Letter to Editor Reports: Delaware Fifth Grade Class "taught" Barack Obama is Muslim

[kpete]

Pray for understanding
and an end to hate
Our 10-year-old sister, Amani, is in the fifth grade at Lord Baltimore, a public elementary school in Ocean View. Last Tuesday, her teacher “taught” her class that Barack Obama is a Muslim and that she would not vote for him because he does not swear on the Bible, nor recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Her teacher told the class that she is a Republican and that Barack Obama “believes in different things and is scary.”

We are very disappointed in this teacher and the Indian River School District. This teacher is telling her class something that is dangerous and untrue. Barack Obama’s website (barackobama. com) explains the truth about him. He says, “In the internet age, there are going to be lies that are spread all over the place. I have been victimized by these lies. Fortunately, the American people are, I think, smarter than folks give them credit for.”

Many newspapers have debunked the vicious rumors that are being spread about Sen. Obama. Mr. Obama has said, “My grandfather taught me how to say the Pledge of Allegiance when I was two. During the Pledge of Allegiance you put your hand over your heart. During the national anthem you sing.”
We are American Muslim kids. We love our country. We feel that kids need to be taught the truth in school. We believe that what is going on in our schools is un-American and scary. Kids are being taught hatred and fear of Muslims. Our sister was badly hurt by what was said in her classroom.
Each of us has experienced similar prejudice in our classrooms in three different schools. We would like for people to know that we believe in peace and respect for everyone. We are your neighbors and this is our home, too. We pray for understanding and an end to hate. Please stand with us.

Fatima and Basima Abdelsalam
Bethany Beach

http://www.capegazette.com/pages/editletters.html
via:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/24/0157/07083/827/462935

[Franks Wild Years]

1. Just goes to show...

...that being a teacher does not preclude you from being thick as pig shit.

[MadBadger]

2. Teachers are not supposed to share their views anyway, right or wrong

Keep it to yourself.

[NDambi]

3. Unfrickin' believable...

[barbtries]

4. the teacher should be fired

for telling lies to her students, and for bringing politics into a public school room. jeez that is outrageous.

[Bullet1987]

5. That's what happens when people like to the likes of Rush and no

one else.

[demnan]

6. My teachers in school said they didn't believe in evolution

I lost faith in my teachers in high school. I learned a valuable lesson. Some teachers are not as intelligent as I am. I could handle that in high school.

In elementary school I don't think teachers should be allowed to express their personal opinions about politics.

[mwb970]

7. Lies being "taught" to little children by authority figures.

Ah, America. You just gotta love it.

[demo dutch]

23. What else is new!

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. A very intellgent coworker came into my office and told me the same thing last week -

He is a devout (I would say brainwashed/obsessed) Catholic who said "so you are going to support election of a Muslim as our president, hey? His name is Obama Hussein". They must spew this stuff in the church sermons. And this is a fellow who is a well educated scientist, professional, family man....there is no end to smart people who have very distorted views on things, and my theory is that fear is tearing these people up (ironically, these are the people who think they are saved - yet fear works on them like a charm).

I just don't get it...

[UALRBSofL]

9. Teachers are suppose to follow the curriculum as outlined

and approved by the board of education. Did she follow this or was she just injecting her own views about Obama?

[calimary]

18. Must have been reading the emails.

That crap's been circulating for months now.

I had to debunk one (called "Obama - SCARY!") that was sent by a family friend - who should have known better. Evidently the teacher referenced in the OP got the same email.

[mmonk]

19. I don't believe Catholic churches are spreading

lies about Obama in the Liturgy. The man's views are his own. Besides, Obama attended a Catholic school one time.

[mwb970]

26. Were you able to dissuade him of his false belief?

I would be interested in what happens when a right-winger who has consumed the entire jug of "Muslim Obama" Kool-Aid is confronted with endless, authoritative, overwhelming evidence that their treasured belief is wrong, as so many know it to be.

What is the threshold? How much would it take to crack them? Are there some righties who would retain this belief even if Rush himself said it was false? How crazy are these people?

[babylonsister]

10. This teacher deserves a mass letter-writing campaign to educate her. nt

[Historic NY]

11. Its called the politics of personal destruction by whatever........

means necessary to tear down people. For a School District to permit this type of behavior by their teachers is inexcusable. I hope the family takes a big chunk of money from them, for it seems they have a course of allowing prejudice to continue unabated.

[UALRBSofL]

12. OK, so that was the case

They actually have a course. I wasn't sure if they did or if it was that teacher injecting her opinion.

[Historic NY]

16. Not a course unless Rove is teaching it. Its the GOP mantra.

[Divernan]

28. NO!!! No one actually has a course. What on earth did you read in

this thread that led you to that conclusion?

Do you understand that it is a big fat freeper lie that Obama does not put his hand over his heart or say the pledge of allegiance?

If you go to snopes.com, you will see that there are photos of him with his hand over his heart and two videos of separate occasions when he opened session at the US Senate, and led the entire Senate in the Pledge of Allegiance while holding his hand over his heart.

[BigAnth]

13. I would complain loudly and repeatedly

to the principal and school board. This is absolutely uncalled for and probably illegal. We can't let these kinds of puplic attacks go unanswered.

[stillcool]

14. Where do they get this stuff from?

Oh..yeah...now I remember...

December 10, 2007
Third Clinton Volunteer Knew Of Smear E-Mail

A third volunteer for Hillary Clinton's campaign was aware of a propaganda e-mail alleging that Barack Obama is a Muslim who plans on "destroying the U.S. from the inside out."

"Let us all remain alert concerning Obama's expected presidential Candidacy," the email reads. "Please forward to everyone you know. The Muslims have said they Plan on destroying the U.S. from the inside out, what better way to start than at The highest level."

Two Clinton volunteers, Linda Olson and Judy Rose, have already been asked to resign from the campaign for their roles in forwarding the e-mail. The AP reported yesterday that Olson, a volunteer coordinator in Iowa County, sent a version of the e-mail to 11 people, including Ben Young, a regional field director for Chris Dodd's campaign. Young passed it on to the AP.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/12/third_clinton_v.html

[H2O Man]

15. Thank you.

Nominated.

[Joanne98]

17. FIRE HER!!!!!!!!

[progressoid]

20. Good grief

I live in a country of fucking morans. Literally.

[yourguide]

21. I am writing a letter...

Link to the 5th grade teachers here:

http://www.lb.irsd.k12.de.us/grade5/grade5.htm

teacher's email addys here:

[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]


Of course they have disabled the pages for the office and administration...

[IndyOp]

22. If anyone writes these teachers - please keep what you say gentle & respectful

Respectful? Gentle? When a Republican teacher is expressing hateful prejudice and lying about a good man? Yes!

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it...

Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate....

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King

[yourguide]

24. This was the letter I just wrote to every email on that site.

Dear Lord Baltimore School,


I just read the disturbing story about one of the 5th grade teachers opting to infuse her personal political views upon her students on one of the big political news sites.

Besides the very nature of infusing one's personal political views to one's students being wrong, this teacher is obviously SO ill informed that she took text from some spam email that preys upon fear, hate, bigotry, and lies and decided to present this to her students as fact. It is low and disgusting in nature among adults but to infuse this hate and bigotry upon 10 year olds is beyond repulsive.

Instead of personally debunking this gibberish, I will provide a link that debunks these false statements:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/muslim.asp

There is NO place in our educational system to teach hate, bigotry, and fear. Apparently this teacher stated that Barack "believes in different things and is scary". What is more frightening than believing in "different things" is the fact that this woman is allowed to teach children this drivel.

It is the role of the PARENTS to teach their children politics, and if those parents choose to teach their children hate then as wrong as it is, it remains their prerogative.

I scoured the web site and conveniently the page that gives the administrators and front office information is disabled, I would ask that one of you please send this on to the principals office and if you personally find this offensive please pass this on to the leaders of the school board. Hate has no place in the classroom, neither does this teacher.


Regards,

yourguide

[TalkingDog]

27. thanks for the newest email sig line.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it...

Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate....

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King




I once had a close acquaintance ask me if I believed in the death penalty and why.

By way of example I told him the following: If someone killed my spouse, I would want them dead in the most horrible, painful way possible. In my heart of hearts, no matter what I profess, I would want to see that person suffer the way I suffered.

But the problem with equal retribution is that it is not Justice, it is Vengence.

Justice is when a punishment balances out the crime, not re-enacts it. Justice requires you to consider the circumstances and act with the greater good in mind.

Vengence springs from the Heart, Justice comes from the Head.

And since I belive in Justice, but not in Vengence, I could not support the Death Penalty no matter the circumstances.

He sat for a moment and thought. Then he told me that was the best explanation he had ever heard. (since we live in a Red area, I'm not surprised)

[IndyOp]

30. Good thoughts - thank you. (n/t)

[goldcanyonaz]

25. There's our tax dollars hard at work.

[Jawja]

29. Unh-hunh.

Expect more of this as we move into the GE. There is a movement underway by Rethugs already to paint Obama as a "Black Muslim," because to Rethugs, muslim=terrorist and they are going to present McCain as the

"experienced war hero needed to fight and defeat the terrorists in a time of war and can we trust an inexperienced liberal cut-and-run black muslim like Barack Obama to keep us safe?"


That's exactly what they will do.