Department of Education Says Duke-UNC Program Must Include Other Religions, Not Just “Positive Aspects of Islam”

“The Department of Education maintained that the joint Duke University-University of North Carolina program needs to ‘expand’ to include more religions beyond Islam to fulfill federal grant funding requirements.”

The problem is that the Duke-UNC program has been disproportionately presenting “the positive aspects of Islam, while there is an absolute absence of any similar focus on the positive aspects of Christianity, Judaism or any other religion or belief system in the Middle East.”

While the world engages in a battle against the global jihad, Duke, UNC, and other colleges and universities are teaching people the positive aspects of Islam. By now, everyone knows — or should know — that not all Muslims promote violence and supremacy; that is obvious. But it is also obvious that for 1400 years, normative Islam has been violent and expansionist, and still is. Yet Muslim Brotherhood groups and their allies in the West continue to complain about the “hurt feelings” of Muslims and promote the “Islamophobia” narrative. Meanwhile, the West continues to be subverted, Christian populations in the Middle East, Pakistan, and other Muslim areas continue to be wiped out, other religious minorities continue to be murdered and abused, and Israel continues to face implacable, genocidal opposition, all in the name of Islam. But the aspects of Islam that have led to all this are not examined in the Duke-UNC program.

In September, the Trump Administration sent the message to Duke-UNC to “stop promoting Islam on our dime.” The funding of the Duke-UNC program to promote “positive aspects of Islam” is now threatened.

“Dept. of Education stands firm that Duke-UNC joint program needs to ‘expand’ to include more religions beyond Islam,” by Justine Coleman, The Hill, October 10, 2019:

The Department of Education maintained that the joint Duke University-University of North Carolina program needs to “expand” to include more religions beyond Islam to fulfill federal grant funding requirements.

The department stood its ground that the consortium needs to diversify its content to meet the requirements of the Title VI federal funding, according to a letter it sent to the program from Assistant Secretary Robert King on Wednesday.

King wrote in the letter that the department is “simply encouraging” the increased diversity after it determined “certain religions or ideological points of view” were elevated over others in the program.

“Although the Consortium claims that it gave equal attention and fair treatment to diverse perspectives in the region, its Annual Progress Reports do not support that conclusion,” the letter states.

The Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies has received its funding for the next school year at the end of last month, according to Duke’s student newspaper Duke Chronicle.

A representative for the Education Department said the funding was provided “because the goal was to bring the CMES into compliance with the Title VI rules, and that we are working with the school to ensure that the money is used for the purposes set out by Congress.”

King’s letter was written in response to a letter sent by the consortium on Sept. 25 protesting the department’s August letter. That first letter directed the program to be revised because it disproportionately portrays “the positive aspects of Islam, while there is an absolute absence of any similar focus on the positive aspects of Christianity, Judaism or any other religion or belief system in the Middle East.”...

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