Catholic University Faces Complaint of Human Rights Violation by Muslim Students

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

I am not religious. I do respect the right of all peaceful religions to worship as their theocratic theological (religious) dogma would have them. How they worship, or the symbols of their religion do not affect me. Unless they are engaged in trying to force change in places they have no moral or legal right to do so.

Which is precisely why the following article reporting on Muslims attempting to force change on Catholic University {a private institution} because of alleged human rights violations should tick everyone of rational mind off greatly.

The Washington, D.C. Office of Human Rights confirmed that it is investigating allegations that Catholic University violated the human rights of Muslim students by not allowing them to form a Muslim student group and by not providing them rooms without Christian symbols for their daily prayers.

The investigation alleges that Muslim students “must perform their prayers surrounded by symbols of Catholicism – e.g., a wooden crucifix, paintings of Jesus, pictures of priests and theologians which many Muslim students find inappropriate.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Human Rights told Fox News they had received a 60-page complaint against the private university. The investigation, they said, could take as long a six months.

The complaint was filed by John Banzhaf, an attorney and professor at George Washington University Law School. Banzhaf has been involved in previous litigation against the school involving the same-sex residence halls. He also alleged in his complaint involving Muslim students that women at the university were being discriminated against. You can read more on those allegations by clicking here.

Banzhaf said some Muslim students were particularly offended because they had to meditate in the school’s chapels “and at the cathedral that looms over the entire campus – the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.”

“It shouldn’t be too difficult somewhere on the campus for the university to set aside a small room where Muslims can pray without having to stare up and be looked down upon by a cross of Jesus,” he told Fox News.

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Banzhaf said that it is technically not illegal for Catholic University to refuse to provide rooms devoid of religious icons.

“It may not be illegal, but it suggests they are acting improperly and probably with malice,” he said. “They do have to pray five times a day, they have to look around for empty classrooms and to be sitting there trying to do Muslim prayers with a big cross looking down or a picture of Jesus or a picture of the Pope is not very conductive to their religion.”

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Garvey {the University President}, in his 2010 interview with NPR, addressed that issue.

“It’s just not something that we view as an activity that we want to sponsor because we’re a Catholic institution rather than Muslim,” he said.

Patrick Reilly, the president of the Cardinal Newman Society, an organization that promotes Catholic identity among Catholic schools, seemed stunned by the complaint.

“I don’t know what the attorney wants them to do – if he wants them to actually move the Basilica or if the Muslim students can find someplace where they don’t have to look at it,” he told Fox News.

Catholic University, he said, is a Catholic institution.

“One wouldn’t expect a Jewish institution to be responsible for providing liturgical opportunities for other faiths and I wouldn’t expect a Catholic institution to do that,” he said.

“This attorney is really turning civil rights on its head,” he said. “He’s using the law for his own discrimination against the Catholic institution and essentially saying Catholic University cannot operate according to Catholic principles.”

Read coverage from Catholic University’s student newspaper by clicking here.

the facts are:

A) Catholic University is a private institution of higher learning.
B) Students make the decision to attend Catholic University by their own free choice, even the Muslims who matriculate at CU.
C) Before entering the university all students, and their parents visit the campus and learn about the institution.
E) Given the above, all students {including the Muslim students} are fully aware of the conditions into which they are entering.

So, what's the problem? What moral or legal right do the Muslim students believe supports their {and their representative} position? What do they not understand about the choice they made, and how it would impact their lives while attending CU? Do they really believe their human rights have been violated, even given they made a free choice to attend CU?

What is even more disturbing is there are many who will side with the irrationality of their complaint. Truly disturbing. What once was largely a given in America, that one accepted the consequences of their free and independent decisions is rapidly vanishing. We can thank political correctness, accompanied by increasing thin skinned people for the change.

More @ The Conservative Guild and @ just a conservative girl

Via: Memeorandum