Muslims force Canadian private school to "accommodate" them

The following comment on a decision of the Alberta Human Rights Commission -- "promoting human rights for everyone except straight white Christians" -- took over five months to find its way to Walt's inbox. Many thanks to Agent 6 for sending the link.

Here's the set-up. Webber Academy is a private, independent, non-denominational school in Calgary, Alberta (Canada's version of Dallas). No-one is allowed to pray there. Or, we should say, no-one was allowed to pray there. Until, that is, the parents of two teens -- Sarmad Amir and Naman Siddique -- decided to challenge school policies which forbade praying on the grounds of the school.

The two Muslim youths were admitted to Webber Academy in late 2011. For the first few weeks, school staff accommodated their request to pray by allowing them to use an empty classroom. But in December 2011, their parents received a call from the school saying the children would now need to leave the school premises to pray.

The boys began going outside, but still on school property, when timings of some of the five Muslim daily devotions coincided with class hours. If there was a blizzard outside [When wouldn't there be? Ed.] or if it was too cold to pray [??? Ed.], the pair would use a nook or cranny inside instead.

Come February, Webber wrote the boys' parents to say that because the school’s policies were being ignored the boys would not be accepted for enrolment for the next academic year. The parents, instead of moving their children to a Muslim school as might reasonably be expected, ran to the Alberta government and cried "discrimination".

Their human rights complaint was not unexpected, nor was the response of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, which, predictably, sided with the parents, even though their children were being treated exactly the same as all the other students.

Wrote the Commission, "Allowing two of 900 students to pray behind closed doors for a period of five to 10 minutes is insignificant in the context of religious identity, affiliation or influence." Any reader able to explain in clear English what that means is requested to send a postcard to Walt, with a copy to the HRC.

What it means to Webber Academy is a fine of C$26,000 ($19,250 in real money, as of this afternoon). Case closed? Perhaps not, as an appeal was planned. While we wait to see what eventuates, here are some comments from professional curmudgeon and crusader against political correctness, Ezra Levant.

OOPS! We have a problem! Ed. here. No sooner had I put this up than the URL for the video disappeared from YouTube. Can no longer be found. Gone. Censored? Probably, given that Mr. Levant is being prosecuted for making "inappropriate remarks" about the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The case is due to be heard next month. We can't get an embed code for Mr. Levant's video about this, but here's the link. "Ezra Levant: Prosecuted for calling human rights commissions 'crazy'".

If you want to help Mr. Levant with his legal bills, click here to go to his website..