the Star Tribune goes on:
… the ACLU claims the school is using federal and state money to promote religion in violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“TIZA has received millions of dollars of taxpayer money to support what is, in essence, a private religious school,” said Charles Samuelson, state ACLU executive director.
“…created a legal fiction” when taxpayer money funneled to the Muslim America Society.
Samuelson said the school has used some government aid money to pay rent to holding companies, which then funneled it to the Muslim American Society of Minnesota and Minnesota Education Trust, a group the ACLU says is a non-profit that also promotes Islam. The school and the society were incorporated on the same day by the same person, which Samuelson said creates a conflict of interest. “They created legal fictions, but it’s the same organization,” Samuelson said.
No broad secrecy oaths allowed either!
The suit also alleges that there are prayers on the walls of the school entry and that teachers have participated in student prayer activities. Samuelson said the school has used its website to seek volunteers to lead prayers, and that it requires students and staff to dress in attire that conform to Islamic religion. He also said the school has issued a handbook instructing staff to not discuss what goes on at the school. “You cannot have a broad secrecy oath” in a school funded with public dollars, Samuelson said.
I could kiss the ACLU! My kids went to a private Christian school for awhile and there was not one cent of government funding, it was non-stop fundraising—you know ham sandwich sales and such. Guess TIZA will have to raise money the old fashioned way (or get it from Saudi Arabia).
Reader Avi discussed TIZA in his excellent description of the stealth Jihad here.