Holocaust Curriculum in France Sparks Protests

President Nicolas Sarkozy dropped an intellectual bombshell this week, surprising the nation and touching off waves of protest with his revision of the school curriculum: beginning next fall, he said, every fifth grader will have to learn the life story of one of the 11,000 French children killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

“Nothing is more moving, for a child, than the story of a child his own age, who has the same games, the same joys and the same hopes as he, but who, in the dawn of the 1940s, had the bad fortune to be defined as a Jew,” Mr. Sarkozy said at the end of a dinner speech to France’s Jewish community on Wednesday night. He added that every French child should be “entrusted with the memory of a French child-victim of the Holocaust.”

Adding to the national fracas over the announcement, Mr. Sarkozy wrapped his plan in the cloak of religion, placing blame for the wars and violence of the last century on an “absence of God” and calling the Nazi belief in a hierarchy of races “radically incompatible with Judeo-Christian monotheism.”

I, For One, Have Fallen For Jesus Christ

Hard to admit, but I am feeling a bit like a religious bigot. I could not see myself or anyone, for that matter, voting for a person who would believe that a man named Joseph Smith had found golden tablets from God out in the desert of the southwestern United States and built a homemade religion around himself. Mitt Romney may be a smart businessman, but he supposedly fell for that crock. I, for one, have fallen for Jesus Christ, as He is revealed in the Word.

Politicians Not Shy of Talking Up Religion

U.S. politicians are not shy of talking about their religion and regularly appear in church.

In recent decades, part of the American political drama has been scripted by the "religious right" -- mostly white evangelical Protestants united by strong opposition to abortion and gay marriage who have been a key base of support for the Republican Party.

Republican hopeful Mike Huckabee, who scooped up strong evangelical support but whose campaign is fading ahead of next Tuesday's nominating contests across the country, is a Baptist preacher who peppers his speeches with Biblical allusions.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon who was moved to address questions about his faith in a speech in December. John McCain has long sought to smooth relations after including leaders of the religious right among those he called "agents of intolerance" during his failed presidential bid in 2000.

The leading Democratic presidential contenders have also been open and candid about their faith.

That faith, and that of the Republican candidates, is Christian, although candidates have also spoken about the need for religious tolerance.

A false rumor that has circulated on the Internet about Democratic candidate Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan, is that he is Muslim who has lied about his religion. The rumor appears to illustrate the importance some voters attach to a candidate being Christian.

Mike Huckabee Says "I Don't Know How He Did It"

YAHOO News reports:

DES MOINES, Iowa - Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, a Southern Baptist preacher who has surged in Iowa with evangelical Christian support, bristled Tuesday when asked if creationism should be taught in public schools.

Huckabee — who raised his hand at a debate last May when asked which candidates disbelieved the theory of evolution — asked this time why there is such a fascination with his beliefs.

"I believe God created the heavens and the Earth," he said at a news conference with Iowa pastors who murmured, "Amen."

"I wasn't there when he did it, so how he did it, I don't know," Huckabee said.

But he expressed frustration that he is asked about it so often, arguing with the questioner that it ultimately doesn't matter what his personal views are.

"That's an irrelevant question to ask me — I'm happy to answer what I believe, but what I believe is not what's going to be taught in 50 different states," Huckabee said. "Education is a state function. The more state it is, and the less federal it is, the better off we are."

By LIZ SIDOTI and LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writers

Update on Gillian Gibbons, British 'Teddy Bear' Teacher

MSNBC reports:

In a written statement released by the presidential palace and read by Warsi to reporters Monday, 54-year-old Gibbons said she was sorry if she caused any "distress."

"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone," Gibbons said in the statement. "I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan."

Gibbons prompted a complaint after she let her pupils at Khartoum's private Unity High School pick their favorite name for a teddy bear as part of a project in September.

Twenty out of 23 of them chose Muhammad — a popular boy's name in Sudan, as well as the name of Islam's Prophet.

The staff of Unity High School where Gibbons worked shouted gleefully when they heard the news.

"Everybody is so happy, everyone is just laughing now," Robert Boulos, head of the school, told Reuters.

He said Gibbons would be welcome to rejoin the teaching staff if she wanted. Gibbons had been suspended following a school investigation into the affair.

Rantings Against the Abrahamic Faiths: Marcus Brigstock

Sudan Releases British Teacher, Gillian Gibbons

MSNBC reports:

Sudanese presidential spokesman Mahzoub Faidul told The Associated Press that Gibbons would "be released today and will fly back to England today."

In a written statement released by the presidential palace and read by Warsi to reporters, Gibbons said she was sorry if she caused any "distress."

"I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone," Gibbons, 54, who has been imprisoned since Thursday, said in the statement.

"I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan," the statement read.

Hard to imagine that Gillian Gibbons would want to return to Sudan to teach! But, an intelligent woman to:

1) Apologize that she 'offended' anyone.
2) Express her 'respect' for the Islamic faith.
3) State, whether sincerely or not, that she desires to teach Sudanese children.

Teddy Bears and Teachers and Islamic Extremism

Don Singleton: Execute her

Don Singleton: Execute her

Sudanese React Violently to Name of Teddy Bear

Teacher hidden as Sudan mob urges death

By MOHAMED OSMAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Nov 30, 5:06 PM ET

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and swords and beating drums, burned pictures of a British teacher Friday and demanded her execution for insulting Islam by letting her students name a teddy bear Muhammad.

Sudan's Islamic government, which has long whipped up anti-Western, Muslim hard-line sentiment at home, was balancing between fueling outrage over the case of Gillian Gibbons and containing it.

The government does not want to seriously damage ties with Britain, but the show of anger underlines its stance that Sudanese oppose Western interference, lawyers and political foes said. The uproar comes as the U.N. is accusing Sudan of dragging its feet on the deployment of peacekeepers in the war-torn Darfur region.

Many in the protesting crowd shouted "Kill her! Kill her by firing squad!"

In response to the rally in central Khartoum, Gibbons was moved from the women's prison across the Nile in Oumdurman to a secret location, her chief lawyer Kamal al-Gizouli told the Associated Press. He said he visited her there to discuss her conviction Thursday on charges of insulting Islam.

The 54-year-old Gibbons, who was sentenced to 15 days in jail, spoke Friday with her son John and daughter Jessica in Britain by telephone.

"One of the things my mum said today was that I don't want any resentment towards Muslims," the son told AP. "She's holding up quite well."

Despite the fervor of the protest, the rest of Khartoum was quiet. The rally was far smaller than February 2006 protests held with government backing after European newspapers ran caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, suggesting popular anger over Gibbons did not run as deep.

In their mosque sermons Friday, several Muslim clerics harshly denounced Gibbons, saying she had intentionally insulted the prophet, but they not call for protests and said the punishment ordered by the court was sufficient.

Still, after prayers, several thousand people converged on Khartoum's Martyrs Square, near the presidential palace, and began calling for Gibbons' execution. Many seemed to be from Sufi groups, religious sects that emphasize reverence for the prophet.

Some angrily denounced the teacher, but others smiled as they beat drums and burned newspapers with Gibbons' picture, waving swords and clubs and green banners, the color of Islam.

Chants of "Kill her!" and "No tolerance: Execution!" rang out as hundreds of police in riot gear stood by, keeping the crowd contained but not moving against the rally.

Protesters dismissed Gibbons' claims that she didn't mean to insult the prophet.

"It is a premeditated action, and this unbeliever thinks that she can fool us?" said Yassin Mubarak, a young dreadlocked man swathed in green and carrying a sword. "What she did requires her life to be taken."

Several hundred protesters marched to Unity High School, where Gibbons worked, and chanted outside briefly before heading toward the nearby British Embassy. They were stopped by security forces two blocks from the embassy. The protest dispersed after an hour.

"I would like to tell the whole world that what happened here from this English teacher is not acceptable to us," said a protester, Sheikh Nasser Abu Shamah.

There was no overt sign that the government organized the protest, but such a public rally could not have taken place without at least official assent.

Gibbons was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in jail and deportation for insulting Islam with the naming of the teddy bear, which was part of a class project for her 7-year-old students at the private school.

She escaped harsher punishment that could have included up to 40 lashes, six months in prison and a fine. Her time in jail since her arrest Sunday counts toward the sentence.

Icons

Comment on "Dance Monkeys Dance"

It took me a few perusals of Ernest Cline's "Dance Monkeys Dance" video to respond...(see my post "Monkeys/Monkees" dated November 23rd, 2007.)

Mr. Cline postulates that human beings are no more than monkeys.

Yet, he states that human beings "are at once the ugliest and most beautiful creatures on the planet." That is, if human beings "would apply themselves."

Cline recognizes that these monkeys (aka human beings) are self-aware; and states what separates them from other animals (other monkeys) is their ability and propensity to HATE...

So, if human beings (aka monkeys) hate, does it not follow that these monkeys (unlike other monkeys) NEED GOD...(for forgiveness)...

Because these monkeys (aka human beings) hate, they are ALONE. They are separated from each other and from the remainder of the creation by their HATRED. This indeed is what separates these monkeys from the other monkeys.

Now, of what value is a made-up GOD?

If monkeys worship made-up gods, perhaps there is a REAL GOD... one who made these particular monkeys in HIS/HER OWN IMAGE... and who was extraordinarily distressed when these monkeys turned to self-hatred and so to other-hatred... just to be like the made-up gods...

No wonder some monkeys (aka human beings) believe that they are only monkeys (aka animals.)

Monkees/Monkeys

One view of and on humanity.