TAPPS again says ‘no’ to Muslims

Ellen Marie Andrews (from left), 15; Amy Robinson, 18; Mikail Kahn 17; and Myles Cooper, 16, students from Keystone School, discuss the decision by TAPPS to reject an Islamic school that had applied for membership. less Ellen Marie Andrews (from left), 15; Amy Robinson, 18; Mikail Kahn 17; and Myles Cooper, 16, students from Keystone School, discuss the decision by TAPPS to reject an Islamic school that had applied for ... more Photo: HELEN L. MONTOYA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Photo: HELEN L. MONTOYA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close TAPPS again says ‘no’ to Muslims 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools denied membership to an Islamic school about two months ago, according to the head of a local TAPPS member school uneasy about the process and the potentially divisive decision.

Brian Yager, head of the local Keystone School, along with parents and students recently found themselves weighing the benefits of TAPPS competitions against the school’s core value of diversity. As of now, Keystone is staying in TAPPS — but with a goal of changing it from within.

The association arranges for 220 secular and parochial high schools to compete in sports, such as football, soccer and tennis, as well as in academics, art and music.

This is the second time TAPPS’ handling of membership requests by Islamic schools has ended in controversy.

In 2004, two other Islamic schools applied for membership and received a response letter they perceived as hostile to their faith.

TAPPS’ membership is not based on a specific religious affiliation and members of the Islamic community have questioned whether the application process is fair.

TAPPS director Edd Burleson did not respond to the San Antonio Express-News’ request for in interview about the membership application process and declined to comment on TAPPS’ decision this school year.

He also declined to fulfill an information request under TAPPS’ open records by-law, stating in an e-mail that the newspaper didn’t have a “need to know” the information in application documents and membership correspondence.

TAPPS board members employed by Bracken Christian School in Bulverde and by New Braunfels Christian Academy did not return calls for comment, nor did Jay Klingenberg, director of facilities at the Second Baptist School in Houston, who is listed as board president on TAPPS’ website.

Yager was not told which Islamic school was recently rejected by TAPPS.

Keystone has about 430 students of many faiths, including Islam, in grades K-12. The students have joined the momentum to reform TAPPS, even suggesting sewing “coexist” patches on their sports uniforms to broadcast their stance to TAPPS competitors.

“I personally am hoping that if we take a stand ... that we can almost eliminate the kind of bystander attitude that a lot of schools seem to be taking and, hopefully, unify a force to reform TAPPS,” said Myles Cooper, a soccer-playing junior at Keystone.

TAPPS polls schools

Yager first became concerned when TAPPS surveyed member schools in September, asking whether it was in the association’s best interest to accept Islamic schools for membership.

Yager received the survey results in December and shared those in a letter to parents last month. While Yager declined to release TAPPS’ communications, a parent provided Yager’s letter to the newspaper.

Yager, in his first year at Keystone, thinks the decision may have been unfairly based on religion because the main question was whether to accept Islamic schools.

Many TAPPS member schools have a Christian affiliation; a couple are affiliated with Judaism and others, like Keystone, are secular.

Of the 220 member schools polled, 24 percent indicated it was not in TAPPS’ best interest to accept Islamic schools. Another 14 percent took the opposite stance, voting that it would be in the association’s best interest to accept Islamic schools, according to the letter.

Ten schools said they would leave TAPPS if the majority of members voted to accept Islamic schools. Only one said it would leave TAPPS if the majority voted not to accept Islamic schools.

In the same e-mail containing the survey results, TAPPS told members that the association’s board had voted to deny membership.

Yager did not respond to the initial survey because of the content of the questions. Central Catholic High School Principal Edward Ybarra Jr. said he remembered seeing the questionnaire but his school also did not respond.

After seeing the poll results, Yager asked TAPPS whether the decision was based on any factors other than religion. TAPPS responded by saying the board did “not plan to go into anymore detail regarding this matter.”

Past controversy

Sarwat Husain president of the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ San Antonio chapter and vice chairwoman of the national CAIR board, said that if the surveying process is something that occurs each time a school asks for membership, then it may be fair, but if TAPPS is using this method only for Islamic schools, it may be discriminatory.

Husain said she did not believe the Islamic school recently denied membership was located in San Antonio but that she hadn’t heard which school it might be.

Though the Islamic Academy of San Antonio and the Reza Institute of Learning do cater to Muslim students in San Antonio, they do not have high school programs and would not qualify to join TAPPS.

In 2004, CAIR demanded an apology from TAPPS after two Islamic schools, Darul Arqam School in Houston and Brighter Horizons Academy in Garland applied for membership.

After a representative from Darul Arqam answered questions before the TAPPS board, the school received a letter apparently signed by Burleson.

According to a Houston Chronicle report, the letter asked 10 additional questions, including: “Do you teach your students to ‘Make war on them (Christians and Jews) until idolatry is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme’ (Koran 8:37)?”

Yager’s letter to Keystone parents indicated the same 10 questions might have been asked of the Islamic school that applied for membership in the fall and that TAPPS interpreted the school’s answers as “vague, incomplete and somewhat evasive.”

Husain said TAPPS’ approach to membership requests by Islamic schools hurts American students by creating division and bias.

“They’re going against their own by-laws that they have written out, which essentially says to organize, to stimulate, to encourage and to promote academic, athletic and fine arts programs,” Husain said. “It doesn’t say anything about religion in there.”

Adnan Omran, principal of Brighter Horizons Academy, said that when his school applied to TAPPS in 2004, it was surprised to receive the letter with 10 questions, which he believes took a “very unhealthy” tone. But Omran said his school didn’t ask for an apology.

“We said if this is the situation from the very beginning, what is going to happen later on when we join them?” Omran said. “We just abandoned the whole issue.”

Omran said his students now play soccer through associations in Richardson and Garland that are less prestigious than TAPPS. He said the academy’s board recently discussed reapplying to TAPPS but decided it was not worth it based on past experience.

Changing the culture

On Tuesday night, about 30 Keystone parents gathered with Yager in the school’s cafeteria to discuss their next move.

Colleen Arrey, who has a daughter who’s a junior at Keystone and another child attending a Catholic school, said she hopes Keystone will form a stronger connection with TAPPS schools that either did not respond to the survey or that voted to accept Islamic schools.

Irfan Agha, whose daughter is a sixth-grader at Keystone, added: “Walking away from TAPPS is probably the easy thing to do, the harder thing to do is to really make a difference in the long term. To my mind, if we just walk away from it, ... it won’t come to much. ... Something like this needs an action.”

This week, Keystone’s students brainstormed about ways to influence TAPPS.

Several high school students, from a variety of faiths, said they enjoy TAPPS competitions and have not felt discriminated against as players. Amy Robinson, a senior on Keystone’s varsity softball team, hopes Keystone can push for even greater acceptance by remaining part of TAPPS.

Some students suggested painting a mural on the theme of inclusiveness in the school’s gym to make an impression on visiting teams. Others suggested Keystone play the teams of schools that were not accepted by TAPPS. Mikail Khan, a senior and captain of the boys’ varsity tennis team, added that at Keystone “everybody’s equal on the field.”

Staff Writer Lorne Chan contributed to this report.