Ibrahim Elshamy’s two protests contradict each other. If Central High’s American Indian mascot demeans American Indians, then Memorial High’s Crusader demeans Crusaders. But if Memorial’s Crusader symbol exalts Crusaders, then Central’s American Indian exalts American Indians.
Aside from that, this is just another dreary example of how the West must perpetually apologize for its identity and heritage. As I show in my book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades), certainly the Crusaders did things that cannot be excused. But to characterize the Crusades as genocidal is wildly overstated. The Crusaders behaved according to the accepted canons of warfare at that time. Those were brutal, and the Crusaders were often brutal, but no more or less than other armies of the period. And in the main, the Crusades were an endeavor with noble goals, of which Westerners need not be and should not be ashamed. But Memorial’s principal Arthur Adamakos clearly knows nothing about any of that, and accepts Ibrahim Elshamy’s characterization without question.
“City school board to review the Crusader and American Indian symbols,” by Riley Yates in the Union Leader, with thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist:
MANCHESTER — The school board will review the mascots of Central and Memorial high schools, after a former student complained they are offensive to some minorities.
Last night, a fight that has boiled at Dartmouth College was taken to the Manchester School District, as 2005 Central class president Ibrahim Elshamy charged that Central’s American Indian and Memorial’s Crusaders herald a history that shouldn’t be celebrated.
Elshamy, who now attends Dartmouth, said both symbols are hurtful and should be changed.
Indian and civil rights groups have fought Indian mascots in professional and collegiate sports, while the Crusades is a “dark spot” in Christian history, he said.
“Ostensibly under the name of religion, a fanatical army swept across continents, brutally engaging in genocide against Jews, Muslims, Orthodox Christian, women and children,” said Elshamy, who has set up a Web site, HateMascot.com, to lobby against the two schools’ symbols.
The school board last night asked a committee to review Memorial and Central’s mascots, though a handful of members voted against the motion.
Memorial’s principal said he stands by the “Crusaders” moniker, insisting it is a name chosen in the 1960s to honor the U.S. military — and not the historic Crusades, a series of bloody campaigns from 1095 to 1291.
“It has nothing to do with the Crusades, genocide or anything like that,” said Arthur Adamakos, who was reached at home by telephone.