{"id":2593,"date":"2008-05-20T08:36:23","date_gmt":"2008-05-20T13:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2593"},"modified":"2008-05-20T08:36:23","modified_gmt":"2008-05-20T13:36:23","slug":"pay-no-attention-to-the-imam-behind-the-curtain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2593","title":{"rendered":"Pay No Attention To The Imam Behind The Curtain"},"content":{"rendered":"

David “Media Ueber Alles” Brauer read the State Department of Education’s report on Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy, and sees NO-tink, NO-think<\/em><\/a>!:<\/p>\n

The bottom line, to me, is that Kersten’s overarching concern \u2014 illegal Islamic education \u2014 is largely unfounded. TIZA’s problems come down to one 30-minute Friday break and changing after-school busing.<\/p>\n

Things worth fixing? Definitely. A massively overblown controversy? Definitely.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Scott Johnson at Powerline begs to differ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yesterday the department issued its findings<\/a> in the investigation prompted by Kersten’s columns. The Star Tribune reports on the findings in “State orders charter school to correct 2 areas tied to Islam.”<\/a> The findings vindicate Kersten’s reportage, ordering the school to reform its practices concerning its weekly Friday prayer service and its extension of the school day. The department found that both of these practices crossed the line. (The department also found that the school’s Monday-Thursday prayer services were student-led and therefore permissible. The department does not understand applicable constitutional law in this area.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Beyond that?<\/p>\n

The department discussed the “after-school” Muslim Studies program run by the Muslim American Society\/Minnesota, the state chapter of the national offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. MAS\/Minnesota owns the building in which TIZA operates, runs a mosque in the building, and provides religious instruction at the end of the day. The department asserts that the Muslim Studies program is fee-based and voluntary. Zaman purports to be unable to provide statistics concerning enrollment in the Muslim Studies program. Zaman is not only the TIZA principal, however, he is also an officer of MAS\/Minnesota. Who is kidding whom? The Minnesota Department of Education’s investigation is of the kind perfected by Inspector Clouseau.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So is Scott being overpunctilious?\u00a0 Is David Brauer ingenuously taking the word of a state agency at face value (as long as it’s not Carol Molnau’s MNDoT)?\u00a0 We’ll see.<\/p>\n

Now, I don’t personally have a problem with this; I think that religious groups should\u00a0 <\/em>be able to start charter schools – subject to state law<\/em>.\u00a0 Is the Department of Education following applicable law?\u00a0 I’m no lawyer – and either is David Brauer.<\/p>\n

But Scott is…<\/p>\n

Brauer, however, hasn’t written about this bit here yet…:<\/p>\n

KSTP Eyewitness News sent a reporter and crew out to TIZA to get a reaction to the Minnesota Department of Education findings from Zaman. KSTP reports<\/a> that its crew crew was attacked by Zaman and another school official. Its cameraman was injured while wrestling with Zaman and his sidekick over the camera. In the video of the KSTP report, Zaman goes right for the cameraman’s camera. Where is Clouseau’s servant Kato when you need him? And what is it that Zaman does not want Minnesotans to see?<\/p>\n

We called Greiling a thug when the Star Tribune posted her letter to the editor<\/a> calling on the Star Tribune to fire her. In Greiling’s case, the use of the term was metaphorical. Zaman is the real deal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So it would seem.<\/p>\n

<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

David “Media Ueber Alles” Brauer read the State Department of Education’s report on Tarek Ibn Ziyad Academy, and sees NO-tink, NO-think!: The bottom line, to me, is that Kersten’s overarching concern \u2014 illegal Islamic education \u2014 is largely unfounded. TIZA’s problems come down to one 30-minute Friday break and changing after-school busing. Things worth fixing? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,10,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture-war","category-education","category-liberty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}