Elsamra was finally allowed to use an empty classroom to pray. (AP)

CLIFFSIDE PARK, N.J., September 5, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – US Muslim students are gradually regaining some of their rights after years of growing harassment and Islamophobia following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Yasmeen Elsamra, a Muslim student, was finally allowed to use an empty classroom to pray after she was forbidden by her school to do so, The Associated Press (AP) reported Monday, September 5.

She had a simple request to go off to pray while her classmates were eating lunch.

But the fourteen-year student of Cliffside Park was told in 2003 that she couldn't go off by herself for a few moments and pray, according to AP.

''If I wasn't allowed to pray my second prayer at school, I couldn't do it at home," she said. ''When school finishes, the third prayer begins."

Muslims pray five times during the 24 hours, starting with dawn, then noon, afternoon, Maghreb and evening prayers. Praying is one of the five pillars of Islam.

Her family contacted a Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

The district eventually allowed Elsamra to use an empty classroom to unfurl her prayer rug, face Makkah and pray in a few moments of worship of her free time, AP said.

Nationwide Effort

Elsamra case was part of a nationwide effort by Muslim parents to make public schools more friendly and accommodating to Muslim students, AP said, adding that the movement has gained strength since the attacks of Sept 11, 2001 against the United States .

''The reality for many Muslim students in public schools is very difficult," Ingrid Mattson, vice president of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), told AP.

She said her children were sometimes taunted in their Connecticut school district.

"The kids will say: 'Hey, Osama, do you have a bomb? Are you going to blow us up?'" she told AP.

''My daughter has had people try to pull her head scarf off or say, 'What are you doing with that rag on your head?' But they have also had friends who defended them."

Noor Ennab, a fifth-grader who attends the private Muslim Al-Noor School in New York City, told AP she had been driven out of her public school by harassment after the events of Sept. 11.

''Before that happened, we were treated so kind," she said. "Now it's like, 'You're a terrorist; get out of this country.'"

Older students have also had problems, AP said.

Debra Mason of Jersey City said she had dropped out of Fairleigh Dickinson University's nursing program after she was told to remove her hijab during patient rounds.

The New Jersey civil rights division had found probable cause to proceed with an investigation into whether the school had violated her rights.

The school, AP said, declined to comment.

Zero-Tolerance

The AP added that some school districts are starting to take notice and a zero-tolerance policy on harassment of Muslim students was adopted by the Broward County school board in Florida , in March 2003, just before the US invaded Iraq .

In February, Muslim community leaders led the Pledge of Allegiance at a high school in San Antonio, as part of a daylong conference on Islam.

In Paterson, N.J., home of the state's largest Arab-American community, schools let some students out of class early Friday to attend prayers, given parents' permission.

Paterson is one of a handful of New Jersey districts in which schools are closed for Eid Al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of the fasting and penitence month of Ramadan, AP said.

Despite a large Muslim student population in Baltimore, the school board voted, 10 to 0, against a proposal to add Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha, the feast that begins the pilgrimage, to the school holiday calendar, it added.

That disappointed Samira Hussein, a mother of four and an educator who helped to nudge the Montgomery County school district in Maryland .

She and others got the district to send teachers and administrators to Ramadan observances, to mark the holiest month of the calendar, in which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.

New School

Munir kisses her son Abdullah, 3, during an open house at Snowdrop Elementary School .

Moving to Monroeville where Muslim students had also feel alienated in schools, a new Muslim elementary school will open its doors Tuesday, September 6, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Monday.

For three years, Munaza Munir's children didn't always fit in with their mainstream American classmates in Monroeville because they were Muslim Pakistanis.

Starting Tuesday, Munir's five children, along with about 31 others, will become the inaugural student body at Snowdrop Elementary School , which is open to all although most of the students are Muslims.

The school, which includes preschool to fifth grade, offers Islamic studies, but most of the day will be filled with other academics, including an emphasis on math and science, the paper said.

It was started by Western Penn Cultural Center, a Pittsburgh Turkish organization.

Located next to the Muslim Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh mosque in Monroeville, the school is drawing Muslim families from as far away as Beechview.

"Here everybody has a strange name. That's why nobody feels alone, because you have kids from many, many countries," said Riza Ulker, Snowdrop's acting director.

Filling a Need

Parents told the paper the school is filling a need for the growing community by offering what many public schools can't: Ethnic diversity, Muslim camaraderie and rigorous academics.

For Munir, of Monroeville , a stay-at-home mom, her local public schools were good, but it was sometimes difficult for the children, as other youngsters would occasionally bother them or question their beliefs, she told the paper.