Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot Editor
Progressives waste no time quoting the First Amendment when there’s the slightest reference to Christianity in a public venue. But where is their outrage over similar references to the Muslim religion?
In a September Fox News opinion column by Todd Starnes, he shares an incredulous example of what can easily be viewed as public school “indoctrination” of the Islamic religion.
Seventh-graders at Spring Middle School in Maury County, Tenn., spent three weeks covering Islam in a social studies class. Some parents were outraged, claiming the lesson plan not only crossed the line into indoctrination, but proselytization as well.
“I am not pleased that my 12-year-old was taught the Islamic conversion prayer,” parent Brandi Porterfield told Starnes.
Starnes shares that another parent, Joy Ellis, was also “fired up” about her daughter’s class work.
“I was very angry that my child, my Christian child, was made to profess that Allah was the only God,” she told Starnes.
Apparently, part of the lesson included requiring each student to write the “Shahada” – “There is no God but Allah; Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Starnes also writes the students learned the “Five Pillars of Islam.”
Porterfield told Starnes she did not have a problem with the school teaching about Islam, but was upset that other religions didn’t get equal time.”to me, that is state-sponsored prayer in schools,” said Porterfield.
Porterfield is exactly right. I whole-heartedly agree with Starnes when he asks, “Could you imagine the outcry from liberal activists if the students had been forced to write, ‘Jesus is Lord’? ” The ACLU, along with every other liberal-minded group, would be climbing all over this public school system. And the liberal media would be like “white on rice” with their coverage!
The double standard in religious tolerance by liberals in our nation is as obvious as the nose on your face and fostered, in part, by President Obama. While many quotes are available from various sources, Obama’s 2009 speech at Cairo University is very telling in his understanding of his role as “protector-in-chief” of the Muslim faith.
“That experience guides my conviction that partnership between America and Islam must be based on what Islam is, not what it isn’t. And I consider it part of my responsibility as president of the United States to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”
So, one may ask, where are the president’s long and eloquent speeches protecting the Christian faith? Certainly one would have to agree Christians are increasingly under attack both at home and abroad. But on this, our president’s silence is deafening.
Frankly, the Muslim faith, at this point, is inconsequential to the progressive movement and poses little threat. Liberals couldn’t care less if the Five Pillars of Islam were posted in front of a courthouse or if a copy of the Koran was left in your hotel room.
Any you’ll never hear a liberal question “Allah’s word.”
Liberals attack Christianity in America because it denies the “free-form” tenets of the progressive movement; hence the double-standard.
Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.
