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Last week the University of Kentucky removed The Holocaust from its schoolcurriculum because it "offended" the Muslim population which claims it neveroccurred. What is going on in in the US? Are Americans carrying this concept ofseparation of church and state to absurd lengths? How can you delete historysimply because it “offends” a certain section of society? Are we not debasing thememory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved andhumiliated by the Nazis? Now, more than ever, with Iran among others claiming the

Holocaust to be "a myth," it is imperative to make sure the world never forgets.Some would call it political correctness, but I would label it as cravencowardice.

History is replete with periods of atrocities. If one were to delete everythingthat is disturbing to some people, history books would be very slim indeed – notto mention boring to the point of numbness. And who are we trying to appeaseanyway? The Muslim population? Do the countries where Islamic governments are inpower show a similar consideration for the sensitivities of people belonging todifferent faiths? Just recently, I read of a British schoolteacher in the Sudanwho is threatened with imprisonment and 40 lashes. Her crime? She asked theyoungsters in her class to come up with a name for the new class mascot, a teddybear; and they chose Mohammed. Blasphemy!

The supreme irony is that the Muslims of America enjoy far greater personal andpolitical freedoms in the US than they would in the countries they left behind.There was the recent shocking case, where a young Saudi woman was raped by sevenmen and, instead of her attackers being punished, she was imprisoned and sentencedto 200 lashes – because she had the effrontery to sit in a car with a young manwho was not her husband. Incidentally, though the US State Department did registera protest against this gross miscarriage of justice, it was blithely ignored bythe Saudi monarch – who George Bush proclaims is a staunch ally. With friends likethese, who needs enemies?

I suppose, compared to some nations where it is ridiculously easy to commit an actof blasphemy – with horrendous consequences - Americans should be extremely

thankful for their system of government. However, I can’t help wondering if, inthe zeal to appear fair and even handed, the pendulum isn’t swinging too far theother way. There was that frankly ridiculous brouhaha last year about a sculptureof the Ten Commandments in front of a courthouse. School prayers are disallowed,singing Christmas carols on school premises is frowned upon; where will it end?

What I don’t quite comprehend is why the state needs to do anything at all inmatters of religion. If the US Constitution decrees a separation of church andstate, that is exactly how it should be – a separation. Why does the stateinterpret this clause as giving it a licence to pass laws dictating what religiouspractices an institution may or may not perform? There should be no coercion,certainly – as is the case in Iran and Saudi Arabia, for example – but if theteachers and children of a particular school want to have voluntary school

prayers, what business is it of the government? Are not prayers a form ofexpression; and is not freedom of expression also one of the fundamental rightsguaranteed by the constitution? By being extra sensitive to the sentiments of oneor another group of people, you are, in fact, curtailing the freedom of expressionof the general population.

This lunacy is not restricted to the US, of course. Britain, too, tends to overdopolitical correctness at times - and this at a time when Islamic fundamentalistsare openly preaching hatred in some mosques in the heart of British cities. InIndia, politicians in some states go out of their way to appease minorityreligions, although their motives are not altruistic, but merely a selfish ploy to

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consolidate their vote bank. Apart from some Arab countries, Israel is probablythe only nation that does not display any hypocrisy on this issue.

The problem with organized religion – even more so these days – is that a few‘holy men’ have appointed themselves the sole interpreters of the word of theirgod. They know best; and their co-religionists had better listen to them – fortheir own good. These ‘men of god’ do a pretty good job, on their own, in stirringup base emotions in a significant portion of the population. When the government

gets into the act, the resulting mix has the potential to become positivelylethal.