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...Last week the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Eklund v. Byron Union School District, a case in which several parents and children represented by the Thomas More Law Center challenged the school district's practice of teaching 12-year-old students to "become Muslims." The Law Center contends the actions of the school in question crossed a constitutional line to begin indoctrinating students, impermissibly placing them in the position of being trainees in Islam. For three weeks, the students were placed in Islamic city groups, took Islamic names, wore identification tags that displayed their new Islamic name along with the Muslim star and crescent moon symbols. As part of the exercise, the children received materials instructing them to "Remember Allah always," completed the "Five Pillars" of Islamic faith, and also memorized and recited the basmala, an Islamic phrase from the Koran, which they also wrote out on banners to be hung in the classroom. A federal district court judge in San Francisco had previously determined that the school district had not violated the Constitution of the United States with these activities. But according to Thomas More Law Center chief counsel Richard Thompson, "There is a double standard at play in this case. If the students had done similar activities in a class on Christianity, a constitutional violation would surely have been found." If the district's practice is upheld on appeal, Thompson says all public schools should begin teaching classes on Christianity in the same manner as the Islam class was taught in this case. [Jenni Parker]