Problem isn't the Muslim

Column

The issue that has parents fired up around here is the appearance of a speaker on Islam at Steinbrenner High School last week as part of a history series on world religions.

It was enough to bring in a crowd to the Jan. 24 meeting of the Hillsborough County School Board, not to mention stir up strong feelings across the country, as the story was published nationally.

A large part of the problem is that the speaker was Hassan Shibly, director and attorney for the local Council on American-Islamic Relations.

I've met Shibly, who is personable, bright, and lectures frequently at schools and colleges. I understand his talks focus on tolerance and diversity and that the majority of Muslims are peaceful.

Shibly is a controversial figure because he has at times criticized the American government for the way it pursues terrorism cases. His critics say his causes are often political and not religious.

Last July, he wrote an opinion piece for the Trib. He wound up his article writing that "terrorism is never justifiable and never an answer. Both those who twist Islamic text to justify such abhorrent actions and those who twist Islamic text to claim Islam supports such abhorrent actions are hijacking my faith."

While all of that may be true, I'm not sure it only applies to a specific religion. The instructor probably could have come up with another speaker. I started thinking about some of the characters who have managed to find their way to the front of classrooms I've sat in during my public school student career.

There was one military officer who told war stories and then advocated we would be better off just launching a massive nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union. I remember one woman who came in and talked about reincarnation. It's been many moons, but I want to say she either was or at least hung around with Sacajawea.

And of course, we had the American Dream, which once was explained to us by none other than the American Dream himself, wrestler Dusty Rhodes.

School board member Candy Olson was right to suggest to the angry parents that they might back off a little on this one. This was an advanced high school class and not a lesson in bomb building.

Also, we might not have to worry quite as much about the ideas our children are exposed to if we exposed them to a few other seldom-discussed ideas, such as the basics of the American system of government.

I'm talking about civics and the history of who and what we are all about. In recent years, those subjects we all studied have either disappeared or become electives.

We don't understand our own government or why things are. We don't know the history of our cities and states, even less about the political and social geographies that affect us.

I think it's a good thing that parents are concerned about what happens in their children's classrooms. But I think I would be more concerned about what is not happening, and that is a never-ending civics lesson on what this country is all about.