From Creeping Sharia:
Saudi-led American Islamic College, “a sleeping giant” to reopen in Chicago
Posted on October 3, 2010 by creeping
The more truth about Islam is exposed, and Americans learn about the intolerant ideology of Islam, the more dollars (likely foreign) are being pumped into deceiving Americans about Islam.
It is a full frontal dawah assault in America – from mosques, to so-called universities and colleges, to Islamic “community centers” and more. Islamist groups across America are now turning to the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to wage their myriad jihads. The ‘American Islamic College’ apparently portends what the OIC and CAIR and others are hoping for in the very near future. Just a reminder, as you read this piece, what the OIC is about:
> Other than the United Nations, it is the largest international organization of any kind
> Its ultimate goal is outlawing, everywhere in the world, any and all criticism of Islamic people, practices, legal codes, and governments
> Considers any and all negative portrayals (whether real, perceived or alleged) of Islam as “Islamophobia”
Chicago Tribune asks no questions, via American Islamic College to reopen in Chicago
Seeking to combat negative attitudes toward Islam, Muslim leaders are reopening an Islamic college that was established nearly three decades ago in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood.
The American Islamic College, in a Prairie modern brick edifice on three acres near Lake Michigan, has closed and reopened several times since it was formed in 1981. The last time it offered a catalog of classes was in 2001.
But the college will be back in session this week, teaching courses in Islamic history, arts and theology. Administrators said they hope to attract a diverse student body and earn accreditation that will eventually allow the college to become a four-year degree-granting institution.
“The whole of America needs an Islamic institution of Islamic thought,” said Ali Yurtsever, a former research scholar at Georgetown University, who is overseeing the effort. “If you don’t have Islamic colleges, then people are misled, they’ll easily be deceived and the clash will continue to grow.”
The school is affiliated with the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a coalition of 57 member states that considers itself the collective voice of the Muslim world. Some local leaders worry that the organization will oversee the school from its headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, instead of turning it over to local leaders.
The OIC will oversee the school from Saudi Arabia? Is that where funding for the school and faculty is coming from?
Doing so would handicap the school’s potential to meet the specific needs of Chicago’s Muslim community, they say.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference has “not been a part of the community,” said Mohamad Nasir, executive director of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, who is working with Yurtsever to include the council in the oversight of the college.
Scott Alexander, director of the Catholic-Muslim Studies Program at Catholic Theological Union, said that though the college eventually became a hub for interfaith relations, it failed to capture the imagination of Chicago’s largely immigrant Muslim community when it was founded nearly 30 years ago. Its style of governance also didn’t win support from many American Muslims.
“Historically, it was probably premature because the immigrant community was very new and not ready to take that step,” Alexander said. “A paternalistic understanding of what Muslims in America needed from the traditional Muslim world … just doesn’t work. It needs to be directed locally.”
But now that sharia is gaining a toe-hold across the world…American Muslims are ready. Scott Alexander has a history, by the way, of coddling and inviting terror-linked Muslim radicals to his “inter faith” programs.
Ghulam Haider Aasi, the former chair of Islamic studies and world religions at American Islamic College and an adjunct professor at both Catholic Theological Union and Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, said the college put Muslims on the map of interfaith dialogue in the city. In fact, the college hosted many planning meetings for the historic 1993 Parliament on World Religions.
But in recent years the facility, formerly Immaculata High School, had fallen into disrepair. A $2 million renovation financed by two other schools leasing classroom space has restored a 1,000-seat auditorium and 65-room dormitory.
Yurtsever said the mission of interfaith dialogue remains the same. More than half of the students enrolled for classes are non-Muslim. But the college also belongs to the Chicago Muslim community, he said.
“We want to show all viewpoints,” he said. “Everything will be on an equal platform for dialogue and understanding.”
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said a rising tide of Islamophobia is being caused by lack of knowledge, and added that the college fulfills a moral obligation of American Muslims.
“Today, American Muslims have a role and duty to lead the way through sound moral conduct and active participation in positive political movements toward the creation of a just, peaceful and righteous society,” he said.
Dr. Zaher Sahloul, president of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, called the college “a sleeping giant.”
“Right now it looks like the giant is waking up,” he said. “There are signs of life now.”
A sleeping giant? So says the former president of the terror linked Bridgeview Mosque Foundation, Zaher Sahloul.
Of course, Muslims could rid themselves of a majority of their problems by shunning groups like the OIC and CAIR and ISNA who wish to apply sharia law in the U.S. and worldwide. But this is just another of their outlets, Muslim Brotherhood links aplenty with this college and the people involved
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