Torture — domestic torture — is what I witnessed at the lecture at Hope College Wednesday by John L. Esposito of Georgetown University. If this is an example of what the students in our colleges and universities are being exposed to, we all have a right to be concerned.
Billed as a lecture on “The Future of Islam and U.S.-Muslim Relations,” this world-renowned Muslim apologist hopscotched his way back and forth between Muslim perceptions of the West and liberal criticism of the United States, its people, its religions, its politics and its moral foundations. Presented by a very powerful, authoritative figure, the students had little choice but to listen to this one-sided, biased presentation and be intimidated into silence. This was not teaching, and it certainly wasn’t an exercise in critical thinking, for there was no “other side” of this speaker’s views presented.
This was an exercise in full-blown Muslim and liberal world view indoctrination. The students, completely worn down by hours and days and nights and weeks of lectures, reading, cramming, studying, testing and deadlines, could do little about the sophisticated onslaught on everything they’ve learned or been taught since childhood. This was a presentation of “death by a thousand cuts” to American culture, American politics, American leaders, American morality, Christianity, the Catholic Church, Judaism and the students’ own rich heritage of family teaching. It was without question “torture” and it’s time somebody spoke up about this kind of abuse going on in our institutions of higher learning.
What is going on in Hope’s department of religion that they would expose the minds our best and most brilliant children to such propaganda? Where are the voices from the community to speak up for their children?
