Muslim Congressman: Islam in America Must Not Retreat

Muslim Congressman: Islam in America Must Not Retreat

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In a May 26 address before the Islamic Circle of North America/Muslim American Society(ICNA/MSA), both Muslim Brotherhood front groups, André Carson commiserated with his audience over how difficult things have been for them since the World Trade Center attacks at the hands of al Qaeda jihadists: “9/11 was tough on Muslims.”
Carson is America’s race-baiting, confirmed socialist and second Muslim Congressman (Keith Ellison is the first), who had a lot of interesting things to say at this event. In video clips surfacing on the internet, Carson made the above comment as well as this eyebrow-raising pronouncement, to the applause of his Muslim-American audience:

America will never tap into educational innovation and ingenuity without looking at the model that we have in our madrassas, in our schools, where innovation is encouraged, where the foundation is the Koran. And that model that we are pushing in some of our schools meets the multiple needs of students… America must understand that she needs Muslims.

It’s unclear how the rote memorization of the Koran constitutes “educational innovation and ingenuity,” or how madrassas are “meeting the needs” of Muslim students abroad; in places like Pakistan where they abound, they don’t seem to be producing a wealth of world-class scholars or highly-trained professionals, but they do seem to produce a virulent hatred of things un-Islamic.
Last week a mentally retarded man in Pakistan was pulled from police custody by a mob described as “hysterical” and burned to death over allegations that he had burned a Koran. A BBC reporter notes that “the region in question is home to many madrassas, religious schools.” If this sort of violent, irrational fanaticism is representative of their enlightening educational paradigm, then perhaps Congressman Carson needs to rethink his recommendation.
Unsurprisingly, only conservative websites picked up on his “madrassas” comment; it was completely ignored by the mainstream media. But imagine instead if a Baptist Congressman addressing the Southern Baptist Convention suggested that schools in America should be modeled after seminaries, and that Bible memorization and Baptist religious instruction should be the focus of education. Imagine the uproar from the Christian-hating left and their media enablers. Imagine the cries of “separation of church and state!” Imagine the fear-mongering among the fact-challenged bigots writing for Huffington Post and Slate about the dreaded Christian Right.
But let a Muslim Congressman claim that our educational system should be modeled on Koranic schools, and there is deafening silence from the MSM and the atheistic left.
As the Weasel Zippers website notes, Carson did respond to conservative outrage over his speech by trying to “walk back” his comment with this update on the Huffington Post:

My remarks at ICNA call attention to the fact that faith-based schools throughout this country have excelled because of innovative instructional methods and a willingness to engage different learning styles… While I do not believe that any particular faith should be the foundation of our public schools, it is important that we take note of the instructional tools these schools utilize to empower their young people. Christian, Jewish, and Islamic schools have experienced notable success by casting off a one-size-fits-all approach to education, and this is a model we must replicate…

Nice try at interfaith inclusion. Except that’s not what he said. He didn’t originally refer to “faith-based schools” in general, but to madrassas. He also didn’t refer to schools with a “Judeo-Christian” emphasis, but to those “where the foundation is the Koran.” He didn’t say America needs Christians and Jews, but Muslims.

Mark Tapson, a Hollywood-based writer and screenwriter, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center. He focuses on the politics of popular culture.

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Oh, but he referred only to Islam in his original message because he was merely tailoring it to his Muslim audience, you say? Of course he was – that’s what Muslim subversives do. They say one thing to Muslims and something more palatable and watered-down to infidels, like his HuffPostclarification, which was also a message tailored to his audience – the non-Muslim one. His speech assures his ICNA and MAS brethren that he is pushing for the Islamification of American education, and his statement on Huffpost assures everyone else that he has no such agenda.
“There are over seven million Muslims in this country,” he said, perpetuating CAIR’s vastly-inflated figure (there were 2.6 million as of a 2010 Pew report), “and while we are under attack, we cannot retreat.” Retreat from what? Muslims in this country are not only not “under attack,” which is an outrageous lie, but our government, media and law enforcement bend over backwards to insulate Islam and Muslim-Americans from any connection whatsoever to the war on terror – a pathetic phrase which itself protects Islam.
Carson asserted that “America will never win the war on terror” without the aid of Muslim-Americans. If that’s true, then shouldn’t the Congressman exhort his audience to do everything in its power to assist in that victory? Instead, he followed up that statement with one urging defiant, even arrogant, non-cooperation:

Now, it is unfortunate that there are those who are thinking that at this convention right now we’re having secret meetings, that we’re plotting to destroy this country. But I say to those of you who are here undercover [and at that he grins, while the audience applauds] Allah will not allow you to stop us.

Curious phrasing. Not “We are innocent of your suspicions.” Not “We are just as committed to battling extremism as you are, and you can count on our help.” But “Allah will not allow you to stop us.” It’s hard to interpret that as anything but a firm opposition to American victory in the war on terror.
No American government official, whether a Congressman or our own Brotherhood-supporting President, should be engaging ICNA or MAS, which are enemies of the United States pursuing the Brotherhood’s agenda of Islamizing America and destroying Western civilization. No American government official should be recommending that our school system be modeled after the indoctrinating ignorance of Koranic schools and the infidel-hating supremacism of the Koran. No government official should be whipping up a sense of victimization among Muslim-Americans, who are not under assault in this country (except on 9/11, by other Muslims) and who have greater freedom and safety here than under the repression of Islam abroad.
Unless, of course, that government official is actively facilitating Islam’s war on America.
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Mark Tapson, a Hollywood-based writer and screenwriter, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center. He focuses on the politics of popular culture.