{"id":11927,"date":"2019-10-29T09:12:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T16:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=11927"},"modified":"2019-11-06T12:04:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T20:04:10","slug":"islamicization-of-public-education-continues-apace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2019\/10\/islamicization-of-public-education-continues-apace\/","title":{"rendered":"Islamicization of Public Education Continues Apace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Islamicizationby Fr. Mario Alexis Portella –
\nThis is not just a violation of the First Amendment but an ongoing, albeit subtle, diffusion of Islam in our Western society.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 15, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition presented by the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) to hear Wood v. Arnold<\/em>, a case brought by Caleigh Wood, a Christian student in the 11th grade at La Plata High School in Maryland. Wood refused to take part in a school exercise she felt would deny her faith \u201cby making a written profession of the Muslim conversion prayer known as the shahada\u2014\u2018There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah\u2019.\u201d The TMLC argues the school violated the First Amendment\u2019s Establishment and Free Speech clauses when it ordered Wood to do an assignment that she could not complete without violating her Christian beliefs; the teacher then gave her a failing grade. <\/p>\n

This is not just a violation of the First Amendment but an ongoing, albeit subtle, diffusion of Islam in our Western society. <\/p>\n

The teacher\u2019s actions were originally condemned in court by the high school\u2019s content specialist, Jack Tuttle. Richard Thompson, TMLC\u2019s chief counsel, said he\u2019s \u201cnot aware of any public school which has forced a Muslim student to write the Lord\u2019s Prayer or John 3:16: \u2018For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wood was also forced to view a series of pro-Islam PowerPoint slides<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the teacher did not violate the Establishment Clause. Astonishingly, for asserting her right not to profess the Islamic faith as part of her public school\u2019s curriculum, Wood was also forced to view a series of pro-Islam PowerPoint slides\u2014including one casting aspersions on Christians, which said, \u201cMost Muslims\u2019 faith is stronger than the average Christian\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Thompson points out, “under the pretext of teaching history or social studies, public schools across America are promoting the religion of Islam in ways that would never be tolerated for Christianity or any other religion. It\u2019s disappointing that the Supreme Court did not take this opportunity to clarify the test which lower courts should use when ruling on establishment clause and free speech challenges to public school classes on religion.”<\/p>\n

And it isn\u2019t only public schools that are giving preferential treatment to Islam, however. It\u2019s happening in higher education, too.<\/p>\n

Last month, American left-wing academics were up in arms about the threat by the Trump administration to cut federal funds for a program promoting Islam that may violate the Constitution, promote anti-Semitism, and advance \u201cideological priorities\u201d that are meant to indoctrinate rather than educate.<\/p>\n

Christian religion cannot be present in any way in the public school system<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The program in question is run by the University of North Carolina and Duke University. The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies received $235,000 last year from the government for a program to promote foreign language instruction, in order to prepare students for careers in diplomacy and national security. Instead, an investigation disclosed that the program unfairly promoted \u201cthe positive aspects of Islam\u201d but not those of Christianity or Judaism. Moreover, a conference put on by the program, titled \u201cConflict Over Gaza: People, Politics and Possibilities,\u201d featured a rapper who performed a \u201cbrazenly anti-Semitic song.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a complete contradiction of the left-wing position of the American Civil Liberties Union that has thus far made it clear that the Christian religion cannot be present in any way in the public school system. This stems from a 1963 Supreme Court case School District of Abington Township v. Schempp<\/em>, which ruled it unconstitutional for public schools to mandate religious activities; the activity at issue was reading the Bible. <\/p>\n

the Crusades were, for the most part, Christians taking back land that had been taken by the sword of Islam.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

And yet, as the radio host Tom Wallace pointed out, “it seems that any other religion is acceptable. Other religions, such as atheism, Buddhism, and Islam are being taught in our public schools. For the most part they do it under the guise of teaching \u2018world religion.\u2019 When they teach about Christianity they teach on the persecution of Christians by Christians without any historical context. They teach that the Crusades were a great sin of Christianity. In fact, the Crusades were, for the most part, Christians taking back land that had been taken by the sword of Islam.”<\/p>\n

Many \u201copen-minded\u201d Americans who remain willingly ignorant about Islam tend to forget Justice Anthony M. Kennedy\u2019s opinion in Lee v. Weisman<\/em> (1992), which ironically should sustain TMLC\u2019s petition. Kennedy stated: \u201cEven for those students who object to the religious exercise [a part of high school graduation], their attendance and participation in the state-sponsored religious activity are in a fair and real sense obligatory, though the school district does not require attendance as a condition for receipt of the diploma.\u201d In a dissenting opinion, Justice Antonin Scalia argued: \u201cThe coercion that was a hallmark of historical establishments of religion was coercion of religious orthodoxy and of financial support by force of law and threat of penalty\u201d\u2014and this is exactly what happened to Ms. Wood.<\/p>\n

any other religion [except Christianity] is acceptable<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

While it is disappointing that at least six Supreme Court justices refused to hear Wood v. Arnold, we should not be surprised since on the North Wall frieze there is a depiction of the Prophet Muhammad holding the Qur\u2019an. The sculptor, Adolph Weinman, with government sponsorship, created the image\u2014even though Muslims generally have a strong aversion to sculptured or pictured representations of their Prophet. The intention was that Islamic law (sharia) would integrate into a free and democratic society. Those better versed in Islam\u2019s 1,400-year-long history know better.<\/p>\n

Photo credit: Christopher Penler \/ Shutterstock.com<\/em>
\n____________
\nHT: Crisis Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Islamicization<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Fr. Mario Alexis Portella – This is not just a violation of the First Amendment but an ongoing, albeit subtle, diffusion of Islam in our Western society. On October 15, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition presented by the Thomas More Law Center (TMLC) to hear Wood v. Arnold, a case brought by … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[103,113,66,13,142,94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-bashing","category-christian-persecution","category-education","category-islam","category-leftist-tyranny","category-totalitarian-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}