Diocese Reprimands Teacher for Islam-Critical Reading Assignment

Mark Smythe, who teaches religion and social studies at Blessed Trinity Catholic School in Ocala, FL, printed out and gave to students as a reading assignment passages from a dialogue between a father and a son written by St. John Bosco (1815-1888), an Italian priest and educator, warning against the errors of the Islamic faith. In the excerpts Muhammad is described as a “charlatan,” “villain,” “ignoramus,” “imposter,” and “false prophet” who “couldn’t even write” and “propagated his religion, not through miracles or persuasive words, but by military force.” The Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, is described as “a series of errors, the most enormous ones being against morality and the worship of the true God.”

Disciplined for Promoting the Truth

 

A concerned mother of a child in Smythe’s class sent copies of the reading assignment to The Huffington Post, which brought the incident into the media spotlight. In response to the subsequent complaints, an associate superintendent at the Diocese of Orlando’s Catholic school system, Jacquelyn Flanigan, issued a statement:

 

We have spoken to the principal of Blessed Trinity Catholic School, Ocala and to the teacher in question and have reprimanded the teacher for this unfortunate exhibit of disrespect.”

The nature of the “reprimand” was not specified, and Mr. Smythe did not respond to a request for comments.

The administrator’s statement claimed that “the information provided in the sixth grade class is not consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church.” If the dialogue by St. John Bosco had contained anything contrary to the Church’s unchangeable teachings about faith and morality, he would never have been canonized. How, then could his ideas be “not consistent with the teachings of the Catholic Church”?

Robert Spencer reports that “Leaders within Ocala’s interfaith community said they were shocked and upset to see the reading assignment.” A Muslim father whose daughter once attended Blessed Trinity e-mailed the school saying that the assignment “caused a lot of distress to the students...and to the Muslim Americans living in Ocala.” A local rabbi also e-mailed the school, calling the reading assignment “dangerous and destructive...hate language that is disturbing.”

These protests are a classic case of shooting the messenger: St. John Bosco, who was both deeply spiritual and concerned about social justice, wrote the dialogue to warn that historical Islam itself is “dangerous and destructive”, that the Qur’an contains “hate language that is disturbing”. Mr. Smythe offered the reading to his students, who are at the age where they are learning to think critically. But instead of supporting their teacher in his efforts to educate, the administrators in the Catholic school system in the Diocese of Orlando caved in to their fear of offending Muslims or of appearing to be politically incorrect. 

The Sad Legacy of Vatican II

 

Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Church’s teaching that Islam is a false religion was quite clearly and commonly known. With the promulgation of Nostra Aetate introduced distortions into the Church by suggesting that Muslims and Christians worship the same God despite the fact Islam consciously denies that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the dogma of the Holy Trinity:

 

The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth” (paragraph 3).

The conciliar document Lumen Gentium goes even further by teaching:

 

the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohamedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind” (paragraph 16).

But how can this claim that Catholics and Muslims adore the same God when the Gospel of St. John 2:23 clearly teaches, "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father"? And on this point, Cardinal Raymond Burke has asked, “If God is love, how can he be the same God that commands of Muslims to slaughter infidels and to establish their rule by violence?” And further: “I don't believe it's true that we're all worshiping the same God. To say that we all believe in love is simply not correct.”

While Nostra Aetate calls for an end to hostilities between Christians and Muslims, this has not stopped the latter from violently persecuting Christians in the Middle East right up to this very day.

Robert Spencer, editor of Jihad Watch, points out that this new teaching (or better, new “approach”) cannot be divinely revealed dogma, but is mere human opinion. He asks ironically, can there not be “respectful disagreement” then?

 

Does the necessity to regard Muslims with esteem require that Catholics must not speak about the elements of Islam that jihadis use to justify violence, including the rampant global persecution of Christians?”

Muslims even oppress their own people. In an article entitled “What Catholics can learn about Islam from a former Muslim,” William Fitzpatrick, writing in Crisis magazine about Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian advocate for Muslim women, explains one major difference between the moral teachings of Christianity and Islam.

 

Islamic family values are not about honoring women, but about protecting a man’s honor. And, in Islam, a man’s honor is bound up with his ability to control the women in his life. If a wife, daughter, or sister does anything to jeopardize the honor of her husband, father, or brother, she risks severe punishments and even death....The Muslim male’s control over women and girls is manifested in many ways, but one of the most disturbing is the widespread practice of female genital mutilation.”

Recalling an Age of Clarity

 

Christianity has always been about “loving the sinner” and “hating the sin.” Does the inclusion of respectful language about Muslims in a Vatican II document meant that Catholics must love their religious errors as well? Catholics today would do well to study and reflect upon earlier ages in Church history where the Doctors of the Faith spoke clearly and forcefully on the Islamic religion. 

In closing, consider these poignant words from St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Contra Gentiles, bk. 1, ch. 16, art. 4, fn. 1.

 

Mohammed seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh urges us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected; he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity.

"He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the contrary, Mohammed said that he was sent in the power of his arms – which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants. What is more, no wise men, men trained in things divine and human, believed in him from the beginning. Those who believed in him were brutal men and desert wanderers, utterly ignorant of all divine teaching, through whose numbers Mohammed forced others to become his followers by the violence of his arms. Nor do divine pronouncements on the part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimony of the Old and the New Testaments by making them into a fabrication of his own, as can be seen by anyone who examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place faith in his words believe foolishly."