Noa Bursie
I have the greatest job in the world; I am a teacher, and am proud to belong to this honorable profession. For more than 20 years I have been driven to educate young people and encourage them to discover the world and to confront ignorance with knowledge. An incident that occurred recently in a local high school disturbs me enough to bring it to the attention of other educators and the public. An individual was invited to give a presentation on Islam at a school in a suburb of Buffalo, New York. This man was asked by the school’s history department to offer clarification on practices and tenets of the faith that are thought, by some, to be misunderstood. It was hoped the lecture would provide greater understanding, and in doing so, diffuse what has come to be called “Islamophobia.”
The PowerPoint presentation focused on the Koran’s Five Pillars, how a Muslim prays, the presenter’s trip to Mecca, and his beard and attire. Before long, however, the presentation deteriorated into a diatribe against U.S. foreign policy and support for Israel and an apologist's sentiment that appeared to justify the September 11th terrorist attacks and exonerate those who perpetrated them.
After hearing a first-hand account of this presentation, I contacted the school and district administrators to get more information and alert them of the dangers and implications of such a lecture. At the time of this publication, the incident is under investigation by the school district and, I am told, the specific individuals involved will no longer be allowed access into the school. The presenter and his father, who had also been invited to the school on other occasions, subscribe to the teachings of Radical Islamist clerics, Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro and Sheikh Rajab Deeb, the former having served as the Mufti of the Syrian Ministry of Religion under the regimes of both Hafiz and Bashar Assad. The presenter’s ideology is on display throughout the internet on various blogs and in articles he has published; his father was mentored by the recently deceased Sheikh Kuftaro, who may be viewed on a number of jihadist websites as well as on YouTube, honoring such men as Louis Farrakhan and Neo-Nazi ideologue, William Baker.
A number of serious questions arise. How could individuals with such affiliations and whose viewpoints are easily accessible through a variety of sources have been allowed into a public institution to speak to young, impressionable children? How could such a presentation given under the guise of cross-cultural exchange and “educating about Islam” have been allowed to take place under the noses of administrators and teachers whose duty it is to teach our children to distinguish between information that expands knowledge and propaganda that seeks to undermine it? When did we as educators stop thinking critically and judging whether or not material in our textbooks and around which our curricula are structured is correct or written to support political agendas or notions of multiculturalism at the expense of historical accuracy?
Misrepresentation of the very logical suspicion of Islam that has elevated the term “Islamophobia” to the forefront of the global consciousness is fed by precisely this kind of exploitation and perversion of free speech. A phobia is by definition an irrational or displaced fear. To suggest that there is no connection between fundamental doctrines of the Koran and terrorist acts committed against non-Muslim targets throughout the world is ludicrous. Consequently, a very systematic examination of the foundational tenets of Islam is not only quite logical, but essential. Scrutinizing what it is about this religion that predisposes its followers to search and destroy its opponents is not discriminatory or phobic in the least. It is the very definition of rationalism.
It would appear that the very foundations of Islam are at the root of terrorism performed in its name and a discussion of the religion is an invitation to also disseminate its political ideology. And as long as we are deconstructing fallacies that hobble serious criticism of Islam, a closer look at the term, “radical” is in order. The word “radical” in conjunction with the broader religious classification creates a misnomer. To suggest that what feeds “radical Islam” is somehow different from the mainstream is erroneous and precisely what endangers us. The voice of the elusive “moderates” among Islam’s over 1.5 billion followers is yet to be heard adequately addressing why the overwhelming majority of terrorist acts carried out against civilian targets in the 20th and 21st centuries were performed by followers of their faith. Neither is there a credible force among Koranic experts to explain what it is within the texts jihadists are perverting as they hijack the “true” tenets of the religion from their moderate brethren. In other words, had the presenter at the high school been a more “moderate” Muslim, the agenda would have likely been the same – to subvert the very rational suspicion of Islam with the absurd idea that the victims of jihadist terrorism have somehow brought retribution upon themselves for not understanding and adopting this religion of peace and universal brotherhood.
The truth resides in the Koran and Sunna whose precepts dictate the violent actions of those who follow them. This inconvenient truth is that Islam is not merely a religion, but a theocratic, political ideology whose religious texts mandate the subjugation of all non-believers to its tenets, through violence if necessary, and asserts its supremacy over all other beliefs. Islam equates women with chattel, consigns non-believers to the subordinate status of dhimmis or kaffirs, and teaches the principle of taqiyya, sanctioned prevarication and subterfuge when engaging non-believers. The ideological construct within Islam that hurls itself against Western Civilization has less to do with oil or economics or foreign policy than it does with the West’s arrogance in its refusal to submit to the divine authority of Allah and Mohammad, his prophet.
We have been nurtured on the principles of democracy in this nation. The idea that beliefs and practices different from our own could somehow be inherently evil seems incongruous with the constitutional declaration that “…all men are created equal…” Nevertheless, the world has confronted hateful, exclusionary ideologies before and we must never forget the commitment and sacrifice of so many to fight the Hitlers and Stalins and Pol Pots of our times. We face a threat now as deadly as any the world has encountered. It is no surprise that the terms “Mein Kampf” and “jihad” share the same denotation and connotation or that their proponents were and are united in a common objective, to annihilate Jews and Christians and subjugate all others to their “way.”
My great hope lies in one of our most endearing characteristics – the spirit of defiance – rebellion against tyranny and totalitarianism. Our fierce independence may yet deliver us from the will of forces that seek to impose their theocracy upon us. To be exclusionary or discriminatory contradicts the very principles upon which the Constitution of the United States was drafted. However, not all ideologies are benevolent or promote tolerance, allowing dissent within the ranks. We have a grave responsibility to educate our children without succumbing to relativist sentiments that pervert the meaning of equality, that demand the acceptance of every ideology, or confuse discriminating judgment with discrimination. Our future depends upon the distinction.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Noa Bursie is a writer and educator in Western New York.
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