Imprinting Young Minds With "The Tolerance of The Teachings of Islam"

Please see my post today over at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS.

This ideological war has so very many fronts!

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Some Perspective On Michael Jackson

(See yesterday's political post below this one)

For decades, I liked and continue to like much of Michael Jackson's music. In fact, I wore out two cassette tapes of Thriller and finally got the CD, to which I still listen from time to time.

Michael Jackson was indeed a great musical artist and an amazing dancer (although Sammy Davis, Jr., could dance just as well and so proved in a live concert I attended). Certainly Michael Jackson enjoyed a lot more than fifteen minutes of fame. He was indeed a talented performer.

And, yes, it is a shame that Michael Jackson has died at such a young age. Of course, once the autopsy is completed, we may learn something scandalous as to his cause of death, and his image may be tarnished yet again. Furthermore, if one is honest, one has to admit that he was downright weird: dangling a baby from a window, uttering that "share your bed" line in a nationally televised interview some years ago, and undergoing plastic surgeries until his face no longer resembled himself but rather a decomposing cadaver.

Hat tip to Bloviating Zeppelin for the following video:



Read Bloviating Zeppelin's post HERE.

And let's face it. As Mustang points out in "Commensurate Honorarium," Michael Jackson was not a hero in the same category as Major Ed Freeman or Major Bruce Crandall, both of which are names which few Americans recognize.

Michael Jackson may deserve the title "The King of Pop." But unlike "The King," Elvis Presley, I don't recall this latest fallen superstar's singing one single patriotic song. Correct me if I'm wrong about Michael Jackson's lack of patriotism. (continued below)
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I will enjoy listening to and watching the tributes to Michael Jackson over the next several days. I'll probably even put Thriller on the stereo for another listen, sing along, and dance around the room. I may even get the film Thriller from NetFlix — after a long wait, of course.

It is also interesting to note that, once news of Michael Jackson's death became public, Twitter's ratings of most-frequent Tweets changed: information about what's been happening in Iran, the world's only Islamic theocracy being challenged, dropped way down on the list of "Trending Topics."

In my view, however, Michael Jackson was no American hero. Also in my view, the way America today chooses heroes speaks to the superficiality of our nation and of our culture.

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Mandated Philanthropy

The title here does not refer to the recently enacted bailout bill nor to last night's debate between McCain and Obama. Instead, this title refers to a court ruling ordering the Washington Redskins to provide captions for the hearing impaired available for all the games at FedEx Field. Excerpt from this October 3, 2008 article in the Washington Post:

A federal judge in Greenbelt has ruled that the Redskins must continue to run captioned play-by-play at FedEx Field and begin showing the lyrics of songs played in the stadium to offer deaf and hard-of-hearing fans the full game experience.

The decision mandates that the team do much of what it began doing voluntarily after being sued. The ruling appears to be the first of its kind in the country, and advocates for the deaf and hard-of-hearing said it could lead to challenges at sporting venues around the country....

[...]

The ruling requires that deaf fans also be treated to the lyrics, spelled out on the screens, of such tunes as "Who Let the Dogs Out" in all its repetitive resonance.

U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr. ruled Tuesday that under the Americans With Disabilities Act the Redskins captioning was not optional but required. He said the team had made "what appears to be have been reasonable efforts" to accommodate the hearing-impaired but that the additional steps were needed....

[...]

The judge did not say precisely how equal access should be provided at FedEx Field but noted that the plaintiffs would not be aided by the assisted listening devices the stadium has long provided to patrons who request one.

[...]

In an interview, Redskins General Counsel David Donovan said the team would begin looking for ways to address the judge's remaining concern that deaf fans be able to read the lyrics of music used during cheerleader dance routines....

Because my husband is hard of hearing, completely deaf in one ear and substantially compromised in the other, I pay attention to stories related to deafness and accommodations for those hard of hearing. No doubt, compromised hearing does reduce one's ability to function and to enjoy certain activities. Indeed, my husband's handicap automatically precludes his enjoyment of crowded parties. Must the hosts of the parties we attend also provide captioning? Give me a break!

In my view, the Americans With Disabilities Act is being carried too far. The judge's ruling in the above case is but one example of how ludicrous our courts have become.

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Dhimmitude At Random House

(hat-tip to THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS)

Fear of retaliation and political correctness have led to yet another Twenty-first Century book burning — not in the literal sense, of course. Today, the West is much more sophisticated.

Random House Inc., the world's largest English language trade publisher of fiction, nonfiction, and children's books, has backpedaled from publishing The Jewel of Medina, even though the author had received an advance of $100,000.

The following is the entire essay "You Still Can't Write About Muhammad," published on August 6, 2008, in the Wall Street Journal (emphases mine):

Starting in 2002, Spokane, Wash., journalist Sherry Jones toiled weekends on a racy historical novel about Aisha, the young wife of the prophet Muhammad. Ms. Jones learned Arabic, studied scholarly works about Aisha's life, and came to admire her protagonist as a woman of courage. When Random House bought her novel last year in a $100,000, two-book deal, she was ecstatic. This past spring, she began plans for an eight-city book tour after the Aug. 12 publication date of "The Jewel of Medina" -- a tale of lust, love and intrigue in the prophet's harem.

It's not going to happen: In May, Random House abruptly called off publication of the book. The series of events that torpedoed this novel are a window into how quickly fear stunts intelligent discourse about the Muslim world.

Random House feared the book would become a new "Satanic Verses," the Salman Rushdie novel of 1988 that led to death threats, riots and the murder of the book's Japanese translator, among other horrors. In an interview about Ms. Jones's novel, Thomas Perry, deputy publisher at Random House Publishing Group, said that it "disturbs us that we feel we cannot publish it right now." He said that after sending out advance copies of the novel, the company received "from credible and unrelated sources, cautionary advice not only that the publication of this book might be offensive to some in the Muslim community, but also that it could incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment."

After consulting security experts and Islam scholars, Mr. Perry said the company decided "to postpone publication for the safety of the author, employees of Random House, booksellers and anyone else who would be involved in distribution and sale of the novel."

This saga upsets me as a Muslim -- and as a writer who believes that fiction can bring Islamic history to life in a uniquely captivating and humanizing way. "I'm devastated," Ms. Jones told me after the book got spiked, adding, "I wanted to honor Aisha and all the wives of Muhammad by giving voice to them, remarkable women whose crucial roles in the shaping of Islam have so often been ignored -- silenced -- by historians." Last month, Ms. Jones signed a termination agreement with Random House, so her literary agent could shop the book to other publishers.

This time, the instigator of the trouble wasn't a radical Muslim cleric, but an American academic. In April, looking for endorsements, Random House sent galleys to writers and scholars, including Denise Spellberg, an associate professor of Islamic history at the University of Texas in Austin. Ms. Jones put her on the list because she read Ms. Spellberg's book, "Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr."

But Ms. Spellberg wasn't a fan of Ms. Jones's book. On April 30, Shahed Amanullah, a guest lecturer in Ms. Spellberg's classes and the editor of a popular Muslim Web site, got a frantic call from her. "She was upset," Mr. Amanullah recalls. He says Ms. Spellberg told him the novel "made fun of Muslims and their history," and asked him to warn Muslims.

In an interview, Ms. Spellberg told me the novel is a "very ugly, stupid piece of work." The novel, for example, includes a scene on the night when Muhammad consummated his marriage with Aisha: "the pain of consummation soon melted away. Muhammad was so gentle. I hardly felt the scorpion's sting. To be in his arms, skin to skin, was the bliss I had longed for all my life." Says Ms. Spellberg: "I walked through a metal detector to see 'Last Temptation of Christ,'" the controversial 1980s film adaptation of a novel that depicted a relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. "I don't have a problem with historical fiction. I do have a problem with the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can't play with a sacred history and turn it into soft core pornography."

After he got the call from Ms. Spellberg, Mr. Amanullah dashed off an email to a listserv of Middle East and Islamic studies graduate students, acknowledging he didn't "know anything about it [the book]," but telling them, "Just got a frantic call from a professor who got an advance copy of the forthcoming novel, 'Jewel of Medina' -- she said she found it incredibly offensive." He added a write-up about the book from the Publishers Marketplace, an industry publication.

The next day, a blogger known as Shahid Pradhan posted Mr. Amanullah's email on a Web site for Shiite Muslims -- "Hussaini Youth" -- under a headline, "upcoming book, 'Jewel of Medina': A new attempt to slander the Prophet of Islam." Two hours and 28 minutes after that, another person by the name of Ali Hemani proposed a seven-point strategy to ensure "the writer withdraws this book from the stores and apologise all the muslims across the world."

Meanwhile back in New York City, Jane Garrett, an editor at Random House's Knopf imprint, dispatched an email on May 1 to Knopf executives, telling them she got a phone call the evening before from Ms. Spellberg (who happens to be under contract with Knopf to write "Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an.")

"She thinks there is a very real possibility of major danger for the building and staff and widespread violence," Ms. Garrett wrote. "Denise says it is 'a declaration of war . . . explosive stuff . . . a national security issue.' Thinks it will be far more controversial than the satanic verses and the Danish cartoons. Does not know if the author and Ballantine folks are clueless or calculating, but thinks the book should be withdrawn ASAP." ("The Jewel of Medina" was to be published by Random House's Ballantine Books.) That day, the email spread like wildfire through Random House, which also received a letter from Ms. Spellberg and her attorney, saying she would sue the publisher if her name was associated with the novel. On May 2, a Ballantine editor told Ms. Jones's agent the company decided to possibly postpone publication of the book.

On a May 21 conference call, Random House executive Elizabeth McGuire told the author and her agent that the publishing house had decided to indefinitely postpone publication of the novel for "fear of a possible terrorist threat from extremist Muslims" and concern for "the safety and security of the Random House building and employees."

All this saddens me. Literature moves civilizations forward, and Islam is no exception. There is in fact a tradition of historical fiction in Islam, including such works as "The Adventures of Amir Hamza," an epic on the life of Muhammad's uncle. Last year a 948-page English translation was published, ironically, by Random House. And, for all those who believe the life of the prophet Muhammad can't include stories of lust, anger and doubt, we need only read the Quran (18:110) where, it's said, God instructed Muhammad to tell others: "I am only a mortal like you."

Ms. Nomani, a former Wall Street Journal reporter, is the author of "Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam" (HarperOne, 2006).

You'll note that the above commentary was written by a Moslem and, therefore, provides an important perspective on yet one more Twenty-first Century book burning, one akin to what happened to Alms for Jihad and very nearly to Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld. But in the case of The Jewel of Medina, objections from a powerful Saudi weren't needed. All that was needed: fear, dhimmitude, and political correctness.

The West is committing cultural suicide, inch by inch.

For a fictional take on what the West is doing to itself, read or reread Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451. That 1953 work of dysopian science fiction is no longer fiction and actually seems prophetic now.

(Crossposted to Infidel Bloggers Alliance)

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Arabic Classes In America

[Image source]

Since 9/11, we have heard of the importance of more of us learning to speak Arabic. Indeed, more and more people today are studying the Arabic language, many of these students enrolled in community colleges and prestigious universities as well as uncounted others studying by using software such as Rosetta Stone. I personally know a few young people who have attempted such classes, only to abandon their study of Arabic; the reasons they gave me, their former teacher, were vague but typically included a level of discomfort with the material or the instructor.
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A July 5, 2008 Washington Post commentary, written by a student at Harvard Law School, provides disturbing information about the material offered in such classes:

To study Arabic in America today is to be inducted into a world of longing, abandonment and regret. And that's before you even touch the political issues.

Most maps of the Middle East in "Al-Kitaab" [the curriculum used] do not include Israel, though a substantial minority of Israelis, both Jews and Arabs, are native Arabic speakers. Alongside simple Arabic poems, students read about anti-Western heroes such as Gamal Abdel Nasser.

The DVD that comes with "Al-Kitaab" includes footage of Nasser's mass rallies in Cairo -- including slogans in Arabic and French such as "Brother Nations in Struggle, We Are By Your Side." These scenes of totalitarian rage are fondly described by the narrator as "dreams of his youth."

The accompanying lesson describes the highlights of Nasser's career, including the nationalization of the Suez Canal and the formation of the United Arab Republic. No mention is made of Egypt's defeat in the Six-Day War or of Nasser's brutal, repressive rule. In my class, we were asked to recite a passage about Nasser to practice our vocalization. (I refused.)

The last lesson in the book -- which we skipped -- features Maha's mother speaking wistfully of her childhood in Palestine: "My childhood was taken from me!" Over mournful music on the DVD, she talks about returning to Jerusalem, as if she were a refugee, but the images suggest that she left voluntarily after the Six-Day War, when Israel offered citizenship to the Arab residents of East Jerusalem. The fact that Israel also claims Jerusalem as its capital is ignored.

My class watched three movies this semester, all with political themes. One was "West Beirut," which cast Christians as the prime bad guys in Lebanon's civil war (though, to be fair, there was plenty of hatred all around). Another was "The Tale of Three Jewels," an allegorical film about Palestinian nationalism that portrayed Israeli soldiers as bloodthirsty child-killers.

The third movie, "Destiny," told the story of the great medieval Islamic philosopher Averroes and his struggles against Islamic religious fundamentalism. It was a bit more nuanced than the first two. But the film omitted the fact that it was only through the Hebrew transcription of Averroes's writings by Jewish scholars in Egypt that his works were preserved for posterity.

Friends and relatives who have used "Al-Kitaab" at other American universities report similarly morose experiences.

[...]

...[T]here is something fundamentally wrong with this indoctrination into misery. Most introductory language classes avoid controversial political subjects. In fact, they often highlight the brighter side of different cultures. Particularly with the growing importance of Arabic, can't we do better?

The U.S. government has funded studies on anti-Semitism in Palestinian textbooks. Fairfax county officials have asked the State Department to investigate the teaching materials at a Saudi-funded school. "Al-Kitaab" is published by Georgetown University Press, with some assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Perhaps we should also be looking into the content of the federally funded materials used in Arabic programs at our own universities.

According a friend of mine who studied Arabic as a second language in Saudi Arabia, lessons in The Kingdom included material much unlike primer readers to which most of us are accustomed. Specifically, beginning lessons used phrases such as "The sword is on the table," "The sword is under the table," and "The sword is behind the curtain." Certainly those phrases and their message are quite different from the early readers I encountered as a child, those primers including phrases such as "The cat is on the mat" and "See Spot run"!

Via a Google search of how language shapes thinking, I found the following essay entitled "Semanticide," by William Murchison at Human Life Review 1999:

George Orwell's stress on the distortive possibilities available in language remains fresh because of his descriptive and prophetic powers. Nineteen Eighty-Four sears the recollection, notwithstanding that when the title-year in question actually got here, the distorters-the Soviets-were stumbling toward ruin. Orwell's lesson is clear: Language shapes thinking; thinking shapes action. When language means other than it must, for a particular possibility to reach fruition, somebody is going to propose a new way of talking, and of understanding.

As the West rightly pursues the study of Arabic, precautions must be taken that the classes are not those of indoctrination and propagandizing. Instead, we have institutions such as the Islamic Saudi Academy instructing our military in Arabic. What else is being taught in those Arabic-language classes?

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Our Offensive Pledge Of Allegiance

(With a hat-tip to Brooke of PaleoCon Command Center)

Back when I was in school and, later, when I taught in the traditional classroom, the day began with our Pledge of Allegiance. Those few students who were not American citizens often recited the Pledge, although a few of them merely stood, thereby showing respect for our flag and our nation. A few students even omitted saying "under God," but not many. Never did I hear anyone bring up that students should not participate in the Pledge of Allegiance.
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But according to this source, the principal of a school in Portland, Oregon, took it upon himself to prevent students from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance:

Pledge of Allegiance

Posted: 8:36 AM Jun 11, 2008
Last Updated: 8:36 AM Jun 11, 2008

(CBS) Most children growing up in the US memorize the Pledge of Allegiance. But, in one Oregon elementary school, the kids won't be allowed to recite it at an end of the year assembly.

The principal banned it that day so as not to offend Muslims.

One resident of Portland, Oregon was a little surprised when she received an e-mail from her stepson's school principal.

The e-mail said that the children would not be reciting the pledge because of its reference to God.

Instead, the students would memorize and sing the Preamble to the United States Constitution.

But it's not just non-Muslims who were offended.

At least one Muslim community leader says he feels the same way. Muhammad Najieb says that 'God' is central to the Muslim faith, and there are several references to him in every prayer.

Portland school officials say the principal was trying to be sensitive, but some Muslims say the ban caused hurt feelings, and may foster bitterness and division within the community.

Therewith, I offer these two videos recently posted at The Amboy Times as reminders to the principal in Portland, Oregon:





Be sure to watch all the way to the end of the second video!

I wonder what John Wayne and Red Skelton would have to say about the state of America today, were they still with us. Whatever their comments, they'd be elegant and to the point — and expressive of their contempt for individuals such as that principal in Portland, Oregon.

(Crossposted to THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS)

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Movie Trailer: A Face In The Crowd

A few days, I watched this Elia Kazan movie, perhaps the perfect film for an election year:



I've seen the film several times over the years. No wonder I'm so cynical about politics!

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