Teachers drop teaching about the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

[totodeinhere]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-445979/Teachers-drop-Holocaust-avoid-offending-Muslims.html

If this story has any substance, this is just wrong. In the first place, I don't understand why learning about the Holocaust would be offensive to any Muslim. There can't be that many Holocaust deniers among the Muslim community.
We need to teach history accurately and let the chips fall where they may.

[iris27]

1. Well, it *is* the Daily Fail. But you're right, if there's anything to it,

that's scary.

[donco6]

2. It was one school in some "unnamed" northern part of Britain.

The other "examples" still taught it, though there was "concern it might be offensive to some groups.

This is how the Daily Mail rolls. Get people fired up about jack shit.

[totodeinhere]

7. There should not be "concern it might be offensive to some groups."

Teaching it should not be offensive to anyone, and as I already said, they should teach history accurately regardless of the consequences.

[donco6]

14. And my point is NO one is NOT TEACHING it.

It's all a fabricated pack of lies.

[Odin2005]

3. It's the Daily Hate Mail, they are always making up muslim-bashing BS.

[Boojatta]

4. If Jews get killed, then eventually Muslims will hear about it and be offended.

So Jews should stop getting killed. Perhaps Jews should establish their own country somewhere, with their own police and their own military. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[xultar]

5. I refuse to believe this.

[mzteris]

6. isn't this a really really OLD story? n/t

[totodeinhere]

9. Yes it is. I hadn't noticed the date on the article.

My bad. I just got the link off from Twitter.

[QC]

8. Is that the paper with the topless girl on page 3? n/t

[mzteris]

10. factcheck is your friend

January 2, 2008
Q: Did the U.K. suspend its Holocaust curriculum because it offended Muslim students?

. . . This particular bit of bunk (along with an even more ridiculous version that turns the U.K. into the University of Kentucky) has been in circulation for several months now. A simple Google search reveals the falsity of the rumor, yet the e-mail continues to be passed along by the overly credulous.

The suggestion that the U.K. had banned teaching the Holocaust began appearing after the publication of a report from the British Historical Association. That report, titled Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 3-19, noted that "a history department in a northern city recently avoided selecting the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework for fear of confronting anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial from some Muslim pupils."

In the English educational system, a GCSE (or general certificate for secondary education) course is roughly the equivalent of an American high school course. But unlike in the U.S., English and Welsh students can opt for a number of different GSCE courses (many of which provide vocational training). Thus, only about a third of British children opt to take GCSE coursework in history. While GCSE courses are high school level, they function more like American college courses, with teachers free to choose the curriculum and students free to take or not take the classes. So the outcry spawned by the Historical Association report is based on a decision at a single school (out of 4,500 in the U.K.) to remove study of the Holocaust from an elective course.

According to the Holocaust Educational Trust, study of the Holocaust remains part of the compulsory national curriculum for all children in England. The Holocaust is not required in the national curricula of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But according to the BBC, this has not changed recently.

There is no real basis at all for asserting that the University of Kentucky has banned teaching the Holocaust. The rumor apparently began when someone failed to recognize that the U.K. is a country in Europe and thus altered "U.K." to "University of Kentucky." The university officially denied the rumor, pointing out that the Department of Judaic Studies offers History 323: The Holocaust. In fact, that course is being offered in the spring 2008 semester. . . .


edit to add link : http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/did_the_uk_suspend_its_holocaust_curriculum.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Actually there is a cottage industry of holocaust denial

in the Muslim world, particularly in certain Arab nations.

There is also quite the cottage industry in anti semitic literature.

Why you may ask? Well two reasons.

1.- The Mufti of Jerusalem was up to his neck with the Nazis during WW II... yes they promised the moon and the sky and in reality Palestine would have become a Nazi colony, but.

2.- The Holocaust was used to justify the founding of Israel.

So there might something to it.

And yes, history should be taught fully. Speaking of other creation there is much we chose not to teach not to offend groups.

And yes I can see this post offending some folks too.

:-)

Now this does not mean that the not teaching actually happened, but that is separate.

[iamjoy]

15. Why Not Teach About The Muslims Who Helped

So, since Holocaust denial is becoming all the rage in some Arab countries, why not start teaching about the Muslims who helped Jews during this time? Notably (or perhaps ironically) in Albania. Aside from that, on the whole, it wasn't quite as bad for a Jew in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa compared to Europe.

I think teaching such things would help heal some the rift that is now between Jews and Arabs/Muslims. And maybe Arabs would appreciate a chance to play the hero in a story by Westerners ;)

[nadinbrzezinski]

17. Correct

there is much that is not taught and addressing the OP exclusively.

Why is that not done? Again we go into national myths and the creation of the other.

In my ideal world, to heal some of the pain... I'd teach about those who protected victims, who happened to be Muslims. I'd also teach about the beginning of the state of Israel both the good and the not so good bits... (like the expulsion in Haifa by the Irgun)

In other worlds, teaching all the history might help create the image of we are all human.

But that's just me. I don't think the Likkud would let me teach that. Just as much as oh to just pick on one country, the Ba'ath party in Syria would let me.

So yes, everybody is guilty.

Of course I can say that about just about anybody's history...

Ours is so full of dark secrets too!

[dkf]

22. History and context is important.

To hesitate posting facts out of fear of offending is wrong. How can anyone have a dialogue if all we hear is the same old thing?

[Warren Stupidity]

12. gee more fuel for the islamophobe bonfire

unrec

[totodeinhere]

13. I apologize for posting this without fact checking it first. I was wrong. n/t

[Kerrytravelers]

16. It's ok. It is easy to believe crazy stuff like that. Remember... Sarah Palin is real.

And if she is real, with all her stupidity and nonsense that people still buy as "folksy wisdom" then anything is possible. :rofl:


:hi:

[demmiblue]

21. Snort!

:rofl:

[Kerrytravelers]

25. Wanna know a secret?

Sometimes I read the subject line and a paragraph or more before I realize the article is from The Onion. :rofl: That's how crazy the world has gotten! :rofl:

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. It allows for a discussion of WHO owns history

:-)

[Wounded Bear]

20. I don't know....the thread informed me

I know there were many Nazi ties to Arabic/Islamic/Middle Eastern countries prior to and during WWII. Much of that stemmed from the area being taken over by the French and English after WWI. Colonies are always ripe for subversion, and Germany attempted to do so. Those attachments run deep. It is no secret that Saddam Hussein patterned his rise to power after Hitler. Lot of parallels there.

So "articles" like this tend to get people emotionally inflamed, usually before they fact check. By then, it is often too late to educate many people. Once a thought worm like that one gets in, it's hard to extract it. That's how much of the RW energy is generated these days.

[Canuckistanian]

18. Bullshit

More Daily Mail bullshit.

[slampoet]

23. +1000 Why do people repeat BS from bad sources with illogical headlines that SCREAM Bad Source

[Mariana]

24. Is this bullshit story still going around?

Bloody hell, this was debunked YEARS ago!

[Hannah Bell]

26. could you change the title to "in unnamed part of UK"?