Schools

So a charter school in Minnesota drew fire because it's basically a Muslim school. From the local news (HT Drudge):

Being a charter school Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TIZA, is supported by tax dollars. The teacher told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the presence of religion she observed at the school took her b surprise.

TIZA Executive Director Azad Zaman insisted the school follows with state and federal laws.

"TIZA does not endorse any religion," he said.

However, TIZA Academy is sponsored by Islamic Relief USA, based in California.

Based in California! Gasp! The story gets interesting here:

The questions came after substitute teacher Amanda Getz taught at TIZA last month and told the Star Tribune about things she observed that day that shocked her.

"I've been in a lot of schools and I've never been in a school where they had washing rituals, or they had prayer, or where they had a room where you had to take your shoes off," Getz said.

"It is most likely that this substitute teacher was sadly mistaken," said Zaman.

He said the school follows state and federal guidelines when it comes to religion.

Granted, one can certainly argue the merits of the word ritual, especially since this is a TV news story so there is very little content. And rituals are a good way to make sure kids actually to remember to wash their hands, to be fair (maybe they should do something similar for doctors) But the blanket denials by Zaman (whose full name, Azad Zaman, is worth 31 points in Scrabble) are just plain hilarious. 'What? Washing rituals? This teacher is mistaken.' My favorite part:

State law requires the school to fly an American flag during school hours, however no flag flies outside of TIZA Academy.

Zaman told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he didn’t know how to work the flagpole.

THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A SCHOOL! If you don't know how, you learn how. Any 8 year old cub scout could tell you how. You hook the flag on and pull the rope. Not hard.

But speaking of learning, I figured I'd actually look this school up on Wikipedia, to see what I could learn. It's not that controversial, because no Wikipedia entry exists, so I went to the school's website. The school lunch menu doesn't contain any bacon, ham or pork. The school does not have a week long spring break, just the Thursday and Friday before easter, although it does offer a week long break during Ramadan. There is a break for Christmas as well as Eid-al-Adha (Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son). They also teach the kids Arabic.

But really, this is not a religious school. The school is designed to cater to Muslim Students, who then make up more of the student body. Nothing wrong with that. But regardless, I'm still laughing at Zaman.