Some people make mistakes in the way they handle things. That’s what Robert Escamilla did. He could have handled that religious thing differently. Escamilla was a Social Studies teacher at Enloe High School in Raleigh, NC, before he was transferred to the Mary E. Phillips High School in Raleigh. The Mary E. is an alternative school for students who haven’t reached their ‘potential’ in a traditional setting and, apparently, a place to exile teachers who have failed to grasp the relationship between pedagogy and political correctness. Escamilla is on paid leave for violating Thomas Jefferson’s Eleventh Commandment: the separation of Church and State. More specifically, he is accused of introducing religion into the classroom with malice aforethought. Richard the Lion-Heart didn’t cause that much of a stir shooting Muslims off the walls of Acre with a crossbow.

Escamilla’s crime: he invited an Evangelist to speak to students in one of his History classes. It made sense. The class was about the Bible in History. Who was he going to invite? Howard Dean? The Evangelist was Kamil Solomon, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian now residing in Raleigh. Kamil runs Kamil International Ministries.

Coptic Christians are not among Egypt’s favorite minorities. Egypt is 96 percent Muslim and the majority population has been persecuting the Copts for more years than the Prophet had fleas in his beard. Pick a year; pick a century, the beat goes on. On May 11, 2007, in Bahma, 15 miles south of Cairo, rumors circulated among Muslims that Copts were planning to convert a house used for prayers into a church. A mob of 500 Muslims, stirred up by the local Imam, went on a rampage. At least 10 Copts were injured and 27 Coptic houses and shops were torched. There’s more: young Coptic girls are frequently abducted and forced to convert to Islam. Coptic Christians are not allowed to attend al-Azhar University in Cairo. In recent years attacks on Coptic churches, businesses and property have not declined but have increased.

It would seem Escamilla’s students should be informed of this. It’s history, isn’t it? They’ve been told about the Salem Witch Trials, the Crusades and the Inquisiton and those things happened years ago. This is now. It’s relevant. And it’s accurate—not politically correct but accurate. Modern History is more than calling George W. Bush a Nazi.

Kamil handed out some interesting pamphlets. One was titled Why Women Should Not Marry Muslims. (Oh, no! Not that old thing about eating pork rinds in bed!) One pamphlet portrayed Mohammed as a ‘criminal’ and ‘demon possessed,’ not anything worse than what has been said about Cotton Mather, Richard the Lion-Heart and Torquemada.

Escamilla defended his actions. “Are we going to be open to a variety of different perspectives versus are we going to limit and censor and shut down the educational experience and investment to keep out people with certain views?” he asked.

Yes, we are going to keep out people with certain views said the PC crowd. When it comes to religion, “Public school teachers are subject to the establishment clause of the First Amendment which is designed to ensure that government remains neutral,” said Charles Haynes of the First Amendment Center in Washington, DC.

“We wholeheartedly subscribe, and adhere, to the principles that we should not allow the faith of our students to be impacted by the preferences of their teachers,” said 19 local college professors. Whether or not they would approve of the teaching Islam as literature is unknown but their track record is one that does not inspire confidence.

“Students are not in school to be recruited by religious groups,” said the News & Observer. “The separation of church and state is basic to protecting the independence of both and must be maintained.”

Escamilla could have handled this differently. He should have played the cultural diversity card. It’s the one on the bottom of the PC deck—card number 53, the Joker. The Copts are different; they are not like us and therefore deserve special attention—a special day, a special week, a special event. What could have been more politically correct and culturally diverse than to have presented Kamil as part of Coptic Christian Week? There would be no need for a big tent—the average classroom would do. The kids could come dressed as Coptic Christians. Or they could come as shepherds or Dobie Gillis—it wouldn’t matter, the Copts have no hard and fast rules on dress. And they could learn some Coptic chants—like “With our blood, with our soul, we will sacrifice for you, Christ.” That’s what the Copts chanted on April 15, 2006 in Alexandria. They were protesting extremist attacks on Coptic churches. “We will sacrifice for you, Christ!” they chanted. Muslim youths, angered by the sight of the Coptic Cross, resorted to violence. There were ‘disturbances.’ ‘Overzealous’ Egyptian police arrested 75 Copt bystanders and hauled them away in paddy wagons. Maybe Ibrahim Hooper could explain this.

But back to Coptic Christian Week…there would be food—lots of carrots and vegetables. The Copts are forever fasting and when they fast they don’t eat meat, but when they’re not fasting, all varieties of meat products are permissible, so there would be burgers and fries for Potsy and Ralph Malph. Of course religious tracts and copies of the Coptic Bible would be available for the spiritually curious. One does not live by fatty foods alone.

Wouldn’t it have been wonderful if Enloe High had held a Coptic Christian Week? It would have been an experience never to be forgotten. And everybody could have signed the “Free Emad al-Kabir” petition or the “Free Abdel Kareem Nabil Soliman” petition.

This is what Robert Escamilla should have done. Could he have pulled it off? Probably not—few persons in the United States are acquainted with the Copts—or the Assyrians or the Baha’i—but the effort should have been made. The Copts are a peaceful people. They don’t blow up buildings or school buses and they don’t accuse Muslims of Copt-a-phobia. They haven’t produced a Salman Rushdie or an Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but they are a persecuted minority—just the kind of minority those 19 college professors and the brave new world journalists at the News & Observer should be protecting; not that the radical-liberal-left-progressive establishment has done much to succor Rushdie or Hirsi Ali. Now if a local Imam wanted to introduce the students at Enloe High to the joys of Islam…

Where am I? I’m not supposed to be running an anti-Jihad website. I’m an old man. I’m supposed to be drinking gallons of coffee, jogging three miles a day and sitting in front of the TV set swearing at the Chicago Cubs—or cursing the computer; one is as irritating as the other. That’s what old men are supposed to do—make themselves as useless as possible, but then those bastards brought down the World Trade Center and everything changed. Well, not for everybody—but for me and Rocco DiPippo and Geraldo Rivera and millions of other Americans. But for some it’s been business as usual—for Rosie O’Donnell and Sean Penn, for the Democratic Party, for most of the Republican Party, for the campus SWINE (Students Woefully Ignorant of Nearly Everything), for the KKKK (Kollegiate Kustodians of all Kultural Knowledge), the radical left college professors like Ward Churchill, Robert Jensen and Nicolas DeGenova that dominate what passes for thought on American campuses, not much has changed. Maybe it’s because stupidity loves company and cowardice craves it even more.

There are 250,000,000 people in this world who believe it is okay to kill innocent men, women and children if it will advance the cause of their religion. That’s a lot of empty heads and 249,999,000 of them are Muslims. Not enough to alarm Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama perhaps but enough to send Jethro running to Uncle Jed for a new calculator. (“Two-hundred-fifty million, Uncle Jed! Two-hundred-fifty million!” “Now calm down, Jethro, calm down.”)

Two-hundred-and-fifty million! That number would terrify Dr. Frankenstein—he created one miserable measly monster; Mohammed has created hundreds of millions of them—Mohammed Atta, Osama bin Laden, Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Ayatollah Khomeini; Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Muqtada al-Sadr, Asan Akbar; Omar Abdel Rahman, a thousand jihadists named Mohammed residing inside one square mile in Pakistan—maybe inside one square block. They abound in New York, in California, in Michigan—in a mosque near you. Islam is a sick religion. It would be obvious if the dervishes would sit still long enough to have their temperatures taken. Franklin Graham said Islam was an evil religion. Many people agree with Graham but do not have the courage to say so. (Look! There lies Theo van Gogh—he disrespected Islam! How long did his movie last? Ten Minutes? Not worth getting killed over!)

Islam needs an exorcist worse than Linda Blair. And what does the Democratic Party have to offer—not William Blatty but Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid! Their recommendation—pull out of Iraq! They have been studying the Jubilation T. Cornpone Diaries. They know all about quagmires. Sure, quagmires, quicksand bogs...the stuff Foggy Bottom is made of. The United States is in a worse position today than it was right after the Second Battle of Bull Run—worse than it was after Pearl Harbor. Jefferson Davis did not want to invade the North. Lincoln could have walked away from the war and it would have been over. Japan wanted one battle with the United States, the one it had just fought—that was it. Neither could have conquered the United States and the same goes for Nazi Germany.

In war, the initiative is everything. Pelosi and Reid would give it up. They would give it up for what…for talks…for talks with whom? (Look, Sancho, there’s another moderate Muslim! That’s the second one in 200 years! We’re making progress!) Good luck in finding Waldo.

There is nothing moderate about Islam. To believe in Allah and Mohammed is a Muslim’s highest goal. After that it’s Jihad—not the internal struggle between the id and the super-ego but Holy War, the quickest and surest way to Paradise. Mohammed Atta waged Jihad in the dar al-Harb against the nonbelievers; Salman Rushdie engaged in the other Jihad, the inner struggle. Rushdie lost and was anathematized. Whenever a suicide bomber strikes the moderate Muslim talks about Islam’s other Jihad, his struggle with his inner self. Opie Taylor struggled with his inner self every day. Should I cheat on the test? Should I hide Barney’s bullet? He didn’t turn it into a major life-and-death production. Islam’s inner struggle is nine-tenths nonsense—eyewash for dhimmis willing to be deluded—a way for a Muslim to avoid his complicity in one terrorist act after another. (“I was in Florida on St. Valentine’s Day, Mister Ness”)

Bring Abe Lincoln back to life and set him in the White House and it would be hours—maybe days—before he would realize it wasn’t 1863. (“Mr. President, the neocons want more money for the war.” “Neocons? Oh, you must mean Ben Wade and Zach Chandler.”) (“Senator Clinton to see you about the quagmire, Mr. President.” “The quagmire? It’s the Potomac, Mr. Hay. It always smells like this in the summertime.”) (“Who was that man? Clement Vallandigham?” “No, Mr. President, it was Harry Reid.”) (“And this woman’s group…they want to free the slaves in…Louisiana?” “No, Mr. President, they want to free the women in Iraq.”) There’s something wrong here.

And now a civil war is raging in Palestine. Was there an alternative? Ask Hamas Mouse. Hold a séance with Hanadi Jaradat. Check the Rogues Gallery—Yasser Arafat, Jimmy Carter, the Roadmap to Peace, the PLO, Hamas, the al-Aqsa Brigade, Islamic Jihad, intifadas, the right of return, Mad-Rats-Asses schools with textbooks that say: “There is no alternative to destroying Israel.” It’s a veritable devil’s playground—the Middle East. And lurking underneath this Hades on Earth is a crime so shocking in its magnitude it would have left Joseph Goebbels, Baldur von Schirach and the Hitler Youth gasping for breath—the systematic poisoning of the minds of generations of Palestinian children.

And the wonderful thing about all this—the war in Iraq, the horrors in Palestine, and the war on terror—is that it’s George W. Bush’s fault. Go ahead—ask Howard Dean…ask Dennis Kucinich. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) hasn’t accused George W. Bush of this, but the Democratic Party has. What a movie this will make in the 25^th Century—Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Bush.

Had enough? Okay? Let’s put the blame where it belongs—on Islam. It wasn’t Osama bin Laden who brought down the World Trade Center and it wasn’t Mohammed Atta or the creepy slugs preaching hatred in a thousand mosques across the world—it was ISLAM! Words on paper can mean a lot. The Qur’an and Islam’s problems predated the birth of Thomas Jefferson by a thousand years. Old Jeff might have sent Stephen Decatur to Tripoli but he wasn’t responsible for the Crusades or Islam’s inability to come to grips with the modern world. It was Mohammed that drove the Jews out of Palestine.

The differences between Islam and Christianity are too numerous and too horrifying to dwell upon for any length of time but there is one difference that one should not forget—now pay attention, Howard Dean—Jesus Christ died for our sins; Mohammed has made millions of people die for his. Islam cannot be forgiven for what it did to the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Abstinence? Where…at Boulder High? Is someone kidding—maybe in a monkery or a nunnery, but at Boulder High? Not that abstinence isn’t a serious question, it is. It has always been a serious question. Richie Cunningham spent a lot of time thinking about abstinence. So did Potsy and Ralph Malph—when they were able to stop giggling. Potsy wasn’t sure what it meant but was too embarrassed to ask the Fonz. Sex, drugs, Sister Boom-Boom—it was Happy Days, not Night of the Living Dead. It was Milwaukee; it was 1960. Kids studied History and Biology. They marched in Memorial Day Parades. Tutti-frutti was still an ice cream; a Harvey Wallbanger played for the Milwaukee Brewers; Jethro Bodine hadn’t swapped his clodhoppers for Blue Suede Shoes. What did they know? They weren’t any better informed than Spanky and Alfalfa.

Now if they had been attending Boulder High School in Boulder, Colorado, and it was 2007, they would have had their eyes opened and their hair straightened—or at least stood on end for a while. Abstinence? Pshaw! Abstinence doesn’t make anybody’s heart grow fonder. Abstinence is for fools, for sissies, for afraid-of-cats, for nerds, for momma’s boys and daddy’s girls. Boulder High is in the know. It is so avant-garde and sexually diverse it smokes! It has received the close attention of the Conference on World Affairs (CWO). Wow! That is something! In fact, the school and the CWA are partners. That’s right, partners—not like Roy Rogers and George Gabby Hayes, more like Kramer and Costanza, but partners.

School Superintendent George Garcia is proud of the relationship. “The ensuing partnership is a positive and beneficial one for organizing students in a thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion of often controversial issues,” he says. (Was that Costanza or Kramer?) “The panel was intended to discuss with students the risk of engaging in certain behavior.” (Risk? That would be Costanza)

Boulder students were required to attend a CWA seminar, STDs: Sex, Teens and Drugs, in the high school auditorium last week. Four CWA experts conducted the seminar/indoctrination/experiment/séance—take your pick. The CWA was founded at the University of Colorado in Boulder in 1948. (Ah, the University of Colorado—a most prestigious institution, much in the news in recent years, the home of make-believe Native-Americans, roosting chickens, plagiarists and people who have an abiding hatred of Adolph Eichmann…It could be interesting)

One of the panelists was Joe Becker, an associate clinical professor of Psychology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Some of the things he said would have made Potsy’s hair stand on end. “I am going to encourage you to have sex and encourage you to use drugs appropriately,” he told the students. “Why I am going to take that position is because you are going to do it anyway. I think as a psychologist and health educator it is more important to educate you in a direction you might actually stick to.”

Ralph Malph would have fallen out of his chair and Richie would have told Potsy to stop picking his nose and Potsy would have said, “The guy says it’s all right, Richie.”

Becker on Experimentation: “It’s very natural for young people to experiment with same sex relationships. Perhaps they don’t talk about it much. A lot of people experiment and don’t go on to be homosexuals.”

Becker on Drugs: “I would also vote for the legalization of most drugs…I happen to live in the State of California, in the city of Los Angeles which has been described as America’s Amsterdam.” (By whom? By Theo van Gogh?)

Becker on Psychology: “There are therapists that work with their clients under the influence of Ecstasy. If I had some, maybe I would do it with somebody…LSD was my drug of choice in college.” (Ecstasy? LSD? Where did he think he was? Haight-Asbury?)

There was a question and answer session and not all of the questions were routine. “I feel that the discussion is one sided,” said one student. “Some of the things that were offensive were that I think it is inappropriate to discredit religious views on these issues. I know Mr. Becker that you discredited abstinence when it is something that people feel strongly about. I just wanted everyone to know that there are two sides to this argument, even though this has been one sided.”

Becker: “…what did you say, something about abstinence?” (Dismissive? Certainly? That’s the way Huxley planned it)

There were plenty of complaints but they were slow making the rounds because of the liberal media blackout that obtains when diversity flows in a non-liberal direction. Students, parents, family groups, religious organizations—they all complained. Radio talk show host Dan Caplis of KHOW in Denver said the principal should have been fired. Bill O’Reilly weighed in. Bloggers rose up in mass on the Internet and Becker was the immediate target. “You on the other hand (Becker),” said one blogger, “could be a pervert who gets his jollies by talking about sex with minors.”

The Liberal media stonewalled as long as they could but the pressure mounted and Superintendent Garcia finally caved in—partially. Mistakes were made. Of course—that Ecstasy remark should have given the whole thing away. Some comments were crude and violated district health and conduct codes said Garcia, students were required to attend—they should not have been—and the panel did not provide a broad range of views, much less any opposing points of view. We were asleep at the switch, but there was no train wreck, just a little derailment. Will it happen again? Of course not, what do you take us for?

Stay tuned—the same gang will be back next year, if not Becker, someone like him—they have this partnership with CWA. It is a positive and beneficial program for organizing students in thoughtful and thought-provoking discussion of controversial issues. (Didn’t he say that before?) Who could be against the program? They will be more careful next time—same spiel, but couched in softer language.

The campus SWINE of the ‘60s and ‘70s (Students Woefully Ignorant of Nearly Everything) took over the American educational system in the years following the Vietnam War. They are now entrenched. Their allies in the Democratic Party and the Liberal Media run PC interference. It would be easier to drive the bats out of Charlie Manson’s head than to rid America of its current educational oligarchy. If the rascals craved nothing more than wealth and power they could be tolerated but it’s their intention to remake America in their own image that has put the nation at risk. Instead of Dick and Jane, Alfalfa and Darla will be morphed into Jane and someone that resembles Jane but with a hard Marxist multicultural edge. Take a look at Rosie O’Donnell and Sean Penn.

It’s kind of late in the game to do much about them using 21^st Century procedures, but the Founding Fathers had a remedy for this type of behavior that bears looking into and the price of tar will not get much lower. And feathers? They don’t carry them at W-Mart but take a look in the attic—that’s where Granny kept the extra bedding. And remember—wear gloves.

It was a beautiful day in Amherst, New Hampshire—it was 85 degrees and the kids couldn’t wait to get down to the old schoolhouse for Open Tent night. Sure, Open Tent night…never heard of it? You will. It’s the latest schoolhouse craze and if the PC crowd and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have their respective ways Open Tent night will be a recurring event until everyone has converted to Islam. Oh, joy-joy! It was Pretend-To-Be-A-Muslim night at Amherst Middle School, that’s what it was. Ethan Allen must be scratching his head.

Amherst was founded in 1733 under land grants obtained by veterans of King Philip’s War. Horace Greeley was born in Amherst. So was Frank Selee. Who was Frank Selee? Selee was a famous baseball manager. He’s in the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown. Nobody remembers him today but he put together baseball’s most famous double-play combination—Tinker to Evers to Chance. What Johnny ‘Crab’ Evers would have though of Open Tent night at Amherst can only be imagined. The chances are it would not have been politically correct. Evers was closer to Ethan Allen than to John Esposito or Tokyo Rose.

The affair drew more than 250 guests. Security was tight. Guests had to check in at a Saudi customs desk. A what? A Saudi customs desk? Of course, haven’t you ever been to an Open Tent? It’s beyond make-believe and it’s so much fun. Each guest chooses an Arabic name, is given a badge and then fills out a Saudi customs form. Well, for land’s sake! Isn’t that something! At the top of the form is the warning: Death for Drug Trafficking.

But this is a tale of two tents and the other tent is on the other side of the world and it is much smaller and a lot sandier. The following episode illustrates just how small. Close your eyes and make believe you are dreaming. Brian O’Connor, 36-years-old, a Christian from India, was beaten severely by religious police in that other tent for possessing a Bible and other Christian literature. He was sentenced to 10 months and 300 lashes. He was eventually deported to India. He was lucky he wasn’t dealing in drugs. Possession of the Bible is against the law in Saudi Arabia. Last year a Saudi court sentenced a teacher to 40 months in prison and 750 lashes. His crime? Discussing the Bible and praising Jews! He was charged with mocking religion and promoting a dubious ideology. This is not what the rubes, ah, make that what the guests in Amherst were being told about what was going on in the other tent. But they are not the only ones buying—pardon the un-Islamic expression—a pig in a poke.

On a recent visit to Princeton University, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal spoke eloquently on the wonders of Islam. “Arab tradition and Muslim tradition is geared toward an open mind,” he said. ”Muslim religion accepts Christians and Judaism.” Sure, like Jeff Davis accepted Frederick Douglass and the Frankenstein monster accepted the Wolfman. Open Tent: Closed Mind. They go together like Paris and Hilton. Lester Maddox would make a better next-door neighbor than any Turki from Saudi Barbaria. Don’t they have a Republican Club at the Amherst Middle School—somebody to sell Star of David T-shirts to Hunter Thompson wannabes?

Seventh-grade boys hosted food stations—there was lamb, three kinds of chicken, peta bread. No pork rinds, no pork chops, no hamburgers. Pigs are impure. They are 7^th on Islam’s list of impure things—one step below the 250 guests at Open Tent night. Figure it out—non-Muslims are 8^th on the impure list. Eleventh is the sweat of things that eat impure things. A non-Muslim (Nr. 8) who owns a dog (Nr. 6) that eats impure things and sweats a lot is in big trouble. Think of what fun Seinfeld and Kramer could have had with that story line—before the fatwa, of course.

This is no drill. A Muslim checkout clerk in a Minneapolis Target store refused to handle pork because of its impurities. She had to call for assistance—like a janitor who doesn’t do toilet bowls. Why did she take the job in the first place? One would like to think it was stupidity, but with Muslim cab drivers refusing to transport seeing-eye dogs and booze-toting customers while noisy Imams a few yards away are testing airline security makes one wonder. Would the clerk have displayed the same reluctance if the product involved had been a suicide bomber’s belt? No one asked.

The guests at the Amherst Middle School Open Tent were separated by sex. Men and boys were on one side, women and girls on the other. Drapes were hung from the ceiling to prevent Blondie from enticing Dagwood into some lewd act. Can’t be too careful.

Seventh-grade girls were busy hawking hijabs and veils. Rosie O’Donnell should have been there. There was an antique trunk full of black abayas—like the one 16-year-old Atefeh Rajabi wore when she was hung in Iran for talking back to a judge. Atefeh had been arrested for prostitution, for not resisting a rapist to the death and had given the judge a piece of her mind. The judge’s name was Haji Rezaie. Write that down somewhere. Rezaie makes Roland Freisler, head of the People’s Court in Nazi Germany, look like a schoolboy. When Rezaie reaches the Pearly Gates, let’s hope Judge Roy Bean is the Gatekeeper.

There were prayer rugs, books on Islam and call to prayer items for those interested in religion. The prayer rug came with a compass to make it easier for an aspiring John Walker Lindh to located Mecca. This particular item could be of some use to Tom Tancredo should he ever be elected President of the United States. He might need to locate Mecca in one heck of a hurry.

Among the cultural items on display were Arabic newspapers and magazines. The sponsors avoided using the word Muslim. It was Arab this, Arab that. The Center for Religious Freedom made a study of the literature available to Muslims in American mosques. Samples were gathered in Washington, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and elsewhere. After a lengthy evaluation, the Center released an 89-page report. The findings were less than encouraging. The report said the publications found in the mosques stressed that when Muslims are in the lands of unbelievers, they must behave as if on a mission behind enemy lines. Either they should acquire knowledge and make money to be used in jihad against infidels, or proselytize until some convert to Islam. Saudi textbooks and other publications propagate a Nazi-like hatred of Jews, treat the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion as historical fact, and proclaim the Muslim duty to eliminate the state of Israel. The Imams’ ready answer is, “Nobody reads those books.” And nobody in Nazi Germany read Mein Kampf. It was an Open Tent for a Closed Religion.

One might expect Jethro and Bubba, and maybe George Utley, to fall for this Open Tent nonsense but for the great-grandchildren of tight-fisted, flinty-eyed Yankee Sea Captains to swallow, hook-line-and-sinker the Wahhabe line is distressing. Sure, the Open Tent was to promote curiosity and cultural understanding but it pays to read the fine print before signing a contract. All the political correctness in Amherst wouldn’t have kept Atefeh Rajabi from the hangman’s noose. Cultural diversity didn’t prevent Brian O’Connor from being severely beaten in Riyadh—it was the reverse, it was the cause of the beating.

The folks in New England have lost their moral compass. They no longer know what it is to be an American. The Sea Captains knew and were willing to chance going down to the sea with their ships—tight-fisted, flinty-eyed, superior to their descendants, they were men and women, American men and women and proud of it. Political correctness is not a religion, multiculturalism is not a philosophy; they are recipes for disaster. People who believe they are no better than anyone else, are not only not better than anyone else, they are not as good as most and on the way to extinction.