Monday, October 20, 2008

Islam On the March at USC

I was doing some research today and ran across something interesting.
The University of Southern California is hosting a webpage run by the "Muslim Students Association", here.

The webpage address is under "dept/MSA" which I can only assume is short for "Departments."
The "texts" here are nothing short of an Apologetic compendium for Islam. They are not objective, but highly positive. This is the opening paragraph:
"In 610 CE, Allah ordained the final Prophet He would send to earth. Over five centuries had passed since the previous Prophet He sent, Jesus the son of Mary. This final Prophet was Muhammad ibn Abdillah (saas). Though Muhammad (saas) was born in the Arabian peninsula, he was sent to all of humanity. He was commissioned to deliver a message from Allah to Arabs and non-Arabs alike."

It gets better.

There are several articles taken from something called Perspectives. Here is what the USC WEBSITE says about it:
"Perspectives has kindly agreed to give MSA-USC permission to place literature under their copyright on our site. We would like to acknowledge the service they are providing for the sake of Islam by informing the public of how to subscribe to this excellent newsletter. It is published on a bimonthly basis by the Foundation for Islamic Knowledge. In order to subscribe, please send $20 (if you can afford it) to:
PerspectivesP.O. Box 65250Hampton, VA 23665
Along with the newsletter, you will also receive a prayer schedule for your particular residence insha-Allah." (emphasis mine)


Incredible.

Then I found this.

The "Muslim Students Association" is not listed as a student group at USC. There is a Muslim Student Union, but their site is like all the others - sepatate from the official USC websites.
Further, there are no other religious texts actually hosted by the official USC website (at least not that I could find searching thier site for 45min.). In fact, on the site dedicated to "Muslim-Jewish Engagement" links to the site hosting these decidedly pro-Muslim texts, while the Jewish texts are hosted on outside websites.

To be fair, the website does say that USC is not responsible for the content of the site. I wonder, though, why this is the only website of its kind on the entire USC system (if it isn't, they've hidden the others so well that a seasoned researcher could not find them).

If I had more time, I might think about charging USC with a violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. USC, a public institution, is hosting a website containing pro-Islamic materials to the exclusion of all other religions (as far as I could find).

We are losing our country, increment by increment. Imagine the furor if USC hosted a site that began,
"In 1-2 BCE, The Lord God sent the final sacrifice for sin. This final sacrifice was Jesus Christ, born of the virgin Mary, lived a sinless life, was crucified, and rose from the dead. Though Jesus was born in Israel, he was sent to all of humanity. He was commissioned to provide a message of salvation from the Lord God to Israel and Gentiles alike."
Ironically, that kind of language would not be tolerated at USC here in America, nor at the University of Damascus in Syria. Apparenly, though, pro-Islamic literature is not only tolerated, but sponsored at both.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008