Your calls and emails did this, Jihad Watch readers. Stand up and take a bow for Aqsa Parvez and all the other women and girls who have been brutalized and murdered for not wearing hijab. On this Facebook thread, people are whining about this being a victory for “bigotry and intolerance,” but of course it is no such thing. In reality, it is a victory for fairness in education: there should be no event trying to give people a favorable view of Islam without similar events for Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism. And there should be no event extolling the hijab without an evenhanded presentation about how women are all too often victimized for not wearing it.
An update on this story. “Mason principal cancels Muslim event, apologizes,” by Patrick Brennan, Cincinnati Enquirer, April 16, 2015 (thanks to T.):
Update, 10:22 p.m.: The Mason High School’s Muslim Student Association April 23 event – the “Covered Girl Challenge” – has been canceled by principal Mindy McCarty-Stewart.
The cancellation, announced in a Thursday night email to MHS parents, comes in response to negative backlash received by school officials for an email sent by school officials earlier Thursday.
The initial, informational email sent by school officials from their Student Activities Department account publicized the event, and appeared to endorse it.
McCarty-Stewart has apologized for the initial email, and to anyone offended by receiving it.
“This (previous) communication should not have come from our Student Activities Department because this was a student-led initiative, rather than a school-sponsored activity,” McCarty-Stewart wrote in the email. “We will put procedures into place in the future that ensure that any communication from a school email is for a school-sponsored event, and not merely supported by a student-run group.
“As the event spread beyond our school community, however, we received many strong messages that made me reconsider the event’s ability to meet its objectives. I now realize that as adults we should have given our students better guidance. After much consideration and after talking with the student event organizers, we have cancelled the event.”
As part of the MSA’s Covered Girl Challenge, female students were to be asked to consider wearing a hijab, or a traditional Muslim woman’s headdress, during the April 23 school day, according to the initial email. The event was to have been voluntary.
Mason City Schools officials did not respond to multiple Enquirer requests for comment Thursday night.
Previous report: Mason High School’s Muslim Student Association is holding an event in which female students will be asked to consider wearing a hijab, or a traditional Muslim woman’s headdress, during the April 23 school day.
In an email sent to Mason High School parents Thursday, school officials said the scheduled “Covered Girl Challenge” event was created to celebrate the school’s unique and diverse student body.
The email, published by JihadWatch.org, was obtained by The Enquirer from multiple Mason High School parents.
“In order (to) celebrate this diversity and promote open mindedness, the Muslim Student Association is inviting all female students to participate… Afterwards, there will be a discussion (open for all students, male & female).”
Mason City Schools did not immediately to Enquirer requests for comment.
The event has sparked a debate on JihadWatch and on Facebook.
On JihadWatch, comments ranged from criticism of Mason City Schools employees for allowing the event, to claims that the Mason High School Muslim Student Association has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.…
This is, of course, utter nonsense, and Patrick Brennan of the Cincinnati Enquirer of course made no attempt to contact me. What I pointed out was the readily demonstrable fact that the MSA was a Muslim Brotherhood organization. Did I say that the children in its Mason High School chapter were Brotherhood operatives? Of course not. Would Patrick Brennan of the Cincinnati Enquirer think it not worth noting if a high school KKK chapter (if such a thing existed) sponsored an event, even if its apple-cheeked members had never participated in a cross-burning?