What a southwest suburban library had promoted as an educational forum this week on Muslim life in America quickly turned into a contentious debate about Islam.
The tone for the Thursday evening event was set while the three panelists at the Orland Park Library were still introducing themselves. In the first of many interruptions, a half-dozen audience members stood up and demanded that everyone recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Library Director Mary Weimar denied their request. She explained that it wasn’t standard practice to recite the pledge at library events and requested that the attendees show more respect for the panelists.
So began a tense and often heated 90-minute debate – punctuated with frequent yelling and finger-pointing from audience members – over the practice of Shariah law, the meaning of jihad and the intersection of Islamic and American culture. While some audience members expressed disdain for Islam and its followers, the Muslim panelists remained calm in attempting to explain their beliefs.
