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“See How Much They Hate Us!” is always a winning story. So when a British teacher named Colin Cook got sacked from the King Fahd Academy in west London, he decided that it was his patriotic duty (in addition to suing for money damages) to let all of Britain know just how much hate and vitriol against westerners was being taught to the impressionable young minds at the Academy. According to Cook, the youngsters were being taught from a textbook that called Jews apes and Christians pigs. Needless the say, the media was only too eager to publicize and even embellish Mr. Cook’s allegations.

Never mind that Mr. Cook had worked at the Academy for 19 years and was untroubled by the environment of hate until he was canned. And apparently if Mr. Cook had his druthers, he would still be working there. After all, his real complaint is about being fired. And yes, Mr. Cook claims to be a whistle-blower, and whistle-blowers deserve protection, but he wasn’t blowing the whistle about young folk being taught to hate, but about alleged cheating. I know nothing about the merits of Mr. Cook’s case, but it’s conceivable he has an ax to grind and before giving air to his allegations one might want to check the facts. Just to be clear, I’m not talking about “fair and balanced” reporting, just accurate reporting.

Mr. Cook’s allegations reached my delicate ears via the morning show on Air America Radio, of all places. A point of clarification here. There are actually two morning shows on Air America Radio. The “official” network show is the Young Turks, which can be heard over the internet, via XM Radio or some network stations. If you live in the New York Metropolitan area, however, you get something called Sammy and Army, or vice versa. Sam is Sam Greenfield and Army is Armstrong Williams, and their show is broadcast over WWRL, the “flagship” station of Air America. If you’re wondering what Armstrong Williams is doing on Air America, well, that’s a whole ‘nother story which I imagine I’ll get around to discussing some other day.

Anyway, what I heard was Sam Greenfield, who is normally pretty level headed, going off in a semi-rant, half hysterical, half disbelief, about this Muslim school in London that uses a text book that teaches children that Jews are apes and Christians pigs, and that the school is unapologetic, refuses to remove the offending book from its curriculum and is funded by the Saudi government to boot. Greenfield urges his audience to call in and, apparently based on this information, opine on whether all Muslims are taught to hate.

Something seemed fishy to me and so I did a little digging. The only news outlet that saw fit to print the whole story was, to its credit, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, and it appears that the whole flap was over a quote from an early Islamic scholar that appeared in a footnote. Furthermore, the book was not even used in the school’s curriculum.
Still, this doesn’t stop such nonsense as, and I kid you not, “‘We Do Call Jews Apes’, Admits Head of Islamic School” which appeared in some rag called the digital journal.

All of this reminds me of the big flap over the Pope’s quote of an early Christian scholar who had some unflattering things to say about Islam. At the time the general tenor of the press coverage was that Muslims are hypersensitive and distorted innocent comments in order to find insult. But now the shoe is on the other foot, and oh what howling we hear!

There’s a lot to take from this story, at multiple levels. I’m not going to go into all of them. There real disservice to this kind of stuff is that it gives people who are inclined to hate a justification for their views. Somebody who’s a big confused over the whole Christian/Muslim issue and who is genuinely looking for answers is going to be troubled by the idea that Muslims in London are taught to hate Jews and Christians. Of course, those who already harbor animus against Islam, and there are plenty, will jump all over this as validation of their hatred.

On YouTube there’s a clip from a BBC grilling of the headmistress of the school in question. One of the points that she’s skewered over is the teaching that non-Muslims will rot in hellfire after they die. Now really, how can anybody get all boiled up over this kind of stuff? It’s standard issue Christian belief that non-believers won’t go to heaven, and many brands of Christianity believe that all non-believers will go to hell. Big news, right? When’s the last time the BBC has brought in mainstream Christians and cross examined them on their religious intolerance because of their belief that acceptance of Jesus Christ is necessary for salvation?

To those who pretend to be scandalized by this, and that includes the BBC, I say “grow up!” Do some Muslims consider Jews no better than pigs? I have no doubt. Do some Jews consider all Arabs to be animals? I have heard it with my own ears. Quite coincidently in the most recent issue of The Nation is a letter from Steven Cohen, a Jewish reader in Scarsdale, New York. Mr. Cohen writes about an interview he conducted of Joseph Burg, then a prominent member of the National Religious Party in Israel. After the interview Burg took Cohen aside to talk as “one Jew to another” and proceeded to describe Palestinian Arabs as animals. Cohen goes on to describe that Burg’s view was widespread and openly stated.

We need less religious intolerance, not more. Distorting religious views of others to make it appear that “they” hate “us” may sell newspapers, but it also reinforces attitudes that make religious violence and intolerance more acceptable.