> source:http://ww3.startribune.com/kerstenblog/?p=511
>
> Last week, Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TiZA) and the Minnesota Department
> of Education appeared to reach an understanding in the controversy
> over whether Islam is being promoted at this public school.
>
> But behind the scenes, a storm may be brewing.
>
> TiZA officials have “taken a confrontational road” in discussions with
> the department, according to Deputy MDE Commissioner Chas Anderson,
> the department’s No. 2 official.
>
> Anderson says that the two sides have not yet reached an agreement on
> one key issue and that MDE will be closely monitoring TiZA’s
> performance in future months.
>
> TiZA is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights, financed by
> taxpayers. Its students have scored well on standardized tests. But
> like all public schools, it may not encourage or endorse religion, or
> favor one religion over another.
>
> A number of facts raise questions about TiZA on this score. Its
> executive director, Asad Zaman, is an imam, or Muslim religious
> leader. The school shares a building with a mosque and the Minnesota
> chapter of the Muslim American Society, which the Chicago Tribune has
> described as the American branch of the Muslim Brotherhood — “the
> world’s most influential Islamic fundamentalist group.”
>
> Most of TiZA’s students are Muslim, many from low-income immigrant
> families. The school breaks daily for prayer, its cafeteria serves
> halal food (permissible under Islamic law), and Arabic is a required
> subject.
>
> School buses do not leave until after-school Muslim Studies classes,
> which many students attend, have ended for the day.
>
> Last spring, MDE opened an investigation after press reports raised
> questions about whether TiZA has been blurring the church/state line.
> The investigation focused on the school’s 30-minute Friday communal
> prayer event, among other issues. The service — led by adults — has
> been conducted on school premises, and both students and teachers have
> attended.
>
> In a report issued in May, the MDE concluded that TiZA’s Friday prayer
> event violated the law and since then has been working with the school
> to make changes.
>
> “We wanted TiZA to do Friday prayers the way all other public schools”
> handle similar activities — “as release time, under state law,” said
> Anderson. In a release-time arrangement, students move off-site for
> religious activities.
>
> But TiZA said no, according to Anderson. Instead, the school will
> continue to hold Friday prayer on its premises. Students will lead
> prayer and staff will be present only “to ensure student safety,” said
> Zaman in a letter to the MDE.
>
> In a response to Zaman’s letter, Anderson wrote complaining of what
> she called the “defensive tone” of the letter in which he set forth
> the school’s intentions. “It is inaccurate for TiZA to imply that
> MDE’s legal concerns regarding the school’s operations … were
> unfounded,” she wrote, “and it is of utmost importance that TiZA take
> seriously its responsibility to comply with applicable state and
> federal laws.”
>
> TiZA now says it will shorten Friday prayers — whose length has been a
> potential concern because of instructional time requirements — though
> it has not said by how much.
>
> MDE has agreed that TiZA’s new arrangement on after-school bus
> transportation will bring the school into legal compliance on that
> issue. But the department is highly skeptical that TiZA’s proposed
> arrangement for on-site, student-led Friday prayers will work.
>
> Track the situation closely
>
> We are “very troubled by it,” said Anderson in an interview. “This may
> look good on paper. But how can you have an assembly with older
> students in charge of younger students?” she said. MDE plans to track
> the situation closely and conduct site visits.
>
> Asked to respond to MDE’s continuing concerns, the school issued a
> statement through spokesman Blois Olson saying: “TiZA Academy has
> reached agreement with the Department of Education … and will continue
> to work with the department to ensure that we continue to be in
> compliance with all state and federal laws.”
>
> While TiZA and the department don’t agree about the Friday prayer
> service — even over whether they have an agreement on it — there are
> other religious accommodations at the school that raise questions. In
> its May report, for example, MDE said that regularly scheduled daily
> prayers at TiZA appear to pass legal muster because they are
> “voluntary and student-led.”
>
> But imagine the reaction if prayer time — reflecting only one faith —
> were built into the schedule at, say, Stillwater Junior High.
>
> Asked if other public schools would be allowed to accommodate religion
> the way that TiZA accommodates Islam, Anderson said: “We sought
> guidance, we want guidance” from federal sources and the Minnesota
> attorney general, “but no one will give us a black and white answer.”
>
> MDE says there are broader questions at issue. “This upcoming
> legislative session may be an appropriate forum” for “a serious
> discussion about the appropriateness of sectarian organizations
> sponsoring publicly-funded nonsectarian charter schools in the first
> place,” said Anderson in a statement Monday.
>
> For now, she added, “This is a gray area. School authorities at TiZA
> know it’s a gray area, and they are walking right up to and over that
> line.”