http://www.americanthinker.com/
May 25, 2012
On May 16 and 17 of 2012, Channel One Network, a national distributor of educational videos and newscasts viewed daily by over 8,000 middle and high schools, aired a two-part video series, titled "Young and Muslim in America" and "Islam in America."
In "Young and Muslim in America: How being a part of Islam changed ten years ago, Part 1," students watch as Muhtasham Sifaat, 18, kneels on a prayer rug inside an empty classroom. His voiceover explains how he moved around a lot when he was younger, but Islam has given him stability. What is not revealed is that Mr. Sifaat is a political activist serving as a chapter president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), one of the most radical Muslim Brotherhood front groups in America.
The MSA pledge states: "Allah is my lord. Islam is my life. The Koran is my guide. The Sunna is my practice. Jihad is my spirit. Righteousness is my character. Paradise is my goal. I enjoin what is right. I forbid what is wrong. I will fight against oppression. And I will die to establish Islam."
Kyle Smith, 22, gives an overview of the five pillars of Islam before the narrator explains:
Kyle, who's president of his university's Muslim Students Association, grew up in a Roman Catholic family, but converted to Islam three years ago after searching for meaning in his life (italics mine)...two of his friends led him to the religion.Doesn't searching for meaning in life describe almost every American adolescent? Presenting an idealized, whitewashed image of Islam and its followers, and showing how converting to Islam helps those who are lost and confused, this programming is nothing short of a disguised recruitment video pushing a religion in a public school setting.
The airing of "Islam in America: How being Muslim has changed since 9/11, Part 2" on May 17 begins with a news update on the Trayvon Martin case, which deals with the alleged racial profiling of a black teenager. Coincidentally, the video that follows compares "Flying While Muslim" to "Driving While Black." Students learn about Amany Killawi,19, who struggles to board airplanes:
[H]aving to be checked at the airport a couple of times is definitely not comfortable, especially if you're Muslim. I often joke if you think driving while black is tough, try Muslim while flying. Because it's really, really tough.Zana Lee, 14 and wearing hijab, is filmed walking into a store, stopping in front of a candy display, and subtly pointing to a bag of Skittles. Her voice-over:
I do think that Muslims are discriminated here in America...sometimes it happens to me. Sometimes I could be shopping in the store, or just getting some candy from the corner store and I could just look up at the cashier and she can look at me in a certain way, and it just kinda hurts sometimes.Since Skittles brand candy has already become part of the Trayvon Martin media narrative, portraying a hijabed Muslima shopping for Skittles at a corner store looks more like a manipulative re-enactment of the Trayvon Martin incident, designed to reinforce the victimology trope of racial profiling.
The narrator picks up the story:
These young people say they represent the majority of Muslims here in America. Not the extremists.These young girls in the video may not be extremists, but it doesn't take much to see how they are being used as figurative human shields by two just-as-innocent-looking activists of the MSA -- a patently extremist organization. According to USA Today, NYPD "spokesman Paul Browne provided a list of 12 people arrested or convicted on terrorism charges in the United States and abroad who had once been members of Muslim student associations, which the NYPD referred to as MSAs."
Despite their efforts to radicalize the rest of the Muslim population, they do not represent the majority -- yet. Their claim is false, pretentious, and deliberately misleading.
We know of this episode only because parents complained about their children having been forced to watch it. Given the zero-tolerance policies toward Christian prayer in public school, forcing students to watch Islamic evangelizing is beyond mind-boggling.
This case is not unique; in fact, it is consistent with the Islamist methods and ideology. Last year, Hamas-linked CAIR Tampa Director Hassan Shibly proselytized Islam in a Tampa high school, of which we also initially learned from a complaint by a parent. It led to protests by local parents and organizations, such as Florida Family Association, followed by a series of school board meetings in which it was decided to establish a workshop reviewing the qualifications of future speakers.
But that was only about one school in Florida. The "educational" TV broadcast in question was force-fed to 8,000 public schools nationwide, which makes it 8,000 times worse -- and the parents have no recourse in this battle for the hearts and minds of their children.
Says David Caton of Florida Family Association: "Channel One Network never addresses the fact that Islam is more than a religion. They never mention Islam is a radical political movement that seeks government dominion along with their oppressive Sharia law. They never mention that radical Muslims have seized Sharia control over Egypt and five other countries during the last year."
In today's climate of political correctness and media blackout, American citizens seem to have no other course of action than to generate enough public outcries to make their objections heard. For example, since Channel One Network was gracious enough to lend MSA the pulpit, it would be reasonable to demand that they at least give equal airtime to Christian, Jewish, and other religious organizations.
Florida Family Association is already protesting this attempt at nationwide Islamic recruitment by creating an e-mail campaign directed at Channel One Network and its parent companies: Alloy, Inc. and ZelnickMedia Corporation. It's a start.
