As a Teacher, I'm Scared...

I'm teaching a class that covers history of the West from the Ancient World through the Reformation. As such, we started with Hebrew Civilization, went through the emergence of Christianity and today were discussing the beginnings of Islam. My students were confused about the relationship between the three religions, and so I had to go back through several of the stories again. I was absolutley horrified by their level of ignorance, the willingness to mock Islam and the unbelieveable amount of anti-Semitism that I encountered in the classrom.

Some of the comments that I heard:

"Don't Jews practice incest?" one student asked.

"Yeah, because they only marry each other," another replied.

"That's not true," I said.

"But it's in the bible. They practice incest there."

I vehemently protested, trying to explain that marriage within a community doesn't mean marriage within a family. Many of them confirmed that they had heard the same rumors. I must have looked visibly upset, because at last, one apologized.

"Hey, sorry if we upset you," she said.

"We need to get back to the subject of Islam," I answered.

I wrote the Five Pillars of Islam on the board.

"Fasting for a month!" one student exclaimed, in reference to Ramadan. "That's crazy! Why do they starve people in that religion?"

"It's not starving," I said. "They eat after sundown."

"That's stupid," said another. "I would want to eat."

"It's not that hard," said one girl, looking upset.

"Of course it's not," I said. "If it were your religion, you would be able to do it. Now I think you guys should be a little more sensitive with your remarks."

"I would want to eat," another muttered.

After that we were talking about the concept of charity and sacrifice.

"What kind of things are sacrificed?" one student asked.

"They sacrifice people!" another laughed. Many others joined in the laughter.

"That's ridiculous," I said. "And entirely inappropriate. So stop it."

Then I went on to try to explain the concept of Jihad-- as a holy or spiritual struggle for good in the world, both internally and externally.

"So what about the virgins? Don't they get virgins for killing people?" one girl asked.

The period was ending and everyone was rushing out of their chairs.

"We'll talk more about this next week," I called out, over the rustle.

As I was straightening up my papers, another girl approached me.

"So wait... I don't get it," she said. "Who are the Israelites then?"

"Do you mean modern Israel? Or are you talking about the Israelite kingdom that we talked about in class a few weeks ago?"

"I don't know-- the Israelites!"

"Well, the Israelites are Jews."

"So the Jews are the ones that wear long black dresses and walk around with yellow stars on them?"

What the fuck??? This in NY City! Jews with stars on them?

"Jews don't wear stars on their clothes," I said. "At one point, they were made to as a form of segregation. We're going to get to that later in the semester. But the ones in long black cloaks are Hasidic. That's just one branch of Judaism. The same way there are a lot of branches of Christianity, there are a lot of ways to practice Judaism, and that's just one small minority."

"Really? 'Cause I always see those guys talking about how the white man is the devil!"

"What? That's not a Jewish belief, for sure. No, I think you're talking about something else. Do you mean those guys you see standing around preaching in Times Square all the time?"

"Yeah," she laughed.

"Oh, God, no! Please don't make any assumptions about any mainstream religion from the nutcases out in Times Square. That has nothing to do with Judaism."

"Oh, okay."

The classroom cleared out. I felt like shooting myself. I think I need to spend half of the next class expelling stereotypes and discussing religious tolerance.

Is this New York City in 2005?

It was disgusting.