Council on American Islamic
Relations (CAIR) Anti CAIR Organization
CAIR'S
Dream of American Sharia
Daniel Pipes' Web Site A Madrassah in Bridgeview, Illinois by Daniel
Pipes
Islamic schools constitute perhaps the least known area of Muslim institutional life in
the United States, acting largely out of public view but with many signs suggesting their
radicalization. When a reporter has the rare chance to interview faculty and students,
especially with a photographer in tow, it's an important opportunity.
Marguerite Michaels of Time Magazine got "an unusual degree of access" to the
inside of the Universal School in Bridgeview, Illinois, sixteen miles southwest of
downtown Chicago, with 638 students in pre-K through 12th grades. She wrote up her
impressions at "The Model School, Islamic Style" and Robert A. Davis took some
striking pictures. Unfortunately, Michaels proved clueless about the real nature of the
Universal School. She portrays it as a moderate institution, but the information she
herself provides points to its being a school imparting an extreme version of Islam.
Several examples concern sexuality:
"Casual conversation between girls and boys is discouraged at all times," she
reports. "They can't socialize," so any communication between the sexes is
limited to writing.
"Older girls must wear the hijab (light blue for middle schoolers, gray or white for
high schoolers) and a calf-length navy top that resembles a raincoat." The
astonishing photograph of eight covered girls playing basketball brings to mind the female
Islamist revolutionaries who rose against the shah of Iran in the late 1970s. Students
realize how off-putting most Americans find this apparel; a freshman, Gulrana Syed, points
out how "It's kind of impossible to blend in wearing a head scarf." |
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When a high school
senior, Ali Fadhli, tells about his "problems" dealing with America outside the
school environment, he mostly means sexual temptation. This 18-year-old male will likely
have difficulties adjusting to the mainstream of American life; he could end up isolated
and perhaps violently rejecting the society around him.
Other attitudes concern the place of Muslims in the United States:
Until 9/11, says Safaa Zarzour, vice chairman of the school's board and its former
principal, Muslims, like other immigrants, experienced a "little
discrimination." Since 9/11, however, "people don't think there is any such
thing as a good Muslim." One school family actually fled the United States after 9/11
for the United Arab Emirates, saying it did not feel "welcome here as Muslims."
This siege mentality furthers the Islamist agenda of grievance and demanding special
privileges.
So too does a comment of Universal's principal, Farhat Siddiqui. "We're telling our
kids they're American. But the doors of opportunity have been shut since 9/11. What's the
password to open them?" This is nonsense, for all evidence indicates that Muslims are
flourishing socio-economically in the United States, no less after 9/11 than before it.
The high school senior quoted above also believes that "America" sees Muslims as
the "new enemy." A student named Ryan Ahmad observes that "Americans seem
to have more fun. Muslims try to be American, but we don't know how. The cultures are so
different." Seeing Americans and Muslims, or more accurately, non-Muslims and
Muslims, as separate populations is a key component of the Islamist project.
A preoccupation with foreign policy rounds out the picture:
"They are obsessed with foreign politics," says Steve Landek, the mayor of
Bridgeview. "I come to talk to them about better sidewalks. They want to know how to
run for Congress so they can change America's Israeli policy."
Assigned in English class to write about his American Dream, a 15-year-old wrote that the
territories under Israeli control should be returned to the Palestinians and "the
Jews should be left to suffer."
I finished Marguerite Michaels's article doubly dismayed. First, that a veteran Time
journalist cannot see an American madrassah before her very eyes, replete with the
alienation, resentment, supremacism, and isolation that feed the Islamist temperament.
Secondly, that this "model school" quietly and openly churns out graduates
hoping they will create an Islamic States of America.
A Madrassah in Bridgeview, Illinois by Daniel Pipes
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Article
Here from Front Page Magazine.com
“Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The
Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam
the only accepted religion on Earth.”
This was the sentiment of Omar M. Ahmad, the Chairman of the Board of the Council on
American-Islamic Relations or CAIR, as told at an Islamic conference held in Freemont,
California, in July of 1998.
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The United Muslims Association of Florida,
Tampa Bay Area Chapter is a group that openly and closely aligns itself with the Council
on American-Islamic Relations, and other Islamist organizations. Not long ago, it posted
with pleasure on its website news that the University of South Florida (known in the bad
old days of Sami Al-Arian's tenure as "Jihad U.") will include two courses on
Islam in the Spring 2004 semester. (They are "Islam in World History," taught by
William Cummings, and "Islam in America," taught by K. O'Connor). So far so
good. But then UMA follows the news with this line:
In order to make sure that these professors, of course all in good faith, insha'Allah, [if
God wills] portray Islam correctly, having some Muslim students in the classroom would be
beneficial, even though these courses do not fill general requirements.
There you have it, in black in white: Islam at the university must be taught in a pious,
Sunday-school manner. Implicit in this demand (note the "insha'Allah") is that
such courses serve da`wa purposes, namely that they attract converts to Islam.
To make sure this is the case, an Islamist organization recruits Islamist students to make
their presence felt. Presumably, should the instructor say something they disapprove of,
the students will complain loudly and their grievances will be dealt with as legitimate,
to the point that the careers of professors Cummings and O'Connor could well be affected.
They will presumably feel pressure to present Islam and Muslims uncritically.
This process of apologetics is already well underway at university-level Middle East
studies. I have documented one key symptom, the unwillingness of Middle East specialists
to acknowledge the meaning of jihad. More broadly, my colleague Jonathan Calt Harris has
shown how scholars avoid the whole topic of militant Islam.
On the high-school level, a prominent textbook and a widely-used curriculum unit, both for
seventh-graders, overtly recruit for Islam in public schools. One even finds da`wa of this
sort in publicly-supported television documentaries.
To which I say, Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to incipient dhimmitude, a state in which
(among other features) non-Muslims dare not say anything critical about Islam and Muslims.
Back to the classroom: while students certainly have the right to attend the classes of
their choice, in the spirit of staving off dhimmitude, I offer the services of Campus
Watch to professors who find themselves subjected to pressure by an Islamist organization.
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1402 |
