By Joshua Rhett
Miller Published May 31,
2013 FoxNews.com
It's low
self-esteem and the need for a “sense of belonging” that drives terrorists to
join groups that kill in the name of religion, according to an online lesson
plan for Florida high school students. The world history course on “Invisible
Warfare” — offered by the Florida Virtual
School, the nation’s first statewide Internet-based public high
school — begins by asking students “what comes to mind” when considering the
concept of fundamentalism and then prompts them to think of the term in a
religious context. It later defines terrorism as the act of using fear or
violence to accomplish certain political or religious goals.
“Common traits
that psychologists have found in terrorists are that they are often risk-takers
and many suffer from low self-esteem,” according to the lesson plan, which was
obtained by FoxNews.com. “Sometimes joining a terrorist group provides these
individuals with a sense of belonging.”
Earlier in the
lesson plan, students are asked to consider how “this type of fundamentalism”
has affected Islam and notes that some Islamic fundamentalist groups have
reinterpreted the word jihad, which means “struggle” in Arabic, to mean a “holy
war” against non-Muslims. Some critics including the Global Dispatch claimed
that the transition from Christianity to Islam within the lesson plan “softly
could imply Christianity may be affecting (therefore causing) Muslim
extremism.” “For example, some passages
in the Bible could be used to justify the slaughter of men, women and children
in ways we have difficulty understanding today,” the plan reads. “Would anyone condone this now? How would you
react to someone who insisted that holding these beliefs was fundamental to
Christianity?”
Representatives at
the Florida Virtual School denied those claims, saying the lesson plan does not
suggest a link between fundamentalists within Islam and Christianity. Tania
Clow, a spokeswoman for the Florida Virtual School, told FoxNews.com in a
statement that the purpose of the lesson was to lay foundational knowledge in
order for students to understand the more complex issue of global terrorism and
the impact religious fundamentalism is having globally. “Yes, the Bible is referenced, but only as
an example of how some passages may no longer be compatible with the modern
world, prompting students to think about whether the ideas would be condoned
today,” Clow wrote in an email. “The lesson does not suggest that there is a
link between Islam and Christianity as fundamentalist groups.”
Two key issues are
specifically addressed in the lesson, Clow said, including the impact of
religious fundamentalism in the last half of the 20th century and the impact
and global response to international terrorism.
State-certified
instructors at the online
school are not allowed to change the actual lesson text, but are
encouraged to engage students in thoughtful debate, Clow said.
Not everyone,
however, agrees that the lesson plan as presented is useful for young minds,
including Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, who claimed the
lesson plan unfairly compared fundamentalists within Christianity and Islam. “Fundamentalist Christians pray for people,
they pray for their own members who convert to another religion,” Donohue told
FoxNews.com. “Fundamentalist Muslims will kill you. So, right off the bat, the
equation is pernicious.”
Dr. Keith Ablow, a
psychiatrist and Fox News contributor, said it takes more than low self-esteem
to prompt someone to don a suicide vest in the name of religion. “Much more in the way of psychiatric disorder
is required to create a terrorist than just low self-esteem," Ablow said.
"The real key is a failure of empathy, and while it might be true that
many terrorists have low self-esteem, there are lots of people with low
self-esteem that are either depressed,
homeless, or are in relationships with people that abuse them – but not
terrorists.”
Robert Jones, CEO
of the Public Religion Research Institute, cited a 2011 study that found that
Americans are more willing — by more than a 3-to-1 margin — to separate the
violence of self-professed Christians from Christianity than they are to
separate violent behavior of self-professed Muslims from Islam.
The poll, entitled
““Pluralism, Immigration and Civic Integration Survey,” found that 44 percent
of all Americans believed self-professed Muslims who committed acts of violence
in the name of Islam to truly be Muslims, compared to just 13 percent of those
committed acts of violence in the name of Christianity to truly be Christians.
As a whole, younger Americans and college
graduates are overwhelmingly more likely to believe that Islam -- as practiced
by most Muslims -- does not promote violence, Jones said. “If you ask that question, Americans are
basically divided,” Jones told FoxNews.com. “But education and age is driving a
lot of it.”
