The United States Doesn't Need Immigrants Like These Folk!

[Big RR]

You're framing the question too narrowly; I think it should be, is the free practice of religion a fundamental right? I think so, and feel very uncomfortable in allowing a government to define what practices are protected and what are not, except in very extreme circumstances (like the female circumcision you mentioned, or preventing a child in need of medical care from getting it). I have no idea as to what religion these people belong or what their beliefs are, but perhaps they are in a cloistered society that does not want outside contact, or perhaps they don't allow boys and girls to be educated together if they are not siblings. All we know is that Germany refused to allow them to home school in response to the belief, and the US immigration trial level court found them worthy of getting asylum. And that's the point IMHO, that the German government, in their threats of imprisonment, is denying them that right. We in the US have a broad view of religious freedom, and I think we should grant asylum accordingly.

[Scooter]

The petition created to bolster their case doesn't make any reference to religious freedom; it speaks of the "right to home school" and speaks narrowly of the consequences to parents who do so. Religious freedom would be a convenient hook upon which to hang their asylum claim, but there is absolutely nothing to suggest that this had a religious basis at all.