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This article in today's Daily Mail is simply sickening!
Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed. It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial. There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.What's next? dropping that old and outdated "the Earth is round" theory? You simply cannot make this stuff up. Just when you think rock bottom has been hit, a new day brings a new low. What kind of people exactly is the UK education system going to produce? Perhaps people who are taught to see "both sides" of the holocaust.
Mob Attacks UK Embassy in Tehran
What passes for "free-speech" in the UK. Of course, try to publish the silly Mohammad cartoons at Cambridge and see what happens. 
Now for something completely different: Hillary raised over $36 million dollars from clueless donors hoping to ride the Billary Express to the oval office. Happy days are hear again.
Looking back to when I grew up in the 70s and 80s, I cannot be sure if we were taught about the Holocaust actually. We had second world war history of course and suffering of jews during it. But I think I may have learned more about the actual holocaust events themselves after my schooling. I may be wrong about this. But I don't have a clear memory of it.
ReplyDeleteIt appears from this article that 'once again' it is some ivory tower high commitee that is taking pre-emptive strikes "assuming" that something will offend someone without even bothering to ask them if it "does" offend them. An example for you. One place I worked in about a year ago,now had some Portugese workers in the workforce since Portugal had been accepted into the U.N. Aside from the usual "stranger" suspicion, it was ok.
Out of blue one day, British workers were told they were not allowed to wear England flag t-shirts for fear of "offending or intimidating" the portugese.
Of course, the Brits defied this but were then threatened with losing their job over it. Their own people stabbed them in the back. Did anybody bother their arse to even "ask" the Portugese if it bothered them in the slightest? No.
Once again, some idiot up in an office "assumed", and all it did was create bad feeling against Portugese even though none of them had even complained,and bad feeling had not existed before this rule.
When the latest "We've stopped doing this to avoid the risk of offending Muslims" event comes out, 9 times out of 10 is it not because a Muslim "did" complain, but because some politically correct commitee just 'assumed' too much.
Even many Muslims find a lot of it absurd and get angry because all this is does is cause anti-muslim sentiment when 9 times out of 10 not one muslim had said a damn word. It is a case of where trying to "enforce" multi culturism, it can actually "backfire". I think it is good to look at historical events from the vantage point of other parts of the world though. Often people are taught a one sided stock standard program in schools.
Look at the same events from the perspective of a nearby nation to where something happened, and the version of events is often very different. In an ideal world, "genuine" teaching would get pupils to utilize their intelligence, get them to question and come to conclusions based on all the evidence from various sources. Not just have them as little sponges.
Or is society just interested in programming children with a stock standard "this is what happened"?
I suspect it is this. In the article it says the teachers themselves are afraid of being challenged. To me,that is the sign of an atrocious teacher who is not a teacher but just a "repetition machine". Most of the blame in this latest incident is to the teacher (IMO) and over cautious commitees.
Maybe in the UK they will start to teach "both sides" of the holocaust too. Kind of like: "Yeah, the Nazi's marched six million Jews off to the gas chambers, but the Jews really annoyed them." It's just a logical extension for the "both sides" moral-relativists’ crowd, whose only idea of “evil”, is the use of the word “evil” itself.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps in the UK education system they can just dispense with all of the trouble and deny the holocaust outright, which would make it all oh so much easier too. Why is it that Right-wing and left-wing extreemists have such difficulty dealing with the holocaust?
Both sides? Maybe Joe. Anti semitism in Europe came from 'somewhere', and it had existed in Europe for hundreds of years prior to the events of the Nazis and the Holocaust. Where did such hatred come from,long before Nazis adopted it? Did it just appear out of thin air with absolutely no roots? There is no smoke without fire, as the saying goes. Unfortunately,later generations of Jews may have had to pay the price for the actions of some jews (or just two or three) earlier in the history which caused somebody to say that "all" jews were the same. Who knows? I just find it hard to believe that such mass hatred comes from nowhere. One of the ways the Holocaust is treated, is that it exists by itself, without any posible links to a complex past in Europe. That is why people cannot understand why such horrific things happened. It must have roots somewhere. Now,the denial of "that" is something that a bunch of some people continue to ignore,pathologically. Especially here in Britain and the U.S, with the "why do they hate us?" whine we hear so often when plenty of reasons are staring us right in the face. There is no smoke without fire. We all mirror each other.
ReplyDeleteOk "anonymous" please inform all of us of the justifications for Jew hatred in general and Nazi Jew hatred specifically. NOTE: Please Know that your answer to this will reflect on who you really are more than any other issue that you have written about. This issue, probably more than any other is a true window into a persons value system and who they are as a person. We all look forward to reading your answer.
ReplyDeleteMy post was asking you if you felt there was even the slightest possibility that it had ever been a case of "There is no smoke without fire" when it came to anti-semitism,Joe.
ReplyDeleteThe many accusations thrown against Jews (as a people) down the centuries which are the basis of most anti-semitism are well known, and you know what they are as well as I do. The events of the holocaust seem to have been a horrific culmination of a long term mistrust of an entire people that had been going on in Europe for centuries and centuries. Where did it all begin? Was it "all" just lying propaganda?
Or were there ever things commited by Jews of the past which have unfortunately led to an entire part of the world deciding that "all" Jews are one and the same and are not to be trusted (and even worse ending up with jewish people of the early part of the 1900s being rounded up for destruction)? I'm simply curious of how it all happened because the holocaust is often portrayed as a stand alone thing. No, anti semitism which Nazis embraced, had been around in Europe for centuries. Look at the Muslim world and how it is viewed today also.
Due to the actions of a few, some people now demonize an "entire" religion as being terrorist and backward savages,and many people against their rational nature,look at Muslims with great suspicion (and fear) due to the actions of a few. It can be traced back to actions of "small groups amongst millions". It means that certain groups of Muslims "did" plant the seeds which have spread out into a great mistrust and fear. Is it possible that a similar situation happened in the case of Jews?
Personally, I just find it hard to believe that long mistrust and hatred of Jews can arise out of 'nothing'. Or, maybe it did? If it did, then it is one of the most succesfull (and disturbing) acts of propaganda humanity has produced.
When I look at the way the Muslim world is increasingly viewed by the west, it appears like the early stirrings of attitudes which led to holocausts happening. It is saying - "Some Muslims did these horrific crimes against us, therefore they must all be the same" and I wonder if the same happened with Jews in the past. Propaganda is on many parts of the web portraying all Muslims as a kind of cancerous growth that is deviously plotting to infiltrate Europe and the United States, to take over like a Trojan horse. Yes, there are small elements who do have such dreams. But their power and influence is often heavily over exaggerated. But they certainly exist, they make their own people suffer in the long term, and it hands certain people a great excuse to focus only on these guys for their propaganda purposes. When people read this stuff, they begin to fear and hate all Muslims as rats pouring in through walls just in the way that the Nazis portrayed jews as devious rats in movies.
My interest is seeing if anti semitism had any roots in incidents in which 'some' Jews and their actions caused great resentment (in the same way that the actions of some Muslims has) and ended up having an entire group of people demonized. Look at Israel. Although we're talking about a regime here,there are plenty of reasons why surrounding nations can despise the Israeli ruling regime (a small group amongst millions), due to the regimes aggressive attitude.
Unfortunately,it means that people equate Israels ruling regime with "Jews" on the whole. I know well that many Jews in Israel are every day people who don't care for the same kind of attitudes their regime has, because I know some.
Israels ruling regime claiming it is a purely innocent victim,won't fool anybody (well,it fools a lot of people infact). But unfortunately its people get lumped in with the regime. So I ask if the dealings of a few Jews (not governments,but people in positions of influence) in the long past had planted seeds of mistrust and hatred of an entire group of people (Jews) in Europe? Or did it just arise out of nowhere? Is the question too taboo to ask?
For many, it is something they don't want to consider, and it brings screams of protest. I guess we may not be in posession of enough historical records to ever answer this question because the history of anti-semitism stretches back many centuries and the roots of it may be lost in time.
I noticed that you failed to answer the question; what is the cause of Jew hatred? What is the "both sides" of the holocaust? You fail to answer because there is no "legitimate" cause or any "both sides" that would warrant anything near what occurred. You finding that "hard to believe" is not an answer. Jew hatred has its roots in age-old primitive superstitions, resentments, jealousies, myths and prejudices that are easily countered by reason and facts, not by “the actions of a few Jews” as you mention. Please explain these “actions” and who these “few Jews” are. Jewish contributions to Western civilization, philosophy and science since the age of enlightenment are immense. Indeed, it can be argued that without the Jews, there would likely be no Western civilization as we know it and as you take for granted every day that you wake up on the morning. Indeed, without Judaism there would be no Christianity because Jesus and all of his disciples were proud Jews. In order for you to answer the question of the cause of Jew hatred you must delve into, and possibly associate yourself with an ugliness that you are clearly reluctant to do and I don't blame you and I urge you not to go in that direction. As for the Israeli "regime"; "regime" sounds scary, kind of like the dictatorships of the Islamic world or the old Soviet "regime." Israel is a tiny democratic country surrounded by totalitarian forces sworn to it destruction. It is a democracy and the "regime" is elected by the people every few years, and the leadership of the country changes frequently based on the democratic process and robust public debate. Its totalitarian neighbors on the other hand rarely if ever have changed "regime" without bloodshed or with the participation of the people, who are kept in a state of ignorance, poverty and oppression. In a democracy like Israel there is no separation of the people from the government because the government represents the people by the consent of the governed. You trying to make that separation in Israel's case is a reflection on you, not on Israel. Anti-Israel rhetoric is usually (not always) cover for anti-Semitism. Israel is not perfect and its imperfections are open for debate, but in the larger picture it is a model of decency compared to its surroundings and the easiest illustration of that is simply imagining what would happen if the entire Arab world unilaterally decided one day to put down its arms and declare peace. What would the outcome be? On the other hand, if tiny surrounded Israel one day put down its arms and declared unilateral pacifism, what would the outcome be? If you need me to paint you a picture than you may be beyond persuasion.
ReplyDelete>>You finding that "hard to believe" is not an answer. Jew hatred has its roots in age-old primitive superstitions, resentments, jealousies, myths and prejudices that are easily countered by reason and facts..
ReplyDeleteMaybe,Joe. Maybe. I always left it open for the possibility that it may have just arisen simply because of superstitions,jealousies,and myths. But,you've closed the door to the possibility that it 'could' have been rooted in something more than that. As I mentioned, we probably are not in posession of enough detailed historical evidence to investigate this honestly though.
>>Indeed, it can be argued that without the Jews, there would likely be no Western civilization as we know it and as you take for granted every day that you wake up on the morning.
Well,that sounds a bit "chosen people" to me. But I certainly acknowledge that Jews have made a significant contribution to advancement,the arts,science,etc. So have plenty of other peoples and cultures too.
As for the question about if Israel layed down arms. I wouldn't ask for that. I'd simply ask that Israel perhaps considers returning to its original borders,gives back areas of land where it has knocked down homes of others to occupy. Because when it doesn't,it gives surrounding regimes plenty of "reasons" to call Israel an aggressor.
This is not to say that the Islamic nations around them should do nothing in return. They should also make efforts,because they are just as stubborn as Israel. One thing I'll say, is that the location of Israel was one of the most ill thought out decisions in post war history.
Western nations assuming they could just create a nation of Jews right next to Islamic regimes. What were they thinking? I also believe that Jewish leaders were at one stage offered land in Africa to create a state after the war, but that they refused. Instead insisting on the land that is now classed as Israel?
If so,what did they expect was going to happen? You say there is no separation of the people from government, when it comes to Israel. If that truly is the case, then citizens of Israel cannot complain when their loved ones get killed in suicide attacks that were inspired from the sheer grief someone felt after having their relatives killed in the latest Israeli occupation of some land, because they are all glued to and in agreement with government actions, right? I would say that in reailty, both in Israel and in surrounding nations, there are mixtures of people who agree with what their governments do and people who deeply disagree. Just because a majority voted in a party, doesn't mean that every citizen is happy with the way things go in "in their name".
Just as there is no moral equivilency between the arsonist and the fire brigade, there is no moral equivilency between Israel and its much larger Arab naighbors. I will let the readers decide regarding your comment about the justification of suicide bombers. I think it reflects very poorly on your value system and I urge you to take a hard look at that, because based on your comments, you seem like a person who is much better than that. I also urge you to look at a map because it seems like you are unclear on exactly how small of a territory we are actually talking about.
ReplyDeleteThats ridiculus, the halocaust happened, my great grandparetns were killed because of it, everyone knows that its the truth, and so what if offends muslims? Parents can choose not to let their kids learn about it, but it happened, so people need to get over it.
ReplyDeleteWe are cuurently participating in a course aimed at teaching young adults about the holocaust. We are in thesixth form and will learning about the holocaust and travelling to the Auschwitz extermination camp. I feel we owe it to the people who were murdered in the holocaust to learn about it in schools, no matter what our religion may state is the truth.
ReplyDelete