Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican from coastal North Carolina, is furious because a local community college is using a federal grant to purchase books on Islam and Muslim culture.
The 25 books are coming to Craven Community College in New Bern as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities grant. A DVD or two will be purchased as well.
Jones’ objection, first picked up by the liberal website Think Progress, is on two fronts: First, the grant is simply a waste of money. Second, it is biased against Christianity.
In an interview with local affiliate WITN, Jones said, “I want to treat it fairly and I think too many times the Christian faith is not treated fairly. If they want to have book about the Muslim’s faith, let’s have equal number of books about Judeo-Christian [sic].”
Jones also said, “I’d rather see the $150 million spent to remodel schools in Craven County or build schools in the Craven community.” (It may be noted here, however, that Jones’ altruism goes only so far: On Tuesday evening, he was one of 179 Republicans to vote against superstorm Sandy disaster aid.)
As the Annoyed Librarian blogger for the Library Journal has pointed out, $150 million is actually the entire NEH budget. A little number-crunching brought Annoyed Librarian to the conclusion that the total Muslim Journeys grant equaled about $530,000, and that Craven Community College got all of $627.
None of this is likely to quell Jones’ criticism. A banner on his website proudly proclaims his opposition to the “Muslim grant,” with a statement quoting him as saying, “It is appalling to me that a federal agency like NEH is wasting taxpayer money on programs like this. It makes zero sense for the U.S. government to borrow money from China in order to promote the culture of Islamic civilizations.”
The statement further says that Jones has enlisted the Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition in providing resources to “balance” the influx of Islam-related books. It is not clear that Craven Community College is presently lacking in Judeo-Christian themed materials.