Seven years after 9/11

In the seven years (as of next month) since 9/11, have we learned nothing?

This caught my attention, and adds to my deep concern that the State Department just doesn't get it. From the Greensboro NC News-Record:

Muslim, Jewish educators swap ideas in Greensboro

GREENSBORO — Seated around a teardrop-shaped table, the little group talked about Judaism and Islam, science and math, microscopes and computers.

And when Google Maps found the Philippines, Nurjavier Abubakar rose from his seat and touched the southernmost island shown on the high-tech SMART Board display.

Just like that, the three educators from a private Muslim school reached across 9,063 miles and brought Cotabato City to their hosts at the American Hebrew Academy off Hobbs Road.

Part religious exchange, part educational discussion, part episode of MTV’s “Cribs,” the Filipinos toured the private Jewish boarding school’s 100-acre campus on Thursday morning as part of a trip organized by the U.S. State Department.

The three-week tour is designed to show international visitors the role of religious education and cultural diversity in America.

“It’s a chance to swap ideas,” said Barry Lewis of the State Department, who is escorting the Filipinos on the trip.

They spent the afternoon across town at Page High, the first public school on a U.S. tour that also includes stops in Washington; Buffalo, N.Y.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Los Angeles.

Cotabato City is the "seat" of the ARMM, the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, an area of the Philippines rife with deadly jihad. What ideas exactly are we swapping in this multi-culti interfaith exchange? Their ideas about killing Jews, with our ideas about NOT killing Jews?

This sort of thing could be going on all over the country, sponsored by the State Department and or other well-meaning fools or enemies. It's definitely going on right now in Greensboro, Washington, Buffalo, Tulsa and LA. If you have a child, friend or acquaintance in a school in any of those places, you might want to start asking questions.

Hell, if you want to know if YOU are safe, you might want to find out more about this. You might want to ask your government how in the world it could be that the very same State Department which designated the southern Philippines as a "terrorist safe haven" has now brought a Muslim contingent from that very place to come into and walk the halls of our children's schools in America. Especially Jewish schools!

Like so many of my last 8,000 or so posts, this one boggles the mind and frightens the heart. Let it also motivate us to be truly vigilant. If we do not become active citizens, players in our own history, then surely there is little hope for the children for whom we are responsible.

See also:

Saudi prince donates $500,000 in grants to ARMM areas
(Minda News)

Govt-MILF fighting drives 240,000 to evacuation centers (Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines--The ongoing military offensive in Mindanao has affected more than 240,000 people in Mindanao as the death toll rose to 49 and 65 others were reported injured, latest data provided by the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) show.

Of the affected individuals from North Cotabato, Lanao del Norte, and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a total of 35,034 families or 175,530 people were displaced from their homes, the country's disaster agency said as of Sunday.

Of the figure, 14,970 families or 75,210 people are now staying in 104 evacuation centers since fighting began in North Cotabato where the 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) under Commander Ombra Kato forcibly took over several villages in 15 towns.

Comments

[Maurice]

The flip side of the question is why is this Jewish school opening itself to these Muslims? Were they forced to, or is this another case of Jews bending over backwards to show what nice people we are (even if it exposes our necks to the sword)? Also, if the State Dept is sponsoring this...who is paying for it? Is this taxpayer money? Did someone put up the funds? If it's OUR monies being used, it is just asinine, at a time of exploding budget deficits. Showing them our culture will do nothing. The 9/11 terrorists were all here, they KNEW what the U.S. was about, and it didn't exactly turn them to 'our' side, did it? Insane.

[Iftikhar]

Muslim Youths Muslim youths are angry, frustrated and extremist because they have been mis-educated and de-educated by the British schooling. Muslim children are confused because they are being educated in a wrong place at a wrong time in state schools with non-Muslim monolingual teachers. They face lots of problems of growing up in two distinctive cultural traditions and value systems, which may come into conflict over issues such as the role of women in the society, and adherence to religious and cultural traditions. The conflicting demands made by home and schools on behaviour, loyalties and obligations can be a source of psychological conflict and tension in Muslim youngsters. There are also the issues of racial prejudice and discrimination to deal with, in education and employment. They have been victim of racism and bullying in all walks of life. According to DCSF, 56% of Pakistanis and 54% of Bangladeshi children has been victims of bullies. The first wave of Muslim migrants were happy to send their children to state schools, thinking their children would get a much better education. Than little by little, the overt and covert discrimination in the system turned them off. There are fifteen areas where Muslim parents find themselves offended by state schools. The right to education in one’s own comfort zone is a fundamental and inalienable human right that should be available to all people irrespective of their ethnicity or religious background. Schools do not belong to state, they belong to parents. It is the parents’ choice to have faith schools for their children. Bilingual Muslim children need state funded Muslim schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models during their developmental periods. There is no place for a non-Muslim teacher or a child in a Muslim school. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim children are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools. An ICM Poll of British Muslims showed that nearly half wanted their children to attend Muslim schools. There are only 143 Muslim schools. A state funded Muslim school in Birmingham has 220 pupils and more than 1000 applicants chasing just 60. Majority of anti-Muslim stories are not about terrorism but about Muslim culture--the hijab, Muslim schools, family life and religiosity. Muslims in the west ought to be recognised as a western community, not as an alien culture. Iftikhar Ahmad www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk