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Re: ...meanwhile in a school in Houston
by Basil Seal

I already posted this to an almost identical thread, but I think the response is equally applicable to you, mutatis mutandis :

Wow, this is the same kind of relativism I encountered when I criticized a recent Slate-Architecture piece on Dubai. It seems the American new left is always ready to exculpate Middle East practices so long as something even remotely commensurable is going on in the U.S.

For the record, though, (since you obviously were too lazy to read the report yourself before disparaging Applebaum), it wasn't "buried in some textbook." The report (which the author provided a link to, mind you) is over 70 pages long, replete with dozens - perhaps even hundreds - of instances of hate mongering.

Moreover, the comparison to a single private school in Texas - which you don't even provide any evidence for in support of your claim! - isn't simply shallow - it's fatuous! And on so many levels!

Is the American government behind the production of the mural you speak of? No!
Does the phenomenon you reference pertain to a majority - or even a significant subset - of American schools? No!

Does the mural you reference contain exhortations to immanent violence? No!

Do 'End of Times' theories or this alleged mural, for all their inanity, teach children that they are prohibited from being friends - let alone associating! - with adherents of other religions? No! (If you dispute the existence of such commands in Saudi textbooks, read the report)

Is there even a constitutional way for the American government to censor the textbooks of private religious schools or home-schooling? No! (Obviously you're not familiar with the case of Pierce v. Society of Sisters, in which the Supreme Court identified a right of parents "to control the education of one's children" outside of public schools - it seems you new left webrooties aren't particularly well-versed in old-school left civil liberties)

From a democratic theorist point of view, is there a meaningful distinction between a state's commissioning of insidious religious textbooks and the production of putatively inappropriate textbooks or murals by American private schools? YES!

Make sure the logic of your comparison is sound before rattling off a knee-jerk response.

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