IN THEIR never-ending quest for victimhood, conservative Christians are yelling persecution. This time, it's over the New York City public school system allowing Muslim students to accommodate their schedules to pray during Ramadan.
The school board currently allows Muslim students to excuse themselves from class when they need to pray, and provides a space for the prayer to take place, which is open to all students regardless of their religion. There's nothing wrong with the actions taken by the New York City School Board; they're protecting Muslims' constitutional rights. Christians' complaints of hypocrisy are unfounded, because they're afforded the same opportunities - and in some cases, more - than Muslim students are.
The bottom line is this: No one is forcing children to pray. No one is mandating daily prayers to Allah. And most importantly, no one is saying that Christians can't do the same thing.
Let's say that a group of Christian students wanted to organize a prayer group. In fact, the Bible says that Christians should "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). If a group of Christian students took that to mean that they should pray several times a day, they could go to the school's administration and ask for their teachers' help.
There would be nothing wrong with the administration meeting their requests. Christianity and Islam should be treated equally. But conservatives assert that their rights are being infringed upon. In a column for the Plains Baptist Challenger, E.L. Bynum asserts that "Children may pray and worship in public school - but only if they are Muslims" (http://www.techplus.com/bkjv1611/bd0460.htm). Similarly, conservative columnist David A. Yeagley calls it "one of the most dramatic inconsistencies of Constitutional interpretation" ("Schools Harass Christians, Coddle Other Faiths," FrontPage Magazine, June 21).
But not all prayer in school is the same. Conservatives might claim that allowing Muslims to pray during school hours is not different from saying the Lord's Prayer at a school event. But there is a key difference between prayer endorsed by the school and prayer accommodated by the school.
Conservatives have distorted the liberal stance on this issue. There is nothing wrong with allowing student-led prayer in school, whether by Christians, Muslims, Jews or Buddhists, as long as it doesn't threaten other students. The problem comes with school-sponsored prayer.
Teachers and administrators are in a position of authority over children and should not be endorsing or preaching Christianity, Islam or any other faith. Simply put, this is forcing religion on children, and this isn't what is happening in this case.
The Supreme Court has ruled that prayer endorsed by school administrations is unconstitutional and should not be permitted. But never ones to let the law stand in their way, many conservatives have encouraged school-sponsored prayer. Take the case of Greenbrier High School in Arkansas: With the encouragement of their school board and governor, the Lord's Prayer is recited before every football game, in direct contradiction to the Supreme Court's ruling ("Praying in public: part of coping, or a defiant act?" Christian Science Monitor, Oct. 25).
This shouldn't be allowed. We wouldn't recite the Koran, or require that all women have their faces covered during football games, so we shouldn't recite a Christian prayer either.
Accommodating religion is another matter. Although some Christians might claim that they're being treated unfairly, the truth is that we already accommodate Christians and Jews in our public high school systems. Breaks are scheduled around Christmas, Good Friday and Passover, and students are allowed to take off school for religious holidays.
On the same line of reasoning, there should be no problem with allowing Muslim students to change their schedules to fit with what their religion mandates. If they can manage to catch up on their work, then these Muslim students should be allowed to pray in school.
Islam mandates its followers to pray five times a day at specific times. If schools forced Muslim students to be in class instead of praying, especially during Ramadan, the "Holy month," they would be infringing on these students' constitutional rights. This would be a perfect example of the government "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion - the constitutional quote that conservatives warm to.
The claims of unfair treatment by the Christian right are unfounded. There is a fine distinction between accommodation and endorsement of prayer, but it is an important one. Muslims should be treated exactly the same way that Christians would, and the First Amendment guarantees that they deserve no less.
(Brian Cook is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at bcook@cavalierdaily.com.)
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