CAIR Uses Ramadan to Insert Religious Indoctrination into Washington Public Schools

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) continues its efforts to insert religious indoctrination into public K-12 education. This time, CAIR’s using the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, which began on Monday, to urge teachers in Washington’s Dieringer School District to bless Muslim students in Arabic with “Ramadan Mubarak!”

In an “Informative Letter on Upcoming Islamic Holidays and Religious Accommodations” the district simply enacted as official policy, CAIR also instructed teachers to monitor Muslim students’ Ramadan fasting and not to schedule tests on certain Islamic holidays.

After hearing from a concerned parent and a teacher, the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund (FCDF) sent the district superintendent a legal memo warning that such policies violate the Constitution by favoring Muslim students and advancing religion.

As FCDF Executive Director Daniel Piedra put it, “CAIR must not be allowed to indoctrinate impressionable schoolchildren under the guise of ‘diversity’ and ‘cultural awareness.’ FCDF is committed to keeping CAIR out of our America’s public schools.”

Update (5/9/19): Fox News has updated its initial reporting on this story to note the following:

Fox also reports that CAIR’s Ibrahim Hooper, predictably, is labeling FCDF’s pushback a “sign of the growing Islamophobia in our nation,” while claiming that CAIR’s recommendations to the Dieringer School District are nothing more than “recognizing the wide variety of holidays celebrated by students of different faiths and backgrounds, including by saying ‘Merry Christmas,’ ‘Happy Hanukkah,’ ‘Happy Diwali,’ or ‘Ramadan Mubarak.’” Yet, members of those other religions are not asking publicly-funded institutions to incorporate aspects of their religious belief into their staff training or curriculum. That is where CAIR crosses the line.