NEWSRELIGION & EDUCATION

Every morning across the country, Muslim students tell their parents they're scared to go to school -- because they'll be beaten and taunted for practicing Islam. Politicians flog fears of "the other" to drum up votes and campaign donations. Peaceful American citizens are branded as "terrorists" because of their skin color or their faith.

But on Friday, a student movement against blind Islamophobia scored a major victory -- UCLA's Islamic Studies program will re-open this fall after being frozen since 2007.

Last fall, students rallied, demonstrated, and attracted more than 5,400 signatures from the international Change.org community who called on the UCLA administration to bring back the program. These activists, led by student Ilona Gerbakher, argued that the fate of UCLA's program was a matter of national importance.  As we at Change.org blogged about - and publicized - their campaign, students kept the petition updated and finely-targeted, marshalling national support to show UCLA administrators that this was far larger than a campus issue.  

Lyn Stone picked up the newspaper and her heart sank.

There it was, in black and white: high school students in Vestal, N.Y. had just taken part in  'Kick a Jew Day,' a mean-spirited "holiday" meant to embarrass and hurt their Jewish peers.

Stone, 74, who is of Jewish descent, thought things had changed in N.Y. When she moved there more than 30 years ago, her three young sons were singled out with anti-semitic taunts.

"They did it with a smile, but it still hurt and we were made quite aware that we were different," she remembers. But times changed. As the years passed, her family was accepted by the community and moved on with their lives.

So when Stone found out that more than a dozen students at Vestal High School in upstate N.Y., near Stone's home, were being disciplined for taking part in 'Kick A Jew Day' in December, she decided to take a stand. Stone's petition on Change.org asks Mark LaRoach, superintendent of Vestal's school district, to address this ugly problem head-on with curriculum stressing tolerance and respect.

Sometimes, you read a quote in a news story that makes you spit out your coffee in shock. Last week, that dubious honor went to an Ontario, Canada Catholic school leader.

In an interview with LGBT publication Xtra, school board chair Alice Anne LeMay explained her district's ban on gay-straight alliances (GSAs) by saying, "We don't have Nazi groups either."

Her inflammatory comments were picked up by the blogosphere, including celebrity blogger Perez Hilton. Change.org's Brandon Miller launched a campaign to overturn the hateful ban in the district's eight high schools, which more than 1,000 Change.org members have signed onto so far.

And guess what? The school district is going to revisit the policy. The Halton Catholic District School Board will bring up the ban in its Jan. 17 board meeting. Gay rights and education activists have vowed to show up in support of tolerance and mutual understanding. And a 22-year-old, newly elected Catholic Trustee, Paul Marai, says he has no idea why the ban was enacted in the first place and plans to fight it at the meeting.

Ah, Catholic school. Angry nuns, smoking in the bathroom and... rampant intolerance of LGBT students. Awesome.

That's the news out of Canada, according to Change.org's Gay Rights blogger Brandon Miller. The Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) in Ontario, Canada has banned Gay-Straight Alliance clubs in their schools.

GSAs are awesome chances to build bridges between LGBT students and straight allies. They're hubs for social justice and help create a culture of acceptance at school.

Small wonder, then, that Halton board chair Alice Anne LeMay is against them.  “We don’t have Nazi groups either,” she mused in an interview with Canadian LGBT publication Xtra!. “Gay-straight alliances are banned because they are not within the teachings of the Catholic Church.”

Wow. Comparing gay students to Nazis. That is a stunning example of ignorance and intolerance. It's a pity LeMay didn't have a GSA to join when she was in school. She might have learned something.

You won't find these heroes on the red carpet. They haven't hired publicists, held national press conferences or thrown posh fundraisers. But before we usher in 2011, here are some 2010 education heroes that you may not have heard of. They spent hours of their time organizing, calling, researching, working and fighting for children and schools.

The Chicago Moms of Whittier Elementary School. A group of working, Latina moms on Chicago's South Side had been trying for seven years to convince Chicago Public Schools to build a library for their children at Whittier Elementary. They were getting nowhere -- and to add insult to injury, the small field house they'd been using as an informal community center was slated to be knocked down by the school system and replaced with an empty field. What did they do? They staged a six-week sit-in at the field house, backed by a smart strategy to target local officials, get national media coverage and negotiate for more input in the long-term. What happened? They got the school.

Students at UCLA fighting to bring back the Islamic Studies program. College students at the University of California Los Angeles took to the streets, the hallways and the Internet to spread the word about the school's Islamic Studies program, which has been under an admissions freeze since 2008. Correctly arguing that the closure of this program isn't just a campus issue - it's a national issue - students held protests, created a website and lobbied administrators to bring the program back. More than 5,000 Change.org members have signed their petition as well. The latest? UCLA's leaders are "optimistic" about the program's return, they told us earlier this month.

You know that whole "religious freedom" thing where religious discrimination is illegal in the United States? Apparently, the University of Kentucky didn't get the memo. In 2009, Dr. C. Martin Gaskell was interviewed as a leading candidate for running an observatory at the University of Kentucky. He was passed over for the job, partly because his potential future colleagues did some Internet research and found that Gaskell was, gasp!, an evangelical Christian. At the end of his job interview, Gaskell claims in a lawsuit against the University, his interviewer asked him about his religious beliefs and was told they were a matter of concern. Dr. Gaskell was not offered the position and is now suing the University of Kentucky for religious discrimination.

Let's get this straight. Gaskell is not a creationist, he says, and accepts standard evolutionary science. Although he is on record tying scientific evidence to his religious beliefs, i.e. fitting Genesis in with scientific findings, he's also a career scientist who got to the interview stage of a prestigious research university's hiring process. But he faced opposition like this email between department staff in which one staff member said, “Clearly this man is complex and likely fascinating to talk with, but potentially evangelical.” Another staff member allegedly advised that hiring Dr. Gaskell would be a “huge public relations mistake.” The case is now set to go to trial in February.

UPDATE - A student movement for religious tolerance has scored a major victory: on April 8, 2011, UCLA's Islamic Studies program announced it will re-open in fall 2011. Read more here.

Great news for the students and faculty members who have been working to bring back the Islamic Studies program at UCLA: the suspension of the program could lift as early as January 2011, an Academic Senate member told Change.org late last week.

Students rallied Nov. 30 to bring back the program as faculty members met to discuss the future of the program. Although students and Islamic Studies faculty members had originally thought that a final vote would occur on that day, that vote won't happen until early 2011, said UCLA Professor Steven Nelson, who is chair of the Academic Senate's Graduate Council.

This news comes after University of California, Los Angeles undergrads took to the Internet this fall to spread the word about their campaign to save the program, which has been under an admissions freeze since 2008. Using Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and their own website, uclaislamicstudies.com, students have reached out to community members, Muslim groups and interfaith allies to raise awareness of the program's freeze and the need to re-open it. A petition on Change.org has garnered nearly 5,000 signatures in support of saving and fully funding the graduate program.

As partisan pundits continue to exploit ignorance about Islam and draw imaginary lines between Muslim and non-Muslim Americans, the students calling for the program's return are asking UCLA to inject more education into the national discussion.

UPDATE - A student movement for religious tolerance has scored a major victory: on April 8, 2011, UCLA's Islamic Studies program announced it will re-open in fall 2011. Read more here.

The fate of the oldest Islamic Studies program in the country rests today on a single administrative vote, and UCLA students are planning a rally to once more show their support for the program in today's polarized atmosphere around religion.

Mobilizing on Facebook, the internet and Change.org, University of California, Los Angeles students - led by Ilona Gerbakher, a Jewish undergraduate student who wants to be able to study Islam in graduate school - have reached thousands of supporters. Gerbakher and others are urging the university to re-open the graduate Islamic Studies program, arguing that keeping it closed is silencing a peaceful, informed voice in today's cacophony of anti-Islamic sentiment.

Closed since 2008 for an administrative overhaul, UCLA administrators say they're waiting for proof that the graduate program can operate successfully. Now, the department has a new director - Dr. Khaled Abou El Fadl, an expert on Islamic law and Islam - as well as a new structure and curriculum. There are systems in place to govern admissions, financial aid and mentorship. Will university administrators give the program the go-ahead to open its doors to students again?

The fate of the country's oldest Islamic Studies program remains in limbo - but that might change in a week. As Islamophobia takes the nation by storm, will college leaders do the right thing?

Since 2008, admissions to the graduate Islamic Studies program at the University of Californa, Los Angeles have been frozen. The program's ongoing suspension - due to administrative issues and a need for reorganization, administrators say - worries students, faculty and community members who say the prestigious program may suffer critical wounds.

A student-led movement has gained steam this fall to save the program, using Facebook, social media and Change.org members. "Scared of Islam? Learn about it!" is their rallying cry. Stressing the need for diversity and the dangers of Islamophobia, undergraduates and graduates have sent letters, held meetings with administrators and held rallies to re-open the program.

Next week, progress could be made. On Tuesday, November 30, UCLA's Academic Senate will discuss whether to lift the admissions freeze for the program. Those working to save the program say that faculty members have done the behind-the-scenes work needed to bring the program back to life, with new bylaws and organization. Now it needs financial resources and more support from the university, they say.

So you're a white supremacist who wants to raise some money for your local private school. What do you do? Host a barbecue, of course. That's one of the fundraising tactics that hate group Council of Conservative Citizens uses to pump thousands of dollars into two private Mississippi academies, the Southern Poverty Law Center has found.

What kinds of schools do white supremacists like? Virtually all-white schools. And that's just the type of schools that Calhoun Academy in Calhoun City, Miss., and Carroll Academy in Carrollton, Miss. are. Calhoun boasts four non-white students; Carroll has only one. Scroll through the photos on both schools' websites and you'll see only white children; Carroll Academy happens to be the proud home of the Rebels. When contacted by the SPLC, the heads of both schools refused to speak critically of the Council of Conservative Citizens. Carroll's headmaster added, "they have their right to feel how they feel." That's a chilling statement coming from an educator.

As Change.org reported earlier this week, both schools are accredited by the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools, which certifies private schools in Mississippi and surrounding states.

But here's some news: Sponsors of the MAIS, proudly displayed on the association's homepage, are household names including Wilson Sports, Russell Athletic, Mutual of Omaha Insurance Company and Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance. "Our major sponsors help to make it possible for us to provide quality academic and athletic events for our students, teachers and administrators," the MAIS writes glowingly. White Supremacist 101, brought to you by... Wilson Sports?