The St. Cloud, Minnesota school system- like those
of many cities large and small around the United States- is experiencing a
dramatic increase in the number of students from East African and Middle
Eastern nations. The central Minnesota city’s burgeoning immigrant community-
the majority of whom hail from Somalia- has resulted in the school district
experiencing a 350 percent spike in
English-language-learner enrollment in the past 15 years. Fully 20% of the
district’s 10,000 plus students are now English-language learners.
The
U.S. is now home to the largest number of foreign-born black people in its
history, and many are K-12 students enrolled in public schools. 35,000 of these
students nationwide report that they speak Somali at home, making it one of the
most common native languages for English-learners in public schools, according
to federal data for the 2013-2014 school year.
The
St. Cloud school district’s lunch menus offer pork-free options for students. The
school district has even partnered with the University of Minnesota to develop
special uniforms for female athletes who wear Hijabs, the headscarves worn by
many Muslim girls and women. The district’s middle and high schools have also accommodated
the Muslim immigrants by providing them with access to private rooms with prayer rugs for their five-times-a-day prayer
sessions.
How
can one explain this special treatment, given the fact that open displays of prayer specific to any particular
religion is not allowed in U.S. public
schools, the Ten Commandments cannot be posted in public places and
students in many districts are routinely reprimanded or sent home if they even
wear apparel with Christian symbols on them?
It
is obvious which of these is a religion “of peace,” and which is vastly more
giving and tolerant.
It
is not as easy to discern which one will prove predominant.
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