Schools asked to ban book; Parent of seventh-grader says it promotes hatred toward Arabs

The Patriot Ledger ^ | January 11, 2005 | KAREN GOULART

[traumer]

Looks like a nice place... but wouldn't like to pay their taxes :o)

http://www.city-data.com/city/Duxbury-Massachusetts.html

(probably very liberal)

[badbass]

but schools once stopped using an anti-bullying video because of complaints that it was too violent.

Does this statement seem ridiculous to anybody else (and also indicative of what's wrong with public schools)?

[Alouette]

Most Yiddish cursewords came from German.

And Russian and Polish.

Hebrew doesn't easily lend itself to vulgar insults.

Like my grandmother would say, "You eat with that mouth?"

[popdonnelly]

I think it's called literary license.

[ChicagoHebrew]

You kidding? With the Hebrew root system, Hebrew is tailor-made for curse words. It chose to borrow its curses from Arabic, Russian and English simply because it had no native curse words in Ben-Yehuda's time.

It picked up Russian curses from immigrants, Arab curses from Arabs, and English curses from the Brits and American tv.

[buccaneer81]

Remember that Fagin was Jewish. I've never heard about the Jews trying to ban Oliver Twist, though.

SHHH...Don't give Abe Foxman any ideas.

[danno3150]

If you can afford the house, you can afford the taxes.

Probably very liberal? This is the Peoples Republic of Massachusetts. Would do you think?

[saquin]

She is writing a paper about ‘‘Baghdad Burning,'' a weblog -- that describes a girl's everyday life in that city during the occupation.

Interesting that she chose probably the most vehemently anti-American of the Iraqi blogs to write her paper about. And this article makes "Baghdad Burning" sound like the modern equivalent of The Diary of Anne Frank. The writer of Baghdad Burning, who uses the nickname "Riverbend", is not a "girl", writing about her "everyday life". She is a young woman in her 20s from a Sunni area of Baghdad who loved "Uncle Saddam", is sorry he's gone and hates Americans.

[TXnMA]

Went to college with a guy from Gaza called, "Mac" (Mahkram). First English words he taught himself were swear words.

Often, his conversations in English were unintelligible, and some of his cussing combinations were hilarious -- but there was no doubt about when the guy was P.O.'d! (LOL!!)

[danno3150]

The paper that ran this article is not exactly a bastion of fine journalism (although what "fine journalism is these days is anybody's guess). I didn't expect any hard-hitting follow up questions, and the writer didn't disappoint. That being said, the blog angle makes this article that much more infuriating.

[Portnoy]

If I was writing a novel about a man who hated Muslims, I'd probably have that character use some slang words. We live in a very scarey world folks, its only going to get worse. Here come the firemen.....

[Alouette]

Hebrew is tailor-made for curse words. It chose to borrow its curses from Arabic, Russian and English simply because it had no native curse words in Ben-Yehuda's time.

Did you ever think to ask yourself how did Jews cuss each other during, say, King David's time? Simply by grafting Chaldean, Aramean, Canaanite and Philistine words.

One good thing the Tower of Babel was good for: wide variety of cuss words.

[LibFreeOrDie]

It's called "Deluxebury"!

[cardinal4]

The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee has said Arabs in the book are portrays as ‘‘backward ... cowardly, and barbaric.''

uh...Ok, so whats the problem?

[expatpat]

If he can't stand free speech, he should go back to Labanon, or whatever hell-hole he came from.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

I wonder, does the Library have BEAU GEST, BEAU SABURER or BEAU IDEAL?

[expatpat]

However, they don't like "The Merchant of Venice". When was the last time you saw that performed?

[womcg]

Thanks! I knew the name, but could not recall the details from that web site/blog. Was bugging me. I guess I'll get upset about this girl being offended when her family begins a campaign to stop bias, bigotry, and race hatred in Mosques and Islamic schools.

[Malesherbes]

One of the wonders of multi-culturalism is that EVERYTHING makes somebody "feel bad." The solution: ban all books.

[kenavi]

A lot of people will be offended by Al Pacino's performance.