I didn’t cover this until today, so I’ll send you over to Ed Morrissey’s excellent original post on it. Basically Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy is a state-funded madrassa in Minnesota. Now Minnesota law allows charter schools, but they’re considered public and can not teach religion. It seems that law is followed for every religion…but one.

TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is “establishing Islam in Minnesota.” The building also houses a mosque. TIZA’s executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.

Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food – permissible under Islamic law — and “Islamic Studies” is offered at the end of the school day.

Well there’s another Minnesota law that TIZA fails to follow: The requirement to fly an American flag. Why? Here’s what the school claims:

State law requires the school to fly an American flag during school hours, however no flag flies outside of TIZA Academy.

Zaman told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he didn’t know how to work the flagpole.

So apparently the school’s headmaster is too incompetent to operate a flag pole. Furthermore, he can’t find anyone else able to operate it, simply learn himself by trial-and-error, or perhaps try this great new research tool. If he is unable to raise a flag, or even learn to do so, he has no business leading an institution that’s giving kids their educational foundation for life.

Ed finds something else a bit awry about the school, or more specifically, its sponsor:

KSTP also reports that TIZA is sponsored by Islamic Relief USA, based in California. TIZA has insisted that it is not a religious organization or sponsored by any religious organizations. The website of the charity outlines many excellent causes, especially educating women around the world. Given that girls in the US have equal access to public and private education as boys, though, one has to wonder why Islamic Relief would choose to spend its resources in Minnesota rather than Malaysia or Pakistan.

Something’s not right.