Charlottesville High School “celebrates” Islam

America, “land of the free,” as we know it, is now on the path to ideological and physical destruction, thanks in part to”enlightened” government schools like Charlottesville High School, where “Coexist” is the new-school “mantra” and students are subjected daily to cultural moral-equivalency indoctrination.

Initially advanced as”Muslim Celebration Day” (displayed as such on the CHS online calendar), Charlottesville High Schoo’s most recent public relations boondoggle has drawn suspicion (and ire) from vigilant parents, local media outlets, and community members alike.

Spurred by a listener tip, on 8/25/09 The Schilling Show sent an unambiguous query to Cass Cannon, Charlottesville City Schools (CCS) Community Relations Specialist, regarding the proposed “Celebration:”

On the CHS school calendar, September 21 is designated as “Muslim Celebration Day”

Can you answer a few questions for me:

1) What is the purpose of this designated day

2) What activities will take place on this day

3) Will any outside groups assist in the celebration, if so, who

4) Has this day been celebrated in past years

5) Is their any significance to the date of September 21

6) Is there a school board policy , which allows for religious celebrations, or one which prohibits them

7) Are there commensurate celebrations on the calendar for the Christian and Jewish faiths

8) At whose specific request was this day added to the school calendar

9) Are students required to participate in the celebration

As is common when asking specific questions of Charlottesville City Schools (and Charlottesville City government), the inquiry was not answered directly. Rather, concerns raised were peripherally addressed with this same-day, quasi-response from Ms. Cannon:

I asked CHS principal Thomas Taylor about the calendar item. It was posted in error as a “celebration” and as only one of many other activities at the school to promote diversity awareness. It was removed from our online listings until it is more clearly defined, since it did not characterize the event accurately. It is just one part of CHS’s broad diversity initiative–a series of events and activities that educate students about the history, practices, and observances of various nations, religions, and cultures around the world. (This includes the U.S., of course, as well as other world religions.) And in keeping with our policy, the programs are instructional in nature and the subject is treated neutrally. Participation is optional.

The school has a multicultural committee of students & CHS faculty who create and coordinate activities throughout the school year–including reports, posters, displays, performances, foods, and even an opportunity+for students to visit one another’s homes. These programs help to teach students, expand understanding and build respect within the school and, in a broader context, they broaden perspectives about the world in general.

Finally, September 21 is Eid, which marks the end of fasting for Ramadan, so I imagine that is why it was selected for the observance. I hope that answers your questions and clears up any misunderstanding.

Subsequently, another concerned parent alerted us that in spite of the Ms. Cannon’s claim that the item had been removed from the CHS online calendar, the “Muslim Celebration” date remained visible. According to Cannon, the re-posting gaffe was due to a web assistant who was asked to post calendar events for the next two months online. She looked to the original documents and it went up again–and was taken down”

Principal Taylor, in his response to community questioning of an event that he had personally approved, unfortunately chose to characterize the item’s removal from the school calendar in the context of an us vs. them battle, as stated in an 8/26/09 email to Cass Cannon:

“Leaving this down too long means they won. I can’t have that. And it is wrong for kids.”

Are we to presume by “they,” Principal Taylor, that you are referring to the parents and community members who voiced legitimate questions and concerns regarding administration-supported activities at their local high school? The same parents and community members you are supposed to serve in a professional and respectful capacity and, who, by the way, also pay your salary with their tax dollars?

Ultimately, the”day” was returned to “official” calendar status, having subsequently been re-christened, “Islamic Awareness Day.” This appellation metamorphosis was a result of intense internal wrangling over the PR nightmare created by the original designation, “Muslim Celebration Day.”

However, it appears that Christians and Jews (upon whose traditions and laws America was founded) as well as Hindus and Buddhists all are relegated to the status of 2^nd class citizens in the Charlottesville City Schools.

When specifically asked by The Schilling Show if there would be upcoming corresponding Christian and Jewish “Awareness” days to parallel the scheduled Islamic”Awareness” day, Cannon attested:

The winter activities will include student-led activities sharing Christmas customs around the world (Christianity), the African American Studies class will have a Kwanzaa activity, and some Jewish students would share Hannukah (sic) traditions.

In other words, “No.”  At present, only the Islamic faith and culture has been deemed important enough for its own designated “Awareness” day at CHS.

The Charlottesville schools also received direct inquiries about the proposed”Muslim Celebration Day” from concerned parents. A 9/14/2009 shockingly candid internal email retort from Anne M. Evans, CCS Coordinator of Social Studies, shows disdain for questions from interested parents as well as a “circle the wagons” mentality characteristic of any institution on the defensive:

“If this parent is going to snowball this into a ‘big deal’ we need to have a united front.”

Additionally, Cass Cannon suggested in a 9/17/09 internal email that parent and media inquiries into “Muslim Celebration Day” were an”over-reaction.”

The fact that parents’ and the media’s legitimate concerns and questions regarding CHS’s “celebration” of Islam appear to be disrespected by CCS educators, administrators, and staff rather than treated as an opportunity for cogent dialogue should trouble all thinking members of this community.

As to whether questions and concerns about Muslim celebrations or Islamic awareness activities in our public schools are, in fact, an “over-reaction” perhaps we should consider the present state of world affairs wherein no discussion of the Islamic faith is complete without mention of the growing international threat that is fundamentalist Islam. While not a majority of their faith in number, fundamentalist Muslims are, nevertheless, extremely significant in terms of beliefs and actions.+ Just 16 such radical Muslims murdered approximately 3,000 innocent American men, women and children on American soil not ten years ago. Given the proximately of Charlottesville to New York City it’s likely that some students attending CHS (or their parents) were acquainted with victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

At the very least, one could expect that CCS officials would show some modicum of sensitivity when confronted with local community questions about and reactions to”celebrating” a faith that had as its recent adherents, the murderers of thousands of innocent Americans.

While every practicing Muslim obviously does not seek to murder Americans and destroy Western society, it is naive at best and educational malpractice at worst to behave as if fundamentalist Islam either does not exist or is compatible with Judeo-Christian-based Western traditions and values.

CHS may wish to paint a completely benign picture of today’s Islamic faith as focused on harmless beautification practices (henna!) and finger foods (Eid treats!), but the unfortunate reality of fundamentalist Islam is not so pleasant:

Brigitte Gabriel, on her website, www.actforamerica.com, states:

Islamic extremists have proclaimed jihad against Christians, Jews, non-Muslims and secularists — simply because they regard us as infidels.

The warriors of Islamofascism are not only “over there.” Tens of thousands of Islamic militants now reside in America, operating in sleeper cells, attending our colleges and universities, even infiltrating our government. They are here — today. Many have been here for years. Waiting. Preparing.

They are being aided and abetted by the purveyors of political correctness — those in government, the media, academia and Hollywood who are apologists for Islamofascism, who outrageously blame America for the cruel and brutal actions of those who want to kill us and destroy our way of life.

Political correctness can be annoying, frustrating, even exasperating. In the battle against Islamofascism, political correctness will literally kill us.

Perhaps most significant to this discussion, Gabriel notes the perilous strategy of pacifying those whom Isalm wishes to dominate. With no balancing Judiasm or Christian “Awareness” days one can’t help but wonder at the message CCS is sending to impressionable CHS students: Islam is a “fun” religion and the one religion most worthy of celebration! Apart from imparting incomplete knowledge of world religious customs, traditions and cultures, such a presentation leaves our students woefully unprepared to deal with the growing complexities of relations with foreign entities, including Islamic fundamentalist countries and groups.

In a recent email to Act! for America subscribers, Gabriel wrote:

As we reported to you recently, a new Pew Research poll shows American attitudes about Islam trending toward accepting the narrative that organizations like CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) are peddling.

This narrative includes the propositions that Islam is and historically has been a religion of peace and that Muslims are the victims of a great deal of discrimination in this country.

Not coincidentally, this faulty narrative is being peddled in many of our public schools. Small wonder more and more Americans are falling for it.

Several months ago the ACT! for America Mission Viejo (CA) chapter completed an eye-opening report about the disinformation and outright propaganda showing up in public school curricula and textbooks that deal with Islam.

But some of that pales in comparison to the Orwellian”newspeak” that has recently been handed down by California’s education establishment with respect to teaching Islamic studies.

For instance, as reported in the Investors Business Daily editorial below:

“the suggested framework glorifies Shariah as a liberal reform movement that “rejected” the mistreatment of women that existed in Arabia before Muhammad and his successors conquered the region, according to Accuracy in Academia. The guidelines claim that Islamic law established for the first time that men and women were entitled to equal “respect.”

This astonishing example of historical revisionism is just one more reason why we communicate such a sense of urgency to you about the rapid advance of radical Islam and creeping shariah here in the United States. Our window to build the organized resistance to defeat this is not twenty or thirty years long — it is more like five to ten at best.

Over the past two decades college campuses have become hotbeds for pro-Islamist, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and anti-American indoctrination. This has now made its way into our public high schools and middle schools.

If an entire generation of American students are successfully indoctrinated with lies, such as that shariah Islamic law established that men and women were entitled to equal respect, the chances that we can successfully roll back the rising tide of radical Islam dim immensely.

As Hitler is reported to have said to the adults in Germany, “I care not what you think—I have the children.”

It is true that many Muslims do not follow the tenets of radical Islam; however, it is also true that many do and that no amount of our “œcelebrating” Islam will deter a radical Muslim from working to achieve his or her goals. Radical Islam is not interested in “henna” and “Eid treats.” Radical Islam is centrally concerned with the subjugation of America to shariah law, which holds dear the complete and crushing domination of women and the murder of “infidels”to achieve its purposes. Obviously these views are totally incompatible with the United States Constitution and the Ten Commandments.

The next time that Charlottesville City Schools want to hold an Islamic Awareness Day, let’s hope they include “equal time” to display and discuss the following pictures taken from a 2006 Islamic rally held on the streets of London, England:

[Show as slideshow]

It’s time for a balanced and honest presentation of world religions and doctrines in our local government schools.

It’s time for CCS educators and staff to treat legitimate questions and concerns with respect and not with disdain.

It’s time to wake up to the dangers posed by the radical Islamic threat.

And Charlottesville High School, like the City before you, whenever you throw a party, make sure that the subject is actually worthy of “celebration.”

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FHHZ-BOMuI

Update: 10/30/09

Hear national security policy expert, Michael Del Rosso, discuss Islam and American Schools on the 10/05/09 edition of The Schilling Show.