There is a lawsuit in federal court in New Jersey against a school that required students to watch this 5-minutes "Introduction to Islam" as part of the World Cultures and Geography course. Under Establishment Clause doctrine, there should be nothing wrong with teaching public school students about religion, but there are some problems with the video. As the plaintiff puts it:
The video, according to the lawsuit, "seeks to convert viewers to Islam and is filled with the religious teachings of Islam, presented not as beliefs, but as facts."I presume the educators who chose this video were thinking in terms of encouraging young people to respect and honor Muslims. The video emphasizes positive achievements — science, art, architecture — and positive values contained in the religion. But it does have the problem of simply asserting that various beliefs are true and seems almost to include the viewer in prayer. The use of hypnotic music throughout the video puts the viewer in a receptive, spiritual condition that is at odds with the justification that students are simply learning a lesson in world culture and geography.
The lawsuit cites statements made in the video, including "Allah is the one God;" "The Quran is a perfect guide for humanity;" "Muslims created a tradition of unsurpassable splendor;" and concludes with "May God help us all find the true faith, Islam."
The text slides are set to a musical version of the poem "Qaseedah Burdah," which the lawsuit says, describes "Christians and Jews as 'infidels' and (praises) Muhammad in gruesome detail for slaughtering them."
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223 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 223 of 223Rick I mentioned no one by name. I addressed my comment to no one in particular. Was I talkin' about you, sport? I didn't know that. I don't know you at all. I'd make no judgments about you.
I'll level with you; I really did have someone in mind with my comment. That someone, was Ann Althouse. Who, as I already wrote, authored a perfectly good, perceptive, inviting blog post. But whose blog, two years into the Trump era, has now attracted a very different sort of audience from when I first began commenting in 2010-11. And I don't think that the self-selected audience is much of an accident.
Jon Burack:
I agree with this statement: I can't stand the idiotic Inga/Attack-Inga exchanges going on here
My purpose was not to attack her, but to try and get her to say something clearly. I try to get her to see the logical inconsistencies of the stuff she posts. I am also, at least initially, trying to help her understand the very stuff she c&p'.
It's fruitless, I know. She just in't smart enough to follow or process what is going on here. That is readily apparent.
She really has no clue what her positions are, evidenced by this thread, and those opinions morph constantly.
Because she won't actually engage and defend her positions cogently and constantly ignores substantive points, I get frustrated.
I honestly feel sorry for her. I think others here share my feelings. But she is an adult, at least age-wise. She brings on and deserves all the scorn and pejoratives she receives. By continuing to point out her duplicity and anti-intellectual scribblings, perhaps others here can learn something from her example, albeit negative it may be.
There are actually people here who want to learn and become better humans. She isn't one of them.
That's very reassuring, Igna. It's also a big fat lie. Until Trump put a stop to it, corrupt scum at the UN decided who would be declared a "refugee", and foisted upon a credulous nation. The State Department had nothing to do with it. The process of bringing these people here, signing them up for welfare, and introducing them to their future victims is handled by a bunch of fake "religious charities", actually run by corruptocrats who pay themselves million-dollar salaries.
CBS News has it basically correct, except for every single word.
No Livermoron, you now are trying to slither away from your pathological need to attack commenters here who you see as in opposition to your world view. You fool no truly intelligent commenters about what your purpose is. You have a problem, I’m not it.
I addressed my comment to no one in particular.
Why do you think your pathetic justifications matter to anyone else?
Was I talkin' about you, sport?
I didn't think you were talking about me toots.
I'll level with you;
Nobody cares.
Jupiter said...
"Good as far as it goes. The problem is, they are not teaching that Islam is the enemy."
I don't really think the schools should frame it as "Islam is the enemy", but if you feel the need to combat Islam, it is important to know what it is.
For that one percent the next step has been this State Department resettlement center in Amman for a background check led by specially trained Department of Homeland Security interrogators.
Yep, and WalMart has specially trained shelf placement representatives.
Here's the key problem though:
They’re fleeing the terrorists who killed their family members, who destroyed their houses. These are the victims that we are helping through our program.
The idea that we can effectively screen people from a war zone controlled by an uncooperative government is laughable. You mean we ask them if they're going to kill anyone three separate times? Well I'm satisfied. Why do people assert this nonsense as if it's effective? Because they don't care about the vetting, they only care about gaining power with more government clients (and eventually votes) brings.
We're relying on these people being attacked as a proxy for their supporting us, but this isn't true. The enemy of my enemy is not my friend.
Further once here they will immediately and forever be propagandized that their suffering is our fault. Maybe because we did intervene in Libya, because we didn't intervene in Syria, because of Desert Storm, because of the Shah, because Jews, because Christians, because we're too hard on gays, because we're too supportive of gays, because we're too prude, because we're too slutty, there will always be something. Maybe they'll believe it because they don't have a job, maybe because the left hates assimilation and pushes them to identify ethnically and they reject moderation as assimilation. That doesn't matter either. What matters is that we know what the outcome will be in any decent size population.
All you have to do is look at Europe to see the result.
LLR Chuck: "And I don't think that the self-selected audience is much of an accident."
Lefty ally Chuck decides to go all in with additional conspiracy theories!
Well played #StrongDemDefender!
JaimeRoberto said...
"I don't really think the schools should frame it as "Islam is the enemy", but if you feel the need to combat Islam, it is important to know what it is."
I see it the other way around. Once you know what it is, you start to feel the need to combat it. You may not be interested in Islam, but Islam is interested in you.
UN and US "vetting" of Syrian refugee's and others is a complete and utter farce.
We have no data on Syrians: fingerprints, arrest records, travel history, etc.
We have no idea if they are who they say they are and the UN is more of a joke. That is, when the UN reps aren't raping kids.
https://thinkprogress.org/the-united-nations-has-a-rape-problem-7751a2bf25ac/
Even the sainted Comey said the same thing about vetting of Syrian refugee's before coming here: "“There won’t be anything in our database,” FBI head James Comey cautioned Congress last month. “So I can’t sit here and offer anybody an absolute assurance that — there’s no risk associated with this.”
BTW, have you seen the astonishing numbers of "young" refugees?
http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/13/when-underage-refugees-look-anything-but-age-tests-sweden/
Blogger Rick said...
"All you have to do is look at Europe to see the result."
That is the bottom line, and that is why it is very difficult for me to believe that people who argue for tolerance and acceptance of Islam do so in good faith. The unwillingness of Muslims to integrate into Western societies is an established fact. The destructive effect they have on those societies is known and documented. These are not matters for debate. The only remaining question is what can be done about them.
Islam is a fatal disease. No one who argues that contracting a fatal disease is in your interest does so in good faith.
"(redacted)'s name would certainly have never come up today on this blog, but for Fabi's 8:51 am comment, which was purely intended as a personal attack on me.
It never would have been mentioned at all if you hadn't first used it in your sleazy attack. You're a real piece of shit, Cuck. You made the initial post with malice toward an adolescent. You own it.
Advise tour leaders not to hand out yarmulkes in a temple, for example. In a mosque, students can dress modestly out of respect, but avoid taking the next step of requiring girls to cover their hair.
How about when they demand you take your shoes off before you enter the mosque? Yes or no?
Their whole shtick is nothing more or less than getting you to submit. That's what Islam really, literally means, submission.
Chuck, is there any human alive whose opinion you would respect, if they told you that you were out of line?
Secularists shouldn't even attempt to teach religion. Any religion.
I wish that they would let me teach about izalm. The materials would be somewhat different!
If you try to attack me with this story, I will defend myself without reservation and that will inevitably involve much more discussion of Barron Trump -- by name -- than some of you would like.
How dare you accuse me of harming a child! If you don't stop I'm going to continue to harm this innocent child!
I don't want my grandchildren or my grandchildren's grandchildren or any descendant ever to honor and respect muslims. I want them educated and innoculated against the false beliefs of the pedophile war chief who founded the false religion, and be prepared to war against muslims whenever and wherever they attempt to establish the ummah.
I can foresee in my lifetime a need arising to send in troops to enforce the Constitution in Dearbornistan.
Don't need to worry about my children. They're innoculated already.
Gahrie said...
If you try to attack me with this story, I will defend myself without reservation and that will inevitably involve much more discussion of Barron Trump -- by name -- than some of you would like.
How dare you accuse me of harming a child! If you don't stop I'm going to continue to harm this innocent child!
1/29/18, 7:17 PM
He's like a brave warrior! A Palestinian hero!
Gospace said...
"I want them educated and innoculated against the false beliefs of the pedophile war chief who founded the false religion, and be prepared to war against muslims whenever and wherever they attempt to establish the ummah."
I agree. So let's start with this idea that there actually was some guy named Muhammad and he founded the religion known as Islam. There is very little evidence for that proposition. It is far more likely that the whole gruesome tale was cooked up a century or so after it didn't happen.
Ha, ha, ha, Inga wants me to believe CBS News.
"Their irises are scanned to establish their identity."
Because every Syrian has had a previous iris scan, during which his or her identity was conclusively established by birth records, driver's license, passport, etc.
The use of hypnotic music throughout the video puts the viewer in a receptive, spiritual condition
The music was interesting at first and quickly became annoying.
Bollywood has way better music.
Christianity has way better music, too.
Both those forms of music are joyful. I didn't get a lot of joy out of that music.
One of the basic problems with Muhammad is that he believes that God revealed to him that war is a holy thing.
War is not a holy thing.
Even in this video, which tries very hard to suggest that Islam is a religion of peace, Muhammad is described as a warrior. It's a problem when people believe that killing is a path to God.
It's not. He's wrong. Killing will always be a sin against the Lord. We should always beg forgiveness when we kill, and tremble in fear that we have offended God. Because we are all children of God. So it cannot make the Lord happy when we kill our brother, or our sister.
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