UNC changes assignment for students offended by book on Islam

AP ^ | July 20, 2002 | AP

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

Good morning, both of you.

As a UNC-Chapel Hill Alumnus, I was appalled but not surprised by their "summer reading requirement" that we learned about several weeks - was it months - ago.

The same group that runs the Democratic Party in North Carolina also runs the University system. It is one big happy family, so to speak. The amoral, anti-God, anti-Jesus Christ humanistic dictators who tolerate everything except classic Christianity are in charge both in Chapel Hill and in the NC Democratic Party. We must never forget the connection.

Let's see. These dictators have now decreed that Christians (or Jewish) students attending UNC-Chapel Hill who object to being forced to read the Koran must defend their objection in a paper. Does this not smack of the communist tradition wherein the person who did not obey the dictates of "the party" as represented by, say, the Red Guard, was to be forced to confess the error of their ways before the village mob while sitting on a stool with a dunce cap on their head?

Further, is this latest monstrosity from Chapel Hill not something akin to violating today's "tolerance dogma" to the point that a student who so objects to the forced reading of the book about the Koran - which contains parts of the Koran itself - is made to be the the target of clucking tongues both of self-important professors and cynical fellow students?

Such students may be branded throughout their time at the University. ("Oh, he was one of those Christian fundamentalists who didn't think her was secure enough in his faith to read about the Koran").

Most students would just say - what the hey - it's no big deal - read the stupid book.

Yet even these dull ones should not be forced to read this book - under any circumstances - none whatever.

Not unless the "elite" would similarly force incoming students to read, say, "Mere Christainity" by CS Lewis or "How Shall We Then Live" by Francis Schaeffer.

Until that day dawns, this "required" reading or required paper defending no reading - should be totally eliminated by the - Demonazi - tolerance promoting - humanist dogmatists at UNC.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

ISLAM is a book of the devil and those who teach it are the DEVIL'S DESCIPLES!

[happygrl]

What a great editorial !!!

[livius]

Right on, Van Jenerette!

Regarding the course in NC, I think it is certainly important for college students to have some idea of Islam and what it is all about. But I think the UNC course sounds like indoctrination rather than information.

I live in Florida, where the infamous terrorist front-man Sami al Arian teaches at Tampa (well, taught, since he's now suspended). One of his group's objectives was to get material favorable to Islam into university curricula, and I'd say he's succeeded at UNC.

We're not talking about an objective assessment of Islam at UNC. We're talking about state-sponsored Islamic propaganda.

[jackliberty]

3. Muslims are against abortion ( yeah ain't that somethin)

Bet the only reason is that the fetus may be a male.

[Van Jenerette]

It could be said Christians do the same thing in ignoring some of Old Testament law (stone your kids for being disobedient folks!). I either hear them say Christ fulfilled the law (which parts?) or that it was a different time (cultural relativity that I thought most here did not agree with).

That's a good question Sarah; I think you can probably answer it yourself by asking just two questions:

#1) When is the last time you heard of Christian's killing babies in strollers and teachers driving to school and having thousands of other Christian's approving of it?

#2) Just what was the religion of the people who are doing the killing of innocents in the past two years, with the full approval of most of their fellow 'believers.'

Bottom line - Islam has some real problems when it comes to non-believers; in fact it has some real problems dealing with it's own believer's who may disagree or question the 'Islamic' PC notions of the current era...just open your eyes and look around in today's world.

I know who I would want as MY neighbors and I know who I would want to live as far away from my wife and four children. I place militant Islamist right up there with child molestors as far as 'good' neighbors is concerned - just ask the Israelis....

I'm sure I won't change your mind, perhaps time will help you realize there are 'good' guys and there are some real 'bad' guys in this world; you have to decide who they are in your own eyes. I have.

- sincerely - Van Jenerette

[DentsRun]

DentsRun: Ah, that's great. Sue the school on first amendment grounds because you don't like the required reading list.

zip: So, how-to books on pornography, performing abortions, making bombs, torture etc etc could be required reading and that would be ok with you???????

Sure, if the subject of the course made it important to know about such things. Given that we are in a war with radical Islam, anyone who doesn't want to know more about radical Islam is, in my opinion, a moron. If I were teaching a course about the rise and fall of the Third Reich I would assign "Mein Kampf." If I were teaching a course on slavery I'd assign "Gone with the Wing." If I were teaching a course on aberant sexuality I would think a porn book might be entirely appropriate. As a matter of fact I once had a roomate who was in medical school. He used to read to me from one of his texts. He said when they discussed it in class it was like "dirty stories" hour. I don't what's to be afraid of in a book, unless one can't stand being challenged or offended.

[billhilly]

This is just another reminder that the american political bird's right wing is that of an eagle, while the left is that of a Penguin. Maybe someone like registered could produce a piece of art that we could use to convey that image. It would be a lot of fun to refer to Penguins, much as we learned to refer to Clymers.

[StopGlobalWhining]

You make enough enemies in life accidentally; why do so deliberately?

What position has Elizabeth Dole taken on this issue?

[StopGlobalWhining]

Can anyone recommend a pre-PC English language book on Islam and the Koran? While I was working in the Arabian Gulf during 1992-94 I borrowed a British paperback from an Irish colleague that pointed out the inconsistencies that abound in the Koran, and how the faithful blindly accept it's teachings without question or even curiousity.

It pointed out that one short sura was devoted entirely to a business dispute between Mohammed and another merchant, with Allah directing the other merchant to pay Mohammed. It noted that this sura raised not the slighest suspicion among the faithful who never questioned why a book intended for the ages would waste an entire sura on a self-serving trivial issue that in a few short years would be meaningless.

I'd like to find a book (not encyclopaedia sized) that presents an accurate historical analysis of Islam without a spin from any religion. Just the facts, from a pre-PC era.

Any recommendations?

[Tennessee_Bob]

Went to UNC-CH's website and did a search for Carl Ernst. It appears that Ernst more than just a professor of religious studies. From what I've found there, he's head of the religious studies department, and appears to be a major apologist for the Islam.

By the way, here's his address if anyone wants to send him mail: cernst@email.unc.edu

I'm going to send him the picture in post #10 to show him my objections to the book.

Don't tell anyone I said this, but freep away.

[zip]

"required course". That is the difference. Why isn't a course on Judism, Luthernism, Catholicism et al required of all arabs (those muslim types)????????????????????????????????????????

[DentsRun]

"required course". That is the difference. Why isn't a course on Judism, Luthernism, Catholicism et al required of all arabs (those muslim types)????????????????????????????????????????

Arab countries probably don't have courses on Judism, Luthernism and Catholicism because those are backward societies with closed minds. I see no reason for a free and open society like America to imitate the worst the world has to offer. By the way, American students don't HAVE to take courses in Islam if they don't want to. It's only required at Chapel Hill. Anyone who would rather not know about Islam has about 2999 other American colleges and universities to attend.

By the way, 23 consecutive question marks does not constitute a telling riposte.

[MitchellC]

It could be said Christians do the same thing in ignoring some of Old Testament law (stone your kids for being disobedient folks!). I either hear them say Christ fulfilled the law (which parts?)

"The Law" was the set of rules handed down for the nation of Israel with the intent that the nation would 'evangelize' the rest of the world should they follow it. (You may have noticed that they didn't.) That is my understanding of it.

So then, since the Law wasn't intended for Christians to follow, they aren't "ingoring" it when they don't stone their kids for every little disobedient act (though that is an extreme oversimplification of that specific law).

[marron]

There is nothing wrong with assigning the Koran as part of a required reading list. Of course, any curriculum should also include significant portions of the old and new testaments, as well. I don't see how anyone could be considered educated who had not read them, whether he was a believer or not. There is much in Western Civ, and in American history, that simply can't be understood without having read them.

I read the Koran when I was living in the Middle East. It was interesting for its similarities, and differences, from the judeo-christian scriptures, but it was also important in allowing one to spot the apostacies, relative to their own religion, coming out of the jihadist movement.

[tessalu]

I have studied Islam, and I feel that it is so evil, that no one should be required to study it. I wanted to know why anyone on this earth would ever even consider following a man like Muhammed, and I found out. Islam is a cult that will kill you if you want to defect to Christianity in many parts of the world. Islam tries to control people by telling them which foot to use to enter a toilet and which foot to step out with. Islam will tell you which hand to eat with and which hand to wipe with, and I find it almost impossible to believe that anyone in today's world is foolish enough to go along with this type of control. Just look at the world, and see who the backward people are. Look and see!

[LRS]

If these academic elitists want to shovel this crap down students' throats, let them apply for a university job in Qatar or Bahrain, where people are more willing to be brainwashed....

More willing? I don't think people there have any choice what so ever. You either submit to the brainwasing, or you get your head chopped off....

[LRS]

Which is why the leftists are either:

1) the biggest hypocrites in the world;

or...

2) consider the destruction of the U.S. to be the single greatest task that must be performed at any cost...