According to the 60-page complaint, filed with the Washington, DC Office of Human Rights, the private Catholic school acted “probably with malice” against the Muslim students by filling the campus and dormitory space with crosses and other Catholic symbols. By not providing space for the Muslim students to worship, they force them to pray in classrooms whose Catholic natures “prevent” Muslims from praying.
One possible explanation for all this: The lawsuit was filed by George Washington University Law School professor John Banzhaf, who also has a pending lawsuit against Catholic University for not allowing mixed-gender dormitories and has filed “civil rights” lawsuits over issues such as smoking and childhood obesity. Clearly, we’re talking about a serial litigator, a man who either desperately needs to see his name in the newspapers, or who has far too much time on his hands.
Or perhaps you disagree.
Personally, I have no idea why a Muslim would enroll at Catholic University — but that’s another issue.
And why am I mentioning this in the first place? Because as far as I can tell, there isn’t a single online location where people seem capable of discussion this without either hateful comments about Muslims or irrelevant attacks on the Catholic Church.
The writer wonders why Muslim students would enroll at a Catholic University, then goes on to state “but that’s another issue.” Clearly, that is EXACTLY the issue.
Only a subversive element would employ a tactic like this. This legal action adds fuel to the tanks of those who repeatedly and vehemently tell us that ISLAM is the enemy, for it alludes to an intention to abuse the rights that exist in the US which are conspicuoulsy absent in every Muslim dominated country today. The US must face the fact that the malicious sense of entitlement displayed by this tactic can have but one motive, and we only need to view the burgeoning Muslim demographic in Spain, France, and England in order to recognize a persistent gambit employed by these unexpected beneficiaries of Socialist policies. We must admit the truth of what our own eyes tell us, or we ignore them at our own great peril.
To admit that this is an assidious and outright assault on Christianity may be difficult for those to ascribe to liberal theology, but those worshippers should simply ask themselves how they would view this suit if it lodged against Hebrew College.
Trying to “do the right thing” by taking a beating will only embolden these usurpurs of the freedom which this country – and all free nations – has for too long given the blood of their cherished sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers, in the defense of liberty.
I don’t agree with either hateful comments about Muslims or irrelevant attacks on the Catholic Church.
It shouldn’t be “either/or”, it should be “and”. They’re arguing over who has the best imaginary friend and are both equally wrong.
LOL!
So much for a forum capable of discussion without either hateful comments about Muslims or irrelevant attacks on the Catholics.
it’s a private school. they can do whatever they want. the students (presumably) knew it was a Catholic school when they enrolled. What did they expect to find there?
An institution of higher learning that cannot provide reasonable accommodation to its students ought not to admit such students. Why a Muslim would matriculate at an explicitly Catholic university is beyond me, but so long as they are allowed to do so, they cannot be required to leave their religion behind.
I don’t think that it’s strange that a Muslim would want to go to a university that happened to be Catholic. It would be a strange for them to seek it out, but not so strange if the university that was best for them in terms of other factors (cost, distance from home, actually admitting them, etc . . . ) turned out to be Catholic, and they thought that going to a Catholic university was a reasonable compromise to make.
I agree that if the university makes a decision to admit these students, it would be good for the university to make reasonable accomodations. But conversely, if the students make a decision to go to the university, it would make sense for the students to understand that the university might have a different idea about what constitutes “reasonable accomodations.” So my feeling is, meh, two private parties, I could go either way on who’s being more “reasonable,” but I don’t see any reason this should involve the courts.
I agree. The survey asked if the Muslim students had a *right* to nonCatholicized space, and of course they don’t. But the university is stupid not to give them some space anyway.
Most non-religious universities don’t explicitly have places for students to pray on campus, but there are buildings off campus organized by religious students prayer. I doubt the university has a policy preventing students forming a Muslim students organization and establishing a building across the street from campus as a prayer space.
Sometimes I think the poll answers are limited just to provoke commentary.
It’s a private university, and any Muslim attending it presumably selected it freely, knowing that it is a Catholic institution. I would not classify a non-denominational prayer room as a “right“, but it wouldn’t hurt the University to provide such a facility in the interest of showing a moderate amount of tolerance. After all, the University did admit those Muslim students.
I’m a practicing Catholic and I agree with your position. It can be assumed that the Muslim students knew the religious values of the school those choose the attend, but on the other hand, if Catholic University is recruiting members of other faiths, I would also assume they would accommodate them also. Do Protestant and Jewish students have space set aside for their services or are some available a reasonable distance off campus?
If this issue is about daily Muslim prayer, can’t the students temporarily cover any crosses or pictures in classrooms or dorm rooms that might upset them?
I suppose it wouldn’t be unreasonable for there to be one place on campus where students could go without the Christian symbolism, but I don’t think the school should be required to provide that. There should be places of worship for other religions nearby, or non-worship for atheists. And if it bothered the student so much, why did they enroll at a Catholic University in the first place?
I don’t know.
It’s not wrong for Catholic symbolism to be almost everyone on campus.
But having a single non-denominational prayer room wouldn’t hurt *anyone*.
*almost everywhere
For the record, I am a Muslim, and I attended Saint Louis University (a Jesuit school), and if anything, my time there brought out the Muslim in me. We had a small office room in the student union building, and of course no more space to pray with more than 2 people. We made do with what we could where we could.
However, I went there for the engineering college, which had been across the river in Illinois, but moved to the main campus for my freshman year. About 3 months in, one of the Catholic students noticed there weren’t any crucifixes nailed in the classrooms and got the university to install them. THAT was the only “us/them” dispute I had while I was there, but it’s a private university, what can you do? Certainly not gonna sue.
I actually went to Catholic U for a time in the 90s (I am not Catholic), and don’t recall there being crosses in every classroom. That would have made me pretty uncomfortable, too. On the other hand, I was in the drama department, so it may have been an oddball space, or the place may have gotten more conservative in the last 15 years (hard to imagine, but possible).
Also, related to Rasheed’s comment, CUA will be the first to tell you that there is a big difference between Jesuit education and their approach. CUA is WAAAAY more hardcore about being the official national university of the Catholic Church in America.
And Bil, you presumably said to yourself, “Gosh, why can’t I have those hateful comments and irrelevant attacks here?”
Generally, I agree with the comments that some accommodation should be made for the Muslim students.
As to why Muslims would enroll at a Catholic school, it’s probably just to get a good education. There are a lot of non-Catholics, including Muslims, who enroll at parochial schools for the education, values, and discipline. For Washington area residents, location and cost may also be important factors.
I’m a long-time Washingtonian who has graduate degrees from GWU and whose spouse has a graduate degree from CUA and taught there for a couple of years. Here’s a little local perspective that may be of interest.
It’s not “a Catholic university”. It’s “THE Catholic University of America”. It is extremely conservative and often in the news over issues like faculty academic freedom and non-Catholic rights. Both are very limited, to say the least. This makes it an easy–and often deserved–target for lawsuits.
John Banzhaf, GWU law professor, is, if not the father of public interest lawsuits, at least the close uncle. He will sue over just about anything and sometimes uses law students or PIRGs. Sometimes his lawsuits seem trivial or questionable, but his persistence is also largely responsible for such things as non-smoking airline flights.
Does anything change if the school is getting government funding? It would for me. Any school which gets public money must make accommodations for other religions. I don’t mean they need to setup a unique room for every religion imaginable, but they should have at least one non-denominational room available for anyone who isn’t catholic. If they want to play by their own rules and not do so, then they should send back the public money they are getting.
You pay to go to a college, You knew said college was PRIVATE AND CATHOLIC… you get what you get. It’s your choice to go, therefore no accommodations should have to be made for your religion.
It seems like everyone has this wicked bad sense of entitlement that has them feeling that everyone should do what they can to make their lives easier.
Were the crosses and other Roman Catholic and general Christian paraphenalia installed before the Muslim students arrived, or after, in response to seeing Muslims praying in the rooms. In the latter case, a point could be made that the installation of crosses and such was done “maliciously”. If it is just a matter of Muslim students enrolling in a RC university and then taking offense at seeing crosses everywhere and demanding a special prayer room, that is a different matter. In that case, they can pray off-campus or just ignore the crosses.