Did anybody even read the article here? “I bet that you’re grieving.”?? Unless the girl was wearing a black armband and “Osama We Miss You” t-shirt, it was a pretty damfool thing to say....
Just from reading the excerpt, I was thinking the same thing. Just because a guy has freedom of speech doesn't mean he should say the stupidest things that pop into his mind.
My son’s history teacher was discussing the death yesterday. The teacher said that the burial at sea is a Muslim burial. One Muslim boy in the class said “no, it’s not but it doesn’t matter”. The teacher asked why and he said that Usama was going to hell anyways and didn’t deserve a proper Muslim burial since he wasn’t a good Muslim. The boy’s point was the information about proper vs improper Muslim burials was wrong but he felt it didn’t matter one way or the other. IMHO teachers should present the information as factual and that is that.
Another analogy. Go to a known gun rights advocate and/or a Catholic and say I bet you are grieving when McVeigh was executed.
It is a stupid thing to say on any level. Unless the girl expressed support for Osama, it targetted her because she was a Muslim.
A similar thing happened in my daughter’s speech class. Her classmate, the son of our Pastor, was talking about his faith (which is good) but then concluded by saying it was not like Islam where Muslims are going around killing other people. One of the other class members, a girl which is a friend of my daughter, is a Muslim. Fortunately the teacher called the boy on the carpet for the statement.
It was not that long ago that IRA Catholics were blowing up British targets and Irish and British Protestants were responding in kind. KKK claimed ties to Christianity and used their Christianity to justify their actions. The Puritans executed Quakers and suspected witches.
I don’t suscribe to the meme that diversity makes us stronger. What I do think is that we, Americans of all backgrounds and types, can make our country a better nation. One of the ways we do that is by being tolerant and sensitive to others belief systems. It is actually the Christian thing to do.