Muslim school officials attack news crew in Twin Cities

[roo_ster]

May Religion of Peace Update:

Muslim school officials attack news crew in Twin Cities
posted at 8:45 pm on May 19, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Ive followed the story about the Tarik ibn Zayad Academy and allegations that it abuses its status as a state-funded charter school to teach Islam instead of a public-school curriculum for the last six weeks. Katherine Kersten first brought the story to our attention, for which local journalists have begun petitioning the Star Tribune to fire her. The state department of education found several potential issues for violation of laws intending to keep public schools from providing religious instruction, and notified the school today that it had to make changes to its Friday prayer efforts and the lack of transportation service for students who opt out of prayers, among other issues.

Local ABC affiliate KSTP has also continued to update the reporting on this story. Today they went to the school to determine how TiZA would respond to the states demand for corrective action. Instead, they found themselves at the center of the story as two TiZA officials attacked the news crew and stole their camera:

    In an attempt to report about the new findings from the Department of Education, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS went to TiZA. While on school grounds, our crew was attacked by school officials. The two men were able to grab our camera and kept it until police arrived.

    Our photographer was treated by paramedics after suffering minor injuries. &

    Tarik ibn Zayad Academy, which focuses on Middle Eastern culture and shares a mosque with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, came under fire after a teacher alleged that the school was offering religious instruction in Islam to its students.



KSTP has a video report on their website. The tape starts off pleasantly, as the children run up to the camera to smile and wave, just like children anywhere would do. One man walks rapidly towards the camera and grabs it, while another unseen man assaults the cameraman. Later, the police would retrieve the camera, and the video shows the police cars responding to the emergency call from the news crew.

The action by the MnDoE should make clear that Kersten had the story essentially right. Local journalists attempting to intimidate her and the Strib  which has thus far refused to submit to this bullying  have some explaining to do. If she had written a story about a charter school illegally giving instructions in the Catholic or Mormon faith, these same journalists would have nominated her for an award.

Next, the MnDoE should seriously reconsider this schools accreditation in light of the attack on KSTPs news crew. If nothing else, it calls into question whether the administrators should have children in their care at a state-funded charter school, given their temperament. They conducted this assault in full view of the students. If TiZA continues to employ these two men, the state should pull all funding from the academy.

Here is the video & article:
http://kstp.com/article/stories/s449649.shtml?v=1

[Bigjake]

Nothing to see here folks, move along.  They OBVIOUSLY are misunderstood and just wanted to hold hands and sing kumbaya.

[Manedwolf]

If you're fine with America and all its values, America welcomes you to come here and practice your religion as you see fit.

If you don't get that whole "freedom of speech" thing, and would dare attack a camera crew, get your violence-prone intolerant ass out of America and over to one of the dysfunctional ickystans where they're okay with that sort of nonsense.

The "attackers" better be deported or imprisoned. Plus that charter needs to be yanked immediately. And those two people need to be charged with assault, battery, and false imprisonment for grabbing and restraining the cameraman, they hurt his shoulder. That's a felony, isn't it? If they're not charged, something's broken.

shares a mosque with the Muslim American Society of Minnesota

That group is one of the Muslim Brotherhood front groups. Peaceful, normal moderate Muslims they're not. They're radical extremists.

[SomeKid]

Maned,

I am sorry, but I am a racist pig.

[Manedwolf]

Maned,

Normal moderate Muslim is just a front for psychotic murdering extremist.

No, that's not true at all.

In case you hadn't noticed, you're in the house of a moderate, normal, peaceful Muslim. Who the HELL do you think runs this site? 

(Hint: His name is Derek Zeannah, and he's a normal, peaceful Muslim, as most are. Perhaps you don't want to be here if you can't accept that?)

[Jamisjockey]

Maned,

Normal moderate Muslim is just a front for psychotic murdering extremist.

Your worldview seems a little narrow to me.  I guess you don't meet alot of Muslims at the Klan rallies, eh?

[41magsnub]

Maned,

Normal moderate Muslim is just a front for psychotic murdering extremist.

Wow..  tell that to the several Muslims I work with on a day to day basis who just want to get along like the rest of us.  Should I be watching my back?  Will one suddenly go all Jihad on me over taking the last donut?

[Ex-MA Hole]

(Hint: His name is Derek Zeannah, and he's a normal, peaceful Muslim, as most are. Perhaps you don't want to be here if you can't accept that?)

That decision was just made for him.

If anyone needs him, he'll be at the next Klan meeting I'm sure.

[MechAg94]

If they were trespassing, they should have been informed then the police called to remove them.  If they were not supposed to shoot video, same thing. 

If this had happened at a private home, would the homeowner have been arrested?  I am not sure.  It didn't appear quite as violent as I first thought, but I can't tell.

[Manedwolf]

I think the most disturbing thing about that video is that it begins with the little kids greeting the cameraman with smiles and laughter, trying to get in the camera view, all happy.

And then that angry-faced idiot comes out and grabs on the cameraman.

Those little kids saw that. And those were school authorities. That, to them, is how an authority figure at their school behaves. The destruction of childhood joy, an attack on a harmless person they were greeting, the enforcement of anger, hate. That's something the extremist schools in the middle east do. Every suicide bomber began as a joyful little kid that had the joy burned out of them by brainwashing into hate.

Those school authorities were already under investigation for things the school board apparently doesn't want to disclose yet, but I can guess, based on that behavior.

I want those kids to remain happy, smiling kids. I do not want them to learn that sort of hate that makes them into angry-faced idiots like that guy who grabbed the camera. So if that's what the school stands for, it needs to go before those kids learn how to hate instead of smile. They need to find some other school where they can be good Muslims, and also good Americans, who grow up and have loving families and kids of their own.

[ilbob]

Maned,
Normal moderate Muslim is just a front for psychotic murdering extremist.

Its not quite that bad. it just seems that way because the psychotics and their toadies get most of the press.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Maned,
Normal moderate Muslim is just a front for psychotic murdering extremist.

Its not quite that bad. it just seems that way because the psychotics and their toadies get most of the press.

That, I think, is very true.  The guys attacking cameramen and blowing up babies will tend to get the most attention.

[De Selby]

Maybe the spate of shootings at Masjids, assaults of Muslims, and the few murders made them uneasy about strangers on campus?

This is news because there were Muslims involved-this is not the first nor will it be the last time a news crew was manhandled on private property, but usually it doesn't make national headlines....of course in this case, because the story contributes to the fantasy that all Muslims are secretly trying to destroy the US, it is interesting to people who share attitudes like that expressed above about all Muslims being evil.

[Manedwolf]

Maybe the spate of shootings at Masjids, assaults of Muslims, and the few murders made them uneasy about strangers on campus?

So they attack a cameraman? Man, you WILL defend any action, won't you. Rationalize, rationalize, rationalize. That is NOT ACCEPTABLE in the US. Not now, not ever. For anyone. Especially in front of all the kids who saw that, especially when it's the people in charge of the school.

Read my last post, will you?

[De Selby]

Maybe the spate of shootings at Masjids, assaults of Muslims, and the few murders made them uneasy about strangers on campus?

So they attack a cameraman? Man, you WILL defend any action, won't you. Rationalize, rationalize, rationalize. That is NOT ACCEPTABLE in the US. Not now, not ever. For anyone. Especially in front of all the kids who saw that, especially when it's the people in charge of the school.

Read my last post, will you?

You've never seen a news crew get manhandled by being somewhere uninvited before? Ever?  Are you serious?

It isn't justification-it's pointing out that this is not a special "muslim incident" or having anything to do with Islam, yet because the parties involved were Muslim, it's national news.

It's simply absurd to claim that this incident is some "special lesson" for Muslim kids or that it in some odd way ties in to the "muslim culture" (we don't even know if these guys are American or not, do we?)....it's like taking a video of a fight over a spot at the gas pump and then saying "one of those guys is Muslim-this video proves that Muslims are willing to get violent over places in line due to their religious obsession with respect for places in line"

It is patently ridiculous to tie it to the religion when it obviously has absolutely nothing to do with religiosity, Islam, or them being Muslims.

[Manedwolf]

And what "shooting at masjids" are you talking about?

You mean the ones that are sunni vs shi'a? Those shootings?

Sorry, factional violence doesn't work for that argument. That's internal strife, not victimization.

[Perd Hapley]

Maned,

Normal moderate Muslim is just a front for psychotic murdering extremist.

No, that's not true at all.

In case you hadn't noticed, you're in the house of a moderate, normal, peaceful Muslim. Who the HELL do you think runs this site? 

(Hint: His name is Derek Zeannah, and he's a normal, peaceful Muslim, as most are. Perhaps you don't want to be here if you can't accept that?)

Oh, snap!  Well-played sir.   

[MechAg94]

Maybe the spate of shootings at Masjids, assaults of Muslims, and the few murders made them uneasy about strangers on campus?

This is news because there were Muslims involved-this is not the first nor will it be the last time a news crew was manhandled on private property, but usually it doesn't make national headlines....of course in this case, because the story contributes to the fantasy that all Muslims are secretly trying to destroy the US, it is interesting to people who share attitudes like that expressed above about all Muslims being evil.

This isn't private property.  This is apparently a state funded school.  When was the last time you saw news crew manhandled on the grounds of a school? 

[De Selby]

Maybe the spate of shootings at Masjids, assaults of Muslims, and the few murders made them uneasy about strangers on campus?

This is news because there were Muslims involved-this is not the first nor will it be the last time a news crew was manhandled on private property, but usually it doesn't make national headlines....of course in this case, because the story contributes to the fantasy that all Muslims are secretly trying to destroy the US, it is interesting to people who share attitudes like that expressed above about all Muslims being evil.

This isn't private property.  This is apparently a state funded school.  When was the last time you saw news crew manhandled on the grounds of a school? 

On a school, I don't know of the last time I saw one...but certainly security manhandles people at schools sometimes, and it's not a stretch to see how this could happen in a situation with no Muslims involved....indeed, it's a stretch to imagine that this has anything whatsoever to do with them practicing their religion or with some odd culturual sensibilities.

[De Selby]

And what "shooting at masjids" are you talking about?

You mean the ones that are sunni vs shi'a? Those shootings?

Sorry, factional violence doesn't work for that argument. That's internal strife, not victimization.

The multiple shootings that have happened around the United States, thankfully mostly injuring only the buildings but sending the obvious message nonetheless.

The "sunni vs. shia" war is a nonstarter; very few people recognize a distinction in terms of party membership, and outside of some localized areas in the middle east, there is no "battle between sunni and shia".  It's not even equivalent to protestants and Catholics-more like bible doctrine debates between evangelicals.

[doc2rn]

With the separation of church and state, the school should lose funding if they are mandating religion. I dont have a problem with them teaching school and adding religion, if they fund it without my tax money. Several private accademies do this very thing, Lutheran and Catholics to name a couple, but they dont get funding.
As for the assault and battery, charge those responsible so they might learn the errors of their way.

[MechAg94]

And what "shooting at masjids" are you talking about?

You mean the ones that are sunni vs shi'a? Those shootings?

Sorry, factional violence doesn't work for that argument. That's internal strife, not victimization.

The multiple shootings that have happened around the United States, thankfully mostly injuring only the buildings but sending the obvious message nonetheless.

The "sunni vs. shia" war is a nonstarter; very few people recognize a distinction in terms of party membership, and outside of some localized areas in the middle east, there is no "battle between sunni and shia".  It's not even equivalent to protestants and Catholics-more like bible doctrine debates between evangelicals.

Post some links to those shootings if you have them.  Any of them state funded institutions? 

[Nitrogen]

A point I don't know if anyone's made yet:

Let's take a look at some of the craziest, Christian fundamentalists I can think of, and their history.

First off, I 'll acknowledge that this country was founded by them.  Notice something about the pilgrims, puritans, etc.
They wanted to be left alone, so they came here to be left alone. 

I don't see that from fundamentalist muslims.  They want to kill people who aren't like them, even other muslims.

Now, take some of the craziest fundamentalists today.  I don't see nearly as many wanting to kill people who arent christian enough, or christian at all.


And yes, I'm biased.  I don't like Islam as it's practiced in many places outside of America, espically in many parts of the Middle east.

[Nitrogen]

The "sunni vs. shia" war is a nonstarter; very few people recognize a distinction in terms of party membership, and outside of some localized areas in the middle east, there is no "battle between sunni and shia".  It's not even equivalent to protestants and Catholics-more like bible doctrine debates between evangelicals.

I seem to notice that plenty of people all over have a problem with the whole sunni vs. shia thing.

[De Selby]

And what "shooting at masjids" are you talking about?

You mean the ones that are sunni vs shi'a? Those shootings?

Sorry, factional violence doesn't work for that argument. That's internal strife, not victimization.

The multiple shootings that have happened around the United States, thankfully mostly injuring only the buildings but sending the obvious message nonetheless.

The "sunni vs. shia" war is a nonstarter; very few people recognize a distinction in terms of party membership, and outside of some localized areas in the middle east, there is no "battle between sunni and shia".  It's not even equivalent to protestants and Catholics-more like bible doctrine debates between evangelicals.

Post some links to those shootings if you have them.  Any of them state funded institutions? 

Here's a website that collects the incidents:

http://www.jannah.org/resources/muslimvictims.html

No, not that I know of are any of these state funded institutions, but I'm not sure why that would matter.  If you operate a school where many of the children are of ethnic and religious groups that are regularly the targets of attacks, it would be silly to say "well, most of those attacks are at state funded institutions so I won't worry about it at all."