A Response to Prejudice

A friend posted a link to an article that got my blood boiling as an educator, an American, a Christian, and so on: "Liberal Double Standards: Public Schools Teaching Islam is Okay"

(For the record, I love my friend. We clearly have different opinions on certain things, but this is a rebuttal of an article, not an attack on her.)

The title alone is enough to get me going. What does that mean? Does it mean that they are teaching that Islam is an acceptable religion? Seems odd, given that it is public school. And, what is the alternative? Should public schools be preaching against Islam? Clearly, this is going to be a doozy. Then I read the article.

Wow. This was the most bigoted piece of writing I have read in ages. The author, Matt Duncan, takes one assignment (with no context), lumps it in with a fair dose of “atheist conspiracy” theory, to create a piece that would be laughable if it wasn’t so nauseating.

The basis for the rant cited above is the religious right's imagined "war on Christianity." The author takes issue with "liberals" promoting Islam while degrading Christianity. I find it pathetic that the right is so determined to be "persecuted" that they are willing to take a few examples of "liberals" attacking Christianity and turning it into a full-fledged war on Christianity. This piece is just another example.

For the record, as a world history teacher, I would hand out something like this. Why? Because, Muslims HAVE made great contributions to world history. We can thank them for a great deal of our understanding of mathematics, for example, not to mention medicine, astronomy, and so on. That assignment says nothing of their religious contributions; what Duncan fails to understand is that while "separation of church and state"/establishment clause (whichever your pleasure) is the rule de jour, historically, religion/government/education/etc. were all interrelated. So, you cannot separate the accomplishments of Muslim empires from the fact that they were, indeed, Muslim. In fact, like Mormons, the drive amongst ancient Muslims for understanding of the universe was rooted in their religious faith (one of many things that makes modern "conservative" Islam so ironic).

Here are some reasons to throw nonsense like this in the trash where it belongs:

1-The author gives us the name of this teacher and the school. What we do not have is CONTEXT. We don’t know the course he teaches, the age level he teaches, his political leanings,... ANYTHING to indicate that this person is anything other than a teacher (my guess would be high school world history) teaching kids about the contributions of a group of people (who happened to be united by a religious world view…as most groups of people were, historically).

2-The author alleges that "progressives and atheists alike froth at the mouth at the very thought of Christianity or God being mentioned in our public schools..." I have two issues with this:

• Any teacher can tell you that Christianity and God come up quite a lot in public schools... especially in the humanities. You cannot teach history without teaching about religion. You cannot teach literature without understanding basic Judeo-Christian theology. Is he talking about efforts by some to remove the Pledge of Allegiance from the classroom, or public prayers which favor one religion over another (the former being kind of an odd thing that, contrary to popular opinion, is a relatively recent addition to the public school day, and the latter a clear violation of the establishment clause which, by the way, IS in the first amendment)? There is a big difference between teaching religion and promoting it. The former is perfectly acceptable under the First Amendment; the latter is not. Which leads to:
• The verbiage of this line is a clear attempt to lump a very large and varied group of people in with a small minority of vocal atheists, vilifying the entire group for the actions of a few. Vis-à-vis education, MOST progressives want equity in public discussions of world religions—that is, an acknowledgement that proponents of all major world religions have contributed to modern knowledge. I think some Christians see that attempt at equity as a threat to their traditional dominance over Western education, which I find ridiculous and small-minded.

3-This line: “…the vile and evil cult known as Islam…” At this point, the author reveals himself as an ignorant bigot. It is one thing to believe your own religion is the true path to God. I believe that. However, it is quite another to point at another and call it “vile and evil.” There are Muslims who deserve such description. There are Christians who deserve the same. Have we forgotten the Crusades? The treatment of Native peoples in the New World? Christians have plenty of blood on their hands. As a Christian, I acknowledge that legacy for what it is: evil people using religion as an excuse to act out their own internal evils. I do not blame Christ or the Gospel for their actions. Similarly, I do not blame Islam for 9/11 or the Taliban. I don’t blame Buddha or Buddhism for persecutions and wars fought by Buddhists. Throughout history, people have found excuses to hate and to fight one another. Religion is simply the easiest and most obvious excuse. “We’re not invading your kingdom for gold or slaves or access to trade routes. We’re doing it because God/the gods want us to!” It lends a false legitimacy to selfish acts.

Coming back to my original intent: This assignment is not evidence of a conspiracy amongst some organized and homogeneous group of “progressives and atheists” (no such group) to promote Islam above Christianity. This author is reveals ignorance and bigotry by blowing a legitimate assignment completely out of proportion.

It’s this sort of thinking that is causing an immense divide in our nation that makes me fear for our future. How can we have dialogue if people insist on being petty, intolerant, and prejudiced?