The way of the albatross

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Albert Einstein observed, "The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Einstein was making two observations: Evil people exist in the world and such evil will prevail lest good people take action to eliminate it. This was an appropriate observation by one who bore witness to the dangerous world that evolved prior to World War II as good people did nothing. Turning a blind eye to the evil of Nazism, they naively clung to British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's promise of "peace in our time."

What conditions give rise to such a dangerous world where good people do nothing? One of two factors prevail: Either they are conscious of the threat, fearing to take action against it, or are unconscious of it, thus lacking motivation to act in their own interests of survival.

Consciousness of a threat is a factor of education. Unfortunately, some of our school systems, promoting a "peace in our time" mindset, reject educating the most innocent of innocents — our young children — that there is evil in the world that poses a real danger to those oblivious to it. The result is a "dumbing-down" of students about a threat to their future existence.

For example, World Net Daily reported seventh-grade students in a third of California schools are taught in a social studies book published by Teachers' Curriculum Institute that "jihad" is, at best, an effort by Muslims "to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research" and, at worst, simply Muslims fighting "to protect themselves from those who would do them harm."

Basically ignoring the teachings of Christianity and Judaism, the book teaches Islamic religious doctrine. The history it shares about Christianity is that Crusaders tortured Jews in seeking to convert them to Christianity; yet the history it fails to share is that Arab Muslims have and continue to persecute Jews today. School officials in Scottsdale, Ariz., ultimately rejected the text as students "were subject to... prolonged indoctrination," inducing them "to embrace Islam."

The book leaves impressionable young students with the belief that Muslim fables and superstitions are historical accounts. But nowhere in the text is an effort made to educate students about the threat posed by a dangerous interpretation of Islam practiced by extremists such as Osama bin Laden — whose interpretation of "jihad" is much more violent than anything the book suggests.

While California schools fail to teach their young students about the dangers of Islamofascism, Islamofascist educators in Iran teach their young how to hate their American counterparts. Video cartoons are shown to very young children glorifying suicide bombers and encouraging them to kill infidels (non-Muslims). The educational system there is used not to promote creative thinking but to indoctrinate a generation of Nazi-like theocrats committed to doing what their leaders dictate.

Unfortunately, the California school system is not an isolated case. Since 1973, Saudi Arabia — birthplace of the extremist Islamic sect of Wahhabism — has funded billions of dollars for schools, colleges and mosques in the United States. Most of these institutions promote the Wahhabi version of Islam as a condition of their funding. None of the texts used in the schools advocate peace between Muslims and non-Muslims. They are, as former-fanatical-Shi'ite-Muslim-turned-Christian-minister Reza Safa points out, "full of phrases exalting war, Jihad, and martyrdom."

One text used for 10th-graders teaches them to "consider the infidel your enemy." While our schools endeavor to teach the value of multiculturalism, we lose ground to Wahhabist institutions indoctrinating students that there is but one religion — Islam — and that all others are false. This initiative has won Islam numerous converts in the United States — 90 percent of them African-American. Accordingly, the Saudis have focused their attention on building new schools and mosques in low-income areas where many African-Americans reside. Mr. Safa describes this initiative by the Saudis as "the Wahhabi invasion of America."

An uninhabited South Atlantic island has for centuries served as a breeding ground for the albatross. Lacking predators, the albatross population thrived. A few years ago, mice made their way to the island. Outweighed 200-fold, the mice targeted albatross chicks for consumption — and now the mice are thriving.

Surprisingly, whenever the mice attack the chicks, the albatross parents do nothing, totally oblivious a threat even exists. Scientists explain the albatross parents, having never known such danger on the island, are "ecologically naive" about it. In a few years, however, that naivete may result in the devastation of all island's albatrosses.

We must act now to educate our children about the threat posed by Islamofascism lest our ecological naivete — like that of the albatross parents — endanger the future of our offspring.

James G. Zumwalt, a Marine veteran of the Persian Gulf and Vietnam wars, is a contributor to The Washington Times.