VA. - An institution that intends to have a significant
impact on the future leadership of the country has been quietly growing in
Purcellville and will graduate its first full four-year class of students this
month. Patrick Henry Bible College is not your ordinary school of higher learning.
"The campus is immaculate, everyone is clean-cut and cheerful. The students
about 75% of who have been taught at home rather than in schools - are required
to sign a statement of faith before they
arrive, confirming (among other things) that they have a literal belief in
the teachings of the Bible."
They are trained with extremist view to "lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values".
Now let's look at an Islamic Madrasa (an Muslim/Islamic religious school).
What is a Madrasa? In a report from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in 2003 by, Febe Armanio, describes a Madrasa as follows: An institution of higher learning offering instruction that "promotes an Islamic based curriculum based on the Quran. They teach to stand against what they see as the moral depravity of the West." The primary goal of these schools is to develop the future leaders of the Islamic world based on what some believe to be extremist views.
What's even more interesting about Patrick Henry College according to Andrew Buncombe, is that "this spring, of the almost 100 interns working in the White House, seven are from Patrick Henry. Another intern works for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, while another works for President George Bush's senior political adviser, Karl Rove. Yet another works for the coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. Over the past four years, 22 conservative members of Congress have employed one or more Patrick Henry interns."
Locally, Patrick Henry also enjoys support from the board of supervisors. Board members Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling) and Lori Waters (R-Broad Run) sponsored a resolution commending Farris on the occasion of PHC’s upcoming graduation. In addition to being a prominent figures in conservative Republican politics, as director of the “pro-family” Eagle Forum, Waters also has a PHC student, Danny Davis, for an intern. Mike Hengemuhle, another PHC student, is an assistant to Supervisor Stephen J. Snow (R-Dulles).
During the past four years, 22 PHC students have secured internships in the offices and on the campaigns of conservative congressmen and senators. When Bush signed a law outlawing partial-birth abortion, PHC President, Michael P. Farris was, one of five Christian conservatives who got an invite, according to the New York Times.
Wait a minute. Would the Bush-Cheney team recruit students from Islamic Madrasas to intern? It's only fair. If they're going to invite right-wing Christian extremist to run the White House, why not invite right-wing Islamist extremist?
Yet, the Bush administration continues to deny that this war on terror is not about Christians against Muslims. Then why are his top aides singing a different tune?
In February of this year Paul Bremer, the “American King” of Iraq, made it quite clear that he will not allow Islam to be the main source of law in Iraq. Yet, this administration leans more and more on the law of the Christian Bible.
When Rumsfeld was asked about Islamic Clerics running the new Iraq he said, “That isn't going to happen," Washington Post reported Friday, April 25. But the Bush-Cheney theocracy has no problem employing or giving serious consideration to those who come from this right-wing Christian extremist college.
Even though the board of trustees, its faculty and students may not call themselves clerics or preachers or pastors, the fact that their goal is to"lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values" the assumption is clear. They are religious wolves dressed in sheep's clothing.
But the comparison to the Madrasas can't be ignored. The indoctrination process begins with the faculty of the Madrasas and so it does at Patrick Henry College. "Before being hired by Patrick Henry, all members of the teaching faculty, too, have to sign a pledge stating that they share a generally literalist belief in the Bible."
Even the biology staff must hold a "literal view specifically of the six-day creation story."
Could you imagine Rumsfeld or Ashcroft hiring someone who believes literally that when they die they'll be received by 77 virgins? NOT!
What
I find most alarming about PHC is it's Strategic Intelligence Program (SIP).
It's curricula is directly tied into developing "careers in the intelligence
community (Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency, etc.),
domestic counter-terrorism and law enforcement (Department of Homeland Security,
Federal Bureau of Investigations, etc.), and diplomacy (Foreign Service, State
Department, etc.). These graduates will eventually work their way into positions
to positively influence and shape this increasingly important part of our culture."
While PHC links to the White House, Congress and the Supreme Court have been documented, Farris could not provide information as to how many students in the school’s Strategic Intelligence Program, which started this year, have internships with the CIA, the FBI or the nation’s other intelligence agencies.
In the fall semester, SIP students toured some of the most secure intelligence facilities in the entire United States (as per our agreements, we may not disclose the names of these 3-letter agencies), and they were invited to observe training exercises at the FBI Training Academy in Quantico.”
While the extent of their access to intelligence information is unknown, SIP students have enough information to pen “a weekly digest of all major drug, immigration, and security incidents at America's border crossings called the Border Security Alert. The BSA, produced entirely by Patrick Henry students, is distributed by subscription to national security professionals and is available to the intelligence and law enforcement communities through a classified network.”
Eliot Jardines, Assistant Director of SIP at Patrick Henry said,"The preservation of our liberty requires constant vigilance. Who is going to do it? Who better than these young men and women...?" [On February 8, 2005, Mr. Eliot Jardines contacted VOF and advised us that he never uttered that statement. He also contacted Patrick Henry College and the quote has since been removed from the Patrick Henry College Website. ]
I just can't see how right-wing Christian extremist from the Patrick Henry "Madrasa" will be able to preserve the liberties of homosexuals, single mothers, women's right to choose, pagans, transgender peoples and Muslims.
Patrick Henry College is just one of many schools in America that is dedicating itself to the teachings of extreme right-wing Christian political agenda. If you think that Bin Laden and his thugs are bad news, just look at the list of right-wing zealots already in America's government.
My biggest fear is not just that the graduates from PHC will make our country into a theocracy, it's that they will make it into a military industrial theocracy just like the German Nationalist Party did in 1935.
The CRS Report for Congress -Order Code RS21654-October 29, 2003-Islamic Religious Schools, Madrasas: Febe Armanios contributed to this article along with other sources.