Readers React: If we’re this afraid of Muslims, America isn’t a true melting pot

To the editor: We have nothing to fear but fear itself. These words are becoming increasingly important today. (“Public schools struggle with lessons about Islam amid renewed fears of terrorism,” Dec. 20)

I am not a religious man. I do not consider myself a spiritual person, but I believe that setting a religious test for those who are trying to escape extremism and death betrays and threatens to rot the foundations on which our nation stands on.

Do not listen to those who would have you fear your brothers and sisters; the great majority are loving and caring members of your community. They too are the dedicated teachers who help shape the future generation, the laborers on whose backs our industries survive, the first responders and the soldiers who keep us safe.

Before you decide to fear the immigrant or paint an entire religious group or ethnicity as “the enemy,” remember: This is our test. The world is still waiting to see if the American melting pot can function.

Chris Farrell, Lake Elsinore

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To the editor: Lord have mercy. The latest flap over teaching about religion in public schools concerns whether the subject of Islam is presented too favorably. This concern arises from terrorist acts perpetrated by rouge Islamists.

So now a conservative watchdog group insists on teaching the bad as well as the good about the world’s religions. Fine, but don’t stop with acts of so-called Islamic terrorism. Be sure to include the heinous history of “Christian terrorism.”

For example, just as some Muslims have perverted their faith to commit atrocities, the Ku Klux Klan once convened horrific lynchings with pious invocations alongside Christian crosses.

To preclude “white-washing” of religious history, don’t ignore Christianity’s monstrous episodes.

Dennis Alston, Atwater, Calif.

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