CAIR bullies Texas AG for challenging a public school’s use of a classroom ‘exclusively’ for Muslim prayer

Liberty High School in Frisco, Texas is allowing Muslims to have a dedicated classroom to pray during the school day.  See Liberty High School March 3, 2017 Wingspan newspaper article below titled Classroom becomes prayer room.

muslim prayer room liberty high school

Muslim prayer room at Liberty High School.

WFAA 8 ABC reported on March 19, 2017 Paxton’s office outlines concerns over ‘prayer room’ in letter to Frisco ISD

DALLAS – The office of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote a letter to Frisco ISD Friday expressing concern over a “prayer room” in one of the district’s schools.

Liberty High School has an empty classroom where students can pray during the school day. Deputy Attorney General Andrew Leonie’s letter to Frisco ISD’s superintendent questioned the legality of the prayer room, saying the room is dedicated to Islamic students and excludes other religions.

“Liberty High School’s policy should be neutral toward religion,” the letter reads. “However, it appears that students are being treated different based on their religious beliefs. Such a practice, of course, is irreconcilable with our nation’s enduring commitment to religious liberty.”

The letter references a March 3 article in the Liberty High School Campus Wingspan — the school’s student-run news outlet — that says the prayer room “addresses the religious needs of some students.”

CAIR Texas issued a news release on March 19, 2017 titled CAIR Condemns Texas Attorney General’s ‘Cheap Islamophobic Publicity Stunt’

(AUSTIN, TEXAS, 3/19/17) The Texas office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Texas) today condemned what it called a “cheap Islamophobic publicity stunt” by that state’s Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose office has raised objections to the use of a spare classroom by Muslim middle school students to perform their daily prayers.

Paxton’s office sent the Frisco school district superintendent a letter Friday expressing “concerns” that the classroom is being used by Muslim students. In a news release, Paxton’s office falsely stated: “Recent news reports have indicated that the high school’s prayer room is. . .apparently excluding students of other faiths.”  .

Ironically, it appears that CAIR is “falsely” accusing “Paxton’s office of falsely stating: ‘Recent news reports have indicated that the high school’s prayer room is. . .apparently excluding students of other faiths.’”  The high school’s own article about this situation posted below clearly states that this classroom is used to provide a place for Muslims to pray throughout the school day.

Florida Family Association has prepared a short email for you to send to thank Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for challenging the special prayer room for one religion.  A copy of the email will also be sent to Liberty High School Principal Scott Warstler and the Frisco Independent School District Board Members.

For contact information please click here.

Liberty High School March 3, 2017 Wingspan newspaper published the following article titled:  Classroom becomes prayer room

At many public schools, religion isn’t talked about openly.

But here on campus, there’s a room dedicated to the religious needs of some students.

Every day during lunches, room C112 is utilized as a prayer room.

While most religions do not dictate specific times to pray, Islam is different in this regard.

“By praying five times a day, which includes movements such as bowing and prostrating where you actually place your forehead and the tip of your nose on to the floor and also facing a specific direction, not only shows uniformity, in terms of how Muslims pray together and come together for that purpose,” Islamic Association of Collin County Youth Director Ryan Hilliard said. “But even more importantly it shows that they’re willing to put their entire body and their entire mind and their soul into this act and be able to focus on that moment where they’re able to have this conversation with God, when in many other places they would not be able to do so.”

The campus prayer room has been available for students since 2009.

“This is my seventh year at Liberty, my first year it kind of started when a core group of students were leaving campus every Friday for Friday prayer,” Principal Scott Warstler said. “Their parents would come pick them up, so they may miss an hour and a half to two hours to two and a half hours of school every Friday, so I met with those students and a couple of their parents and suggested if they would be okay if the students were able to lead the prayer at school as a group, and we gave them a space to do that so they didn’t have to be in a car traveling thirty minutes each way on a Friday missing an hour, hour and a half, of class.”

It  started with a small group of students in one of the AP conference rooms, but as more and more students got involved, it was moved to a classroom.

“I think the trademark of what makes Liberty High so great is our diversity and in how our students respond to the different cultures and diversity on campus,” Warstler said. “Like I’ve said, this is the seventh year that we’ve been doing this and we’ve never had one issue. You know we have  other religious student groups that meet maybe before school or maybe after school. As long as it’s student-led, where the students are organizing and running it, we pretty much as a school stay out of that and allow them their freedom to practice their religion.”

RELATED ARTICLES:

Muslim Primary School Students Threaten to Behead Teacher

Appeals Court Rules Texas School Board Can Pray Before Meetings

EDITORS NOTE: Readers may send an email to Liberty High School Principal Scott Warstler and the Frisco Independent School District Board Members. Please click the below link, enter your name and email address then click the “Send Your Message” button. You may also edit the subject or message text if you wish.

Click here to send email to thank Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for challenging the use of public school classroom exclusively for Muslim prayer.

4 replies
  1. J B Briggs
    J B Briggs says:

    The way they are & what they impose on Christen kids, it’s bad enough on what’s going on away from our schools in our Nation. Don’t just stop the praying. Tell what you do, Each day say the pledge to our American flag and Country. After that say our Christen Prayer . THE OUR FATHUR that is where you are at and I will tell you this The LORD will take care of the problem!

    Reply
  2. Stefano Lorenzo
    Stefano Lorenzo says:

    Really? They took prayer out of school for the Christians, only to bring it back for the Muslims. What am I missing? So I am to believe that all religions are using this room? Frisco ISD, as a tax payer, I expect an explanation. How about pictures of Christians using the room for prayer fellowship. How about Jewish students using the room during prayer…any pictures of that? They’ll just tell me the room is being used for all religions–mainly muslims.

    Reply

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  1. […] a prayer room was set aside and designated especially for Muslim students. According an article in DrRichSwier.com, Principal Warstler is the one who came up with the […]

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