A recent lecture at the Mendham Library was filled with happy talk and partial truths about Islam from Professor Christopher Tayor of Drew University.
It’s a fair guess that most of the audience at “Understanding Islam” was there to gain some insight into why friends or loved ones were killed on 9/11 or why so many of this faith are turning to violence.
But if they came to gain a better understanding of Islam today, they were badly disappointed. Instead, we got an overview of what a wonderful faith is Islam, with bromides such as the definition of jihad being an internal struggle between one’s base instincts and higher nature -- “like that little voice that tells you not to take that second piece of cheese cake.” Wow! Or that historically Islamic imperial rule was very tolerant of other faiths. Only when prompted by a member of the audience did we learn that infidel subjects had to pay a special tax, wear special clothes, etc. The politically correct approach might work with undergrads, but it’s not helpful.
If the professor’s intent was to make sure that we didn’t think all Muslims are bad, then his mission was accomplished. But that’s a pretty low threshold for a lecture to a group of educated adults. The audience would have benefited more from an honest exploration of the sources of Muslim violence (unfortunately some comes from scripture), sizing the threat of radical Islam (even one percent is a big number), and learning why the voices of moderation are quiet compared to the extremists (it’s not just the sensationalist media).
STEVE BALOG
Morristown