A good rule of thumb is that if you notice Islamic terror, you’re the Islamophobe. Even if you’re a teenager who was taken captive and raped by ISIS.
While American school boards are under fire over wokeness, this story comes from up north and the Toronto District School Board.
For the past four years, Canada’s largest school board has partnered with Tanya Lee, a Toronto mother and entrepreneur who runs a book club for teenaged girls called A Room Of Your Own, which is rooted in her conviction that reading and open conversation can empower young women, as it did for her. Ms. Lee makes a point of targeting the club to schools in high-priority neighbourhoods, and emphasizes its inclusive, positive atmosphere.
To date, the TDSB has supported Ms. Lee’s club by distributing books to participating students, discussing them in class and allowing club members to take a day off school to attend (back when in-person meetings were still possible). But that support ended last month, when Ms. Lee was informed by Helen Fisher, a TDSB superintendent, that the board would not be promoting two of the books Ms. Lee had selected for upcoming meetings.
Those books: Marie Henein’s Nothing But the Truth: A Memoir and Nadia Murad’s The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State.
Ms. Fisher explained to Ms. Lee that the board’s equity department found the first book problematic because its author, one of Canada’s top criminal defence lawyers, had defended former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi against charges of sexual assault. Ms. Lee says Ms. Fisher also told her that Ms. Murad’s book could foster Islamophobia.
TDSB has since issued a statement apologizing and claiming that, “An opinion that did not reflect the position of the Toronto District School Board was shared with the organizer of the book club prior to staff having an opportunity to read the books – something that is routinely done before giving them to students. Staff are currently reading both books and anticipate being able to add them to the list of titles used in the corresponding course(s).”
I’m not sure whether rejecting Nadia Murad’s The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State without even reading it is an admission that makes anything here better.
What exactly was the thought process here? Or was there any thought process beyond censoring anything unfavorable to Islam?
While it’s tempting to dismiss this as a dumb isolated act by a single official, where would Fisher have come up with the idea? Maybe the New York Times book section.
“To publish “The Last Girl” right now, in the United States, means there are tricky issues of sensationalism to navigate; in a threatening climate of Islamophobia, Muslims of all kinds are vilified for the actions of one group.”
If you notice ISIS rapes, you’re an Islamophobe.
Dhimmi says
in this case, the islamofobia is justified
somehistory says
Thank you, Mr. Greenfield, for your excellent writing…not just on this issue, but everything else you cover. I have learned a lot from you, and expect to keep on learning.
We are not “allowed” to have an opinion if it goes against the opinions of those who get to decide everything for everyone.
Those who adhere to islam may be in the minority, but they have the power given to them as though they are the majority and can just run roughshod over the rest of us. Including the poor victims of their many ways of terror. The victims get to be victimized over and over.
libertyORdeath says
That’s what makes it propaganda disinformation.
A phobia is a “persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.”
Being concerned with jihad terror, slavery, sexual abuse, rape, child grooming, honor killings, child marriage, suicide bombings, sharia oppression, beheading, the torture and murder of homosexuals, and the hijrah (purposeful immigration aimed at destroying Western civilization) is not a phobia by any means.
I’m sure the left is working on changing that definition to fit their needs too, much like the terms “white supremacy”, “systemic racism”, terrorism, gain of function research, and “insurrection” have all been changed or co-opted to fit the leftist narrative.
James Lincoln says
libertyORdeath says
“I’m sure the left is working on changing that definition to fit their needs too”
And to your point, the CDC changed the definition of vaccine and vaccination:
https://www.citizensjournal.us/the-cdc-suddenly-changes-the-definition-of-vaccine-and-vaccination/
revereridesagain says
It seems that raped women are under siege from both the Left and the Right these days for refusing to be permanent victims of rape even if that “offends” two of the “World’s Great Religions”. Turning one’s back on a raped woman and becoming an accessory to her genuine victimhood FOR ANY BOGUS SUPERNATURALIST REASON — or any reason at all — is shameful and must be called out at all times regardless of whom it “offends.
mortimer says
I totally disagree with the idea that Western conservatives are looking the other way on the issue of rape. Far from it. However, rape is not something that makes a pleasant topic of conversation.
mortimer says
The issue of rape should be in school libraries for teenagers to understand as a part of life and warfare that responsible leaders must try to prevent and punish. Learning the facts of life is part of growing into maturity.
raja says
Reverridesagain, Agreed that any wrongful action must be called out, whether is causes offence is secondary.
I have a problem with the word religion. Whoever coined the term religion must have been very shortsighted. There has been a historical mistake in not acknowledging that the way faith is practiced is also subject to decay in more than one form, i.e. doctrine, fervor et al. (as prophesied in the scriptures) Islam claims to be a way of life so does the New testament. islam is unique because of its dehumanizing commands and acts on infidels, not excluding global hegemony.
If we have to have any sensible approach to deal with the so called religion of islam, we need to “downgrade” it to a cult status because of what it is and what it does. Though it has tinges of god, it is essentially a hijack of everything that has already been laid through organized religion of Judaism.
mortimer says
‘Islamophobia’ has an official and also an unofficial definition, because Islam is dualistic. Unofficially, ‘Islamophobia’ simply means any statement, writing, utterance or ‘mention’ about Islam that a Muslim doesn’t like. This conforms with Sharia law. A statement a Muslim doesn’t like is enough to get a kafir killed according to Sharia. The statement may be 100% accurate in every particular and expressed perfectly in a diplomatic or academic language. However, if a Muslim feels the words detract from the ‘honor’ or supremacism of Islam, they are not ‘permitted’ under the rule of Sharia supremacism.
Muslims in the West are searching (hopelessly) for a way to impose Sharia supremacism, but they will not find it due to Western freedom of expression protections. Western people want equality, not special, superior rights for one group, so Sharia supremacism is an impossible reach for Muslims.
Muslims who want public Sharia that badly should find an Islamic country that is doing it and move their. They are wasting their time trying to impose freedom-of-speech-suppressing ‘Islamophobia’ protocols.
The implication they make is that ‘Islamophobia’ is somehow illegal, which it isn’t. We need the right to criticize ALL religions, because religionists of all persuasions are not angels and as humans, they often are involved with wrong-doing. If we may criticize Jews and Christians who go wrong, then we should under the equality philosophy be able to criticize Muslims who go wrong. Muslims who use the word ‘Islamophobia’ are really saying they don’t want equality.
mortimer says
Young people need to know what Islam teaches about rape. Sharia law and the Koran upon which it is based have no punishment for a Muslim who rapes a non-Muslims (kafir) woman. It is a justifiable part of jihad.
somehistory says
At one time in the past, this issue was kept behind closed doors and victims found it difficult to talk about their experience. Many victims were blamed…by family and by the courts.
Now, it is recognized that rape victims do not “ask” for the things done to them, no matter how they dress, etc. and the laws have been changed so that the Courts have to treat them in a different way than many were treated in the past.
However, the society today has given way to allowing the wrong, the backward, the demonic *thinking* of mozlums to dominate what the rest of us can say and do. What the rest of us can say….about whatever happens to us, our family, our friends, neighbors, community, country, and the world…if it involves mozlums in any way whatsoever.
And that includes…at the forefront…the raping of young girls. The gang rapes in the U.K., going on for more than 50 years and the rapists get to stay in the country and keep making more victims, with the authorities blaming the children for what is done to them…because the rapists are mozlum scum.
How did society come to this point? One way and one way only…through the actions of satan the devil and his human “children.”
The devil’s time on earth has been “cut short” and he is using every trick, every lie, every devious maneuver, every willing hand, to make life as difficult as possible for those who wish to do good, to treat others fairly, and to just ‘live and let live.’
None of us are being allowed just to “live and let live.” We are all, in one way or another, by different groups, being pressured to give in to the evil.
This poor girl, and others like her, should have a voice, and be heard by as many people as possible. Rape victims who speak about what was done to them are able to help others and in helping others, help themselves recover and find a measure of happiness, not blaming themselves, and finding some peace.
And that’s a fact, whether everyone agrees, or not. The proof is in the evidence all around us.
rubiconcrest says
Exposing the horrors of ISIS is now Islamophobic? Islamophobia is just a charade.
somehistory says
“The Department of Education (DOE) is looking to end the effort to collect information about allegations of sex crimes by teachers against students, The Washington Free Beacon is reporting.
As part of its data collection proposal for 2021-2022, the department’s Office for Civil Rights would no longer ask school districts to report allegations that resulted in the resignation or retirement of teachers.
The Beacon noted the move would halt a Trump-era effort to collect the data. Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had added questions about the sex crime allegations to the 2020-2021 data collection.”
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/education-data-allegations-sex/2021/11/23/id/1045863/?ns_mail_uid=8c2217ac-9501-4936-ab4c-37dd1cc061c2&ns_
And why would they do this? Is it because so many of those in government are rapists?
Kenneth J Johnson says
This book IS published in the United States. It’s a rough story but a must read.
KEN
Major Tom says
Methinks Canada is becoming more Shariah compliant every day………
Linde Barrera says
To Major Tom-In my opinion as an American citizen, the vast majority of Canadians are smart, hard working, and truth seeking individuals. But there is a small minority who seek and advocate for political correctness. Do they think this way because they want to “keep the peace” or is it to try and “fit in” with the elites like Justin Trudeau? I don’t know. ?
Alfredo says
The Woke Idiocy Syndrome has infected Canada as well, not only the US and Europe. It has been hit hard not only by a biological weapon of mass destruction, but a virus of the mind. This condition produces terminal idiocy in its victims.
One of the symptoms of this syndrome is the inability to recognize clear and present danger. The very condition that led to the extinction of the dodo. The poor dodos were being clubbered to death but they still took no action to defend themselves.
Therefore it is not farfetched to foresee the eventual extinction of Western civilization as we know it, because of its inability to detect clear and present danger. At best it’s reduction to a pale shadow of its former glorious and thriving self.
What is the clear and present danger one may ask? It is the mindless dash into the abyss of infinite lunacy. The relentless mass importation of totally incompatible people from alien cultures with no tradition of free speech, free thought, free association and all the requirements needed for a flourishing and healthy society.