<< Back 7/10/02 Enlightened minds and wiser world views By Scott McLeod Nothing adds depth to life’s experiences like good books and enlightened debates. Believing that wholeheartedly, I finally figured out why a supposedly pro-family group in Virginia was getting so far under my skin. When the press release from the Family Policy Network in Virginia first slid off the fax machine, it caught my attention. The group's leader, Terry Moffitt, a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was angry that the 3,500-incoming college freshman were going to have to read a book about Muslim holy teachings and then participate in a short lecture-discussion about it. Approaching the Qur an: The Early Revelations translates and discusses 35 suras, the first words Muslims believe God revealed to the prophet Mohammed. I didn’t think Moffitt’s complaining would carry much weight, so I tossed the fax aside and decided against writing about the issue. Then a story shows up on Fox.News.com and is followed by an interview with Moffitt on the FoxNews Channel this past weekend. All of a sudden Moffitt was earning national exposure. “Today I am ashamed to admit that I am a graduate of UNC,” said Moffitt in the earlier fax. “This entire university system in North Carolina should be ashamed of itself for forcing a religion on students that many will find not only offensive, but totally opposed to their own religious views.” He goes on to say: “I think the University of North Carolina would allow any religion to be studied except for Christianity.” Before one gets into the larger issues Moffitt is discussing here, a quick point should be made: you can study other religions at UNC and probably every other public university in this country, even Christianity. A quick look through the on-line courses the university will offer this fall (an offering extremely limited compared to what one could take in an actual classroom) finds that one can study Introduction to New Testament Literature or American Religion (a study of spiritual life from the pre-colonial period to the present). No one is preventing public colleges from discussing religion of any type. I do agree that the issue Moffitt is raising is relevant and important. As more and more people make the argument that all references to a Christian God somehow impose on their right to be something other than Christian, fundamental constitutional and First Amendment issues are raised. In many cases the courts are going too far in purging all things spiritual from everyday life. But he is arguing this case in the wrong venue — a university is not a court, and no one is forcing students to attend UNC or any other college. Besides, when students choose a college, that decision inevitably places many important education decisions in the hands of those who run that particular school. Nothing unusual in that. As for this particular instance, it seems to me that Moffitt is really arguing for some kind of non-education. A humanities education at a university is about expanding one’s base of knowledge so that one can have the tools to make life’s critical decisions. Right now young men and women are in Afghanistan, Pakistan and even the Philippines fighting men who are almost all followers of a radical form of Islam. The world situation since Sept. 11 has shown us how little we know about this religion and its believers, who make up almost 20 percent of the earth’s population. While our military is fighting valiantly, soldiers alone won’t win this war. Muslims worldwide, even those who would never become fighters or suicide bombers, believe Americans are waging a war against Islam or are making up charges against some of these radical Islamic groups. Poll after poll in the Arab world reveals this. A group of freshman college students reading a book and then talking about it for a few hours won’t change this. But UNC Chancellor James Moeser made it clear that the choice of this book was directly tied to the events of Sept. 11 and the world we now live in. “A fifth of the world’s population subscribes to the Islamic religion, and yet it’s not a well-understood religion. This is a great opportunity to have a conversation on the teachings of one of the world’s great religions,” said Moeser. I don’t know what Moffitt read in college and how it changed him, but I vividly remember how discussions about great books and great thinkers threw light into dark corners and helped draw for me a road map with which to navigate life. Yeah, we’re all still pissed about Sept. 11, but shutting down an avenue of understanding won’t help us end the crisis we are now involved in. In fact, I would venture that following the lead of people like Moffitt just raises the possibility that this prolonged war on terrorism will go on indefinitely. (Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com)