When someone flagged for me last week Clayton Littlejohn's pointer to a bit of raving bigotry by one of the many right-wingers at the aptly-named "What's Wrong with the World" blog (which exemplifies, rather than analyzes, the phenomenon), I merely added a note about it as an afterthought to an earlier post. But an alert reader has since pointed out to me that the author of the offending item, Lydia McGrew, is the spouse of the Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Western Michigan University, which has long been a recommended terminal MA program in the PGR. Here is what the Chair's spouse wrote:
Does this mean that I think Muslims in America should not have due process, should not be legally treated as innocent until proven guilty? No, it means I think they should not be in America....
[T]he time has come for conservative American parents to consider the danger posed to them by immigrant cultures that, to put it bluntly, make traditionalist parents look bad. It is in our interests to support the ending of Muslim immigration, thereby blocking a route by which the public will plausibly be made suspicious of parental rights and of countercultural groups.
Anyone interested can read the entire post to appreciate the "reasoning" underlying this item, but in short, it is this: conservative Christians, especially those who homeschool, don't want society to interfere with the religious indoctrination of their children, therefore, conservative Christians should oppose Muslim immigration, since (it is alleged) some Muslim parents mistreat their children in ways that would prompt societal interference in the family.
It may well be that Professor McGrew, the Chair of the WMU Philosophy Department, does not share his wife's bigotry or hostility towards Muslims. But, as my correspondent pointed out, I owe it to students, especially Muslim students, to flag this extraordinarily ugly display so that they can investigate the situation for themselves in the event they are considering the terminal MA program there.
UPDATE: Professor Allhof from WMU writes:
As Director of Graduate Studies at WMU, I can attest that we have had have had all sorts of minorities (racial, sexual, religious, etc.) in our program, and there has never been a complaint from any of them about the climate or their treatment. Since I’ve been here, we haven’t had a Muslim student that I know of, but I suspect it’s only because we haven’t had many apply. (One of our admittances for next year is from Iran, though he has yet to commit and I know nothing of his religious views.) I encourage prospective students to contact me with any questions about the graduate program or else our incoming chair, who will be appointed next month. Certainly Dr. Lydia McGrew’s views should not be taken to reflect those of the department, with which she is not affiliated.
I think that speaks fully to any reasonable concern someone might have had, and I thank Professor Allhof.
Recent Comments