MIAMI — A Broward County charter school dismissed a teacher last week after a video in which she appeared to admonish a group of Muslim students for praying went viral on social media and now a prominent Muslim group is asking federal law enforcement officials to investigate.
The Coalition of South Florida Muslim Organizations (COSMOS) is urging the hate crime branch of the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI to investigate the incident as a civil rights violation. The group is also asking Franklin Academy Charter School in Pembroke Pines, where the incident took place, to allow them to educate its staff on the Islamic religion, and on the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment right of freedom of religion.
“Hate has no place and with rising hate against minorities and politicization of our school boards. It is time that communities of different faiths come together and stop this growing trend of bigotry and hate,” Shabbir Motorwala, a COSMOS founding board member, said in a statement to the Miami Herald.
