Complaint says crosses at Catholic school offensive, prevent Muslim prayer

[rug]

posted by Rob Kerby, Senior Editor | 7:49pm Thursday October 27, 2011

Crosses in every room at Washingon D.C.’s Catholic University of America are a human rights violation that prevent Muslim students from praying.

That’s the complaint to the Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights filed by a professor from rival George Washington University across town.

GWU Law School Professor John Banzhaf takes the Catholic institution to task for acting “probably with malice” against Muslim students in a 60-page complaint that cites ”offensive” Catholic imagery all over the Catholic school, which he says hinder Muslims from praying.

Baffled Catholic University officials say they have never received a complaint from any of the school's Muslim students.

http://blog.beliefnet.com/news/2011/10/lawsuit-says-crosses-at-catholic-university-offensive-prevent-muslim-prayers.php

[Swede]

1. That's like complaing that water is wet.

I don't get it?

[sakabatou]

2. I don't see how that prevents the students from praying

>.>

[PoliticAverse]

3. Unless they're vampires...

No wait, that's a myth: http://www.fvza.org/vmyths.html

[Meshuga]

10. Damn you! You beat me to the Vampire joke. n/t

[ZombieHorde]

4. This paragraph is a fun one...

“Can you imagine a law professor helping Catholic students to sue a Jewish or Muslim school to demand that the schools install crosses, remove their religious symbols, and allow the Catholics to construct a chapel on their property?” wrote Peters. ”Can you imagine the argument being that Jewish and Muslims schools using their religious symbols and following their faith traditions would be described in the legal brief as “offensive”?!

I wonder what will happen.

[lbrtbell]

5. I'm sick of people like this

Muslims like this are clearly fanatics who are trying to force their religion on other people. They're no different from the fundie Christians. They're all control freaks, harboring delusions that "my God/Allah is better than yours."

Human rights violation, my ass. :mad:

[Tx4obama]

6. It's a PRIVATE Catholic school. If you don't like what they do there then go somewhere else.

40+ years ago when I went to a Catholic grade school there were crosses in each classroom on the wall, in the hallways, and a huge one on the front of the school building. We had a separate building where there was a cafeteria/gym that had a big cross on the wall. The church was next door - HUGE cross on the top of the church and several on the inside.

If you're Muslim (or adhere to any other religion) and you attend a CATHOLIC institution then just be prepared to see MANY crosses everywhere, if it offends you then you are free to attend a school that is not privately owned.

[NMMNG]

7. It's a private Catholic university

If people don't like the crosses or the policies they can just not attend. Problem solved.

[Marazinia]

8. I'm baffled

At the utter failure to try this simple solution.

Why are Muslims sending their kids to Catholic schools again? I think I have a headache now. I might have to go lay down until the stupidity goes away.

Edit: ah, I see, they just want a room to pray in. Okay, no big deal. And it's a University, not a high school or so on. But still, really? A lawsuit? But for crying out loud, you accept non Christian students, so why, oh Catholic University, didn't you just find them a room somewhere for prayers? Or leave the hallways cross-free and let students excuse themselves. Not a huge deal on either side. Compromise, silly humans, compromise.

[NMMNG]

9. Me too

I wouldn't attend a religious school and I don't understand those who do then complain when there are religious symbols and sectarian rules.


I see, they just want a room to pray in.

They can't find a single room that doesn't have a cross? Even at Catholic University I find that hard to believe.

[Marazinia]

16. I also find it hard to believe

If true, I find it hard to believe that they are happy to turn down tuition money by annoying the people who are willing to pay it.

[rug]

13. i suspect it's because, like most universities, it receives federal funding.

If I can find the complaint I'll post it.

[rrneck]

19. Yep.

That's another sack of taters.

[Deep13]

11. You've got to be fucking kidding me.

"probably with malice"?!

Well, I don't want to see Catholic imagery and the Catholic point of view pushed at my college. That's why I signed up for a public school, not a Catholic one. Well, that reason and the cost.

[kestrel91316]

12. Oh, dear. Did the Muslim students not understand that Catholic University

was a CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY??

Wow. And I am normally quite sympathetic to the religiously oppressed, but this just has me flummoxed.

[cmkramer]

14. From what I understand, the Muslim students at the school have nothing to do with this case

The attorney filed it on his own. Apparently he does this sort of thing a lot. He also sued Catholic University for abolishing co-ed dorms and going back to same sex dorms. This was a hate crime according to him.

[Marazinia]

17. I thought attorneys were busy people

Someone should tell this guy to wait until someone comes to him about an issue before he jumps on it, maybe?

[WolverineDG]

25. He's a law school professor

not exactly the same thing. ;)

dg

[HuckleB]

15. Awesome!

Fire being fought with fire.

Imagine that.

[emilyg]

18. They need to go to another school.

[struggle4progress]

20. ... The university, whose Arab student population swelled from 56 in 2007 to 122 this year, sponsors

an Arab American Association, founded this fall by Muslim student Wiaam Al Salmi. “The community here is very respectful of other religions and I feel free to openly practice it,” Salmi told the CUA student newspaper ...
Lawyer charges Catholic University with civil rights violations
By Josef Kuhn
Religion News Service, Published: October 28
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/lawyer-charges-catholic-university-with-civil-rights-violations/2011/10/28/gIQAvrv3PM_story.html

[rug]

21. Looks like he does this as a class project.

http://banzhaf.net/docs/shirts.html

I still haven't found the complaint online.

[Deep13]

28. Swelled? U. Akron's English Language Institute probably has more Arab students than that!

And that's just one department!

Just over a hundred students and we get this ruckus.

[struggle4progress]

22. Charges Against Catholic University Were Not Made by Muslims (TAM | Oct 30)

Posted Oct 30, 2011
by Sheila Musaji

... We have enough real problems, we don’t need manufactured problems ...

If Mr. Banzhaf doubts how this will be used against us, he only has to read Pamela Geller’s screed titled Muslims Want Crosses Removed at Catholic University with the lede Islamic supremacism at non-Muslim religious universities, expect a Holder lawsuit. And, then read the comments to her article which include complaints about the “audacity” of “savage Muslims” and “pigs of Islam” who want to “impose Sharia law” and should “get out of our country” ...

The folks reading these bigoted articles are not likely to actually investigate and find out the truth about this incident. They will merely repeat it to everyone they know as proof of the sinister designs of those evil Muslims.

Even Newt Gingrich has once again jumped on the anti-Muslim bandwagon with this false story. Fox News reported that Gingrich was up in arms ...

http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/frivolous/0018844

[ButterflyBlood]

23. This is what trolling in real life is

What's quite sad is that it isn't exactly a given that any court won't just laugh as they toss this out in a heartbeat, though probably the most likely scenario.

[WolverineDG]

24. Um, it's a private university

That's what you get when you go to a church school.
:eyes:


dg

[dmallind]

26. Private institutiojns can display what they want - assuming tax money is not used. nt

[Donald Ian Rankin]

27. I'm mildly surprised that a Catholic University has Muslim students. N.T.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

29. I was a part-time instructor at a Catholic university before there was a significant

Muslim population in the U.S.

I was still a Lutheran at the time, but I knew I was teaching at a Catholic school, so if a noticeable percentage of the faculty were priests or nuns and if there were Catholic religious symbols all over the place, well, hey, it was a Catholic school. What did I expect? They knew I was a Lutheran but still hired me, and they didn't require me or any of the students to attend Mass or become Catholic, so I just didn't let it bother me.

Since no Muslim students have complained, I wonder if that GWU professor is just looking for a test case.

[Nihil]

30. Not so much a "test case" as a bit of free publicity ...

> Since no Muslim students have complained, I wonder if that GWU professor
> is just looking for a test case.

He's probably trying to work up to becoming an ambulance-chaser and simply
doesn't care who he treads on in the meantime - Muslim, Catholic, student
or administrator - as long as he gets his name in the press.

Wonder if he's about to lose tenure or something else is about to surface
that will impact his "academic career"?

:think:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

31. You can't "lose tenure" unless one of two circumstances apply:

1. Your department is eliminated and there is no other suitable position within the university for you. (A department at one of the colleges I taught at was eliminated. The two older professors retired, and the younger one took an offer to be retrained as an ESL instructor at college expense.)

2. You are convicted of a crime or are otherwise guilty of a serious ethical lapse. (A professor at one of the colleges I taught at lost tenure for continuing sexual harassment of students, despite warnings.)

However, you can be denied tenure pretty much for any reason or no reason if you don't already have it. A lot of people who are outside of academia don't realize that being denied tenure is tantamount to being fired. Because of the way academic hiring seasons work, they give you one lame duck year to look for another job, and then you're gone.

Come to think of it, this professor may have received his one-year warning.

[LeftishBrit]

32. If this were a state university, I'd sympathize with their objections.

However, the fact that it's called 'Catholic University of America' should give them a clue. If people strongly object to Catholic prayer and symbolism, then they should select a non-Catholic institution to attend.