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| Teacher suspended for anti-Arab remark | |
| 2005-01-13 | |
A middle school teacher has been suspended with pay while officials investigate a report he told his students that Bedouin Arabs used the Quran as toilet paper. The teacher is on the faculty of Woodworth Middle School in Dearborn, a Detroit suburb of 100,000. About 30,000 Dearborn residents are Arab-American. Bedouins are members of historically nomadic tribes and make up about 10 percent of the population of the Middle East. The Quran is the Muslim holy book.
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| Posted by:tipper |
| #20 Well I would have to cut off my "evil hand" since I am a left handed one. People sit down at my computer and are baffled at the track ball on the left. They are even more astounded that I play FPS games that way. Remind me not to shake an arabs hand, ever. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-01-13 11:25:15 PM |
| #19 Mr. Wife told me left hand for the bathroom, right hand for eating food out of the common pot. He used to actually sit on his left hand at dinner to make sure he didn't forget -- one doesn't want to give one's host's entire family dysentery on the first visit, does one? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-01-13 7:10:24 PM |
| #18 Yep, it's true. The Arab culture never does anything with the left hand, it is considered "unclean" because of the above observations. It is very offensive to an Arab if you offer or give anything to them with your left hand. I had to be mindful of this all the times I was over there, me being a southpaw and all... |
| Posted by: Bodyguard 2005-01-13 6:23:35 PM |
| #17 The teacher is probably anti-Bedouin. An idiot in any case. |
| Posted by: lex 2005-01-13 5:29:00 PM |
| #16 .COM Isnt there a book called "The Left Hand of Darkness" ?? was the author a bedouin :) |
| Posted by: EoZ 2005-01-13 5:24:28 PM |
| #15 It is definitely the left hand. That is not something you fail to pick up on over there, I assure you. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-01-13 5:11:04 PM |
| #14 I think their story is that god (through some guy named mohammed) told them specifically how to perform all bodily functions. You'd think god would have more important things to worry about. |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2005-01-13 4:57:03 PM |
| #13 I'm with Barb. Ick. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-01-13 3:51:30 PM |
| #12 Anonymous4724: Eeeewwwwwww! :-( |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-01-13 3:48:25 PM |
| #11 typical bs that comes out of Dearborn weekly. These people are so hyper sensitive it's annoying. move along, nothing to see. |
| Posted by: Jarhead 2005-01-13 3:44:09 PM |
| #10 Dollars to donuts, there's more to this story than is being reported. /me suspects an anecdote about illiterate Bedouins using sheets of paper for non-sacred purposes, kinda sorta like the old folks used the Sears catalog. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-01-13 12:51:05 PM |
| #9 "What would they use to wipe their behinds? Not alot of vegetation out there in the Sinai or Sahara or Western Iraq. Koran can come in handy, so could the turban." Muslims do not use toilet paper or any paper at all. They either use their hand (left, I think)or smooth round pebbles. |
| Posted by: Anonymous4724 2005-01-13 12:45:16 PM |
| #8 What would they use to wipe their behinds? Not alot of vegetation out there in the Sinai or Sahara or Western Iraq. Koran can come in handy, so could the turban. |
| Posted by: Rightwing 2005-01-13 12:33:43 PM |
| #7 I am not into political sensitivity, but I do not want this "teacher" running a class with my boys in it. Just damn stupid. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-01-13 12:32:46 PM |
| #6 The teacher should be suspended for being ignorant. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-01-13 12:27:45 PM |
| #5 That's a very strange insult. It doesn't sound so much anti-Arab or anti-Muslim as anti-Bedouin. I have to wonder whether the teacher is, himself, Arab? It's the sort of thing a city slicker snob would say about his country kin - those damned illiteral hillbillies, sitting in their outhouses, wiping their asses with scripture! |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2005-01-13 12:22:38 PM |
| #4 ..while officials investigate a report he told his students that Bedouin Arabs used the Quran as toilet paper. That's "anti-Arab"???? Sounds like a simple insult to me. Imad Hamad, Michigan director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the teacher should apologize. "I only wonder what was in his mind when he looked into their eyes and stated such an ugly description and such painful words," he said. What's on the minds of Arabs that call Jews "ugly descriptions", such as apes, pigs, and the like? |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-01-13 11:02:52 AM |
| #3 Please use the Detroit News in the future. |
| Posted by: John Q. Citizen 2005-01-13 10:34:03 AM |
| #2 just don't shake hands with any arabs... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-01-13 10:26:00 AM |
| #1 "I only wonder what was in his mind when he looked into their eyes and stated such an ugly description and such painful words" Probably "I have to go and I wish I had a Koran handy." |
| Posted by: BH 2005-01-13 10:15:45 AM |