Judge rules school simulation of Muslim activities constitutional

(RNS) A federal judge has ruled that a California school district did not violate the U.S. Constitution when its teachers asked students to simulate Muslim worship and attire in class.

The parents of two former seventh-graders at Excelsior Middle School sued the Byron Union School District in Byron, Calif., last year after a world history class mandated their son simulate Muslim activities, the Contra Costa Times reported.

Among the activities were reciting a Muslim prayer, dressing in Arabic clothes for a presentation, selecting a Muslim name, and playing a trivia board game in which students race to reach Mecca.

"Objectively, the students at Excelsior cannot be considered to have performed any actual religious activities in their seventh-grade world history class," wrote U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton in San Francisco in an opinion issued in early December.

Richard Thompson, chief counsel and president of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., represented Jonas and Tiffany Eklund in the suit.

The judge's opinion demonstrated a double standard for Christians and other religions because schools are not permitted to post the Ten Commandments but students were permitted to recite "In the name of God, Most Gracious, Most Merciful," he said.

"There is no question that if you are going to educate students, you should educate about different faiths," he said. "It's about how you do it and how far you go."

Nancie Castro, principal of the middle school in East Contra Costa County, said the school was not attempting to indoctrinate students.

"I think they were common educational practices used for a variety of subject matter," she said. "We would never want to influence any child in their religious belief."