The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today filed a civil rights complaint alleging anti-Muslim discrimination against Corner Canyon High School and Sandy, Utah’s Canyons School District.
In a complaint filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor wrote: “Our complainant reports the promotion of Islamophobic stereotypes and dissemination of biased materials apparently sourced from an anti-Muslim hate site by a teacher at Corner Canyons High School. This classroom instruction has allegedly brought about an anti-Muslim environment and likely led to at least one explicitly Islamophobic remark from a student. As reported to us, the teacher left this remark unchallenged.”
CAIR’s attempts to resolve the issue with the Corner Canyon High School principal and the Canyons School District superintendent and school board met with minimal response.
“We cannot understand how anyone promoting such materials in a classroom can be left in a position where they can influence children,” said Saylor. “Teachers should have enough of an understanding of any world faith to be able to recognize biased stereotypes.”
SEE: CAIR Letter the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights
SEE ALSO: Sample of Material Allegedly Use in Classroom
In the complaint, Saylor added the following details:
“A classroom handout provided to us that was reportedly among those used during this module is titled, ‘Some common laws of ‘Islamic Sharia’ which are regularly practiced in the Islamically ruled (Sharia-based) nations with some minor variations.’ The content on this document appears to be taken directly from a blog post on the website Islam Watch.
“Islam Watch lists Ali Sina as one of its founders. Sina served as a board member for Pamela Geller’s Stop the Islamization of America. The Southern Poverty Law Center labeled Geller as “the anti-Muslim movement’s most visible and flamboyant figurehead.” Georgetown University’s Bridge Initiative called Geller “one of the most prominent anti-Muslim and anti-Islam activists and bloggers in the U.S.” Another Geller-led organization issued an 18-point platform aimed at stripping Muslims of Constitutional protections and subjecting them to surveillance based solely on their religious identity.
“If his leadership role within an anti-Muslim hate group is not enough to discredit his website as a balanced source of information, Sina, in one of the articles he wrote for Islam Watch, asserts, ‘Islam belongs to the toilet of history. Please drop it and flush.”
Last year, CAIR expressed solidarity with the Asian- American community in Utah after alleged anti-Asian vandalism targeting a nail salon in Salt Lake City.
SEE: CAIR Expresses Solidarity with Asian Community in Utah After Anti-Asian Vandalism
Also last year, the organization welcomed the sentencing of the perpetrator of a racist assault targeting a Latino father and son in Utah in 2018.
SEE ALSO: CAIR Welcomes Sentencing of Perpetrator of Racist Assault Targeting Latino Family in Utah
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CONTACT: CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor, 202-384-8857, csaylor@cair.com; CAIR Research and Advocacy Coordinator Farah Afify, 202-742-6410, fafify@cair.com; CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com