CAIR complains of incident at Damascus ES

[Anonymous]

I wonder if it was a poem by one of the poets who was killed, along with his family.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinians-mourn-gaza-poet-educator-killed-israeli-strike-2023-12-08/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just want to know what the poem was! And I'm Jewish! Why is it such a secret? There's no point in having opinions if we sm don't even know the poem.

I don't think it's a secret. We just don't currently know what it is.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Freedom of speech. That said, if this child were reading something to incite hatred on either side I would have spoken up.
Clearly, I am in the minority and believe Israel has every right to defend itself.

'

No wonder Israel has killed so many 2nd graders. Even poems are a threat.

So the heckler was the Israeli government?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

what words did they read? Is it bullying if the readers were speaking words calling for the destruction of Israel? Why don’t they name the poem?

Are you seriously attempting to justify an adult interrupting and intimidating a 2nd grader?

so if a second grader read something anti lgbt you’d be upset if anyone interrupts?

Given that I am adult, I would hold myself to adult standards of behavior. I guess your mileage must vary. If I was offended by a 2nd grader, I would first question my sanity and then, in the worst imaginable case, complain to the principal.

Pretend the child read a passage from a book by Clayton Bigsby. Would you sit quietly and show how tolerant you are of horrible racism or would you screech loudly to express your disdain. I'm guessing option 2.

No, I would never stoop so low as to publicly humiliate a 2nd grader. Do you people who are in favor of heckling 2nd graders hear yourselves? Everyone has lots of "what ifs". What if this, what if that. What if it was your kid? What if your kid was doing something you thought was perfectly find and another parent disagreed? How would feel about an adult attacking them?

As I said earlier, I guess I'm just less tolerant of racism than you are, even when it's coming from an adult and filtered though a child.

At the root, the problem is that people like you seem unwilling to even contemplate a world in which Palestinians are real human beings, with art and poetry and literature beyond war.

When you have so dehumanized a group that you can't even imagine them as fully formed people, you get comments like the ones on this thread where everyone is assuming a 7-year-old was calling for jihad rather than considering an adult was out of control.

well if we were told what the poem was we wouldn’t be doing this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

what words did they read? Is it bullying if the readers were speaking words calling for the destruction of Israel? Why don’t they name the poem?

Are you seriously attempting to justify an adult interrupting and intimidating a 2nd grader?

so if a second grader read something anti lgbt you’d be upset if anyone interrupts?

Given that I am adult, I would hold myself to adult standards of behavior. I guess your mileage must vary. If I was offended by a 2nd grader, I would first question my sanity and then, in the worst imaginable case, complain to the principal.

Pretend the child read a passage from a book by Clayton Bigsby. Would you sit quietly and show how tolerant you are of horrible racism or would you screech loudly to express your disdain. I'm guessing option 2.

No, I would never stoop so low as to publicly humiliate a 2nd grader. Do you people who are in favor of heckling 2nd graders hear yourselves? Everyone has lots of "what ifs". What if this, what if that. What if it was your kid? What if your kid was doing something you thought was perfectly find and another parent disagreed? How would feel about an adult attacking them?

As I said earlier, I guess I'm just less tolerant of racism than you are, even when it's coming from an adult and filtered though a child.

At the root, the problem is that people like you seem unwilling to even contemplate a world in which Palestinians are real human beings, with art and poetry and literature beyond war.

When you have so dehumanized a group that you can't even imagine them as fully formed people, you get comments like the ones on this thread where everyone is assuming a 7-year-old was calling for jihad rather than considering an adult was out of control.

well if we were told what the poem was we wouldn’t be doing this

No. That's just more words. Brown children and Muslims are presumed guilty first. You'll just find another excuse to justify the heckling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

what words did they read? Is it bullying if the readers were speaking words calling for the destruction of Israel? Why don’t they name the poem?

Are you seriously attempting to justify an adult interrupting and intimidating a 2nd grader?

so if a second grader read something anti lgbt you’d be upset if anyone interrupts?

Given that I am adult, I would hold myself to adult standards of behavior. I guess your mileage must vary. If I was offended by a 2nd grader, I would first question my sanity and then, in the worst imaginable case, complain to the principal.

Pretend the child read a passage from a book by Clayton Bigsby. Would you sit quietly and show how tolerant you are of horrible racism or would you screech loudly to express your disdain. I'm guessing option 2.

No, I would never stoop so low as to publicly humiliate a 2nd grader. Do you people who are in favor of heckling 2nd graders hear yourselves? Everyone has lots of "what ifs". What if this, what if that. What if it was your kid? What if your kid was doing something you thought was perfectly find and another parent disagreed? How would feel about an adult attacking them?

As I said earlier, I guess I'm just less tolerant of racism than you are, even when it's coming from an adult and filtered though a child.

At the root, the problem is that people like you seem unwilling to even contemplate a world in which Palestinians are real human beings, with art and poetry and literature beyond war.

When you have so dehumanized a group that you can't even imagine them as fully formed people, you get comments like the ones on this thread where everyone is assuming a 7-year-old was calling for jihad rather than considering an adult was out of control.

well if we were told what the poem was we wouldn’t be doing this

No. That's just more words. Brown children and Muslims are presumed guilty first. You'll just find another excuse to justify the heckling.

I haven't made any judgements. It does seem like there's a cover up with the poem. Doesn't anyone here have it to share with us? I like Islamic poetry and am learning Arabic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

what words did they read? Is it bullying if the readers were speaking words calling for the destruction of Israel? Why don’t they name the poem?

Are you seriously attempting to justify an adult interrupting and intimidating a 2nd grader?

so if a second grader read something anti lgbt you’d be upset if anyone interrupts?

Given that I am adult, I would hold myself to adult standards of behavior. I guess your mileage must vary. If I was offended by a 2nd grader, I would first question my sanity and then, in the worst imaginable case, complain to the principal.

Pretend the child read a passage from a book by Clayton Bigsby. Would you sit quietly and show how tolerant you are of horrible racism or would you screech loudly to express your disdain. I'm guessing option 2.

No, I would never stoop so low as to publicly humiliate a 2nd grader. Do you people who are in favor of heckling 2nd graders hear yourselves? Everyone has lots of "what ifs". What if this, what if that. What if it was your kid? What if your kid was doing something you thought was perfectly find and another parent disagreed? How would feel about an adult attacking them?

As I said earlier, I guess I'm just less tolerant of racism than you are, even when it's coming from an adult and filtered though a child.

At the root, the problem is that people like you seem unwilling to even contemplate a world in which Palestinians are real human beings, with art and poetry and literature beyond war.

When you have so dehumanized a group that you can't even imagine them as fully formed people, you get comments like the ones on this thread where everyone is assuming a 7-year-old was calling for jihad rather than considering an adult was out of control.

well if we were told what the poem was we wouldn’t be doing this

No. That's just more words. Brown children and Muslims are presumed guilty first. You'll just find another excuse to justify the heckling.

I haven't made any judgements. It does seem like there's a cover up with the poem. Doesn't anyone here have it to share with us? I like Islamic poetry and am learning Arabic.

I'm wondering if it's this, but I don't know:

https://www.pw.org/content/if_i_must_die_by_refaat_alareer_read_by_brian_cox

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

Why can't they refer to the actual poem? We can't assume that the people doing the heckling were bullies or bigots because we don't know what words in that poem were being said. A lot of people heckled Trump for the terrible things he would say in public; and barely anyone batted an eye. Words have meaning and power.

Why can't you entertain for just a second that maybe an adult behaved badly? Islamophobia exists, just as do other forms of bigotry. It amazes me that folks on this board seem so ready to just assume a child was calling for jihad, rather than considering that maybe the adult was the one out of line. Moreover, it's painful to see that what appears to have been a child actually trying to share his culture ended in him being made to feel like his was the only culture that could not be recognized.

Look at this quote from the mom of the child who was publicly embarrassed. How can you not feel for them?

"I wish more people would come and talk to us. And ask us questions. Break the stereotypes about us and come and talk to us. We are not bad people.”

Humiliating a child is terrible, I agree with that; however, something in that poem triggered outrage from some people in the audience. We should know what was in that poem. And I absolutely believe that an adult was responsible for all of this and they should be ashamed for using a kid to push their political agenda.

Okay, but why so quick to assume that the child said something offensive rather than even considering for a moment that the adult who cut the kid off before he even got started was actually the problem?

There's this tremendous lack of grace being extended to an actual child, and all the benefit of the doubt being extended to the adult in the scenario. That's the bias at work.

I think people just want to know what's in the poem. I can't imagine here in Montgomery County in this day and age where people would heckle a 2nd grader for reading a beautiful or innocent poem. That's why people want to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

Why can't they refer to the actual poem? We can't assume that the people doing the heckling were bullies or bigots because we don't know what words in that poem were being said. A lot of people heckled Trump for the terrible things he would say in public; and barely anyone batted an eye. Words have meaning and power.

Why can't you entertain for just a second that maybe an adult behaved badly? Islamophobia exists, just as do other forms of bigotry. It amazes me that folks on this board seem so ready to just assume a child was calling for jihad, rather than considering that maybe the adult was the one out of line. Moreover, it's painful to see that what appears to have been a child actually trying to share his culture ended in him being made to feel like his was the only culture that could not be recognized.

Look at this quote from the mom of the child who was publicly embarrassed. How can you not feel for them?

"I wish more people would come and talk to us. And ask us questions. Break the stereotypes about us and come and talk to us. We are not bad people.”

Humiliating a child is terrible, I agree with that; however, something in that poem triggered outrage from some people in the audience. We should know what was in that poem. And I absolutely believe that an adult was responsible for all of this and they should be ashamed for using a kid to push their political agenda.

Okay, but why so quick to assume that the child said something offensive rather than even considering for a moment that the adult who cut the kid off before he even got started was actually the problem?

There's this tremendous lack of grace being extended to an actual child, and all the benefit of the doubt being extended to the adult in the scenario. That's the bias at work.

I think people just want to know what's in the poem. I can't imagine here in Montgomery County in this day and age where people would heckle a 2nd grader for reading a beautiful or innocent poem. That's why people want to know.

Let's push on that a little further. You can't imagine here in Montgomery County in this day and age someone heckling a child for an innocent poem.

But you can imagine a 7-year-old proclaiming jihad.

That's what you're telling us, that you can't imagine an adult behaving badly, but you can imagine a kid who was still taking an afternoon nap 2 years ago calling for war.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

Why can't they refer to the actual poem? We can't assume that the people doing the heckling were bullies or bigots because we don't know what words in that poem were being said. A lot of people heckled Trump for the terrible things he would say in public; and barely anyone batted an eye. Words have meaning and power.

Why can't you entertain for just a second that maybe an adult behaved badly? Islamophobia exists, just as do other forms of bigotry. It amazes me that folks on this board seem so ready to just assume a child was calling for jihad, rather than considering that maybe the adult was the one out of line. Moreover, it's painful to see that what appears to have been a child actually trying to share his culture ended in him being made to feel like his was the only culture that could not be recognized.

Look at this quote from the mom of the child who was publicly embarrassed. How can you not feel for them?

"I wish more people would come and talk to us. And ask us questions. Break the stereotypes about us and come and talk to us. We are not bad people.”

Humiliating a child is terrible, I agree with that; however, something in that poem triggered outrage from some people in the audience. We should know what was in that poem. And I absolutely believe that an adult was responsible for all of this and they should be ashamed for using a kid to push their political agenda.

Okay, but why so quick to assume that the child said something offensive rather than even considering for a moment that the adult who cut the kid off before he even got started was actually the problem?

There's this tremendous lack of grace being extended to an actual child, and all the benefit of the doubt being extended to the adult in the scenario. That's the bias at work.

I think people just want to know what's in the poem. I can't imagine here in Montgomery County in this day and age where people would heckle a 2nd grader for reading a beautiful or innocent poem. That's why people want to know.

Let's push on that a little further. You can't imagine here in Montgomery County in this day and age someone heckling a child for an innocent poem.

But you can imagine a 7-year-old proclaiming jihad.

That's what you're telling us, that you can't imagine an adult behaving badly, but you can imagine a kid who was still taking an afternoon nap 2 years ago calling for war.

+1 this

[Anonymous]

Most people here don’t understand poetry. Being from a politically charged area like Palestine, I would have explained the poem and its meaning before reciting it, so people don’t misunderstand my actions.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeremy any concern from you that the CAIR official , Zainab Chaudry is herself an antisemite and got suspended from the md hate crimes commission for her antisemitic comments ?

Who is Jeremy? I am concerned about the topic of this thread which is an adult publicly heckling a 2nd grader at a school event. We can discuss random anti-semites and random anti-Islam bigots in other threads.

we have no idea what the poem was and no clarity on what the supposed “heckling” was. but we SURE see that there are only certain threads like this that JSteele chooses to comment on.

How many threads on DCUM involve adults approving of hecking 2nd graders at school events? I'm sure that i've commented on all of them.

zero comments from you on the JR thread, with video evidence, and don’t try to pretend it was HS v elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freedom of speech. That said, if this child were reading something to incite hatred on either side I would have spoken up.
Clearly, I am in the minority and believe Israel has every right to defend itself.

Freedom of Speech involves the government regulating speech. In the context of public schools, they have fairly broad latitude to place limits if they are viewpoint-neutral and in the name of not disrupting the educational process. It's why they can ban students from wearing t-shirts with naked people on them, even though that same t-shirt is not illegal if they are walking down a public street across from the school.

I have no idea what ground rules were set in this case, but as long as they were not viewpoint-specific, then there is probably not a free speech claim here.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeremy any concern from you that the CAIR official , Zainab Chaudry is herself an antisemite and got suspended from the md hate crimes commission for her antisemitic comments ?

Who is Jeremy? I am concerned about the topic of this thread which is an adult publicly heckling a 2nd grader at a school event. We can discuss random anti-semites and random anti-Islam bigots in other threads.

we have no idea what the poem was and no clarity on what the supposed “heckling” was. but we SURE see that there are only certain threads like this that JSteele chooses to comment on.

How many threads on DCUM involve adults approving of hecking 2nd graders at school events? I'm sure that i've commented on all of them.

zero comments from you on the JR thread, with video evidence, and don’t try to pretend it was HS v elementary school.

Correct, unlike posters here I did not jump in to defend the adults who clearly behaved inappropriately. I assume that since you have been quiet with regard to the heckler in this case, you are in favor heckling 2nd graders but oppose heckling high schoolers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The big issue here isn't just that some bigot decided to engage in Islamophomic bullying, it's that the administration sat by and did nothing. There will always be bullies and bigots but when folks with power choose to side with them, then you have a court case on your hand.

what words did they read? Is it bullying if the readers were speaking words calling for the destruction of Israel? Why don’t they name the poem?

Are you seriously attempting to justify an adult interrupting and intimidating a 2nd grader?

Was the 2nd grader calling for jihad?

DP we've already discussed this ad nauseum. This news just broke. At this time, we don't know what poem was read or whether it included any offensive content. We have no reason to believe the poem was hateful or offensive. It seems unlikely that CAIR would call attention to this if it involves a 2nd grader calling for jihad.

And let's say for the sake of argument that the 2nd grader was calling for jihad. I'd hope that rather than letting a child be heckled, a staff member would stop the reading and offer space for impacted students to discuss the hate speech with a counselor.