Clarion Project calls Qur’anic teaching “radical Islam”

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Reading through Clarion Project’s twitter timeline, one must protect oneself from whiplash. It’s like reading through the time line of a bi-polar multiple personality schzioid. Good Islam! Bad Islam! Good Islam! Bad Islam!

The dirty little secret that those who prate about “radical Islam,” as if there were some harmless non-radical Islam, don’t tell you is that “radical Islam” is actually mainstream, Qur’anic Islam. Robert Spencer explains why here.

“Clarion Project calls Qur’anic teaching ‘radical Islam,’” by Robert Spencer, Jihad Watch, March 29, 2017:

How incoherent is today’s dominant discourse about the jihad threat? Here is an illustration.

I reported here about the controversy at Rollins College, where Professor Areej Zufari taught “that the crucifixion of Jesus was a hoax and that his disciples did not believe he was God.”

That’s all that we get about what Professor Zufari said in the Central Florida Post story that both the Clarion Project (below) and I referenced. Both assertions are straight from the Qur’an. It says that Jesus was not crucified: “And their saying, ‘Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.’ And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but it appeared so to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.” (Qur’an 4:157)

It also has Jesus denying before Allah that he told people that he was God, thus indicating that his disciples, who were faithful Muslims (Qur’an 3:52, 5:111) would not have believed that he was God: “And when Allah will say, ‘O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, “Take me and my mother as deities besides Allah ?”‘ He will say, ‘Exalted are you! It was not for me to say that to which I have no right. If I had said it, you would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within yourself. Indeed, it is you who are knower of the unseen.'” (Qur’an 5:116)

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So Areej Zufari was simply restating Qur’anic belief about Jesus. For challenging her, student Marshall Polston was suspended and a police report was filed. As far as the Clarion Project, is concerned, Polston was suspended for challenging “radical Islam.” Clarion has to put it this way because it is an exponent of the mainstream conservative/Republican establishment (George W. Bush, etc.) view that Islam itself is wholly and entirely benign, and every problematic action by Muslims, from jihad terror to Sharia oppression, must be described as a manifestation of “radical Islam” (which is at least a trifle more realistic than the Left’s “violent extremism”).

However, the Islam/radical Islam distinction all too easily entangles in absurdity those who wish to exonerate Islam of all responsibility for the crimes done in its name and in accord with its teachings, and this is an example. From the Central Florida Post report that Clarion picks up on, all Areej Zufari did was repeat Qur’anic teaching. According to Clarion’s official line, doing this ought to be an entirely benign, and indeed beneficial exercise. But in this case it sparked a controversy, and so Zufari’s Qur’an-invoking becomes “radical Islam.” Is the Qur’an, then, radical Islam? Of course Clarion officials would say no, it isn’t, it’s the beautiful holy book of the peaceful religion that has unfortunately been hijacked by radical extremists. But if that is so, then how is what Zufari said “radical”?

These issues cry out for clarification, and I would be happy to engage any Clarion Project official in public discussion or debate of them. Too often, however, they are covered over by name-calling (I’ve been called a “jihadist” for pointing out how jihadis use the texts and teachings of Islam to justify violence and make recruits among peaceful Muslims) and sloganeering and left at that. The victims of jihad terror deserve better.

“Suspended for Challenging Radical Islam,” by Meira Svirsky, Clarion Project, March 28, 2017:

A Christian student was suspended from his Florida university after he challenged the views of his Muslim humanities professor and those of a radical Muslim student, wrote investigative reporter Jacob Engels in the Central Florida Post.

The professor, Areeje [sic] Zufari, of Rollins College located just outside Orlando, has a history of accusations of radicalism enumerated in a law suit filed by an FBI source and from her role as a leader in the Islamic Society of Central Florida.

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Twenty-year-old sophomore Marshall Polston’s troubles began when Zufari began making disparaging statements about Christianity, claiming the religion’s most basic beliefs were a hoax.

Zufari asserted that Jesus was not crucified and his followers did not believe he was God.

“It was very off-putting and flat out odd. I’ve traveled the Middle East, lectured at the Salahaddin University, and immersed myself in Muslim culture for many years. Honestly, it reminded me of some of the more radical groups I researched when abroad,” Polston said.

“Whether religious or not, I believe even those with limited knowledge of Christianity can agree that according to the text, Jesus was crucified and his followers did believe he was divine,” he added.

After Polton challenged Jufari during a class discussion on these assertions, Jufari failed him on a major essay and refused to explain the reason…