Attorney Argues NY Schools Discriminate Against Christian Students
by Jim Brown
October 25, 2004
(AgapePress) - A school district that limits the religious expression of Christian students is allowing Muslim students to skip class to observe the month of Ramadan. The New York City Department of Education has given Muslim students at Brooklyn International High School permission to miss class four consecutive Fridays to observe the religious holiday.To Rob Muise of the Thomas More Law Center, the district's actions suggest that it is employing a double standard. He is currently prosecuting a lawsuit that challenges a New York City School System policy barring nativity scenes during Christmas, but permitting the display of the Jewish Menorah during Hanukah and the Islamic star and crescent during Ramadan.
"While it's interesting that they're allowing the students to worship during the Ramadan period," Muise says, "I would be curious to know if they would afford the same opportunities to Christian students during Good Friday, for example."
The attorney doubts Christian students would be given the same consideration. "I would venture to guess that there's probably some diversity in terms of the way they treat Christianity compared to these other religions, which is the unsettling part of all this," he says.
The Law Center lawyer notes that he believes providing students with a reasonable accommodation to exercise their religious freedom is a good thing -- as long as this is done fairly. "The Establishment Clause requires the government to be neutral towards all religions," he says, "and here, what the school is claiming [is] that, while there's a lot of Christianity and a lot of Christian symbols, [the schools are] trying to create parity."
The problem with this policy, Muise says, is that the school district seems to be "trying to create this affirmative action prong to the Establishment Clause, but there isn't one." In fact, the attorney points out, the government is obligated to remain impartial and to "treat all religions equally. But in the New York City Public Schools, they're certainly not treating Christianity the same way they treat Judaism and, certainly, Islam."
The New York nativity scene case is awaiting oral argument before a three-judge panel of the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Late last year the Thomas More Law Center also brought a federal lawsuit against the Town of Palm Beach, Florida, over its refusal to allow Christian nativity scenes on public property, even though displays of the Jewish Menorah are allowed.
