Dearborn 7-Year Old Worried About Church-State Interference

At one point we wondered if Majed Moughni was for real, but now it appears he’s just interested in self-promotion. That, and burnishing his Muslim props as one way to drive up business for his personal injury law firm.

Nothing else explains his dangling this absolute non-story in front of the Islamic Affairs desk of the Free Press just to get his picture in the paper.

A flyer headlined “Eggstravaganza!” was given to students this week at three elementary schools in the Dearborn Public Schools district, which has a substantial number of Muslim students. The flyer described an April 12 event at Cherry Hill Presbyterian Church in Dearborn featuring an egg hunt, relay race, and egg toss. It asked students to RSVP “to secure your free spot” and included images of eggs and a bunny.  (“Muslim parents upset over school flyer promoting church's Easter egg hunt”).

“Some Muslim parents,” Free Press readers are told, think this is a violation of the separation between church and state.

“It really bothered my two kids,” said parent Majed Moughni, who is Muslim and has two children, ages 7 and 9, in Dearborn elementary schools. “My son was like, ‘Dad, I really don’t feel comfortable getting these flyers, telling me to go to church. I thought churches are not supposed to mix with schools.’ ”

Well, that kid’s quotation sure sounds authentic. And I’m sure it was merely Niraj Warikoo’s oversight not to mention, along with Moughni being a parent and a Muslim, that he’s a lawyer and a controversy-loving figure in Dearborn. And even if Moughni’s 9-year-old actually does use expressions like “I really don’t feel comfortable,” and has a well-formed theory on church-state relations, I don’t see why Moughni’s first fatherly response was to call the media. Why not just explain to the little tykes that getting a festive-colored flyer at school isn’t the same thing as being “told” to go to church, and that Easter egg hunts have nothing to do with the Christian religion – regardless of where they’re held. (Believe me -- if they did, Obama would damned sure never tolerate them at the White House).

If I were Moughni, I’d be more concerned that my kids are so easily upset by flyers with eggs and bunnies on them and why, considering they’re only second- and third-graders, they’re so obsessed that Dearborn schools remain secular.

I’m not going to revive the tiresome topic of Dearborn schools’ countless accommodations of Islam – many of which could be reasonably viewed as instances of the very “mixing” of religion and public schools that Moughni says he finds so alarming. Aside from all that, no one in his right mind imagines that Dearborn schools are proselytizing for Christianity.

In other words, this whole thing is pure nonsense. And I suppose we can hope that Warikoo first got this assignment on April Fool’s Day.

But you, Majed?

Why you’re just a big, old phony.

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