Monday, March 17, 2008

Storm Track Infiltration: Taxpayers Funding Terror Tie School

Is there a line being crossed by a Muslim school in Minnesota that using taxpayers funds? You decide.

Weasel Zippers has the story.

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) -- named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain -- is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Its approximately 300 students are mostly the children of low-income Muslim immigrant families, many of them Somalis.

The school is in huge demand, with a waiting list of 1,500. Last fall, it opened a second campus in Blaine.

TIZA uses the language of culture rather than religion to describe its program in public documents. According to its mission statement, the school "recognizes and appreciates the traditions, histories, civilizations and accomplishments of the eastern world (Africa, Asia and Middle East)."

But the line between religion and culture is often blurry. There are strong indications that religion plays a central role at TIZA, which is a public school financed by Minnesota taxpayers. Under the U.S. and state constitutions, a public school can accommodate students' religious beliefs but cannot encourage or endorse religion.

MAS-MN came to Minnesotans' attention in 2006, when it issued a "fatwa," warning Muslim taxi drivers at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that transporting passengers with alcohol in their baggage is a violation of Islamic law.


You read that right. This is the same school that the infamous Muslim taxi drivers attended who refused to pick up passengers who had liquor or Seeing Eye dogs.

Now tell me. What’s a publicly funded school doing issuing religious fatwas?

Read the rest at The Gathering Storm.

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