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Conservative Muslims and Christians Band Together to Protect Schoolchildren


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Hundreds of Muslim parents shut down a recent Dearborn, Michigan Public Schools board meeting, citing outrage over sexually explicit LGBTQ books.

Despicable: Virginia Parents Blast School Board Over Pornographic Books Assigned to Ninth Graders

WATCH:

From Detroit Free Press:

Hundreds of protesters packed a Dearborn Public Schools board meeting this week and shut it down with cries of anger over certain LGBTQ books they said are too sexually explicit for children. And now, some community leaders anxiously await a rescheduled meeting set for Thursday night as others call for calm.

A heavy police presence failed to prevent the Monday night meeting from descending into chaos as demonstrators took it over and then various factions within them jostled for control, shouting at each other. Protesters often ignored the requests of police officers to stop interrupting board members.

It was unclear who was in control of the meeting at times. Most of the crowd appeared to be in opposition to the books, but there were also a number of people with the the American Federation of Teachers union who showed up to support inclusion of LGBTQ people and others.

Not until Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin arrived later did the protesters stop their agitation. Shahin pleaded with the crowd to relax and not embarrass Dearborn. There was concern expressed by some community leaders that the protesters are making the city and its Arab American Muslim population look bad. But others said that as Muslims, they have to stand up for their faith.

The Guardian noted that Dearborn is 47% Arab American and typically votes Democratic.

However, the outlet stated that "some conservative Muslim residents have joined forces with the Christian right to censor literature in the city’s public schools."

By 'censor literature,' this entails protecting children from being exposed to pornographic books in their schools.

These books have no business on school property.

From The Guardian:

Although the right wing in America has frequently vilified Muslims and Islam, the alliance highlights how some deeply socially conservative Arab Americans are willing to put that aside and join in the culture wars. Several parents who spoke with the Guardian insisted the effort had nothing to do with politics and did not answer questions about why they would campaign alongside Donald Trump supporters.

“This has nothing to do with Trump,” Hassan Anoun, a Dearborn schools parent, said, adding that he is a Republican. “We don’t want our kids to be exposed to this. These books should be banned.”

Book ban campaigns have proliferated across the US in part because they reliably stoke conservatives anger toward liberals. A recent American Library Association (ALA) report documented about 1,650 challenges to books made this year through September. The nine-month tally already exceeded the 2021 total.

The challenges typically target books on race and sexuality – about one-third the ALA identified contain LGBTQ+ themes or prominent characters.

The Dearborn hearing was called after a previous meeting on the same topic descended into chaos and was cut short by the school board. Police had to verbally disperse a crowd of largely Arab Americans angered over perceived disrespect from the board, according to reports.

While the media claims conservatives want to 'ban books,' they never seem to share the content of the books in question.

Any parent with common sense wouldn't want his/her child being exposed to sexually graphic material, regardless of his/her religious affiliation.

"Democrats have a BIG problem. Over 800 Muslim and Christian parents showed up to protest the sexualization of their kids in Dearborn Public Schools! Guess what they said when asked “how will you vote?” Republican!" tweeted Meshawn Maddock, co-chair of the Michigan Republican party.

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Cont. from The Guardian:

Meanwhile, at the meeting, Republican Michigan secretary of state candidate Kristina Karamo – widely seen as an extremist – admonished the school board for “sexualizing” children, and Matthew DePerno, a Trump-backed candidate for Michigan attorney general, claimed current Democratic attorney general Dana Nessel “wants to put a drag queen in every classroom”.

Mohamed Mousa, a former Dearborn schools student, told the school board to “listen to the majority and don’t put the books on the shelf”.

Several other parents echoed that sentiment, but it’s unclear that the conservative position is held by the majority in Dearborn. Joe Biden won 74% of the 2020 vote, and in the primary the far more progressive Bernie Sanders handily defeated Biden.

It will be interesting to see if this issue changes the voting dynamics in the Dearborn community and beyond.



 

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