New Jersey Islamic Indoctrination Case Will Proceed As Judge Denies Chathams School District Motion To Dismiss

 June 22, 2018

   ANN ARBOR, MI –The Thomas More Law Center (“TMLC”), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, MI, has received a significant ruling from the federal court as U.S. District Court Judge Kevin McNulty denied a motion to dismiss an Establishment Clause claim brought by Libby Hilsenrath against the Chatham, New Jersey School District and various district employees.

   In denying the School District’s motion to dismiss, Judge McNulty found that their motion was worth only “minimal discussion.”

   Kate Oliveri, TMLC’s attorney handling the case, observed: “This ruling comes as no surprise. The motion to dismiss was a further attempt by the school district to bully and silence Mrs. Hilsenrath. The school district ignored the legal standard and ignored the facts, attempting instead to fool the judge with a poor attempt at sophistry.”

   The federal lawsuit filed by TMLC on behalf of Mrs. Hilsenrath and her son, claimed that seventh-grade students at the Chatham Middle School were forced to watch a disturbing set of videos in their World Cultures and Geography class which seeks to convert its viewers to Islam.  Here is a sampling of what the students learned by watching just one of the 5-minute videos:

  • God gave Muhammed the noble Koran
  • The Koran is a Perfect guide for Humanity
  • The Koran is divine revelation
  • Islam is a shining beacon against the darkness of repression, segregation, intolerance and racism
  • The Beautiful Quran is Guidance for the wise & sensible

   Most astoundingly, the video ends with a call for the students to convert to Islam:

   “May God help us all to find the true faith, Islam.”

   But, that’s not all.

   A musical version of an Arabic poem plays in the background throughout the video. The lyrics describe Christians and Jews as infidels and praises Muhammed in gruesome detail for slaughtering them:

. . . their white shining swords red with the blood of infidels

. . . until they looked like meat on the butcher’s block

   To view the complete 5-minute video click here.

   Because of Mrs. Hilsenrath’s attempts to persuade the School District of the Chathams to remove the videos and stop the Islamic indoctrination of her son and the other seventh-grade students at the Chatham Middle School, she has been subjected to a barrage of vicious personal attacks.   

   Richard Thompson, President and Chief Counsel of TMLC, noted, “Witless school officials have converted classrooms across America into Islamic indoctrination centers. These schools do not educate, they propagandize. Under the guise of teaching social studies courses, teachers promote the religion of Islam in ways that would never be legally allowable for Christianity or any other religion. Because the explicitly stated goal of Muslim leaders and organizations is to dominate America by a ‘civilization jihad,’ these schools collude with them to jeopardize our national security.”

   Thompson added, “To protect our children and our Nation from the insidious Islamic propagandizing going on in our public schools, courageous parents like Libby Hilsenrath must take the time to know exactly what their children are being taught, and if it’s Islamic propaganda, take action to stop it.”

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