Religion in the schools: Joseph Farah blasts ACLU, courts for glaring double standard on Islam

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, May 5, 2004 | Joseph Farah

[JohnHuang2]

Where's the ACLU when you need it?

For years, America's government schools have been told by the courts and the secular jihadists at the American Civil Liberties Union that any vestige of Christianity or Judaism must be eradicated.

There's been a judicial fatwa against the two faiths that inspired the American political system.

The courts have blessed this Taliban-like holy war against religion in the schools and the public square.

The legal rationalization for this crusade has been the establishment clause of the First Amendment – a thin thread of an excuse.

But now it is becoming increasingly clear that's all this campaign ever was – an excuse for marginalizing the God of the Bible in the lives of Americans.

The proof is the tolerance shown for another kind of religion in America's schools – not just secular humanism, but Wahhabist Islam.

As an investigation by WorldNetDaily's Paul Sperry revealed, a top textbook consultant shaping classroom education on Islam in American public schools recently worked for a school funded and controlled by the Saudi government, which propagates a rigidly anti-Western strain of Islam. The consultant, Susan L. Douglass, has also praised Pakistan's madrassa schools as "proud symbols of learning," even after the U.S. government blamed them for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The ACLU is uncharacteristically mute.

"In effect," Sperry writes, "she is responsible for teaching millions of American children about Islam, experts say, while operating in relative obscurity."

Critics complain that Douglass, who taught at the Saudi academy for at least a decade, has convinced American textbook publishers and educators to gloss over the violent aspects of Islam to make the faith more appealing to non-Muslim children. The units on Islam reviewed by WND appear to give a glowing and largely uncritical view of the faith.

While the ACLU hasn't been troubled by the increase in one-sided teaching about Islam in the public schools, another legal watchdog has. The Thomas More Law Center sued a San Francisco-area school district on behalf of parents of seventh-graders who were required to "become Muslims" for two weeks as part of their world history unit on Islam.

However, U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton, a Clinton appointee, dismissed the lawsuit against the Byron Union School District, arguing the Muslim unit does not promote religion, and therefore does not violate the First Amendment's clause against religious establishment.

The controversial role-playing course requires kids to recite Muslim prayers and verses of the Quran in class. Students also are required to give up things like watching television or eating candy for a day to simulate Islamic fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"From the beginning, you and your classmates will become Muslims," the Student Guide portion of the Islam module instructs seventh-graders as an introduction to the material.

Just imagine substituting practices associated with Christianity or Judaism in such a course without the ACLU squealing in horror. It's unthinkable.

What's happening here is clear: There's an unholy alliance emerging between the mush-brained, selectively intolerant secular jihadists and those Islamists who would like to use the Judeo-Christian-inspired American freedoms to undermine Western Civilization.

Why do I call them "mush-brained"? Because these people are so myopic they can't see their allies in this cause hate everything they stand for. They can't see that they would not survive five minutes in their brave old world of the 7th century. They can't see that the freedom they love so much can only survive in a society operating on Judeo-Christian principles and populated by people who believe in those principles.

If people can't see this glaring double-standard at work in America, there is very little point to fighting Islamic terrorism abroad. It's just a matter of time before the enemy within achieves victory by default.

[goldstategop]

Its not a double standard at all. The reason for the odd bedfellows alliance between secular leftist jihadists and Islamofascists isn't really all that mysterious. They both hate America and its Judeo-Christian roots.

[alloysteel]

By supporting the introduction of Islam in US schools as an "alternative" to the Judeo-Christian standards once practiced as part of the educational system, the ACLU may make up for their years of neglect in providing a substitute for moral standards they have assiduously worked on eroding for years. Secular humanism just does not have enough heft, as a basis for construction of a legal code.

Shar'ia law, on the other hand, has no such ambiguities.

[taxesareforever]

If people can't see this glaring double-standard at work in America, there is very little point to fighting Islamic terrorism abroad. It's just a matter of time before the enemy within achieves victory by default.


It won't be victory by default. It will be a victory instigated by our judicial establishment. People do care but the courts continue to tell people that they are wrong and the courts are right. It is judicial tyranny. Just ask Judge Roy Moore.

[Prime Choice]

Its not a double standard at all. The reason for the odd bedfellows alliance between secular leftist jihadists and Islamofascists isn't really all that mysterious. They both hate America and its Judeo-Christian roots.

You can say that again!

[ladylib]

Let's see. The schools force kids to study Islam, parents go to court and lose -- what's the next logical step for these parents?

[ChevyZ28]

I am glad someone tried to stand up to this hypocrisy. It is sad however, that the attempt failed, but not surprising.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - EDUCATION and the ACLU

[NYer]

The Thomas More Law Center sued a San Francisco-area school district on behalf of parents of seventh-graders who were required to "become Muslims" for two weeks as part of their world history unit on Islam.

Catholic Ping - let me know if you want on/off this list

[Annie03]

Once again Joseph Farrah hits the bullseye. Another of a million reasons I'm grateful I can homeschool. This really jumped out at me:
"However, U.S. District Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton, a Clinton appointee, dismissed the lawsuit against the Byron Union School District, arguing the Muslim unit does not promote religion, and therefore does not violate the First Amendment's clause against religious establishment."

That is such a crock I could almost laugh if it wasn't so frightening. If only the lib/secular/elite realized they, too, will be completely disposable when their pc socialist utopia comes to pass.

[RobbyS]

Liberals alsos have a romantic view of Islam. which to they owe to Voltaire and other philosphes. Hating the "superstitions of Christianty, they created in their own imaginations this false image of Islam.

[Kuksool]

I wonder if the Secular Left realizes that Islam condemns abortion and homosexuality. The Left's promotion of Islam will stop once kids start quoting the anti-gay verses in the Quran.