"Freedom of Speech & Religion only applies when it does not offend us"

[cabri]

Link

A group of Somali immigrants protested outside the Refugee Women’s Alliance in Seattle on Friday to demand the firing of a teacher who had shown students cartoons of Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

The teacher under fire, Deepa Bhandaru, displayed the images for the group of teenage students last month, the day after the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris


Bhandaru, a recent recipient of a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington (also in Seattle), had been teaching a free class at the Refugee Women’s Alliance when she showed the cartoons to the kids.

The lesson topic for that day’s workshop was religious pluralism and freedom of speech.

The protest against Bhandaru occurred late Friday afternoon. Perhaps 15 to 20 people attended. A man named Hassan Diis was passing around pre-printed signs in English, according to a journalist on the scene.

Diis, who describes himself as a Somali community activist and a devout Muslim, said he was angered after he heard that the teacher showed cartoon images of Muhammad to Somali teens.

“We don’t want someone to brainwash our children,” he told The Daily Caller. “The prophet is very important for us.”

Diis added that he believes that Bhandaru, who he says is not a Muslim, should no longer instruct Somali students at the Refugee Women’s Alliance.

The students themselves weren’t upset by the content of her lesson plan, Bhandaru has noted. They tended to agree with the fully American notion that students generally agreeing that “sometimes one person’s freedom might offend another person, but that’s the price we pay to be free,”

Students understand, it is the bigot parents that seem to fail.

Education is working:thumbsup:; will it work fast enough and elsewhere also.:\

 

[Moonbeam]

Is it education or is it brainwashing? To me that's a meaningless argument. I believe the students are for free expression because that is will of God and children who are not brainwashed will know it. I believe there is no real war to be fought between good and evil, that these are only delusions created by the duality created by language, and that the soul knows the truth naturally. The will of God is built into our DNA. The truth of our natures can never be defeated and will reemerge endlessly when repressed.

 

[1prophet]

Link






Students understand, it is the bigot parents that seem to fail.

Education is working:thumbsup:; will it work fast enough and elsewhere also.:\

Until they start to receive death threats, then the teacher will be silenced for the greater good.

 

[PokerGuy]

Education is working:thumbsup:; will it work fast enough and elsewhere also.:\

I doubt that's the result of "education working", more likely that the younger ones are able to see more normal people around them and are a little less likely to be as insane about a drawing as their idiot parents apparently are.

 

[PokerGuy]

Until they start to receive death threats, then the teacher will be silenced for the greater good.

Yup, we're heading down that same UK path, just a matter of time.

 

[Moonbeam]

Yup, we're heading down that same UK path, just a matter of time.

Spoken like a true CBDive. There's lions in the grass. Head for the trees and prepare to throw sticks.

 

[1prophet]

Is it education or is it brainwashing?

I'm sure the same question was asked about about Gay rights, civil rights, women's rights, gay marriage, etc.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

There's an inherent irony in people using their free speech rights to protest someone else's free speech rights... but there's also irony in calling them out for it. Their protest may seem foolish, but it's their right to say they don't agree with the curriculum.

 

[maddogchen]

all this over a free class.....don't let your kids go to the free class then!

 

[Newbian]

The real question is was she sleeping with any of her students and of so she had better be hot?

 

[Double Trouble]

There's an inherent irony in people using their free speech rights to protest someone else's free speech rights... but there's also irony in calling them out for it. Their protest may seem foolish, but it's their right to say they don't agree with the curriculum.

Why is there irony in calling them out for it? I fully support their fight to protest, no matter how stupid their reasons. They just can't seem to put two and two together. You left a shithole of a country (Somalia) to seek a new life elsewhere, but then you want to bring the same garbage that made that country shithole with you....

 

[Darwin333]

Yup, we're heading down that same UK path, just a matter of time.

Yup, pretty soon things are going to get so bad that Mexico will be building a wall to keep us out.

 

[blastingcap]

Link

Students understand, it is the bigot parents that seem to fail.

Education is working:thumbsup:; will it work fast enough and elsewhere also.:\

Get names for all the protestors and deport them to some place without freedom of speech as a Constitutionally protected right. I nominate Saudi Arabia.

 

[thraashman]

The fascinating thing about Freedom of Speech is that these protesters have just as much of a right to use their speech in protest as this teacher had to teach a lesson.

 

[blastingcap]

The fascinating thing about Freedom of Speech is that these protesters have just as much of a right to use their speech in protest as this teacher had to teach a lesson.

No they do not. Suppression of speech is not a right.

 

[realibrad]

No they do not. Suppression of speech is not a right.

Suppression of speech is not a right. Calling for the Suppression of speech is.

Big difference in those two ideas.

 

[master_shake_]

its funny that her rights end right where there rights start.

 

[cabri]

The fascinating thing about Freedom of Speech is that these protesters have just as much of a right to use their speech in protest as this teacher had to teach a lesson.

They have the right to protest - they do not have the right to shut down the teaching because of free speech, which is what they are trying to do.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

They have the right to protest - they do not have the right to shut down the teaching because of free speech, which is what they are trying to do.

They're calling for her to be fired for what she said... not unlike the CEO at Mozilla who was forced to resign after it was revealed he donated to Proposition 8. That's free speech in action. The school has no obligation to do what the protesters are asking for. They still have the right to ask for it.

 

[blastingcap]

Suppression of speech is not a right. Calling for the Suppression of speech is.

Big difference in those two ideas.

Within reason. But yes I understand your point. I was going to quibble with definition of right vs privilege but this is not a lawyer forum so I'll stop.

 

[Gooberlx2]

No they do not. Suppression of speech is not a right.

Whose speech has been suppressed?

they do not have the right to shut down the teaching because of free speech, which is what they are trying to do.

They absolutely do have every right to voice their opinion of the teacher and her methods and call for her firing, through protest (which is all they're doing). As mentioned, the school can oblige or ignore.

Regardless, while the teacher's own speech is protected, her employment is not.

 

[Victorian Gray]

A "group" of protestors? The picture shows a grand total of 3 people.

 

[nickqt]

A "group" of protestors? The picture shows a grand total of 3 people.

That's the big bad Muslim horde we have to protect ourselves from.

Also: sharia law is coming to a town near you.

Plus, Benghazi.

 

[Blanky]

In case people hadn't noticed islamic countries are not real big on freedom of expression. Kind of part and parcel of the whole religion.

 

[cabri]

Whose speech has been suppressed?

They are trying to suppress the teacher - imposing their views on others.

When the protest occurred on Friday, the Refugee Women’s Alliance had shut down for the week due to vandalism and subsequent fears for the safety of the staff.

...

An internal investigation by officials at the Refugee Women’s Alliance will determine Bhandaru’s fate as a teacher of free courses

Hopefully the school will not given in to the threat(s).

But the safety of the personel and students should come first.