Conservative dad threatens ‘****storm’ if daughter’s world history class includes Islam

It seems odd and not at all "denying Ignorance" to discount a culture responsible for the formation of higher mathematics.
Soap, Distillation, the arch, inoculations and many other things modern society values.

I'm particullary fond of Distillation....

I think the most of you are wrong! History Is made by the people of their times not their religion. The history of a religion has nothing to do with the history of a country. If talking about the Middle East the predominant people were race led ie. Arabs, Jews, Egyptians and other races. Their religion is just an aside. Like when talking about Romans persecuting the Jews, they were persecuting them for being Jews not because of their Abrahamic religion. A prime example for you. When the teachers teach about the 2nd world war with the Japanese will they also teach about Shinto? I think not. When they talk of the Roman empire do they give their pupils a in depth lesson on the Roman pantheon of gods? No they do not, they just treat the Roman pantheon of gods as an aside, as it should be. There should be no reason whatsoever to teach children about any religion(unless it's a faith school) as it could be construed as indoctrination, subtle but indoctrination all the same. If religion is to be taught in a history class all religions should be discussed at once with no preference given to one or the other.

a reply to: olaru12

In all fairness, those things were "discovered" or at least expanded on in a meaningful way during the Golden age of Islam when it held parts of Europe and from cultural centers in Europe. European minds contributed to all that. Also the Phoenicians were the originators to most those things, some while under the influence and rule of Alexanders empire. First civilizations like Babylon are the originators of others....not exactly Islam.

Just saying.

Also, The star of Islam is the star of the Tartessian civilization......many things were taken from them since Islam first entered Europe in the area of the former Tartessian civilization. Before that they drew heavily from the moon cults of the ME and that only stagnated their development in areas of math, architecture and others.

a reply to: crayzeed

So when the subject of the Crusades comes up, are we to just say that a bunch of Europeans got mad that a bunch of Middle Easterners invaded a Middle Eastern city? How shall we go about discussing the Renaissance then? I'd also really like to hear you describe Feudalism from the Middle Ages without mentioning Catholicism.

Was the Inquisition just a bunch of pissed of Spaniards or something?

a reply to: crayzeed

Just a note: My teacher taught about Shinto.

And the pantheon of Roman gods.

And the Nordic pantheon.

And Buddhism.

a reply to: olaru12

Leaving aside the appropriateness of this guy's actions for a minute -

I think most people do under-estimate Islam's important role in history - and it *is* an important one - Islamic scholars, mathematicians, architects, etc made many contributions of their own, as well as helping to preserve a lot of Western learning that might've been lost during the Dark Ages (not ignoring Islam's role in bringing down many Western European institutions in the first place) - it is an important part of history.

That said, I haven't read the history book they're using - but I did review an APUSH (AP US History) textbook - and I gotta say, it was kind of disgusting - apparently the only noteworthy event in WW2 was the use of atomic weapons to slaughter Japanese civilians ("Discussion topic: Was the US use of nuclear weapons on Japanese cities racist or just inhuman?") - then, skipping past Korea and the US in the 50's to the 60's, and to Martin Luther King - who was a bit of a doddering Uncle Tom, whose only accomplishment was to get assassinated, so let's only spend 1 page on him, but Malcolm X, he had it going on, let's spend a whole chapter talking about *him* and Black Nationalism.

Only a very slight exaggeration - if the textbook they're using at the school is as bad as that US History book, well, the guy has a legitimate complaint (note I said "if".)

Oh, and enough with the "Fox News watchers are uninformed idiots" trope - sometimes, during the daytime, Fox is the only station with actual news - MSNBC is obsessed with politics, and discusses little actual news, and CNN overly obsesses on one story - if you want 24-hour coverage of Ebola or MH-370 or Jodi Arias, there's your station. And they've become too reliant on external "journalists" - much of their on-scene reporting is now from non-CNN people, many of them with dubious credentials and motives - I've heard too many of those "provisional" reporters reporting things that were known incorrect hours or even days before. I also turn to BBC, Al Jazeera and Deutsche Welle at times for different viewpoints.

I don't watch Fox during the "opinion" hours, but their news operation is often fine.

Holy Stupidity!

This is what the old cliché "can't see the forest for the trees" actually means. God, wouldn't you hate to be that bigoted? Ugh.

a reply to: squittles

I try to watch a little from most stations. A helping of CNN for their story of day, some Fox News for the conservative side of things, a little MSNBC to see what the Social Justice Warriors are up to, some BBC because british accents are sexy, a little RT to see what brand of crazy Putin is pushing, etc.

Then I form my own opinion, research, review or discard said opinion, then move on!

It's a pretty efficient process for me.

a reply to: olaru12

While I agree that the "Muslim" world have its place in history and so does Islam laws, I wonder if the father could have been a littler bit more pleasant when referring to Islam and the Muslim fate as not been something that he thinks is right for his child to be exposed too

Beside that religion or its historical impact in the world and society should be teach as a elective in any public schools but as not an individual religion class but all religions together for historical comparison.

originally posted by: Krazysh0t
a reply to: crayzeed

How shall we go about discussing the Renaissance then? I'd also really like to hear you describe Feudalism from the Middle Ages without mentioning Catholicism.

This does remind me - most high school students learn nothing of the Catholic Church other than them being the anti-science bigots that locked up Gallileo. Not really going to go into it here, but for years, the Catholic Church has been unfairly tarred with that notion, when in fact their implementation of public education, and support of public works, arts, medicine, agronomy, charity, and yes, science almost certainly spawned and fed the Renaissance - without the Catholic Church, the Dark Ages would have continued for much longer.

And no, I'm not Catholic.

a reply to: olaru12

Heck I went to a private Catholic school and we still learned about Judaism, Islam, Buddhism etc as part of history and religious classes. I don't understand what his problem is unless the school is giving out prayer mats and having the kids pray to the west 5 times a day.

a reply to: crayzeed

People, especially in ancient times, were deeply entrenched in their religions.

You could try teaching them about those people, and try to leave their beliefs out, but then the history of those people will be like Swiss Cheese: full of holes.

Example: My son is learning world history in 6th grade. Where did they start? The Sumerians.

By your logic, they should have learned everything about them, except about the Ziggurats. Those huge stepped pyramid like buildings that was the center of their religion.....and is one of the things that helped us learn about the Sumerians.

They just finished about ancient Egypt. How would his lessons have gone with they had left everything about the Egyptian religions out? Not very well, considering that just about everything they did was based upon their gods.

He's having to read Greek Mythology in reading right now. Is he being indoctrinated? No. He's reading some really cool stories, that, in his opinion are "cool" but, "these gods sure did act like butt-heads!"

I have no fear that he's being "indoctrinated" into any Greek religion based on that statement from him alone.

So when he reads about Napoleon crowning himself Emperor, instead of allowing the Pope to set the crown on his head......he's going to want to know "Hey, who's this Pope guy? What was the big deal?"

What about Galileo? "Hey dad! They're talking about this Pope guy again! Something about "excommunication". What's the big deal?"

Like it or not, religion of all kinds is part of our history. A BIG part.

a reply to: squittles

I think that is the fault of the holdover from Dark Ages education. Fun fact, the reason we even call it the Dark Ages is because of the Renaissance and all those smug assholes pretending like they were more enlightened and educated than the people in those times despite the fact that the arts continued just fine throughout those times. In other words, it's the result of ingrained stereotypes dating back to the Renaissance. This is actually changing these days and many history classes only refer to those times as the Dark Ages as a nod to the Renaissance misconception and not to actually call them the Dark Ages. Instead those times are referred to as the Middle Ages instead.

Though the Catholic Church doesn't really help its case by being subject to massive corruption.

originally posted by: squittles
without the Catholic Church, the Dark Ages would have continued for much longer.

Seriously? The Church created and extended the Dark Ages through the LACK of promoting education. In fact it was looked down upon. The Church being sacrosanct.

originally posted by: whyamIhere

originally posted by: sheepslayer247
This is evidence of what can happen when certain ideologies teach hatred towards people of different beliefs and faiths.

I could be wrong, but I would bet this guy is a FoxNews watching so-called "conservative".

He probably even watches Fox News ?

C'mon man...That's almost as ignorant as this dad.

I don't think my statement was ignorant. If someone is exposed to certain propaganda for long enough, such as the anti-Islam rhetoric and fear pushed by FoxNews, they can come to believe it so religiously that they will do things like this man did.

You can see it's effect even on ATS. Many people that would defend FoxNews and claim to be "conservatives", are also those that are quick to bash Muslims at the drop of a hat.

What disturbs me is much more insidious

I want make sure I understand this

1)man holds a view most of you disagree with

a)for this WRONG view he is to be X'ed


So it is ok to be discriminatory as long as???

Has anyone walked a mile in the man's shoe

My understanding was it was wrong, by law, to have any official or unofficial religious recognition during school.. With the exception of the Atheistic faith.

I speak now, because of what happens when I go on the list at the end.. No on is left to speak for me.

a reply to: ripcontrol

I will talk to you!

LOL

In all seriousness, didnt we all agree for the most part that avoiding talking about religion all together, like it was some sort of super evil with superstitious social power for malfeasance of being offensive, was retarded?

This guys reaction is like a foaming at the mouth liberal storming the board of education because his sons classmate brought a bible into class for show and tell.

a reply to: sheepslayer247

Do you watch Fox News ?

Can you give me example of somebody saying Fox News inspired them ?

I watch Fox News. It doesn't make me make stupid demands at School.

I didn't mean you are ignorant...i just won't blame a News Network for one dumb guy.

a reply to: squittles

without the Catholic Church, the Dark Ages would have continued for much longer.

Where did you study history at? It was because of Catholic church that the dark ages started in the first place. If any religion should be credited with helping to pull Europe out of the Dark Ages it's Islam. Mainly because Islam held onto the knowledge that the church wanted banned.

People are only angry and scared of the things they fear the most.

Why is Islam such a threat to Christianity? Because Christians have been told that Islam is an abomination, where as most of us know it's actually all religion in general that's an abomination.