By Rusty Pugh and Jody Brown
August 12, 2002

(AgapePress) - A Christian attorney says students who sued a university over a mandatory Muslim indoctrination course should not have to reveal their identities.

A group of students is suing the University of North Carolina for attempting to force them to participate in a pro-Islamic reading program. The lawsuit claims the program amounts to government sponsorship of religion. In the lawsuit, the students are identified only as John Doe No. 1, an evangelical Christian; John Doe No. 2, a Roman Catholic; and Jane Roe, who is Jewish. They sued anonymously out of fear of retaliation from radical Muslim extremists.

In motions filed attempting to disqualify the plaintiffs, attorneys for UNC want the students to reveal their identities. According to an Associated Press report, the school argues the three have no grounds under court rules to remain anonymous. It also argues they could not prove they have any reason to think they will be harmed, physically or mentally, if they are identified.

But Steve Crampton, chief counsel for the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy -- the group representing the students -- says they cannot do this.

"Part of the difficulty in finding students willing to challenge this university policy was overcoming the hurdle of their fear of retaliation -- from the university, from other students, and from irate, extremist Muslims," Crampton explains. "So the request that they reveal their identities seems to me to be a bit over the line here."

The Christian legal group says it is not suggesting every Muslim is violent, but it says there are those out there who have shown themselves to be "extremely violent." Crampton adds that the university is making light that the students would become targets, much like author Salmon Rushdie became a target for his fictional work The Satanic Verses.

Crampton believes the university's motion to dismiss indicates two things. "[First] some desperation on their behalf with regard to the actual merits of the lawsuit, whether this summer reading program violates the Establishment Clause or not," he says, "and [second] what I would consider an unorthodox and perhaps 'below the belt' attack on the anonymity of the students."

Crampton has filed for an emergency injunction to stop the program, scheduled to take place on August 19. A hearing is set for August 15. A spokesman for the CLP said last week that because of the time constraint, they will appeal immediately to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia if necessary -- and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, if that appeal is unsuccessful.

Who Holds the Purse Strings?
Meanwhile, the North Carolina House Appropriations Committee has made it perfectly clear regarding the UNC reading program: if the University of North Carolina wants to force students to learn Islam, they will get not state funding for it. By a vote of 64-10, the Committee has added to the budget a measure barring the university from using public funds to promote Islam.

Crampton says while this measure may not have an effect on the outcome of the lawsuit, it certainly impacts the university's standing with the legislature.

"What it does impact is the university's position -- vis-à-vis the legislature," he says. "Of course, when you control the purse strings, as our founders understood, you control policy."

"So for the university to continue in this sort of unconstitutional effort, regardless of what the court does, may well result in additional layoffs in tight budgetary times -- and ultimately can have very far-reaching effects on the university's overall program," Crampton says.

North Carolina lawmakers said the university took an adversarial role in promoting Islam at a time they say when the country should remain united.

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