CAIR complains of incident at Damascus ES

[Anonymous]

Even the immediate assumptions that some of you are making that the 7yo read a poem a out jihad reeks of Islamophobia. You really need to reflect on the way your minds jump to such hateful and ignorant conclusions. It is disgusting and dehumanizing.

[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.

Yes, because that poster has been raised with generations of hateful stereotypes and lies about Muslims and Palestinians. Stereotypes that justify murder and abuse and carnage.

To that poster "those people" are different and she can not empathize with them. Cannot and will not reject the brainwashing she's endured to justify dehumanization of these people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even the immediate assumptions that some of you are making that the 7yo read a poem a out jihad reeks of Islamophobia. You really need to reflect on the way your minds jump to such hateful and ignorant conclusions. It is disgusting and dehumanizing.

Well the facts we have are that the kid and parent read from a poem. We are not being told what the poem is. The CAIR official bringing this was punished for her own antisemitic comments

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the immediate assumptions that some of you are making that the 7yo read a poem a out jihad reeks of Islamophobia. You really need to reflect on the way your minds jump to such hateful and ignorant conclusions. It is disgusting and dehumanizing.

Well the facts we have are that the kid and parent read from a poem. We are not being told what the poem is. The CAIR official bringing this was punished for her own antisemitic comments

What does that have to do with jihad?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the immediate assumptions that some of you are making that the 7yo read a poem a out jihad reeks of Islamophobia. You really need to reflect on the way your minds jump to such hateful and ignorant conclusions. It is disgusting and dehumanizing.

Well the facts we have are that the kid and parent read from a poem. We are not being told what the poem is. The CAIR official bringing this was punished for her own antisemitic comments

What does that have to do with jihad?

let’s say it isn’t but it is about lamenting the nakba or something like that. Do you think it’s appropriate for an international night that people expressing upset at the existence of another country? What if a parent or child there is from that country?

[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.

Hypothetically, suppose the poem was,

"America! America!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
From sea to shining sea!
From the river to the sea,
Palestine will be free."

If you can't imagine an MCPS parent heckling a reading of that poem, and heckling only half of it but not the other half, you haven't been paying attention to what's been going on.

This comment will probably draw hecklers!

[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.

The OP is presuming the non-Muslim guilty, literally demanding an apology before an investigation is conducted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the immediate assumptions that some of you are making that the 7yo read a poem a out jihad reeks of Islamophobia. You really need to reflect on the way your minds jump to such hateful and ignorant conclusions. It is disgusting and dehumanizing.

Well the facts we have are that the kid and parent read from a poem. We are not being told what the poem is. The CAIR official bringing this was punished for her own antisemitic comments

What does that have to do with jihad?

let’s say it isn’t but it is about lamenting the nakba or something like that. Do you think it’s appropriate for an international night that people expressing upset at the existence of another country? What if a parent or child there is from that country?

Lamenting the nakba (something that was flat out wrongly denied for a generation) is different from being upset about the existence of a country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So if it were over jihad you are more upset about humiliating a second grader than a call for jihad in school by a second grader? Can’t even rule this possibility out because they don’t tell us which poem it is

Why so focused on hypotheticals? It's extremely unlikely that this was an explicit call for jihad in part because that's not how poetry works. If anything, it was a lament for lost olive groves or something. But if you are the type of person who experiences any Palestinian suffering as an anti-semitic attack, of course, you were going to think that a lament for lost Olive groves is actually a call for jihad.

That's not how poetry works? Bro what?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/06/08/battle-lines-jihad-creswell-and-haykel

[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.

The OP is presuming the non-Muslim guilty, literally demanding an apology before an investigation is conducted.

Which op?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm wondering what the poem would need to say to justify a person heckling AND the administration doing nothing. Let's say the kid was calling for Jihad or murdering Jewish people. Should the admin just stand by while the kid gets heckled? Is heckling our official response to hate speech?

Look, you've got the anti-Israeli side, and anti-Palestinian side, but one thing we are unified on is being anti-MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Not enough information. Oh, and the incident, whatever it might have been, happened a month ago, why are their raising hell right now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The OP is presuming the non-Muslim guilty, literally demanding an apology before an investigation is conducted.

Which op?

The CAIR OP

https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-calls-for-investigation-public-apology-following-anti-palestinian-incident-at-maryland-public-school/

not the submitter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even the immediate assumptions that some of you are making that the 7yo read a poem a out jihad reeks of Islamophobia. You really need to reflect on the way your minds jump to such hateful and ignorant conclusions. It is disgusting and dehumanizing.

Well the facts we have are that the kid and parent read from a poem. We are not being told what the poem is. The CAIR official bringing this was punished for her own antisemitic comments

What does that have to do with jihad?

let’s say it isn’t but it is about lamenting the nakba or something like that. Do you think it’s appropriate for an international night that people expressing upset at the existence of another country? What if a parent or child there is from that country?

Lamenting the nakba (something that was flat out wrongly denied for a generation) is different from being upset about the existence of a country.

+1, and I actually strongly suspect the poem was something along these lines (I'm the PP who said it was likely something about lost olive groves or something). The problem is that Palestinians have been subjected to so much dehumanization that even acknowledging that they, as a group, also suffered a trauma, is experienced by some folks as offensive.

It's a real shame, because at the heart of this story is a very young child who presumably thought he could share his culture with his classmates. I feel for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even the immediate assumptions that some of you are making that the 7yo read a poem a out jihad reeks of Islamophobia. You really need to reflect on the way your minds jump to such hateful and ignorant conclusions. It is disgusting and dehumanizing.

Stop, it’s anti-Islam hate, not Islamophobia. They hate, not fear.