“Protect our children,” Muslims and Christians called together, adding, “Protect religious freedom.” Some were members of the newly founded Coalition of Virtue, an “organization of American Muslims, strategically partnered with members of other faith communities,” to defend “universally held virtues and morals.”
“People came to this country for religious freedom,” COV’s Karim Monib told Laura Ingraham of Fox News that night. “And now that is being taken away from us.”
On the opposite coast, a similar controversy erupted at Saticoy Elementary of North Hollywood, which has a large population of Armenians and Hispanics. Organized against a Pride‐themed school assembly, families gathered for protests, which saw brawls with pro‐LGBTQ protesters. “I didn’t come from Armenia for this,” a mother said. “I came for freedom and for my children to learn about math and education.… I might go back home.”
“Go back home” is exactly what some progressives are now telling conservative minorities. In Canada, a teacher at Londonderry Junior High shamed a Muslim student who skipped LGBTQ celebrations, angrily telling him, “You can’t be Canadian.” The incident went viral in the Muslim community, prompting prominent American Muslim cleric Yasir Qadhi to lecture about “the pitfalls of Muslims allying with the progressive left.”
Muslim families were also irritated when they heard Democratic Montgomery County Council member Kristin Mink say that their objections to forced readings put them “on the same side … as white supremacists.” (She later apologized for the comment.)
What should we make of all this?
There are lessons for both political camps. America’s assertive progressives should realize that theirs is a counterproductive campaign. By advancing their ideals through assertion and coercion, instead of persuasion, they are alienating many people, including some minorities they claim to defend. Among Muslims, they are also giving ammunition to hardliners, who preach that Western freedom is a lie, that it only means freedom from religion and tradition, and thus Muslims should reject it everywhere.
On the other hand, America’s conservatives should reconsider their distance from minorities, including a rigid stance against immigration, symbolized by Donald Trump’s famous “Build the Wall” campaign. Those on the political right should realize that they may well share values with some of the people that they want to push behind that wall.
Is there a remedy to these bitter culture wars? Given that there will always be diverse values, beliefs, identities, and lifestyles in this country — indeed, that is one of its great features — how can we respect all by not imposing values on any?
We believe that the best strategy is to keep government out of decisions about values and culture whenever possible, including — perhaps especially — in education, which is about nothing less than shaping human minds. This requires allowing more choice, so families can decide for themselves what their kids will learn. Instead of diverse people being forced to fight, they can freely pursue what they think is right.
This strategy has two prongs. First, within public schools, stakes should be lowered. As most do now with sex education, states and districts should let families opt out of lessons they find morally unacceptable — which is exactly what Montgomery County has ended.
Going further, classes on controversial issues such as sex and gender could work on not just an opt‐out, but an opt‐in, basis: Families must affirmatively decide that their children will receive sensitive instruction. Finally, schools must not be allowed to hide information about their children from parents, or override their desires, if students wish to be called by different names or pronouns.
These policies would expand room for pluralism, but not as far as it could, or ultimately should, go. Hence the second prong: school choice for all. We should let money follow children to private schools or other options that their families choose. Many developed countries, often rooted in efforts to defuse once‐ubiquitous religious warfare, already do this. And it is taking off in the United States, where just this year six states have adopted universal — meaning without income or other qualifications — choice programs, and several others have expanded choice short of universality.
Government should not discriminate against LGBTQ individuals, nor should it discriminate against people with traditional values. The only way to treat all equally, while advancing genuine tolerance, is the good old American value of limited government.
That may also help save the key value for which most immigrants have long come to this country: the freedom to live by your values, while respecting the equal rights of others.
