Imagine the leaders of a Catholic high school having the audacity to bring in a speaker to inform the student body about the nature of the horrific violence being perpetrated against people in the Middle East, in general, and Christians and Assyrian Catholics, in particular.
Yet, according to some of parents, that’s what happened a couple of weeks back at Junipero Serra Catholic High School (JSCHS), a Catholic college prep school located in San Mateo, California.
As a Catholic school, JSCHS leadership believed it important to inform the student body about these atrocities against humanity, in general, and fellow Catholics, in particular. So, they invited Mrs. Juliana Taimoorazy to address students concerning the nature of the horrific violence being perpetrated against people in the Middle East.
Mrs. Taimoorazy’s narrative was particularly compelling because, being Assyrian, she is a member of one of the longest-living ethnic groups on Earth. For ISIS radicals, Assyrian Catholics are overt targets. Mrs. Taimoorazy related, among other things, that the Muslims will hold parents captive and then proceed to cook and eat their children in front of them. Taimoorazy has lost a couple of her own children as well as her grandparents to the Muslims. Some students found Mrs. Taimoorazy’s presentation compelling and motivating, having the effect of putting the fear of God in them.
Evidently, that description of “Muslims” didn’t set well with some parents of JSCHS students who are of Middle-Eastern descent and/or are Muslim. Hearing reports about the speaker’s narrative, some of those parents were outraged, claiming the speaker’s narrative negatively portrayed Muslims, in general, and negatively affected their families, in particular.
Events conspired to devolve to the point that JSCHS’s “Head of Faith Formation,” Patrick Reidy, felt impelled to reiterate to the JSCHS student body the following Monday
….that JSerra Catholic High School’s intention for Friday’s presentation was to raise awareness about the gruesome massacres occurring in the Middle East. In no way did the school intend to be political. Rather, we hoped that the JSerra community would become more acutely aware of the extremism that is brutalizing all of our brothers and sisters in the human family so that we can pray for them and assist them in creative and generous ways.
Reidy then sent an email to the parents of JSCHS students in which Reidy expressed his “heartfelt sorrow for the way recent events may have immediately affected your own family” noting that this “is deeply distressing for all of us here.” Reidy proceeded to blame Mrs. Taimoorazy for the brouhaha. He wrote:
Our speaker focused on the attacks against Christians and was not inclusive of the other peoples that have been terrorized by radical groups such as ISIS. Furthermore, she did not always distinguish clearly between radical Islamic groups and ordinary Muslims. This is a necessary distinction to make. (italics added)
Step back for a moment. Imagine Catholic parents of students enrolled in a Muslim school complaining that they’re offended that a Muslim speaker detailed the atrocities perpetrated upon Muslims by the Crusaders. Should those parents of Catholic students expect that the leadership of that Muslim school would apologize for not being “inclusive” enough of them and not carefully distinguishing between Crusaders and ordinary Catholics?
To ensure that Mrs. Taimoorazy’s message will be revised appropriately for JSCHS students, Reidy noted:
We have been following up in our Religion and History classes to make sure that our students know that there is a distinction. We also want to help them process the emotional content of these outrages, the irrationality of which can seem impossible to imagine.
Yes, indeed. JSCHS students need to “process” the “emotional content of these outrages.” But, apparently not from the perspective of what Christians and Catholics are being compelled to endure, but from what some JSCHS students interpreted Mrs. Tiamoorazy’s message to imply about them and their families as well as what some JSCHS students felt compelled to do to some of their fellow students.
To punctuate his message of contrition, Reidy closed his email, stating:
I hope that you know that JSerra welcomes all families of all religious beliefs and does not equate Islam with ISIS. Nor do we or will we at any time tolerate taunting, harassing, belittling or bullying of anyone based on their ethnicity or religious beliefs. As followers of Jesus Christ we find any such behavior inconsistent with the dignity of the human person and morally unacceptable.
What does “taunting, harassing, belittling or bullying” have to do with Mrs. Taimoorazy’s presentation in a Catholic school about what Christians and Catholics are enduring at the hands of Muslims (or, must it be said because people don’t already understand the distinction, radical Muslims)? If some JSCHS students left her presentation believing she was encouaging them to engage in thuggery, then those students should be dealt with as thugs should and ought to be dealt with.
But, to blame Mrs. Taimoorazy for their conduct and to apologize to the point of telling the JSCHS student body that she had been one-sided in her presentation?
That seems to be inclusion run awry.
What will be next? Apologizing to those who claim that Junipero Serra was a prejudiced, bigoted anti-Native American who thought they needed to be imprisoned and brainwashed if they were to be civilized?
To read The Motley Monk’s daily blog, Omnibus, click on the following link:
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Seventy years ago under this logic:
“The lecture on the death camps set up by the Germans given at JSerra recently focused only on the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany. That was terribly one sided. We will now have a follow up lecture focusing on how the Germans are a wonderful people who brew great beer, make fantastic tubas and have a terrific culture. We must also keep in mind that the Germans as a group are not morally culpable for the Nazi crimes, even though a plurality voted the Nazis into power, only a small minority did anything to oppose the Nazis and that the average German now contends he and she knew nothing about the atrocities, even though those atrocities involved millions of Germans, that rumors of what was going on were rife throughout Germany and that every German community of any size had railheads through which the victims of the Third Reich were routinely shuttled on their way to death camps.”
The school has 900 students, or (let’s guess) about that many families as well. If the school’s population was a random draw, that would mean nine sets of Muslim parents. This is a Catholic school, which will tend to repel non-Catholics to a degree. It’s also all male, which may attract some muslims. I doubt he had to talk to more than a few people. So, instead of explaining the deal to them, he pesters everyone else. The complainers are commonly pushing on an open door, and in a symbiotic relationship with termites in the building.
Two points because outrage is one of my strong “suits.”
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One, the outraged should more appropriately direct said “outrage” toward jihadis. Firm grasp of the obvious there, T.
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Two, the outraged very appropriately referred to “ordinary” muslims. No mention was made of “good” muslims. Excellent because good mulsims only exist in the feverish minds of liberal idiots (I repeat myslef again) and cemeteries.
Are you sufficiently outarged?
It is incumbent (big word) on the plaintiffs to prove that the truth being told about Muslim atrocities are false and slanderous. Let them bring proof that there are no atrocities going on in the world. Then they will have a legal basis for complaint.
“Moderate Muslim” is to “Islamist Jihadi” as “Good German” is to “Committed Nazi”.
“So let me get this straight… you’re offended I told other people about you punching me.”
I wonder where these disclaimers are when there’s the talk about how police brutalize minorities. (“Oh but not all police…”)
This is an example of political correctness…which btw, is a contradiction in terms.
The guest spoke “her” words. Leave it at that.
The slaughtered children from the bloody hands of Isis no longer have the ability to participate in lectures. Nothing politically correct in that!
The response of these families is all you need to know about moderate muslims. The same can be said about the state of “Catholic” education in this country. I always think to myself, where are the adults in charge?
Donald, you shouldn’t post this stuff- it makes my blood boil.
What a weak school body. That this woman had to be thrown under the bus by a pathetic excuse for a school leader.
All the school principal had to say to these pests is if they don’t like it- then leave. The same can be said to any Muslim that threatens the freedom, intelligence and democratic truth of a country. If you don’t like a spade to be called a spade- then go away.
I understand if you delete my comment Donald.
How long will it take, and at what cost, for Christians to WAKE UP??
So-called “ordinary” Muslims require Christians to apologize for forcing the “other” Muslims to mass-murder Chrisitians that lived-and-died in Muslim-infested hell holes.
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You can’t make up this stuff.
As a traditional Catholic, there are VERY FEW “Catholic” schools I would waste my money on. Kudos to Archbishop Cordileone for his stance for authentic Catholic values. Frankly, I imagine huge infusions of grace is the only thing maintaining his spiritual sanity in the absurdly PC infected SFBay area. The devil has more than a foothold in some areas!
This school needs to be closed down. It’s clearly not Catholic anymore.
If moderate Muslims want to be offended by the characterization of Islam as gruesome and violent, shouldn’t their outrage be directed at ISIS, as they are the ones being gruesome and violent in the name of Islam? How exactly is that the speaker’s fault, or the schools, when they are just spreading awareness of documented contemporary events? It doesn’t make logical sense to shoot the messenger in the name of political correctness and tolerance when they are only reporting the facts of the matter – be outraged at the source of the problem and, further, do something about it as opposed to just complaining that your feelings are hurt.
I was thinking exactly the same thing as Donald R. McClarey. The pseudo outrage of people who do not understand that 80% of Muslims in America do not think that radical jihadis are all that bad and that Muslims in the Middle East give at least tacit support to the slaughter. Some people want to bury their heads in the sand. Others have been convinced by so called “progressives” that it’s OK to side with the terrorists.