Will the Koran Be Your Child’s Next Textbook?

By Edwin Benson

Modern Muhammadans are using America’s schools to make Islam more acceptable to Christians everywhere. The pattern of that attempt is spelled out in two separate articles appearing within a week of each other.

One, “The Islamicization of Public Education Continues Apace” by Fr. Mario Alexis Portella, appeared on Crisis. The other one came from Life Site News, “Muslim Nations are Donating Huge Amounts to American Universities. Here’s Why” by William Kilpatrick. The two articles reveal the extent of the Muslim influence in American education today.

The Source of Influence

Father Portella relates the story of Caleigh Wood, a Christian student in the 11th grade at La Plata High School in Maryland. She complained her grade was affected when she refused to repeat, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” In an inexplicable decision, the Fourth District Court of Appeals found that this coercion did not violate Miss Wood’s Constitutional rights. The decision stands because the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Mr. Kilpatrick’s story has a far broader context; that Muslim countries are acquiring influence by making massive donations to many universities in the United States. That article cites a study by the Clarion Institute that documents those gifts. A staggering $10.6 billion was given since 2012. Clarion asserts that this is “just the tip of the iceberg.” The International Institute of Islamic Thought, for example, funnels additional more money into universities. However, it does not have to report the disbursements because it is based in the United States.

In fairness, Muslim nations are not the only ones to make donations to American universities. Other governments also make grants to American schools. They might subsidize medicine and engineering schools that carry out research of interest to them. The motivation of the Islamic countries for these donations makes them stand out.

Openly Promoting Islam

These Muslim nations openly promote their religious beliefs. Indeed, the Koran commands them to do so, for example, when it says in 8:60, “Muslims must muster all weapons to terrorize the infidels.¹” Their growing influence in U.S. and European academic centers is now a preferred weapon.

The funded programs in these schools embrace the Muslim view, while any idea that smacks of Christianity is rejected. The Muslims have purchased that influence with cold hard cash. They know that ideas on college campuses trickle down to elementary and secondary education. Someday, the better students in their programs will grow to become makers and influencers of U.S. government policy.

The general attitude was succinctly stated by “Palestinian-American activist” Linda Sarsour, when she said, “Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our [Muslim] community. It is not to assimilate and please any other people and authority.” When she says “protect and defend,” she is not using the words in the context of peaceful coexistence, knowing full well that the Koran 3:28 admonishes, “Muslims must not take the infidels as friends.”

Mr. Kilpatrick cites the example of a Middle East Studies program financed to the tune of $235,000 by the small but wealthy nation of Qatar. It is run jointly by the University of North Carolina and Duke University. The pro-Muslim biases of this program were so blatant that the U.S. Department of Education sent them an official letter, charging them with failing to provide a “balance of perspectives.” According to the letter, “the positive aspects of Islam” were emphasized, but there was no similar attention to the “positive aspects of Christianity, Judaism or any other religion or belief system in the Middle East.”

While $235,000 might seem relatively little in the whole scheme of things, the administrators at Duke and UNC have reason to hope for better things. After all, Qatar also donated $351 million to Jesuit-run Georgetown University.

And, indeed, the attitude does trickle down to American public education. British journalist Melanie Phillips cites a recent controversy.

 “In Newton, Mass., parents discovered in 2011 that a textbook used by ninth-graders called the Arab World Studies Notebook was telling pupils: “Over the past four decades, women have been active in the Palestinian resistance movement. Several hundred have been imprisoned, tortured, and killed by Israeli occupation forces.” The Newton parents discovered worse. History teachers were receiving training workshops from prominent anti-Israel critics, including a leader of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement) campaign.”

A Personal Experience

About three years before retiring as a history teacher, I attended just such a workshop. I did not have the presence of mind to keep a record of the organization that presented it. I do remember that it was hosted by two Arabic men and one red-haired woman who did most of the presentation. The topic concerned the philosophical, technological, and scientific advances made by the Muslim world.

For most of this one-sided presentation, the other participants and I were silent as she enthusiastically promoted the roll of accomplishments. Not having studied the history of the Islamic world, I did not believe that I had the facts at hand to challenge her; but the tenor of the talk irritated me. She sounded like a telemarketer, but I could not hang up. Then, she went into the triumphs of Medieval Islamic medicine, concluding with the statement that “European hospitals were where people went to die.”  Finally, I was on familiar ground. I had recently taught a lesson that featured a diagram by Roger of Salerno showing surgeons cutting into the skull about 1170 A.D. “That’s just nonsense,” I blurted out, “they were doing brain surgery in medieval Europe.”

She was not expecting this, nor were her handlers in the back of the room. She lost her bubbly rhythm, and clumsily closed the presentation about five minutes later.

Perhaps I should have been more courteous. However, the incident does show that Islamic propaganda efforts can be resisted. Many American educators have been cowed or convinced to take the side of the Muslim world through ignorance or avarice.

A Warning Based Upon History

Our culture must rise and defend itself. It is not enough that Muslims have relatively little political power in the U.S. Recent events in France point out the danger inherent in ignoring the cultural inroads made by Muslims and Muslim nations. The fact that some Muslims do live peacefully in the United States does not refute this point. Historically, majority votes do not cause social change. They occur when a relatively small group marshals their resources to focus on a clear goal.

Western culture faces just such a situation today. Our children’s future may hinge on meeting it courageously.