LA Schools Remove Korans with Anti-Semitic Notes

Los Angeles (Reuters) ^ | February 7th, 2002 | Reuters

[RightlySo]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some 300 translations of the Koran, donated to Los Angeles schools by a local Muslim foundation to promote religious understanding after Sept. 11, have been removed because of an accompanying anti-Semitic commentary, school board officials said on Thursday.

The book, "The Meaning of the Holy Koran," is a 1934 translation of the Muslim holy text, which includes footnotes dating from that era which describe Jews variously as "arrogant" "illiterate" and "men without faith."

They were donated to schools by the Omar Ibn Khattab Foundation in Los Angeles to promote religious tolerance and understanding after the suicide plane attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, blamed on Muslim extremists.

But the Los Angeles Unified School District said they were pulled from library shelves this week after a history teacher noticed the derogatory remarks in the footnotes.

One passage in the commentary calls Jews "men without faith". Another footnote says of Jews, "Many of them, even if they could read, were no better than illiterates for they knew not their own true scriptures, but read into them what they wanted, or at best their own conjecture."

Dafer Dakhil, director of external affairs at the Omar Ibn Khattab Foundation, on Thursday regretted that the gift had been found offensive.

"We do not condone anything that is detrimental to understanding. If the books are offensive, they should be removed," Dakhil told Reuters.

Dakhil and the Foundation have worked cordially with the school board on other projects for several years.

School board officials said they would convene a committee made up of history teachers, Jewish leaders and Foundation officials to review the books.

[RightlySo]

Islam means peace-- even back in 1934, right?

[cmsgop]

F@#K Islam!!!!!!!.................:*)

[JeepInMazar]

This is classic.

[Saundra Duffy]

Yeah! Talk about your Jew bashing!!

[fineright]

ONLY the ones with Anti-Semetic notes?
How about ALL of them?

[kezekiel]

Dafer Dakhil, director of external affairs at the Omar Ibn Khattab Foundation, on Thursday regretted that the gift had been found offensive.

In other words, "I'm sorry you were offended," not "I'm sorry we gave you Korans that had anti-Semitic statements in them." BIG difference.

[OldFriend]

So that's different from what they think now.....right???

[Druidstl]

What do you think the reaction of the school would be if 300 bibles were donated?

[pocat]

Ah...those fun-loving muslims!

[cimon]

If the books are offensive, they should be removed," Dakhil told Reuters.

The question is, what isn't offensive in the Koran? Time to do some serious removing...

[Amore]

In other words, "I'm sorry you were offended," not "I'm sorry we gave you Korans that had anti-Semitic statements in them." BIG difference.

Exactly. Sort of like the reasoning that goes on with wife beaters -- I hit you because you made me do it. It's not MY fault.

[hangin' chad]

What do you think the reaction of the school would be if 300 bibles were donated?

My thoughts exactly....what would happen if I went up to my son's school with 300 Bibles to donate...please. There would be a hue and cry about separation of church and state, etc.

[spooner]

I still think pork is the ultimate answer.

[steve-b]

The book, "The Meaning of the Holy Koran," is a 1934 translation of the Muslim holy text, which includes footnotes dating from that era which describe Jews variously as "arrogant" "illiterate" and "men without faith."
They were donated to schools by the Omar Ibn Khattab Foundation in Los Angeles to promote religious tolerance

In other news, the school is arranging a screening of D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation to promote racial harmony.

[pfflier]

But the Los Angeles Unified School District said they were pulled from library shelves this week after a history teacher noticed the derogatory remarks in the footnotes

In LA?? the place where students were encouraged to dress as muslims? I'm surprised the teacher wasn't fired for "insensitivity"

[RamsNo1]

If the bible can't be in the schools, what the hell is the Koran doing there?

[nonliberal]

In other words, these new korans consist of two pages.

[Blackyce]

Pork is the key to the dominance of the Western world.

[Holden Magroin]

This is just another example of the dumbing down of America. The public schools are spending far more time engaging in social engineering than teaching. The politicians and the teacher unions seem to it's more important to teach kids political correctness and racial sensitivity than to improve their reading and writing skills.

[RightlySo]

What do you think the reaction of the school would be if 300 bibles were donated?

That's an excellent question, one which I *think* I know the answer to, and none of us would like it...