In Texas, Islamic Schools Face Tough Road To Participation

With 500 students, increasing academic prestige and an established soccer team, Iman Academy SW, an Islamic school in Houston, was seeking membership in 2010 to the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, a group that organizes competition among more than 200 schools in the state.

In addition to an application form, Iman Academy SW was given a questionnaire. Among the questions:

¶ “Historically, there is nothing in the Koran that fully embraces Christianity or Judaism in the way a Christian and/or a Jew understands his religion. Why, then, are you interested in joining an association whose basic beliefs your religion condemns?”

¶ “It is our understanding that the Koran tells you not to mix with (and even eliminate) the infidels. Christians and Jews fall into that category. Why do you wish to join an organization whose membership is in disagreement with your religious beliefs?”

¶ “How does your school address certain Christian concepts? (i.e. celebrating Christmas)”

The private-schools association, known by the acronym Tapps, was established in the 1970s to coordinate sports among Christian schools. The organization drew national attention this week when it refused to reschedule a state semifinal boys basketball game for an Orthodox Jewish day school, which could not play at the scheduled time because its players observe the Sabbath.

Under legal pressure, Tapps ultimately rescheduled the game for Friday afternoon. (The Orthodox school, Robert M. Beren Academy in Houston, defeated the Convent School of Dallas, 58-46, to advance to the state title game on Saturday night.)

Tapps had said the issue with Beren Academy was not a religious one but rather a matter of scheduling. But the Beren Academy issue, according to interviews with several school officials in Texas, was not the first time Tapps raised concerns over its dealings with a non-Christian school. At least two other Islamic schools were given similar questionnaires; they declined to fill them out.

Iman Academy SW did fill out the application and questionnaire and was denied membership. It did not challenge the association’s decision.

“We didn’t see how it had anything to do with Tapps or our kids and sports,” Cindy Steffens, an administrator with Iman Academy SW, said.

Bryan Bunselmeyer, the associate director of Tapps, said Friday that he had no comment in response to questions about the questionnaires and how the association had dealt with Islamic schools.

Paul Horwitz, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law, said such conflicts involving youth sports and religion were not unique to Texas.

“I think we can sympathize with people trying to satisfy the largest number of people,” Horwitz said. “But the nation itself is becoming more religiously diverse. That doesn’t mean these groups necessarily are not interested in interacting with society at large. We may have thought of them as part of an insulated community, but they’re not.

“The more group leagues are growing, the more they’re going to have to cope with religious diversity more often and in more complicated ways.”

The questionnaire sent to Iman Academy SW said: “Members of the Tapps executive board have little knowledge of Islam and the Koran, so it is possible that some of the passages taken from the Koran have been taken out of context. If so, please help them understand.”

It went on to ask if the school taught its students that the Bible is corrupt: “When was the Bible allegedly polluted? Does the Koran actually state that the Bible is polluted?” Also, it asked: “What is your attitude about the spread of Islam in America? What are the goals of your school in this regard?”

Steffens, the administrator at Iman Academy SW, said the school tried to answer the questions “in an inclusive manner.” Upon completion of the questionnaire, school officials had a meeting with Tapps board members, she said. Among the questions asked of the school officials was their opinion of the highly publicized controversy over a proposed mosque near ground zero in New York.

“We didn’t want to bring any negative attention to the school,” Steffens said. “We know our kids are just as American as their kids. We just wanted to play ball.”

Several school officials in Texas said Tapps circulated a survey among members in 2010 about potential inclusion of Islamic schools in the league.

Brian Yager, head of Keystone School, a multi-denomination private school that belongs to Tapps, was among the schools that received the survey.

The survey asked whether it was “in the best interest of Tapps to accept Islamic schools for membership,” according to a letter from Yager to Keystone parents posted on the school’s Web site. The survey also asked whether Tapps schools would leave the association if a majority of the votes were for or against inclusion of the school.

“I felt very uncomfortable with the situation,” Yager wrote in a letter to parents. “I declined the invitation to take the survey.”

Instead, he sent a reply sharing his discomfort with the survey.

On Dec. 8, 2010, Tapps representatives distributed the results of the survey, reporting that 83 of 220 schools had replied, Yager said in his letter. Some 37 percent of respondents felt that it was in Tapps’s best interest to accept Islamic schools, and 63 percent said it was not, Yager said. Ten schools said they would leave Tapps if a majority said yes to admitting an Islamic school; one school said it would leave Tapps if the majority said no.

Keystone administrators discussed whether to stay in Tapps, Yager said.

“For the time being,” the school decided to stay and, “we feel it is important to try and effect change in the situation through positive action within Tapps, rather than removing ourselves from the playing field.”

Iman Academy SW, meanwhile, arranges games on its own against other schools, and some of its athletes have joined local city-based leagues, Steffens said.

“We’re trying to be inclusive,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/03/s...schools-face-tough-road-to-participation.html