Public school district pays more than $50,000 for “equity survey” by Dr. Muhammad Khalifa.

“After a petition was sent around by activists, asking the school district to reduce ‘racism,’” William Krumholz reports in Alphanews, “the district brought in a group run by Dr. Muhammad Khalifa to conduct an ‘equity survey.’” This took place in the Eastern Carver County School District in the city of Chaska, Minnesota, with a population of approximately 25,000.

Dr. Muhammad Khalifa is Associate Professor of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota. He earned his Ph.D. in “educational administration” at Michigan State University. Khalifa’s group, Adjusted Equity Solutions, and the affiliated Culturally Responsive School Leadership Institute, Krumholz wrote, “sells its services, which focus on bias recognition education and training, to schools.” The Eastern Carver district and superintendent Clint Christopher, “awarded Khalifa’s AES $52,250 over a two-year period to conduct the equity survey and provide certain follow-up services.”

Dr. Khalifa’s “Islamophobia and Christian Privilege,” materials urge the district to “recognize that Islamophobia is one of the most widespread, rapidly growing, and tolerated types of oppression in school and society today.” This requires the school to “identify discourses and practices of Christian privilege and White privilege” and Christian privilege “is not only having major Christian holidays and Sundays off, and Christian trappings in school.”

The materials urge the district to “discuss with your staff how you have been implicit – directly or indirectly – in Islamophobic practices,” and “complete annual equity audits.” Dr. Khalifa wants “speak outs” for Muslim students, and the protection of “Muslim female dress.” The district is also to “celebrate contemporary Muslim accomplishments and personalities, Kunta Kinte, Muhammad Ali, Keith Ellison, Yusef Lateef, John Coltrane, Malcolm X, Mahershali Ali, etc.”

As Dr. Khalifa’s materials explain, “Islam is not a religion in the sense that Western Europeans separated faith from other aspects of life.” Dr. Muhamad wants the district to “support causes connected to the Muslim community,” and “use staff, school space, student activities, and even financial resources – to advocate for causes important to student inclusion and belongingness.”

As Krumholz notes, Dr. Khalifa’s equity survey was emailed to parents by Sherief Elabbady, listed as the chief operating officer of Adjusted Equity Solutions. According to Krumholz, Elabbady “has a history of leftwing and anti-Israeli posts on Facebook. This includes sharing posts by Linda Sarsour, a far-left activist with a long history of blatantly anti-Semitic comments.” Sarsour, “has praised radical preacher Louis Farrakhan,” tried to oust Jewish women from the women’s march, and called for a “jihad” on President Trump and his supporters.

Krumholz also reports that Khalifa Muhammad is “closely associated” with the Muslim American Society-Islamic Circle of North America, “a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate.” As Benjamin Baird explained in the American Spectator, MAS was founded in 1993 as the “overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in America,” a “transnational Sunni Islamist organization that is the progenitor of terrorist outfits such as Hamas.”

Dr. Khalifa is also a senior fellow with the Yaqeen Institute for Islamic Research. The Texas-based institute warns of “the rise of Islamophobia” and the portrayal of Islam as “irrational, incompatible with modern civilization and inherently violent.” Yaqeen Institute research will include “topics such as Jihad, Shariah, gender issues, Muslim/Non-Muslim relations, slavery and explaining controversial texts in Islam.” Senior fellow Muhammad Khalifa is the man the East Carver district tapped for the “equity survey.”

According to an April 26 Star-Tribune report, a petition charged that “racist incidents and systemic inequities,” have “plagued the district for far too long.” The only incident cited in the report is a “boy of color” who was punched on a bus. A July 22 Star Tribune report cited “racist incidents that have rocked the district,” which turned out to be “a photo of a student wearing blackface,” in last year’s yearbook. This was enough to bring in Dr. Khalifa and pay him more than $50,000 in public funds.

At a June 24 school board meeting, Krumholz notes, “parents pushed back against the school board on the issue.” Krumholz speculated that “AES and some school board members will take this as more evidence of bias—which just so happens to require the school district to pay more money to Dr. Khalifa’s companies.”

Dr. Khalifa appears to hold Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam in symmetry with traditional Islam. The Nation of Islam holds that people like Amy Klobuchar, Jonas Salk, and Michelangelo are the result of an experiment by a mad scientist named Yacub some 6,000 years ago. Traditional Islam has no such belief.

Jazz artist Yusef Lateef (1920-2013), cited by Dr. Khalifa as an example of “contemporary Muslim accomplishment,” converted to Islam in 1948 and was not part of the Nation of Islam. Legendary saxophonist John Coltrane died in 1967, and his relationship with Islam remains unclear.

As Daniel Pipes notes, the connection of musicians with Islam, “contains a certain irony, given the Muslim role in enslaving Africans and Islam's dubious and sometimes directly hostile attitude toward music.” As Pipes recalls, in 2010, “Somali Islamists not only banned all music but even school bells.”

Somalia is the birthplace of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, and this week Minnesota state representative Steve Drazkowski and Judicial Watch filed complaints with the House ethics office asking for an investigation into possible crimes committed by Omar including perjury, immigration fraud, marriage fraud, state and federal tax fraud, and federal student loan fraud.

Last month, a Minnesota judge sentenced former Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor to twelve years in prison for third-degree murder and manslaughter in the fatal shooting of Justine Ruszczyk.