Faced with a throng of worried parents, Montgomery County Councilmember Kristin Mink met with a few Muslim protestors to hear their objections to the "LGBTQ+ inclusive texts" that school teachers would be using with their children.
The Maryland Democrat was not amused by what she heard.
"This issue has unfortunately put … some, not all of course, Muslim families on the same side of an issue as white supremacists and outright bigots," said Mink, in early June. "The folks I have talked with here today, I would not put in the same category as those folks, although, you know, it's … complicated."
Public-school efforts to promote equity, she added, are "not an infringement on, you know, particular religious freedoms."
This public statement stunned a coalition of Muslims, Orthodox Christians, evangelicals, Jews and others committed to a Maryland policy that allowed students to avoid some activities focusing on family life, gender change and same-sex relationships. These parents, for starters, objected to the use of books such as "Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope," "Rainbow Revolutionaries: Fifty LGBTQ+ People Who Made History" and "Pride Puppy!", an ABC book familiarizing preschool and kindergarten children with the sights and sounds encountered when attending Pride marches.
In the spring, Montgomery County officials limited use of the opt-out policy, while releasing a notice stating that "teachers will not send home letters to inform families when inclusive books are read in the future."
Council on American-Islamic Relations leaders -- citing documents from an open-records request -- noted that officials also encouraged teachers to "scold, debate or 'disrupt the either/or thinking' of … students who express traditional viewpoints" on gender, family life and sexuality. Also, students should be instructed not to use "hurtful," "negative" words.
This parental rights battle has now moved to courtrooms, like so many other religious liberty cases that have recently reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
Last week, a Maryland district court denied that parents have "a fundamental right" to opt out of school activities that clash with their faith. The court made a distinction between "impermissible indoctrination" and educators seeking "influence-toward-tolerance." The parents immediately appealed the Mahmoud v. McKnight case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Many Islamic leaders were surprised that some officials in Maryland and elsewhere now assume that Muslims concerned about "parental rights" and religious liberty have embraced the Religious Right or white supremacy, said Yasir Qadhi, dean of the Islamic Seminary of America, near Dallas.
Believers in ancient faiths are "being lumped together into one group and that is not the case, that is not true, and it doesn't take into account the complex teachings of our various traditions," he said, reached by telephone.
Soon, public-school officials will have to decide whether or not they want to retain the support, or even the trust, of parents and religious leaders who sincerely worry about the minds and souls of children, he said. It's time to ask hard questions about what "tolerance" means in a complex and increasingly diverse culture.
"Schools have become a religious force in this culture, teaching that their beliefs are scientific fact that cancel out all other points of view, even while there are scientific debates on these controversial issues," said Qadhi. "What we are seeing is a kind of fundamentalism, only it is being taught by public-school leaders. … It's effectively another theology that is being instructed as normative for all."
The bottom line: Muslim parents believe they have a First Amendment right to demand that their children "not to be forced to participate in celebrating or normalizing views that contradict our religion," said Sameerah Munshi of the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, D.C., during a late June meeting -- after the blunt statements by Mink and other Montgomery County leaders.
"We see it as a point of bigotry that some only care for our community and will only protect our rights when we assimilate to their way of life and ways of thinking," she added. "Condemning us for our views on this issue is, in itself, another act of bigotry, like the ones Muslims and immigrants have faced in this country for years. …
"The same religion that causes Muslims to care about environmental justice, food insecurity or ending anti-Black racism, is the same religion that causes us to care about this issue."