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[Killer]

So other languages are OK except Arabic.

Also, Afghan don't speak Arabic. Wtf. Learn about other countries people.

 

[googleplex]

I think they handled it well. It's a non-apology for a non-issue; "sorry we offended you" is exactly the right response.

"Fuck off you bigoted cunts" would have been a better response.

 

[Jedi2016]

Every other language is fine until Arabic, huh?

What's even more fucked up is that the people complaining don't think there's anything wrong with what they're saying.

And Jewish parents? I don't even see the connection. Better hope they don't decide to recite the Pledge in German.

Fuck those people.

 

[Darkgran]

Fox Guest: Reciting Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic Is Like Speaking German During WWII

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/fox-gues...n-arabic-is-like-speaking-german-during-wwii/

 

[Derwind]

Or algorithms.

Or Algernon Cadwallader.

Isn't the word 'chemistry' derrived from the word 'alchemy'(al-kīmī&#257 which is an arabic word?

Dang it, the terrorist are always just one step ahead!

Well fuck chemistry anyways.

 

[fixedpoint]

.

 

[RedSwirl]

Wait, what version of Arabic was it? I imagine they defaulted to Quranic or something?

 

[pgtl_10]

The Fox News article is hilarious:

Fox News

One nation under Allah: Fury after school recites pledge in Arabic

Students at Pine Bush High School in Pine Bush, New York, knew right away there was something not quite right about the Pledge of Allegiance. That’s because the pledge was being recited in Arabic.

“One nation under Allah,” the student body president announced over the intercom system on Wednesday.

Reaction in the upstate New York high school was swift, and so was the backlash, The Times Herald-Record reports. Furious students tried to shout down the recitation in their classrooms. Other students sat down in protest.

School Superintendent Joan Carbone told the newspaper that the Arabic pledge “divided the school in half” – noting that many complaints came from Jewish parents and those who had lost family members fighting the war on terror.


The outrage among students was so significant that the school issued an apology.

“We sincerely apologize for having the Pledge of Allegiance recited this morning in the high school in a language other than English,” the apology read. “In our school district the Pledge of Allegiance will only be recited in English as recommended by the Commissioner of Education.”

Well, that’s somewhat reassuring.

However, state regulations do not mandate that the pledge be recited in a specific language. It recommends only specific wording.

108.5 Pledge to the flag.

(a) It is recommended that schools use the following pledge to the flag:

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

(b) In giving the pledge to the flag, the procedure is to render the pledge by standing with the right hand over the heart.

The school said the pledge was recited in Arabic as a way to honor National Foreign Language Week “and in an effort to celebrate the many races, cultures and religions that make up this great country.” It said the pledge had been recited in other languages throughout the week.

That explanation didn’t set well with student Alex Krug.

“I think it should be said in English,” he told television station TWCNews.com. “It is foreign language week but we don’t even offer Arabic in Pine Bush High School.”

Andrew Zink, the student body president, defended what he did and said he would do it all over again – telling TWC News he “knew exactly what would happen” because “it’s the right thing to do.”

Zink wrote on his Twitter account: “To everyone who disagrees with my decisions, I respect your right to do so and hope we can have a productive conversation,”

Oh, there’s been no shortage of conversation around the small town.

“Thanks to the illegal invasion and the concept of ‘celebrate diversity,’ English is becoming a foreign language in America,” one critic wrote on the local newspaper’s website.

A writer who claimed to be an American of Arab Christian ancestry said he, too, was offended by what happened.

“The Pledge of Allegiance isn’t a ‘salute’ to America,” he wrote. “It’s a promise to be loyal to it. Part of that loyalty should be to learn English and integrating into our culture.”

Based on the comments made by the student body president, it appears the Arabic recitation was less about celebrating a foreign language and more about stirring up trouble.

In my most recent book, “God Less America,” I illustrate how the nation’s public schools have been turned into indoctrination centers. Teachers are preaching a liberal ideology. Our schoolhouses have become places where Christianity is marginalized and Islam is given accommodation.

Arabic is a religion?

Also why is the Arab Christian mad? You can learn more than one language can't you.

Fox News is so lulz.

 

[Cyan]

Arabic is a religion?

Also why is the Arab Christian mad? You can learn more than one language can't you.

Fox News is so lulz.

Presumably they looked until they found someone with an Arabic background who was conservative and therefore upset about this.

That way it's not racist.

 

[jerry1594]

Great way to have people yell Allahu Akbar on video instead

 

[pgtl_10]

Also why do people get mad at the name Allah? Don't they know it means God?

 

[Se7enSword]

This whole incident is disappointing to learn about. That school really should not have given in to those ignorant and uneducated fools.

Outlets like Foxnews never help. I hope the other news stations help by combating these xenophobic elements.

 

[Aikidoka]

There are lots of murders in America that speak english. This whole thread, nay forum, offends me.

 

[pgtl_10]

My experience with Americans overseas is that we are the worst when it comes to cultural integration. They could live in countries for years and not know three words of the local language.

 

[Stereogatari]

Roughly a 1/4 of the Human population see Arabic as a sacred language.

Arabic has influenced the vocabularly of all Muslim majority peoples languages and even some non-Muslim majority languages such as Maltese and Indian/Nepali language, so perhaps as many as a 1/3 of Humans use Arabic vocabulary in their day to day speaking.


The Arabic word for love (Ishq) is probably the most commonly used word for love in the world.

These facts would have made a beautiful reply to these idiotic parents.

 

[Baki]

If they read it in different languages, I don't see a problem. It's not like the school forces you to say the pledge anyway.
The school shouldn't have apologized, and the parents who complained could go fuck themselves.

Even if it was just Arabic and English, it wouldn't matter.

School is full of racist pricks.

 

[Miles Quaritch]

The worrying thing is that kids were just as angry about it as their parents, that's not looking great for the argument that racism will slowly get better as more and more older people die...but then I'd ask who really believed in that argument in the first place?

Racism is like religion, that shit is ingrained in from a very young age and is incredibly hard to counter when the person has been exposed to it for most of their life.

 

[Stinkles]

Stupid racist shits.

The amazing thing is that practically every single parent who complained is either an immigrant, the child of an immigrant or directly descended from immigrants. The vast majority of whom likely didn't speak English.


I genuinely hope that in a couple of hundred years everyone speaks the same language. I don't care what it is, as long as it isn't Welsh, but it will go a long way to helping us understand each other better. Then we can hate each other because of space pants or whatever shit we care about in the future.

Languages are a means to an end - and that end is fluid communication, not hatred.

 

[lednerg]

The backlash from those xenophobic, bigoted parents only proves the need for exercises like this. It's a shame the school was so quick to back down.

 

[xenist]

GOD BLESS AMERICA

I love that he's using foreign made weapons.

 

[Joel Was Right]

It's disappointing that this happened in an environment where learning is meant to take place. If the school has anything to apologise it is in failing their pupils by succumbing to racist bigotry.

I hope other schools nationwide are looking at this event as an opportunity to address it in their own communities by promoting the reciting of the pledge in Arabic and any other foreign language.

 

[Cloudy]

Freaking disgusting

 

[mintylurb]

Should not have apologised. Dumb cunt students who took offence can go home and be homeschooled.


What upsets me the most is the Jewish parents who complained. Why is Arabic offensive to you? How would you feel if the situation was reversed? And yet people always have to tread lightly when making such criticisms because otherwise they'd ben accused of being anti-Semitic.

I believe arabic is considered a semitic language so in essence, the jewish parents are being anti-semits..;00

 

[mreddie]

Paranoia and racism still exist. Ugh.