Angry Muslim parents in Maryland have joined the Religious Right? — GetReligion

Last week, a Maryland district court denied that parents have “a fundamental right” to opt out of school activities that clash with their faith. The court made a distinction between “impermissible indoctrination” and educators seeking “influence-toward-tolerance.” The parents immediately appealed the Mahmoud v. McKnight case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Many Islamic leaders were surprised that some officials in Maryland and elsewhere now assume that Muslims concerned about “parental rights” and religious liberty have embraced the Religious Right or white supremacy, said Yasir Qadhi, dean of the Islamic Seminary of America, near Dallas.

Believers in ancient faiths are “being lumped together into one group and that is not the case, that is not true, and it doesn’t take into account the complex teachings of our various traditions,” he said, reached by telephone.

Soon, public-school officials will have to decide whether or not they want to retain the support, or even the trust, of parents and religious leaders who sincerely worry about the minds and souls of children, he said. It’s time to ask hard questions about what “tolerance” means in a complex and increasingly diverse culture.

“Schools have become a religious force in this culture, teaching that their beliefs are scientific fact that cancel out all other points of view, even while there are scientific debates on these controversial issues,” said Qadhi. “What we are seeing is a kind of fundamentalism, only it is being taught by public-school leaders. … It’s effectively another theology that is being instructed as normative for all.”

The bottom line: Muslim parents believe they have a First Amendment right to demand that their children “not to be forced to participate in celebrating or normalizing views that contradict our religion,” said Sameerah Munshi of the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, D.C., during a late June meeting — after the blunt statements by Mink and other Montgomery County leaders.

“We see it as a point of bigotry that some only care for our community and will only protect our rights when we assimilate to their way of life and ways of thinking,” she added. “Condemning us for our views on this issue is, in itself, another act of bigotry, like the ones Muslims and immigrants have faced in this country for years. …

“The same religion that causes Muslims to care about environmental justice, food insecurity or ending anti-Black racism, is the same religion that causes us to care about this issue.”