Search Results: ‘Tarek ibn Ziyad ’

After yesterday’s Star Tribune piece on Rep. Keith Ellison’s pilgrimage to Mecca late last year, the 5th District Democrat is firing back, asking the paper for a correction in a letter to the editor today. The Strib article by Kevin Diaz reported that the congressman’s trip was paid for by the Muslim American Society of [...]

A court ruled Tuesday that the Minnesota chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU-MN) can sue Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), Islamic Relief and state education commissioner Alice Seagren for constitutional violations after allegedly using taxpayer money to illegally promote religion.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed suit Wednesday against Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy and the Minnesota Department of Education alleging a violation of the separation between church and state. TIZA was at the center of a media storm last year after the Star Tribune’s Katherine Kersten wrote an inflammatory commentary alleging religious instruction at the taxpayer-funded school. ACLU-MN investigated the allegations and in court documents filed in U.S. District Court said the Muslim organizations from which TIZA leases its space are illegally benefiting from the leasing arrangement.

Drama ensued Monday morning as Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy officials attempted to take cameras away from a reporting crew from KSTP that showed up to cover a report from the Minnesota Department of Education on the charter school. The report was commissioned to determine whether the school had run afoul of church and state concerns [...]

The Minnesota Department of Education released findings in the review of Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), the majority Muslim elementary school that became a target of conservative Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten. She claimed that TIZA was “an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers” and that its activities violated separation of church and state concerns.

MDE [...]

Conservative Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten this morning called out an online petition that demands her firing. The petition (which has 191 signatories at present — hardly the “droves” Kersten writes of, although since she drew attention to it, the numbers are steadily climbing) accuses Kersten of “journalistic malpractice” for her columns on the majority-Muslim [...]

Inver Grove Heights police are beefing up patrols at Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, a charter school with majority Muslim population, after school officials there received threats. Those threats came days after Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten showcased the testimony of Amanda Getz, a Republican and education activist, who was a substitute teacher at the school, [...]

In yesterday’s Strib, the ever-vigilant Katherine Kersten blew the whistle on what she deems a disturbing violation of the doctrine of church/state separation by a local charter school founded by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota. “The line between religion and culture is often blurry,” warns Kersten. “Under the U.S. and state constitutions, a public [...]