the way this could go to trial will be for fraud against one or some of the people in the family they have now taken $$$ (big surprise) so they can not/ will not pursue any lawsuit , that would be bad for the family…you can not plead the fifth in a civil trial. and from that case a criminal trial can be born. so many people on this discussion board have been hoodwinked. and I hear people stating as fact the kid has faced discrimination and prejudice as if it is fact (because he says so does not make to true or your heart of hearts tells you it is so) or people in texas are this and that (nice to stereotype…ooo the irony!)mark cuban spoke to the kid on the phone and said somebody was coaching him what to say. the father is already heading to the u.n. and to mecca etc etc…he has run for president of sudan (check out the long term and recent history of the black christian and animists and what has happened to them under arab muslim rule) judge naplotino very clearly laid out the fraud issues on megyn kelly’s show last night. this is going to pan out very different than some people who filter the world to fit their view instead of looking out the real world. as more comes out ahmed and his old clock resembled in a case will simply fade.
That clip is an interview with Glenn Beck, a political talking head well known for advocating and pandering to those inclined to being suspicious of anyone/any culture which isn’t conservative, right-wing, Christian…especially conservative evangelical Christian, and White.
Her points about Muslims supposedly setting up actual “sharia courts” is creating and fanning paranoia about false threats. All I am seeing is further evidence of the mayor crying wolf over spurious threats to play to a conservative audience already predisposed to having xenophobic and paranoid feelings about Muslims. And folks like Glenn Beck and polticians like this mayor have used this same form of fearmongering not too long ago to target other groups they want to scapegoat as threats…such as Mexicans/Latinos not too long ago.
Heck, just recently Donald Trump got great increases in his polling numbers among registered GOP voters after making similar fearmongering type remarks about Mexicans and Latinos.
In light of that, that further reinforces my points about Ahmed’s treatment being derived from the prevailing prejudicial paranoid fearmongering from the very top of the local leadership…the mayor…but also documented history of the school district and law enforcement being extremely punitive with K-12 students.
Also, what proof does she have that local Muslims have tried and more importantly, have the actual ability to set up such courts considering they won’t have the force of law because of the constitutional separation of church and state and because the prevailing political and social climate would mean any genuine attempts are non-starters period.
With such fearmongering and paranoia coming from the very top of the leadership, it’d be absurd to dismiss racial/religious profiling as a factor in his treatment out of hand as some commenters here are vehemently trying to do.
Don’t know about you…but this sounds like the latest instance of scapegoating of another minority being targeted for perceived threats by a segment of US society…whether it’s the “Know-Nothing” party’s targeting of the Irish, American society’s fear of the “Yellow Peril” in the 19th and early 20th centuries which prompted racist policies like the Chinese Exclusion Act, or the widespread paranoid fears among some in the White protestant majority about Catholic politicians…especially presidential candidates being puppets of the Popes in Rome up until JFK’s run for president in 1960.
Any evidence from linked articles or documents or is this a product of automatically assuming the family did something nefarious by virtue of their being Muslims and not hiding it?
@cobrat - my purpose in posting the video was so you could hear her point of view first hand. She specifically stated she would have no problem with private arbitration or mediation. Not saying you agree with her, but rather than you telling us what she thinks, let’s hear it from her.
I am no fan of Glenn Beck either, but that is who interviewed her on this particular issue.
“That clip is an interview with Glenn Beck, a political talking head well known for advocating and pandering to those inclined to being suspicious of anyone/any culture which isn’t conservative, right-wing, Christian…especially conservative evangelical Christian, and White.”
that is spin if I have ever heard it. please let me know who the enlightened smart, grounded and honest people that are acceptable
also what was the name of the party that you left out that targeted rebulcians and blacks after the civil war and well into the 20 century and created a little group called the KKK? I am a little rusty on history can you name the party you left off your list???
Oh, please, stop with the nonsense about establishing sharia law. When two Orthodox Jewish businessmen agree to have their dispute arbitrated by a Beth Din according to Talmudic principles, is that establishing Jewish law? Please show me one shred of evidence that an agreement to have disputes resolved under Islamic law is any different, or can bind anyone who doesn’t agree to it.
LBJ was somewhat prophetic when he said that by signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, his party will end up losing the south for a generation. Unfortunately, he was proven right just a few years later when Nixon successfully ended up getting elected by the use of the “southern strategy”.
You seemed to have ignored an aspect of recent US history about how the two dominant American political parties effectively switched positions due to the rising support of Civil Rights legislation within the Democratic party in the '50s and '60s while simultaneously, many democrats…especially “Dixiecrats” who tended to be sympathetic to the KKK and those advocating continued segregation ended up defecting en masse to the GOP. Nixon’s use of the “southern strategy” to get votes in the late '60s capped off this switch over.
While off-topic, this history shows how xenophobia, racial prejudice, and fears of societal change due to the former two factors is a very powerful motivating force for people to switch parties or use their political power and bully pulpit to fabricate and/or promote perceived threats due to actual paranoid fears themselves or as an easy way to score votes* from a fearful paranoia driven critical mass of a given electorate.
- George Wallace who was initially not nearly as racist against Black people as he later became known as until he found he lost politically early in his career because his political opponent did more to pander to the anti-Black prejudices of the local electorate. He vowed never to make that same mistake again.
@DonnaL - it is the Irving City Council that has to be convinced. Van Duyne is on record as saying she has no problem with non-binding mediation or arbitration. If that is all the Muslim community wants there should be no issue and they obviously are not communicating well.
Why the assumption this is the result of the Muslim community not communicating well?
Isn’t it possible the mayor and/or the city council are deliberately misinterpreting the Muslim community in order to prevent them from having the same religious arbitration/mediation avenues availed to Christians, Jews, and other religious groups?
This possibility cannot be ruled out considering these reports:
http://fusion.net/story/198981/texas-irving-school-district-islam-cscope/
From the above and this:
http://fusion.net/story/198981/texas-irving-school-district-islam-cscope/
it seems this district, mayor, and local leaders are predisposed to giving local Muslims a hard time on the basis of prejudicial attitudes borne of paranoid xenophobic fears.
very very short video of how to build a clock like Ahmed… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggHcIyTHuy4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRAPO806PGA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEDXWtq_B3s
Not sure if this was pointed out or not. It was an old radio shack clock. The outer shell was removed and it was placed n the “box”. He didn’t “invent” a thing, not did he even assemble kit. Those who invited him to MIT and whie House and anywhere else because of his amazing invention made a mistake. The complete lack of inventing make his motives for bringing it to school suspicious. I’m not saying he should have been arrested, just that the motive for bringing it to school might not have been as pure as some would like to think. Perhaps he was looking for attention, and got way more than he expected…
cobrat that was a nice clean up of history! the answer is of course the democratic party! and they did not just have sympathy towards the KKK they founded it! and it targeted republicans first and foremost and followed by black people. you made absolute statements about other political movements(from the 19th century) but the biggest purveyor of real violence and oppression in this country was the democratic party and their intimation wing the KKK. this is not something that should be whitewashed, sugar coated or spun. I scratched my head when you went threw a list of groups but the one that takes the cake was left out! and your long winded response shows denial.
on the outside chance you did not know the history of democrats and their founding of the KKK and it’s use not just against black people but republicans this is from PBS (surely you are not going to claim they are puppets of glen beck of something like that)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/grant-kkk/
Can we stop this thread from being hijacked by politics?
NoVADadd99 that is what this entire thread has been about since the first post.
It’s gotten a lot worse since all the talk about Sharia Law and such nonsense.
it is all interconnected to the story. this did not start off about should my son or daughter major in biochem or nursing?and somehow shift… the entire premise was about victimhood, school policy, police policy, religion, agendas, and some people questioning what is the truth and why this otherwise trivial story became international while so many other stories do not even get one paragraph in the local news… and how people have responded from the school all the way to president of the united states.
I’ll just say what I said at the beginning of the thread. “Some people will complain about anything.” Nuf said.
I think it speaks volumes that the kid’s father requested that he be “re-handcuffed” for a photo!
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/092215-772291-did-muslim-clock-boy-perpetrate-hoax.htm
@zobroward, I’m sure that you are fully aware that the two major political parties have both evolved enormously since they were founded. I suggest that you ignore a certain poster’s history lectures, as many of the rest of us have learned to do.
consolation maybe so but to list bad political movements of the the 19th and early 20th centuries and to leave out the elephant in the room, because today they maybe something else does not change history and should not be ignored. it just weakens a position.
@zobroward you should be aware that it wasn’t party affiliation but regional politics that determined ideologies. Southern politicians, whether Democrats or Republicans, voted in line with the ideology of the KKK. Also, @consolation is correct that times have changed and it seems suspicious that you would purposely omit these facts.
“it wasn’t party affiliation”
wrong the KKK was founded to target Republicans in the south …you just can not simply re write history. I am sorry what that you said is not what happened. how can you say that Republicans were voting in line with the KKK when they were being murdered by them? I am sorry it maybe uncomfortable for you but it is simply not true.
once again from pbs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/grant-kkk/