Oct 26, 2011
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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.
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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.
A spokesman for Catholic University released a statement to Fox News indicating they had not seen any legal filings — but would respond once they do.
“Our faithfulness to our Catholic tradition has also made us a welcome home to students of other religions,” said Victor Nakas, associate vice president for public affairs. “No students have registered complaints about the exercise of their religions on our campus.”
In a 2010 interview with National Public Radio, university president John Garvey acknowledged that they don’t set aside prayer rooms for Muslim students.
“We make classrooms available, or our chapels are places where they can pray,” he told NPR. “We don’t offer Halal meat, although there are always meals that conform to Halal regulations, that allow students to do what they want.”
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.”
As for the creation of a Muslim student group, Banzhaf said the university has an association of Jewish students – so why not a Muslim group?
“I think they are entitled as a matter of law to be able to form a Muslim student association and to have the same privileges as associations,” he said. “I think that most of them would much prefer to have a place to pray – that they are not surrounded by various Catholic symbols – a place that is more conductive to their religious beliefs than being surrounded by pictures of Popes.”
Garvey, 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.
FOX News Talk
How about not attending a Catholic University? This country is going to Hell in a hand basket. Any catholic university opens their doors to all, yet now Muslim students are offended by our crosses! Give me a break.
How about not attending a Catholic University? This country is going to Hell in a hand basket. Any catholic university opens their doors to all, yet now Muslim students are offended by our crosses! Give me a break.
well all I can say is go somewhere else, if you go to a catholic university then you follow their rules and beliefs or go to another university. This our country and our ways, if you don't like it than go to a muslin country and get out of here.
How about not attending a Catholic University? This country is going to Hell in a hand basket. Any catholic university opens their doors to all, yet now Muslim students are offended by our crosses! Give me a break.
Who invited these interloping Muslims? Who told them they had to attend a Christian University? No one forced these individuals to come to America or go to a Christian college, but they want to force their beliefs on us. How does that equation balance? If they don't like our traditions, rules, or laws they are free to unroll their mats and tip their butts in the air in some 3rd world hovel in the desert.
Sweet Mary in a bath tub If they are too dam dumb to know they applied to a Catholic University they don't belong in college.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? When are we going back to the REAL America? This country is based on God and Christianity….not the Quran!
are muslims even allowed to have their own schools? idk the christians are pretty violent, it might be firebombed in the name of jesus.
Do crosses at Catholic universities violates Muslim human rights NO…..
Do Muslims nailing Christians to crosses in the middle east and Africa violate human rights YES………….
What the hell are Muslims doing at a Catholic University? There are plenty of marxist universities ready and willing to shove all the other students aside for your every whim. Except you won't likely find 72 virgins on most college campuses.
The Muslims want to control the world and this is just how they will do it – demanding their beliefs should be honored no matter where. This is America – go live somewhere else if you don't like America!
Who gives a flying shit if it does. They are to assimilate with America not the other way around.
FUCK THEM !!!!!! I'm sorry about the language but that just really makes me mad. If the muslim students don't like it, they can leave!
It happened aunt lynn i died and was resurrected with jesus i am spirit man now i hold the power of god within my mind i am only doing god's business now that is saving souls i am jesus' prototype these things i surely do testify in the name of the lord jesus christ amen
Why is it that Christians now have to step aside and accommodate them. While they are intolerable of us. If they want to practice Islam. Go to an Islamic University! Also quit living in the past The Holy Crusades ended hundreds of years ago! Get over it!
There was nothing Holy about the crusades.
I agree but you still understood what I was talking about. No dominant winner came out of the crusades.
I agree but you still understood what I was talking about. No dominant winner came out of the crusades.
If Mu slims can build a mosque at ground zero, Christians can display their Cross at their own facilities. I believe our government in defense of the mosque called if Freedom of Religion and Religious Freedom. That goes both ways! Get over it or get out!
November cannot get here soon enough.
I am so tired of people who do not affiliate themselves with a religion going out of their way to force that religion to makes changes. I think it is time that non-muslims stand up to these clowns. We need to give them a taste of their own medicine. People of faith need to start infiltrating their venue's, schools, churches, businesses, clubs, etc and create the same arguments and complaints they themselves are perpetrating. We have to beat them at their own game. If we do not go on this offensive, they will beat us into a corner and then come in for the final blow, which is their publicly stated plan of action. Sometimes the only way to beat them is to join them and undo their agenda from within. Stand up and fight, or perish in the night!
If Muslims don't like crosses at Catholic University, then they can attend a different university. This is another example of why I can't stand attorneys of the type who would give a voice to these morons…
I will never understand going to a college or any institution that is against what you believe in. As a catholic I would not choose an Islamic university, or a Jewish one. If you want a University where all religions are equal, then choose a public one. It's so very simple.
You have plants like this in every institution these days, part of the left's Stalinist tactics. That slut Sandra Fluke damn well knew she was going to Georgetown (a Jesuit school) for the sole purpose of one day being a 'crusader' for having the taxpayers fund her legs spreading, just as these assholes knew damn well they were going to a Catholic University for the sole purpose of stirring shit up one day.
This is like people who move near a pig farm and complain about the smell.I agree ;If you don't like Crosses, go to another school.They suck.
this infuriates me, i typically do not comment on this, but I completely agree!!! GO TO ANOTHER UNIVERSITY THEN!! Jeez Louise!! just like the pledge of allegiance, yes Under God, what so offensive about that, I'm sorry but, this annoys me since last year my daughter(who does attend a blue ribbon public school) was saying Merry Christmas in the hallway, and was corrected, and told to say Happy Holidays…No I was taught Merry Christmas, and so was she!! I told her to respectfully say I'm sorry but I recognize your holidays, so please respect me and do the same!!! What are people so afraid of?? Sorry for the vent!
The muslims offend me just by being on this planet. What do you think the government will do about that? NOTHING!
I don't have a problem with muslim students attending a catholic university. They know what kind of institution it is when they apply. No one should expect the institution to change for them, although reasonable accommodation is OK. They have a choice to leave the school and go elsewhere if being in a Catholic institution offends them.
OK You muslim IDIOTS! If you DON'T like what they're doing at a PRIVATE CATHOLIC School, then GO somewhere else. Problem solved!
fuck the muslims.
This is a private university. All their students knew this was a Catholic based university. What did they expect? If you don't want the icons of the Catholic religion to be around you go someplace else.
As a lifelong Catholic, and a war veteran of Afghanistan, I am saddened that we are even having this discussion. As far as I can remember, a Catholic university is on private property. Hence, they have the RIGHT to display the cross. I do not remember this discussion with respect to any Muslim symbols. What is more disturbing is that we may soon see a war on religion on our own military bases. A military chapel is on government property. Will we soon see that crosses are not allowed during Christian worship…or worse…will we have to shut down our chapels as a new political "separation of church and state". This is just another example of how our government leaders are failures…to even consider this stuff. What an embarrassment…again…
I agree with Christy, if Muslims are offended go to a Muslim University and stop infringing on freedom of religion constitutional right. It's time to stop submitting to the Politically Correct and make a stand. If you don't like the principles our country was founded you are welcome to leave anytime you want.
Christ said the churchwill be persecuted, cuz of his name..God has been kicked out of everything, and people wonder why this country is being brought down. God rained down fire on Sodom and Gammorrah for the same exact reason. You can't even express your beliefs on twitter without being banded from public events, or jobs…I believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, and don't care who likes it or not. I will display the Cross, or what ever I choose to where ever I choose to, and if the Muslims, Gays, governmernment, or who ever don't like it, they can bounce up and kiss my lilly white butt…
I'm sorry, it just burns me up to see the church being attacked like this. It's every wheren you look now, in this Once a pon of time great nation..I'm ready for the rapture to happen and for Christ to return and fullfill his blessed hope…can I get an AMEN….
I thought Jesus was a "prophet" that was revered by Muslims. So what's the problem.
No, they should not! Muslims can get a grip and go to another school!
I'm pretty sure Jesus didn't want religion to have any place in government. Hence, "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's." That's pretty straight forward.
Anyhow, I'm not aware of a single Muslim country that is without Christians, and for all those arguing, "well what would they do in Tehran to a Christian!" All I have to say is this is America and I'm pretty sure we've been defining liberty for some time. If the students want a small room to pray then give them one. It's a matter of little true consequence and of none to the 99% of posters who are getting butt hurt and don't even attend the freaking university
I am offended that muslims come over here. Go home!
Get the filthy moslem scum out of our country. Period.
Why are muslims going to a Catholic University? Bet they're on government scholarships, too.
You are evil haters. Islam is the religion of PEACE!
C'mon! This is a joke, right? Nobody is really that stupid. I'm talking about the lawyers here. Is there really a lawyer so stupid that he thinks this isn't ridiculous? You just have to believe that no Muslim student was offended by anything at this school until some lawyer told him that he ought to be. ($$$?) Mohammad, the Prophet of Islam, lived in a room with Christian symbols. The Muslim faith does not require an adherent to deny or take offense at any other religion or those who practice them.
this is America, freedom of religion I can't believe all of this. If muslims are offened then they need to go back to their country. we have rights, we need to never back down the bible states if you deny me before man Jesus will deny us before the father which is in heaven.
Government: Keep your filthy disgusting faces out of their business.
Muslims: If you don't like it, go somewhere else!
What most people don't know is that the entire aim of Islam is to infiltrate every area, every country, every system and change it to Sharia. They did not go to a Catholic University by accident. They see it as an easy opportunity to rid themselves of catholic rules and philosophies and replace them with Sharia.
If you are REALLY praying to GOD what surrounds you should mean nothing to you…..Your focus should be on prayer…not what is hanging on the wall..This is just another ploy to degrade Christians.
TFB, Did they not know they were attending a CATHOLIC college when they applied, get real. They applied to get an education at a fine institution so now they want to change it, my unchristian response is fugetaboutit.
I can't stand it. It makes me want to puke.Those beloved crosses at the front of classrooms, told us for years "they mean business here."
They can all go somewhere else, like Baghdad! Oh and take their attorneys with them!
I wonder if muslims realize how offended American s are because they are breathing in America.
We have every right to have a Cross where ever we want. If they don't like it they should go back to the country they came from.
Are these Muslim Radicals being forced attend Catholic Universities? No, they are not and therefor they can go attend a NON-CATHOLIC university somewhere else. No Law Suits required. PROBLEM SOLVED!!!!
Gee, I don't Know? Should Jewish Schools make room for Swatsikas in their front hallway? PS a muslim university is just a big kids madrassa…. This shitful president has done one thing well….he has polarized this nation like no one in history. He will meet his fate because America is finally waking up. Not only are we going to TakeBack this country, we are going to show some of you the door…COUNT ON IT.
Love your passion Michael!
Michael, Michael, Michael… might I point out the Christian thing to do is be kind, to help others & NOT speak poorly of folks… The polarization of the populace has absoulutely very very little to do with the actions of the President. While we may disagree politically- the reality is that through the propaganda of Faux news, the blather of GOP statements that factually do not check out, you have a GOP candidate that will do nothing other than enhance the rich, further divide the population with an 'us or them ' doctrine & at best [which is a misnomer] at best Willard is a shrewd vulture capitalist. DO WE NEED MORE BUSINESSES SHUTTERED? DO WE NEED MORE PAIN IN THE MIDDLE CLASS? DO WE NEED MORE JOBS SHIPPED OVERSEAS? Well if that's the goal you seek Then Willard's your man [he certainly won't do a damn thing to help the vast majority of AMERICA [unless you are rich, with off shore bank accounts & pay no taxes]… which is certainly not most of us! Don't forget the deep pit the previous administration dug us into was the starting point this Pres worked us up from… to even be at the place we are after the failed administrations anti AMERICAN policies, well that's an accomplishement. REMEMBER FOX IS SIMPLY A PROPAGANDA MACHINE! NOT news ..
I love you, Kev… I will not back down from contempt for this race baiting class dividing lying son of a Kenyan. When the truth finally reveals itself, he will be proven to be an anti american socialist with an anti christian agenda. I know I get a little crazy sometimes, but I can see right through this guys bullshit. Between him and Holder, we have the making of america's destruction…. thanks for letting me vent…keep rockkin , my brother
good for you Michael! You see all obamanation supporters "refuse" to see the truth and when they have nothing to back them up they ALWAYS say….it's Bush's fault. When you give them facts and back them up with proof….they refuse to even read it. I STILL don't understand how this man got elected without a legal birth certificate…NOT the one that was dummied up either!! this man has done absolutely NOTHING for this country and has only made things worse. Unemployment in this country is a disgrace. This person bad mouthed the USA while in Europe and that is unforgivable!! Thank God I in good conscience can say he is NOT my president…..I didnt vote for him!!
June, Sad to see your comments, but to folks such as yourself…. still clamoring to disprove a legal birth certificate… I suggest you go to the mirror & you'll see it right there: yer a Faux news lemming. Why don't you say something that is constructive, instead of regurgitating what you've been falsely told is real.. And to say 'He's not my president" is simply stupid. He is, and after the morass the last administration creaated, for you to not see the cause/effect of those policies, well best of luck to you, whatever reality planet you inhabit.
My first thought: "They did know what 'Catholic University' meant?"
So the Muslims chose to attend a CATHOLIC school then want to complain because the school is too CATHOLIC? Why is this not being laughed out of court?
I hope the University doesn't cave to the Muslim prayers infiltration; you know they're all laughing at us–the only country in the world that allows them to blow up our buildings then sue us for not setting aside prayer sanctuaries for them–and want to make a bet they're illegals!
wasn't the Oklahoma bomber christian?
kiill all the muslims andtheir american sympithisers…………….that is what must be done.
They joined this school knowing FULL WELL IN ADVANCE what doctrine it was based on.
This rates exactly a ZERO on my sympathy scale. The fact that is getting press time is outrageous!
Surely Muslims are smart enough to know that if you choose to go to a Catholic university you are going to get Catholic icons duh. I wonder if I stopped in at a local Muslim school could I make them put up a cross and hand out Bibles…