CAIR-MN asks Little Falls schools to not allow tea party to use building for Brigitte Gabriel

Early this month, Bluestem posted about radical Islamophobe Brigitte Gabriel's coming appearances at two tea party-sponsored events in Little Falls and Mankato.

The Little Falls event will be held at the local high school--which allows community groups to use the facilities, according to a policy on the public school's website--and the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations is raising objections to the location for Brigitte Gabriel's speech.

The St. Cloud Times reports in Islamic civil rights group asks Little Falls school to drop tea party speaker:

An Islamic civil rights group is calling for the Little Falls school district to not host a speaking event with a woman who they call an anti-Muslim speaker.
Brigitte Gabriel is scheduled to speak Monday at Little Falls Community High School at a Central Minnesota Tea Party event. Gabriel is a member of ACT! for America.

The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations issued a press release asking the school district to consider the negative impact Gabriel will have on the students.

“By allowing the school to host this event, the perception is that the school is endorsing hate speech and anti-Muslim views,” said CAIR-MN Executive Director Lori Saroya in a news release. “This perception could have a negative impact on the learning environment for Muslim students.”

Messages left with Little Falls school district Superintendent Stephen Jones and the Central Minnesota Tea Party Patriots, which is sponsoring the event, were not immediately returned Wednesday.

Hosting an anti-Muslim speaker would also violate the district’s harassment and violence policy, Saroya said. The policy seeks “to maintain learning and working environment that is free from harassment and violence on the basis of... religion.”

Saroya said the speech would also contradict the school district’s policy on religion, which states: “The school district shall neither promote nor disparage any religious beliefs or nonbeliefs.”

Gabriel has said that an American Muslim cannot be a loyal citizen and that Islam is the real enemy, according to CAIR-MN.

Bluestem's earlier post documents the many objections that groups ranging from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Anti-Defamation League and CAIR have raised to Gabriel's public statements. The New York Times public editor reviewed the use by the paper's magazine's of the term "Islamophobe" and even the woman's own publicist called her views "extreme."

Are off-hours uses of building governed by public schools' student & staff policy?

And yet, CAIR-MN's press release seems to mix policy for students and staff while school is in session with a community group's use of the building in the off-hours.

Local school facilities are often used by faith-based and political community groups in off-hours in small towns. In Hutchinson, for example, a "mission" church congregation uses one of the public schools on Sunday for services, presumably renting the space. In Little Falls, Faith Lutheran Church worships in the middle school commons on Sunday, according to the Morrison County Record's online church directory. Political parties hold their caucuses at public schools, and many county and district political conventions use the spaces across the state. Often, the buildings are the only inexpensive handicapped-accessible spaces in small towns that can handle a large turn-out.

While Gabriel's message is--as the publicist for her book said--"extreme," it's not being presented to school children during school hours during the school year. If the Little Falls school district has no record or policy of refusing off-hour rental or use to a community group based on the school policies on religion, harassment or violence, CAIR-MN's request is off the mark. Better to organize an educational program to counter Gabriel's hateful clap-trap.

Little Falls' earlier free speech battle now in federal court

The larger Little Falls community has been engaged in a free speech battle that's unrelated to the Tea Party or the public schools. Robin Hensel, who was asked to take down yard signs supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement, is suing the town. In its latest coverage, the Morrison County Record reports in Federal judge rules to allow deposition of LF Council in Hensel’s lawsuit:

Frost filed Hensel’s initial lawsuit in May 2012, in federal court. Hensel’s lawsuit against the city alleges the city violated Hensel’s Constitutional rights to free speech, among other reasons, by requiring her to remove signs placed in her yard saying they were against city ordinance, while failing to request other unlawful signs in the city be removed.

Hensel was removed for disorderly conduct at a recent City Council meeting and her lawyer asks:

Regarding Hensel’s hearing on the disorderly conduct charge, Monday, Frost said having Hensel removed from Council Chambers before the June 7 rescheduled City Council meeting, constitutes discrimination based on viewpoint “and maybe some other constitutional violations,” he said.

“Could the city be sued for that too? We think so,” said Frost. “We think that even going there is a vivid demonstration on how far Little Falls will go to keep Robin’s viewpoint, however unpopular, from being presented. In short, evidence for the existing lawsuit.”

One would think that the same principle would apply to Gabriel's Tea Party speaking engagement in space rented at a public school. If community groups are able to obtain the space in off-hours without regard to their viewpoint, then Gabriel and the Tea Party, like Republicans, DFLers and Lutherans (and hypothetically, CAIR-MN), should have access to the space.

Public officials shouldn't censor, and there's a difference between criticism (our take Gabriel's views) and prior censorship based solely on the views. However, if the school district has refused space in the past based on community standards (say the Black Snake Militia or the Ku Klux Klan), there might be a case to be made.

UPDATE

Bluestem was just about to post the material above when we received CAIR-MN's press release. Here it is:

CAIR-MN Asks School to Drop Anti-Islam Tea Party Speaker

Brigitte Gabriel says Arabs have ‘no soul,’ Islam is the ‘real enemy’

(MINNEAPOLIS, MN, 7/24/13) – The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today called on Independent School District #482 and Little Falls Community High School to consider the negative impact a scheduled speech by an anti-Muslim speaker will have on district students and to rescind approval to hold the event in a school facility.

On July 29, 2013, the Central Minnesota Tea Party will feature anti-Muslim speaker “Brigitte Gabriel” from the hate group ACT! For America at an event in Little Falls Community High Schoo

SEE: Will North Star Tea Party co-founder state rep Cindy Pugh attend radical Islamophobe Brigitte Gabriel's events in Little Falls Mankato? (Bluestem Prairie) CAIR Islamophobia Backgrounder: ACT! for America and 'Brigitte Gabriel'

“As Little Falls High School would not, and should not allow a racist or an anti-Semitic speaker to use its facilities, we ask that school and district officials apply the same standard to an anti-Muslim speaker,” said CAIR-MN Executive Director Lori Saroya. “By allowing the school to host this event, the perception is that the school is endorsing hate speech and anti-Muslim views. This perception could have a negative impact on the learning environment for Muslim students.”

Saroya added that hosting an anti-Muslim speaker would also violate the district’s Harassment and Violence Policy. The Harassment and Violence Policy seeks “to maintain learning and working environment that is free from harassment and violence on the basis of . . . religion . . .” The policy specifically states that the school district should avoid having an “intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.

Gabriel’s speech would also contradict the School District’s policy on Religion, which states: “The school district shall neither promote nor disparage any religious beliefs or nonbeliefs.” This policy encourages “tolerance” and this event is a clear contradiction to the policy as it clearly promotes intolerance.

ACTION REQUESTED: (As always, be POLITE and respectful.)

Contact: Independent School District # 482 Superintendent Stephen Jones: 320-632-2001, [email protected]; Little Falls Community High School Principal Tim Bjorge: 320-616-2201, [email protected]

Copy to: [email protected]

ACT! for America leader Hanah Kahwagi Tudor, who goes by the pseudonym “Brigitte Gabriel,” claims an American Muslim "cannot be a loyal citizen" and that Islam is the "real enemy." She once told the Australian Jewish News: "Every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim." She also claimed that "Islamo-fascism is a politically-correct word. . .it's the vehicle for Islam. . .Islam is the problem.

According to an exposé of the group by the Tennessean newspaper, “ACT members see themselves as warriors in a clash between Western civilization and Islam.”

Backgrounder: Anti-Islam Group Finds Fertile Ground in Nashville (Tennessean)

The Southern Poverty Law Center lists Gabriel as one of the “Anti-Islam Inner Circle” and says, “She is prone to sweeping generalizations and exaggerations as she describes a grand, sophisticated Muslim conspiracy bent on world domination.”

SEE: The Anti-Muslim Inner Circle

When asked whether Americans should "resist Muslims who want to seek political office in this nation," Gabriel said: "Absolutely. If a Muslim who has -- who is -- a practicing Muslim who believes the word of the Koran to be the word of Allah, who abides by Islam, who goes to mosque and prays every Friday, who prays five times a day -- this practicing Muslim, who believes in the teachings of the Koran, cannot be a loyal citizen to the United States of America."

Gabriel stated: "America and the West are doomed to failure in this war unless they stand up and identify the real enemy: Islam."

SEE: Islam's March Against the West

Along with her stated desire to have Muslims barred from public office, Gabriel has also claimed that Arabs "have no soul" and that Muslims worship "something they call 'Allah,' which is very different from the God we believe [in]."

SEE: A Case Study in Sincere Hypocrisy: Brigitte Gabriel

Video: Brigitte Gabriel Says Arabs Have No Souls

A person staffing an ACT! for America information table in Florida was caught on video bragging that he desecrated the Quran, Islam's revealed text, and urinates in the washing stations Muslims use to perform their ritual ablutions (wudu) for prayer.

That person states: “Their foot baths, I love pissing in them. . .The Quran makes worthless toilet paper. It just kind of scratches my a** a little bit. . .To me, I like desecrating their [Muslims’] holy stuff.”

SEE: Person at ACT! for America Table in Fla. Brags of Desecrating Quran

According to an exposé of Gabriel and her group published in the New York Times:

“Through her books, media appearances and speeches, and her organization, ACT! for America, Ms. Gabriel has become one of the most visible personalities on a circuit of self-appointed terrorism detectors who warn that Muslims pose an enormous danger within United States borders.”

The New York Times also stated: “[Gabriel] presents a portrait of Islam so thoroughly bent on destruction and domination that it is unrecognizable to those who study or practice the religion.

SEE: Brigitte Gabriel Draws Crowds in U.S. With Anti-Islam Message (NY Times)

Another exposé of Gabriel’s hate group published on Politico.com quoted an Arab-American activist who said: “The idea that congressional staffers would agree to meet an organization led by a woman whose agenda is pure unadulterated hatred and whose purported life story is a laughable fiction -- it’s sad.”

SEE: Anti-Islamic Groups Go Mainstream (Politico)

CAIR is America's largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.