This Was A Full Width Banner headline in The Sunday Gleaner, the most respected Jamaican national weekly newspaper that spans three centuries, and which, until recently, has been both conservative and `Christian.’ Moreover, the paper has made it clear that there will be more articles on Islam, and that it will not publish articles critical of Muslims.
Radical to professorship
Early in 2002, the Jamaican campus of the University of the West Indies established a professorship in Islamic History, and appointed a fundamentalist to the chair. The publications of this department indicate that its proclaimed intention to rewrite West Indian history in terms of jihad will be an immediate priority.
The style of journalism below that newspaper headline is far removed from the centuries-old tradition of the Jamaican press. If the Christadelphians, or any other religious denomination for that matter, had submitted a similar self-adulating article, it would never have been entertained for publication by the editor. But in the aftermath of the great ‘victory,’ everything is different now. Below the headline is the following:
All Praise be to Allah, the Creator of all creation, for His grace, mercy and guidance to establish the truth in West Indian history. Dedication: To Rasulullah Muhammad Mustafa and the Mujahadeen who sacrificed their lives to establish the dignity of the soul in Jamaica. Islam is deeply embedded and wrapped up in West Indian history. The unwrapping reveals the majestic beauty and richness of Islam like the glorious morning sun.
Although much of the article is typically bombastic, some interesting ideas are put forward. The persistence of concubinage in Jamaica as the prevailing mating practice is seen as a great triumph for Islamic family values in the face of unsuccessful attempts to ‘Christianize’ family life. The names Jesus and Mary are “distortions” by the infidel of the real name of the prophet Issa and his mother Maryam.
Finally, very prominent on this page of the Gleaner is a quote from “The Holy Quran.”
Worldly power cannot defy the Right, nor can misused intelligence obscure God’s Light: this world’s strength, skill, beauty and power are like a spider’s web, flimsy before the eternal Verities.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One