A progressive summer storm has blown across the Illinois prairie and settled over the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, Illinois, full of sound and fury and, well, not exactly signifying nothing, but rather seeking the pound of flesh that the progressive jihadists need to satisfy their bloodlust.  The current recipient of the One Minute Hate is a mild school board member who committed the mortal sin of challenging liberal stupidity and thus must be destroyed.  The man in question – one Steve Springer of the O'Fallon School District 90 – challenged several left-wing orthodoxies and is now facing the leftists' wrath.

According to the Belleville News Democrat, Mr. Springer has displayed bigotry and racism for the following offenses:

1. He objected to a library book reading that was billed as a "social justice for kids" event and was aimed at children as young as five years of age.  Springer thought it wrong that young children be indoctrinated into leftist political grievance policy.

2. Mr. Springer objected to a girl who said she is a boy being given special privileges to use faculty restrooms.  He said in an email:

It seems you have decided to change the God-given biological makeup of this student without input from a court, the BOE or God. The child is a girl.  She needs to be referred to as a girl.  I am sad she is having such problems and is confused[.]

Now, the American Psychiatric Association says gender dysphoria is a mental illness.  The World Health Organization agreed until just a short time ago.  Whether it is or not, the fact remains that special treatment simply points out the problem rather than alleviates it.  What will happen if a child says he doesn't think he should have legs (body dysmorphia)?  Will the school provide a wheelchair for such a child?  What if a kid thinks he is still an infant (infantilism)?  Will playpens and diapers be provided?  This is indeed a denial of reality, and these oh, so tolerant parents are demanding that their children be educated to believe that reality doesn't exist.

3. He made a comparison to special treatment for others, such as Muslims:

Next up?? Yes, next will be a place for Mohamed to wash his little feet and face Mecca three times during the school day[.]

To rub salt in the progressive wound, Mr. Springer is a member of the Pachyderm Club, a Republican organization in the metro east area.  Oh, and his wife is a former president of this radical institution.

This has led to angry school board meetings and protests by people who are identified by the media as parents.  The ringleader is one Ray Roskos, who just so happens to be field director for the Illinois Federation of Teachers.  Roskos used Freedom of Information requests to obtain Springer's private emails and thus launch the jihad.

The Council of American Islamic Relations has moved in, demanding Springer's resignation over "Islamophobic comments made about Muslim children."

Faizan Syed, CAIR-Missouri executive director, had this to say:

Anyone who targets children with this type of derogatory language is unfit to serve on any school board. Mr. Springer should resign immediately[.]

Strange; Islamophobia would be fear of Islam, and yet, if we are to accuse Mr. Springer of anything, it would be quite the opposite.  He was speaking in opposition to special privileges for Muslim children, which evinces little fear.  CAIR's complaint is that Springer is not showing what it feels is the proper deference to Muslims, a common complaint from a people who are imbued with a sense of Muslim privilege.

Maddeningly, every report on this story describes CAIR as a civil rights organization and fails to mention its connections to terrorism.  CAIR has ties to Hamas and was declared a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates.

Oh, and Islam is a religion, not a race.  One chooses it.  There are all manner of people who are Muslim – blond-haired, blue-eyed people from the Balkans, black people from sub-Saharan Africa (think Barack Obama's family), people from Bangladesh, from Indonesia, from the Philippines.  You cannot accuse someone of racism for statements about Islam.  But racism has become the ad hominem attack by the left, and anyone who disagrees with leftists over anything is surely a racist.

This is the Alinskyite tactic of "pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."  Springer, an older American whose speech may be a bit antiquated, had the misfortune of falling afoul of postmodern leftist sensibilities.

I wonder: would CAIR be upset if Mr. Springer had substituted, say, Catholics for Muslims?  Had he said, "What's next – supplying rosary beads and giving out Communion?," would they – or any of these sensitive offendees – have become upset?  It was Springer's choice of Muslims that wound these people up.

And it's interesting to note that CAIR, an Islamic organization, remains strangely silent on Springer's other "sins" here.  The organization berates him for "Islamophobia" but does not mention its own homophobia, which is inherent in Islam.  When ISIS threw gay men off the tops of buildings, it was following Koranic law, and CAIR knows it.  That is because Muhammad said gay people "should be thrown from tremendous height then stoned."  The Taliban used to bury homosexuals in a pit and topple a stone wall on them.  Flogging and even execution were common in places like Saudi Arabia.  I direct you to the Koranic verses 15:73; 7:80-82; 26:165-175; 27:55-58; 29:28-29.

Also, there is a haditha, Sahih Al-Bukhari, from Sunni ahadeeth, in which Muhammad condemns transgenderism:

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas:

The Prophet ... cursed effeminate men (those men who are in the similitude (assume the manners of women) and those women who assume the manners of men, and he said, "Turn them out of your houses." The Prophet ... turned out such-and-such man, and 'Umar turned out such-and-such woman.

So by Islamic standards, Mr. Springer is a defender of Islam, not an enemy.  The good Muslim would stone, or at least cast out, the girl who thinks she's a boy who started this whole progressive Jihad.

And what of the "bigoted" objections by Mr. Springer to a forum promoting social justice warfare to young children?  I hope CAIR has an answer to that, as it is a huge fan of censoring free speech and is always demanding silence from critics of Islam.  Apparently, free speech cuts only one way.

Clearly, the progressives think so.  They demand silence from Springer and those who agree with him, but at the same time, they attack him over free speech "rights."  This is much like the Islamic approach:

Fight against those who do not obey Allah and do not believe in Allah or the Last Day and do not forbid what has been forbidden by Allah and His messenger even if they are of the People of the Book until they pay the Jizya with willing submission and feel themselves subdued. (9:29)

That is exactly why progressives launch these vicious attacks: to wear out the opposition, to make us feel "subdued."

That is why a man who makes a few harmless remarks can be so maligned by the left.  This is civilizational jihad all around.

Read more from Tim and friends at The Aviary: www.tbirdnow.mee.nu.