Palo Alto High School in California once hosted jazz trailblazer Thelonious Monk, but that was a long time ago, in a vastly different America. The high school, like the nation as a whole, is now way beyond doing something as mundane and unimaginative as celebrating a titan of American popular culture. We are diverse and multicultural now, and Palo Alto High School is once again in the vanguard. Sure, some reactionaries and “Islamophobes” are unhappy, but isn’t that always the case?
The New York Post reported Saturday that “parents of Bay Area high school students taken on a field trip to a mosque are suing over the visit — alleging students were encouraged to wear hijabs and given Qurans.” Yep: jazz is out, and Islam is in. This lawsuit is just a last gasp of the expiring order. The forces of Islamic supremacy are emboldened, aggressive, confident and on the march all across America. Resistance, the left and its jihadi allies want us very much to think, is futile.
Nonetheless, these malcontents aren’t going down without a fight: “a group representing two Jewish parents of Palo Alto High School students, three former Jewish students, a Hindu parent and a Zoroastrian parent is suing the school over claims the children were exposed to the idea that Islam was aligned with social justice work.” Well, isn’t it? Islam is the left’s favorite religion by far. That means it must be all about social justice and equity, right?
The group that is filing the lawsuit, Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools, “says students in the school’s Social Justice Pathway program took a trip to the mosque last fall and were handed Qurans while female students were encouraged to wear hijabs, the Islamic face covering viewed by some as oppressive to women.” The hijab! It’s modern! Progressive! Social justice-y!
And as if that weren’t enough, “the lawsuit also alleges photos of the students were taken and posted online without parental consent.” Just to make sure students understood just how monochromatic the brave new world they will have to live in will really be, “the suing parents also alleged the students were ‘exposed’ to Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area’s office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.”
Why would anyone object to Zahra Billoo? “She drew some ire for statements she made in May urging supporters to be more discreet in their hate of Zionists. ‘Now imagine your LinkedIn profile says, “I hate all Zionists,”’ Billoo says in a video clip. ‘Not strategic. Right? … You may say that sitting around Kahwah House on a Friday night, but you’re not going to say it on your LinkedIn.’”
Just imagine the uproar if public high school students had been taken to a Roman Catholic Church and given Bibles, andencouraged to pray the rosary. Imagine if the students had met up with a public figure who had proclaimed “I hate all Muslims” — not that such a person even exists, or that such a thing should be said. The outcry would be immediate and immense. If this had happened to Palo Alto High School students, they would be subjected to rigorous anti-Catholic deprogramming and inundated with pro-Islam material.
But as regards to what actually happened, no one will much mind it. After all, everyone knows that Islam is peaceful and tolerant and as cuddly as can be, so why should anyone object to a bit of Islamic proselytizing on a public school field trip?
Islam is the left’s favored religion, and the whole exercise is about “multiculturalism” and “diversity,” even the meeting with the famous Jew-hater Zahra Billoo, so how could anyone possibly object? And this incident actually did perform a great service for the participating students: it showed them that when leftists prattle on about “diversity,” they don’t actually mean any real variation of cultural practice, much less of thought. Instead, what they have in mind is the acceptance of Islam, despite its violent, supremacist, and misogynist aspects.
The left’s vision of diversity, in the final analysis, is decidedly monochromatic. What else could ever have been expected from a bunch of authoritarian collectivists?