By Robin G. Jordan
Since the emergence of the brutal self-declared “Islamic
State” in Iraq and Syria the media has rushed to defend Islam and its
practitioners from critics. Yahoo News has published a spate of articles that are
not only very sympathetic to North American Muslims but which also come
extremely close to recommending their faith to outsiders. They include at least
one article equating sharia law with
Anglo-Saxon common law and promoting the widespread imposition of sharia law as a solution for political
and social instability. The media is peculiarly willing to repeat and amplify
the assertion of Islamic organizations that any criticism of Islam and its
practitioners is a form of “Islamophobia.” The media has for all intents and
purposes become apologists for Islam.
On the other hand, similar treatment is not extended to
Christianity and its adherents. Indeed the media include some of the harshest
critics of Christians and their faith.
This phenomena, however, is not confined to the media. A
Texas high school teacher is facing disciplinary action because he gave his
students a handout in which Islam is described as an “ideology of war” and its
practitioners as engaging in kidnapping and beheading. He is accused of
disseminating false information and promoting hatred of Muslims as well as
departing from his particular school district’s official curriculum. See “Houston-area teacher faces punishment over anti-Islam handout” and “Teacher Under Fire for Anti-Muslim Lesson.”
Anyone who has critically read the Quran is cognizant that
it contains elements that are open to interpretation as teaching an ideology of
relentless war against infidels—Christians, Jews, and the adherents of other
religions. The presence of these elements has led scholars to characterize
Islam as an imperialistic religion.
Islam’s practitioners have also engaged in kidnapping and
beheading throughout its history. The infamous Barbary pirates kidnapped both
Muslims and non-Muslims and held them for ransom or sold them as slaves in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Barbary pirates were Muslims and saw
this practice as consistent with their religion. Muslim Arabs were notorious
slavers during the nineteenth century, raiding Black African villages and
enslaving their inhabitants. Here again they saw no inconsistency between human
trafficking and their religion. In modern-time radical Islamist groups in
Africa and the Mideast have also engaged in kidnapping Muslims and non-Muslims
and holding them for ransom or selling them as slaves.
The self-declared Islamic State has beheaded a substantial
number of people. So has the Shiite militias fighting against that group of
Islamist militants. In Saudi Arabia beheading is the prescribed form of capital
punishment for a variety of crimes. The Quran contains passages that may be
interpreted as sanctioning the practice.
One is prompted to wonder what kind of curriculum that the
Texas school district in question has approved if it does not cover these
undeniable truths about Islam and its practitioners. Is the school district
sanitizing the history, beliefs, and practices of Islam to make its curriculum
more politically correct, not offensive or upsetting to Muslims out of the
belief that they are at a disadvantage? This would appear to be the case.
We should be more than a little concerned when a school
district elevates political correctness and multiculturalism over academic
freedom. A school district that offers its students a highly sanitized
interpretation of Islam is also not preparing them for the real world.
While the handout may have contained inaccuracies, the
handout also appears to have contained information from articles and polls from
reliable sources. If any criticism may be leveled at the teacher, it is that he
did not put more effort into checking facts and documenting sources. I would
add in the teacher’s defense that this is not an easy task when the Internet is
the primary source of information due to the volume of information on the
Internet and the spottiness of source documentation.
While Muslims in the community may object to the handout
because it presents Islam and themselves in a negative light, I must point out that
they have the history of their own religion and the teachings of its sects to
blame for this state of affairs, as well as the actions of their present-day
co-religionists, particularly those who subscribe to extreme forms of Islam.
The concept of religious freedom is alien to Islam and its
practitioners. The Quran contains passages that are open to interpretation as
requiring Muslims as their religious duty to bring non-Muslims into submission
to Allah by every means possible, including the sword. For most of its history
Islam has been spread through conquest. Submission to Allah has meant forced
conversion to Islam and the imposition of sharia.
Dhimmitude, not tolerance, has been the attitude of Muslims
toward Christians and Jews. They have been assigned an inferior status in
Islamic society and have been restricted in the practice of their religion. It
is the status of a conquered people who are subject to humiliation and spoliation
at the hands of their conquerors.
The notion of separation of Church and State is a Western
concept and is a relatively recent development. Culture and religion are
closely intertwined in Muslim countries. In sharia
religious belief and practice and civil, criminal, and military law are
combined into one system. Where sharia
does not mandate such harsh punishments as amputation, beheading, crucifixion, immurement,
stoning, and whipping, it tolerates them. Sharia
sanctions or permits such practices as child marriages, honor killings, and
slavery and relegates women to an inferior position in Muslim society.
The idea of once a Muslim, always a Muslim is deeply
ingrained in Islam. A child of a Muslim parent is viewed as a Muslim even
though the child may never have embraced the parent’s faith. Islam has
historically prescribed the death penalty for apostasy. Even in the West abandonment
of one’s faith or conversion to another faith elicit strong disapproval and
ostracism from family, relatives, and other members of the Muslim community. It
has in a number of cases resulted in the murder of the Muslim turned apostate.
The catering to Muslim sensitivities in this particular case
feeds into the Muslim sense of superiority and entitlement. Islam is no
champion of religious pluralism. Muslims view all other religions as corrupt or
idolatrous. From their point of view the proper attitude toward their religion and
themselves should be one of marked respect and deference. When this respect and deference has not been forthcoming,
the result has in some parts of the world been false accusations of blasphemy
and even bloodshed.
In a pluralistic society Muslims and their religion should be open to scrutiny as any other faith and its adherents. Teachers should be free to offer their students a honest appraisal of Islam and its practitioners without being accused of fomenting hatred against Muslims.
Photo credit: John A. Gillis, The (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) Daily News Journal
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