More than half of Americans say they have unfavorable views of Islam, and six in 10 either aren't interested or don't know whether they want to learn more about the faith, according to a new poll. The findings, detailed in a HuffPost/YouGov poll, should not be surprising, given the bad name the likes of Daesh (the self-proclaimed IS) and Al-Qaeda have given Islam. The poll results might also remain unchanged down the road, given the Islamophobia which is permeating into American schools where the young are most susceptible. In a high school in Texas, an economics teacher is facing disciplinary action after distributing anti-Muslim handouts to his students. The handout contained inaccurate, Islamophobic rhetoric designed to entice hatred towards Islam and Muslims. It was bullying behavior. Students rely on educators to help them feel safe at school and feel that they are a part of the school, but here the educators themselves are the bullies from whom the students need protection. Young, impressionable minds were subjected to their teacher's ignorance and blatant attempt to incite hatred and violence against a group the teacher disagreed with. Most people remember at least some of their teachers from school and such educational authority figures hold substantial power to mold students' opinions. Put in the wrong hands, such power creates the wrong kind of student. Last month, a school in New York state was forced to apologize after receiving complaints because a student recited the US Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic. The school's foreign language department arranged for the pledge to be read in a different language each day for a week in celebration of National Foreign Language Week. But complaints were received from people who lost family in Afghanistan and from Jewish parents. Aside from the fact that Arabic is not widely spoken in Afghanistan, all Americans who value their nation's history of religious and ethnic diversity should be concerned by the reaction of the students who shouted their disapproval during the recitation by an Arab student, and later complained on social media, and the subsequent apology. An event celebrating American multiculturalism and pledging patriotism was immediately met with anger and offense - driven by the conflation of the Arabic language with Islam, and in turn, violence and terrorism. The controversy sparked by the Arabic pledge highlights how different dimensions of Arab or Muslim identity - even language - are associated with threat, and how attempts to reconcile Arab or Muslim culture with American identity incites zeal and scorn. While the pledge recited in Chinese or Spanish caused no problem, its reading in Arabic at Pine Bush High School rose to the level of national alarm and outrage. Just two weeks before the pledge fiasco, New York City public schools announced they will close for Eid Al-Adha and Eid Al-Fitr. The observance of these two Muslim holidays will make the district - the nation's biggest - one of the few to put Islamic holy days on its calendar. In past years, either the child went to school and pursued his education but had to miss his religious observance or the other way around. That is the kind of choice that was wrong to have to make for Muslim families living in the US. While New York City's decision to observe the Muslim holidays offers a much heartening exception to how Islam is honored in some US educational systems, some other American schools hold a much different view.
