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Teaching Arabic in NY = Islamic Fundamentalism (!)
Glyph
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http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/04/arabic.school/index.html
A public school in New York that plans to teach Arabic language and culture has come under controversy because it will purportedly prevent immigrants from assimilating into America culture.
On the one hand, this conclusion seems somewhat paranoid for a city that prides itself in diversity and it isn't like we couldn't use more translators and people who have at least a quaint familiarity with Middle Eastern cultures.
Then again, it is taxpayer money and maybe the "Stop the Madrassa" group really just wants to prevent the Khalil Gibran International Academy from opening on the grounds that they believe it will become a religious institution, which they might oppose regardless of the culture. Thoughts?
A public school in New York that plans to teach Arabic language and culture has come under controversy because it will purportedly prevent immigrants from assimilating into America culture.
On the one hand, this conclusion seems somewhat paranoid for a city that prides itself in diversity and it isn't like we couldn't use more translators and people who have at least a quaint familiarity with Middle Eastern cultures.
Then again, it is taxpayer money and maybe the "Stop the Madrassa" group really just wants to prevent the Khalil Gibran International Academy from opening on the grounds that they believe it will become a religious institution, which they might oppose regardless of the culture. Thoughts?
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Teaching Arabian culture : Teaching Islam
Teaching Spanish culture : Teaching ____
A) Catholicism
C) The due process clause of the 14th amendment.
D) What really happened at the Alamo, and why we should forget.
Show your work.
Ha. I love what that translates into. Really captures the essence of this group.
How is that not exactly the same thing?
Madrassa translates to "school", I suppose? :P
Because we need to support our troops. Children who are interested in the world and wish to achieve a well rounded education can go screw, though. Why don't they join the army if they're so interested in the middle east, hmm?
and shoot them"
They did a special on it on NPR this morning. One thing that surprised me was none of the kids classifeid themselves as Middle Eastern. If this were a religious school there's an enourmous Arab community in downtoawn brooklyn that would have likely tried to get their kids into it. The bulk of the parents simply wanted their kids to go ot a smaller school with some variety and individual attention.
That it does.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
While NY is the cultural metropolitan melting pot for the States, to think even for a moment that Muslims in NY have it easy in post 9/11 is a joke.
I don't understand how Yanks can bust on Maddrasses in the US when American public schools are producing students that can't even memorize multiplication tables. If these fucking retards want to protest something in their schools, how about protesting the abject horror that is the American public school system and the army of idiocy it is producing?
America...land of hypocritical minutia. Welcome to the idiocy. Parking available.
Why the United States is fairer to Muslims than “Eurabia†is.
If we're reviled in the International community, what would that make France? At least we aren't shunting them off into ghettos and then ignoring them until they riot and burn a few cars every now and again.
Oh France definitally has it's share of woes. The effects of post-colonial imperialism has taken its toll on the powers that be. England has had its trials and tribulations with Indian, Fuji and Paki immigrants, though I would say it has done a far better job at assimilation that France. France is getting the picture now at the end of the ghetto/unemployment riots. Yet Germany and England both have thriving Muslim communities, as does Spain. There is more social tolerance and less insitutional racism involved than here in America.
The Ecoomist op/ed had some great points, many of which I agree. But having lived abroad for a number of years, seeing the differences between Europe and America, I see the European approach to dealing with the Muslim community getting better - or worse, depending how close you get to former eastern bloc countries.
Then again...France is France. I have always said that France would be a wonderful country to live in if it werent for the French.
So long as they don't challenge the status quo and try to put up some minarets. That was one of the main thrusts of the article. We are hardly superior, we have some of the same 'zoning' issues that discriminate against mosque's being built, but so does europe. To act as if they are a bastion of progressive tolerance is just blinding yourself to reality. They have as much social tolerance as we do, and just as much intolerance.
Hmmmm...not in my experience, and certainly not something to be based on one op/ed from the Economist. Having lived and worked on both shores as a journalist I have seen the fallout from both shores. In the post 9/11 layout of the world stage that is Muslim rights, there is more to be seen on the ground than through the filter of a magazine article.
Both the US and Europe can do it better, but then again we could all do it better.
Why are you assuming I've only ever read one article? And mind pointing to instances of this great social tolerance which Europe seems to have and we seem to lack? Is it where they ban garish cartoons because it might piss off some people and lead to another Theo Van Gogh?
But heaven forbid people actually look at the things they are protesting, rather than having a knee-jerk reaction to the word "Arabian" :x Besides, the US is the most important culture in the world, why should our kids have to learn about other places? :roll:
I don't know... it doesn't surprise me any more. You're not going to change these people's minds with silly things like facts.
Heh, time for a blood pressure check, imo. Take it easy mate, just my opinion and an opinion you do not obviously share.
So there aren't any. Gotcha. And I'm not getting worked up, I just really don't like the perpetuation of 'Europe is a utopia compared to those poor brutish bigots in America' myth. But hey, it's just an opinion afterall. Not like we should discuss and/or debate its merits here.
Oh, do they have a sense of humor.
I have no idea what you're saying with that first sentence, but yeah, the second one (IE, a 'Canadian' 'Enclave' in a foreign nation) does make me uneasy as well. For similar reasons. The people there would be more likely to actively resist interference of the nation's police/government since they're 'protecting their own'. Even if it's a nation who have laws I abhor, going to that nation means you agree to live under those laws for the duration of your stay.
What cartoons are these? The Jyllands-Posten ones? If so, man are you wrong.