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Politics : The Truth About Islam -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: lorne who wrote (6070)	3/10/2007 7:26:46 AM
From: lorne	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 20106

School district sued over graduation held in church POSTED: 10:48 a.m. EST, March 9, 2007 cnn.com TRENTON, New Jersey (AP) -- The state American Civil Liberties Union chapter is suing the Newark public school district on behalf of a Muslim teen over a school's decision to hold its graduation ceremonies in a Baptist church. The New Jersey ACLU said Wednesday it was suing the district because its decision to hold graduation in the church prevented West Side High School senior Bilal Shareef from attending. Shareef's religious beliefs forbid him from entering a building with religious images, the civil liberties group said. The ceremony violated several provisions in the state constitution prohibiting public institutions from showing a religious preference, the ACLU asserts. The plaintiffs seek unspecified damages and a ban on further public school ceremonies in places of worship. District lawyer Perry Lattiboudere said Thursday that the district believes state law allows the use of religious facilities out of necessity. He added that the district makes efforts to cover up religious symbols in churches when it uses them for graduations. The lawsuit in state Superior Court joins a long line of legal cases in the U.S. in recent decades that challenged practices in which public schools have become intertwined with religion. The ACLU said the district promised after the 2005 ceremony to avoid holding a graduation at a religious location again. But in 2006, graduation was again held at New Hope. And the principal at the time told seniors they would get two additional graduation tickets for family and friends if they attended a separate Roman Catholic baccalaureate Mass, according to the ACLU. Lattiboudere said there were no secular spaces available to handle the school's roughly 250 graduating seniors and guests. "There was clearly a need to use the facility in '05 and 2006. And we've made an effort to use nonreligious facilities," Lattiboudere said. With about 43,000 students, the urban district is the state's largest. It's also among 31 districts in the state's neediest areas that get special financial

To: lorne who wrote (6070)	3/10/2007 9:34:22 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20106

Won't be long before protest of certain things of any kind is hate speech if these people get their way. Make no mistake about it, our 1st Amendment rights are the target of the jihadists.....and ironically, some of their biggest defenders are left wing people. Go figure.

To: lorne who wrote (6070)	3/10/2007 10:25:53 AM
From: ExCane	Respond to of 20106

on #6070- from FIRE's first letter thefire.org - "By punishing students on the basis of how harshly, violently, or unreasonably others might react to their words, SFSU would create an incentive for those who disagree to react violently, conferring a “heckler’s veto” on speech to the least tolerant members of the community." Doesn't CAIR's entire agenda push for a “heckler’s veto”? I like the term so I looked into it. From answers.com "a heckler's veto is the suppression of speech by the government, because of [the possibility of] a violent reaction by hecklers. It is the government that vetoes the speech, because of the reaction of the heckler. Under the First Amendment, this kind of heckler's veto is unconstitutional" Remember the imam from the the DNC winter meeting telling Shawn Hannity "you're playing with fire"? All the links in the original article are interesting. Let's see how big a pussy SFSU turned out to be, per the second letter by FIRE, the hearing was Friday, March 9, 2007. If you find it, post it.

To: lorne who wrote (6070)	3/10/2007 1:10:23 PM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 20106

The libs are all for the speration of church and State, unless that church is a mosque

To: lorne who wrote (6070)	3/24/2007 5:46:10 PM
From: ExCane	Respond to of 20106

Victory for Free Expression at San Francisco State University No Punishment for Stepping on Hamas, Hezbollah Flags March 20, 2007 FIRE Press Release SAN FRANCISCO, March 20, 2007—In a crucial victory for free expression, San Francisco State University (SFSU) announced yesterday that its College Republicans will face no punishment for hosting an anti-terrorism rally at which participants stepped on makeshift Hezbollah and Hamas flags. SFSU’s decision comes after months of pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), national and local media, and the public—all of which called on the school to uphold the students’ constitutionally guaranteed right to free expression. “We are relieved that SFSU has come to its senses and recognized that it cannot punish students for constitutionally protected expression,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “But the fact remains that the university should never have investigated or tried them in the first place. This was a protected act of political protest and it is impossible to believe the university did not know that from the start.” SFSU’s shameful attack on free expression began after an October 17, 2006 anti-terrorism rally at which several members of the College Republicans stepped on pieces of paper they had painted to resemble Hamas and Hezbollah flags. Unbeknownst to the protestors, the flags they had copied contained the word “Allah” written in Arabic script. On October 26, a student filed a formal complaint with the university against the College Republicans, alleging “attempts to incite violence and create a hostile environment” and “actions of incivility.” Although university administrators could have settled the matter informally or dismissed the charges outright, the university instead chose to press forward with a hearing on the charges. FIRE wrote to SFSU President Robert A. Corrigan on January 23, 2007, to stress that no American public institution can lawfully prosecute students for engaging in political protest or for desecrating religious symbols. SFSU replied to FIRE’s letter on January 29 by saying that the university would continue to investigate the complaint. When SFSU scheduled a hearing for March 9, FIRE immediately wrote to President Corrigan again to urge him to call off the hearing. Undeterred by clearly established constitutional jurisprudence, SFSU went forward with the hearing as scheduled. President Corrigan then responded to FIRE on March 13, once again standing by the university’s disciplinary process. Yesterday afternoon, President Corrigan wrote to FIRE with the welcome news that “the Student Organization Hearing Panel (SOHP) unanimously concluded that the College Republicans organization had not violated the Student Code of Conduct and that there were no grounds to support the student complaint lodged against them.” “SFSU has finally done what it should have done months ago,” FIRE Director of Legal and Public Advocacy Samantha Harris said. “The College Republicans should never have been dragged through an investigation and hearing for their protected political expression, and it is an outrage that SFSU carried on with this for so long when it had the power to dismiss the charges informally. We hope that SFSU will make whatever policy changes are necessary to ensure that this does not happen again.” FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation’s colleges and universities. FIRE’s efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at www.thefire.org. CONTACT: Samantha Harris, Director of Legal and Public Advocacy, FIRE: 215-717-3473; samantha@thefire.org Robert A. Corrigan, President, SFSU: 415-338-1381; president@sfsu.edu from thefire.org