The Lebanon High School faculty taxpayer-funded trip to a local mosque.
A group of teachers, faculty and administrators from a public school district in Pennsylvania took a full day trip to a mosque to learn about the religion of Islam, watch a worship service and ways they can better serve and accommodate the Muslim students in their schools. This type of trip is yet another example of the growing push to make all manner of exceptions for Islamic students while at the same time pushing the Bible and Christian expression out of schools.
An All-Day Public School Trip For Islam
The school district of Lebanon Valley, Pennsylvania sponsored a trip for its teachers and administration to a local mosque to learn about the religion of Islam. The group, which included the superintendent of the district, wanted training to better serve the Muslim students attending their public schools.
According to sources:
To bridge that cultural divide, about 50 district staff members attended an in-service workshop on Monday that included a trip to the Lebanon Valley Mosque. While there they learned about the practice of Islam, watched an afternoon Muslim prayer service and where treated to a lunch of Moroccan cuisine.
It was the second year that the workshop was offered to the staff, according to Fred Shattls, director of the district’s English as a Second Language department. The workshop was led by Mohamed Omar, a former teacher’s aide and Arabic translator for the district who also served a year as president of the mosque…The workshop began at the high school where Omar spoke about the histories and cultures of several Arab countries and the differences in their educational systems to that in the U.S.
At noon, the teachers took a bus to the mosque, located not far away at 13th and Florence streets. Following Islamic practice, each took off their shoes before entering the prayer room where they took a seat on a maroon-colored carpet with intricate designs. (source).
At the mosque teachers and staff were able to ask about the religious practices of Muslim students and how to fit them into the school day. All of this was done to incorporate Muslim worship and show respect for the religious beliefs of the Muslim students at the public schools in the area.
A Blatant Double Standard
William Swimmer was suspended for wearing a shirt that mentioned Jesus Christ.
The faculty Islamic field trip was just one of numerous examples of public schools catering to Muslim students while shunning Christianity and restricting the free speech of Christian students. Below are just a few examples where students who believe in The Lord Jesus Christ found their right of free expression restricted:
- A Canadian High school student was suspended for five days for wearing a t-shirt that read “Life Is Wasted Without Jesus.” (source).
- A 16-year old California student was suspended after refusing his public school’s orders to stop talking about his new-found Christian faith and bringing his Bible to school. (source).
- A 10-year old student assigned to write an essay about anyone she admired was told that her essay about looking up to God would not be accepted and was ordered to remove the essay from school grounds. (source).
- At various high schools across the United States, High School valedictorians have been told by schools they were not permitted to discuss their Christian faith or even mention Jesus Christ in their graduation speeches. (source).
In all these incidents the public schools justified their actions against Christian students on the basis of “separation of church” and state – the notion that a public school should never accommodate or promote a religious belief. At the same time public schools have gone out of their way to cater to the Muslim religion. One public high school provided an all-girls prom for Muslims in accordance with Islamic teachings on female etiquette. A San Diego elementary school created an extra recess period to give Muslim children more time to pray. A Michigan High School football team moved its practices to midnight in order for students fasting for the Islamic holiday of Ramadan to be able to eat and drink water at night (when the religion permits it). High school students were kept at practice until 3AM (then having to return to school for class the next morning between 7:30-8:00AM) all in the name of religious observance. Many public universities offer prayer rooms, foot baths and Muslim ritually approved food. Why are there no complaints about “separation” of church and state when it comes to the special treatment for Muslim students at public institutions?
A photo from the Geography class at a Lumberton Public School in Texas.
Even teachings of Islam are promoted in public schools. At a Texas public school a teacher dressed girls up in Islamic burqas and taught a lesson that stated Allah is “the Almighty God” and referred to Islamic terrorists as “freedom fighters”. (source).
Pray for the public school system and its agenda which is clearly hostile to Biblical Christianity while catering to Islam. If school leaders are going to visit mosques during work hours, pray that taxpayer money start paying for visits to churches as well. As society moves farther away from the Bible and grows more hostile towards Jesus Christ and the Gospel, Christians and Bible-believing churches need to be that much more outspoken in sharing their faith whether the public school system supports it or not.
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.“ – Jude 1:3.
I think having the teachers & administrators visit a mosque was a GREAT idea! Those are the people who have to serve & respond to the needs of Muslim students. Having some familiarity with Islam (which most Americans know nothing about) wil help them to their jobs better. In a public school setting, EVERYONE’S faith must be respected by the staff. If we as Christians want our beliefs to be treated respectfully, we have to extend the same respect to other faiths. It would have been better if they’d brought students along to visit the mosque as well. Nothing about that field trip represents “shunning Christianity”. MY QUESTION TO THE FOLKS HERE IS: Would you object if those same people had spent the day at a synagogue instead of a mosque? So many Christians are terrified of saying anything critical of Jews & their faith, but we will immediately dis anything relating to Islam. That has to stop.
But the other instances mentioned in the piece are problematic. I always try to flip the script & put myself on the reverse side of the equation before deciding if a situation amounts to dissing Christianity. The t-shirt incident was just dumb, but it happened in Canada, not the US. Maybe the freedom of expression laws there are different. But as long as no one comes to school with profanity, hate speech of offensive images emblazoned on their shirt, they should be able to wear whatever they like. MY QUESTION FOR THE READERS HERE IS: If that had been a brown kid at an American public school who got suspended for rocking a shirt that said “Life is Wasted Without Mohammed”, how would you feel about that? Free speech isn’t just for Christians. Too often, we only seem to care about 1st amendment rights when they involve someone of our faith.
The 16-yr-old who kept proselytizing at school — naw, that shouldn’t happen. Let Dominguez preach to others On His Own Time, Outside of School Grounds. New converts often drive people nuts by trying to convert everyone they meet — just like folks who join a MLM group. Both tend to be very annoying. His preaching wouldn’t be tolerated if he worked at the post office or Macy’s or Burger King — in fact, he’d be fired for proselytizing at work. A public school is no different. Nobody at a public school should have to be recruited by Wiccans, Muslims, Satanists, Christians or any other religious group — period. Even if he only preached to people during lunch & between classes, the bottom line is that he offended someone & they complained to the staff. Otherwise, the administration wouldn’t have known Dominguez was trying to convert other students. If one religion is allowed to proselytize at school, every religion will be entitled to do so. And nobody wants that. As for not letting him bring his Bible to class, that’s just asinine. THAT is what he should be suing over.
As Christians, yes, we should share our faith with non-believers. But there is a time & place for everything. Being “more outspoken” is not appropriate in every situation. And adults have some rights than don’t apply to children. If I own a restaurant, I can let my employees sing gospel music & talk to customers about Jesus while they’re working because I’m the owner. A 16-yr-old in the middle of the school cafeteria doesn’t have the same rights. Our right to speak about our faith & try to win souls to Christ does not supersede everyone else’s right to be left alone if they don’t want to be bothered.
Christians need to start speaking out and become just as RADICAL as the muslims, otherwise, there will be a new one world religion and it won’t be Christianity…. Think on that one.
We might need to start up the Crusades again.
Prynhawn da/Good afternoon and Hi
Hi Sue Breslin
I am not sure if you know your history, especially the crusades, and what has come down to the present day through the past because of the crusades – the actions of Islamic extremist for one, who hatred for the west, and especially Christianity. So another crusades will definitely start World War III. In addition, your choice of word (Muslims) implies the entire faith, the RADICAL as you call them are fundamentalist, who have hijacked Islam for their own sick and perverted agenda. They are no different from fundamentalist Christians or Jews of past history, and who are ever present in today’s society. All created hatred and acts of barbarism, and tried to indoctrinate their sick doctrine on the rest of society. The US founding-fathers had foresight by keeping religion and state separate, by creating a secular nation. In addition, they made a treaty (Treaty of Tripoli (1797)) with what they termed then as Musselmen (Muslims). Article XI of that 1797 treaty states:
As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion as it has in itself no character of enmity [hatred] against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen [Muslims] and as the said States [America] have never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.[Acts Passed at the First Session of the Fifth Congress of the United States of America (Philadelphia: William Ross, 1797), pp. 43-44.]
This new blog by B and E shows the historic intolerance of Christianity to other religions and faith, the enmity of Christian hatred to other religion is well documented, with the crusades being just one. 99% of the world’s ills today are of a religious nature, with the Abrahamic religions taking centre stage. I am thankful that I bare no man/woman (persons) animosity or bigotry to their skin colour or creed, in addition I am also exceptionally thankful for being ‘good without god!’
More information on American secularism can be in books or online, such as site below.
http://www.earlyamerica.com/early-america-review/volume-2/secular-government/
Cofion (Regards)
Jero Jones, Mab Cymru
If they are going to be visiting mosques then they had better be equally visiting Churches and Synagogues.
It’s most unfortuunate that America has degenerated to this level of heathenism,apostasy and divergence from the Lord.It even is worse because the people who push for the anti Christian laws and prohibitions are men and women who profess to be Christians – at least, amajority of them.But unfortunately,nothing, I mean absolutely nothing can be done about it because it simply is just the fulfilment of prophecy!My advice is that let the one who is pure remain pure and wait with all earnestness of heart for the Lord’s return,doing the work of an evangelist as the Lord gives him opportunity.
As 1 contributor to the cop message board NYPD Rant
so eloquently puts it, “These teacher unions have been run by radical cop-haters for generations.
This is insanity…all Muslims should be banned and deported…in ww2 would we be teaching Nazism is public schools….liberal progressive policy’s are ruining this country…obviously radical Islam is a threat to this country…those kind of people do not respond to peaceful talks…so you crush them with violence…drop a couple nukes and we’ll be ok…as far as civilians..hey sorry war is hell…ypur sacrifice was for a grater good…anyone is this country who thinks we should cater to Muslims needs there heads checked…and maybe a one way ticket to saudi arabia…why can’t we not talk about a Christian God in school…but Muslims can…not fair.oreally right…Donald trump will fix and make America great again
If Donald Trump turns out to be the Antichrist,as I fear he will,I shall laugh at you right up to the moment I’m cast into the Lake of Fire.
And even then,I shall do everything in my power to escape Eternal Torment just so I can continue to laugh at you and do the “Told Ya So” dance….
You’re as big a bigot as Donald Dump is. Take that hate speech & your misspellings somewhere else. troll!
And google US Army Capt. Humayun Khan while you’re at it.