Mosque Discrimination: Did Public School Officials Violate Anti-Discrimination Policy During Field Trip?
by Adam BaldwinThis past May, a group of sixth grade middle school students from the Wellesley, Massachusetts Public School District visited the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center as part of a school sponsored field trip. Our sister site Big Peace recently revealed the details of this visit, as well as the controversial ties that the center’s parent organization, the Muslim American Society, has to terrorism as what federal prosecutors have labeled as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.” Recently surfaced video footage from this trip as recorded by a parent chaperon depicts a series of activities that occurred as part of the Muslim mid-day prayer service at the center’s mosque.
Some of the activities observed in the video not only push the boundaries of the appropriate role of schools in facilitating religious understanding, but they introduce elements of blatant discrimination that could be especially challenging to the average ten or eleven year old. It’s an angle to this story that does not appear to have been discussed to date.
Before the prayers commenced, the field trip attendees were religiously segregated. As seen on the video, the parent describes that the women chaperons, female teachers and schoolgirls were asked to leave the prayer area, while the boys were invited to stay and participate in prayer with the men.
Such religious and gender discrimination arguably violates Title IX and Massachusetts state education codes, as reflected in the Wellesley Public School anti-discrimination policy: (more…)







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