Cert. Denied In Challenge To California School's History Unit On Islam

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in Elkund v. Byron Union School District, No. 05-1539, a case challenging a California elementary school's role playing activities that were designed to acquaint students with Islam. (See prior posting.) In reporting on the denial of cert., the Associated Press noted that the case involved a challenge by school parents to a world history unit titled "The Roots of Islam and the Empire" that had students reading pages from the Koran and studying Islam's Five Pillars of Faith. The 9th circuit had agreed that the unit did not create Establishment Clause problems.