Public high school and Muslim football players

[High_Gravity]

I'm all for safety of the kids during sports. And, most of the kids who play (but, not all) are practicing Muslims.

So, the school - a public high school - changes their practices, a tax-payer supported sport, to accommodate the Muslim players.

I suppose the establishment clause allows for reasonable accommodation of religions in public school, but I am asking myself what makes this any less an "establishment" than players praying before, during, or after a game?

That schedule would suck balls if there were any Christians on that team, but there doesn't seem to be.

And there are plenty of public schools with an entirely Christian student population. Does that mean they are allowed to hold morning prayer sessions?

I personally would not have a problem with that as long as the prayer sessions aren't mandatory or forced.

 

[xotoxi]

Here's an interesting story: At Fordson High, in Dearborn, they made practices start at 11PM during Ramadan so the players (a mostly Muslim community) would have full stomachs and be able to rehydrate without breaking their religious practices during that time.

It's a public school.

I wonder if they disallow Christians to pray before, during, or after a game?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/sp...pagewanted=all

So, is this an establishment issue, too? What about safety for the players?

Seems like a hard call.

(If the link doesn't work (I just tested it and it says you have to subscribe), copy and paste this into the address bar and it comes up: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/s...ompetitive-during-ramadan.html?pagewanted=all)

The Muslims are not allowed to come to school on December 25th because of the Christians.

December 25th is as good a day as any for kids to learn...so then why can't we have school that day?

 

[Si modo]

I have been to Dearborn Michigan, many moons ago, I lived in Indiana as a boy on the Michigan border and I went up there one time and ate an Arabic restaurant, the food was quite good, the area was predominantly Arab and Muslim from what I saw at the time.

The Region? Or, more country?

All that is my old stomping grounds.

Wow this was almost 20 years ago, from what I saw of Dearborn it looked like it was majority Arab but not all of them were Muslims, alot of Christians from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon etc. re-settled in Dearborn. I lived in a small town in Indiana right across from Fort Wayne and the Michigan border until my 6th grade year when I moved to Kansas City where I stayed until graduation.

Cool.

The last time I was in Dearborn, was 2003. It is mostly Muslim Arabs now. The Christian Arabs aren't as concentrated too much anywhere now (or at least my last time living there). Still some are there, along with some Italian and Polish Christians. But, for the most part, Dearborn is very much majority Muslim.

It's a very unique place in the USA, to say the least.

 

[High_Gravity]

The Region? Or, more country?

All that is my old stomping grounds.

Wow this was almost 20 years ago, from what I saw of Dearborn it looked like it was majority Arab but not all of them were Muslims, alot of Christians from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon etc. re-settled in Dearborn. I lived in a small town in Indiana right across from Fort Wayne and the Michigan border until my 6th grade year when I moved to Kansas City where I stayed until graduation.

Cool.

The last time I was in Dearborn, was 2003. It is mostly Muslim Arabs now. The Christian Arabs aren't as concentrated too much anywhere now (or at least my last time living there). Still some are there, along with some Italian and Polish Christians. But, for the most part, Dearborn is very much majority Muslim.

It's a very unique place in the USA, to say the least.

Oh it is, from what I remember of Dearborn it looks exactly like Kuwait when I deployed there in 2007.