Matt Frehner: Holocaust, Schmolocaust
[Frehner is editor in chief.]
History is full of assholes. Hitler being one of the worst, though of course there were others.
The BBC reported on Monday that a number of British schools are planning to avoid teaching the Holocaust in history classes for fear of upsetting Muslim pupils. Other contentious subjects include the Crusades, the slave trade, the history of Israel and gravity.
According to a government-funded report, “Staff may wish to avoid causing offence or appearing insensitive to individuals or groups in their classes.” It went on to say that, “In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship.”
Fair enough. Delving into the socio-political quagmire that is Israel-Palestine might be a bit much for 12-year-olds. But last time I checked Wikipedia, the Holocaust wasn’t a contentious event. The facts are cut and dried, despite whatever Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is currently spewing forth.
It should be patently obvious, but history books shouldn’t be edited to assuage concerns of political correctness. The world is full of sexists, racists, misogynists and good old-fashioned bigots. It’s a fact of life that there are and were a lot of douchebags around, many of them in prominent political positions. A lot of them did really stupid things. The historian’s job is to dissect and critique past actions, especially those that are particularly heinous, as this will—hopefully—lead to people being nice to each other in the future.
Clearly there’s space in our society for religious pluralism. But there’s absolutely no room for acquiescing to anti-Semetic fringe groups that neither represent the values of the faith they espouse, nor understand history’s basic bullet points.
To a large extent, public bodies are paralyzed every time they deal with an issue surrounding Islam. Every Muslim, it seems, is a big dude with a beard and some TNT strapped to his chest—don’t argue with his opinion on the Holocaust, or he’ll get a fatwa slapped on your ass.
But in reality this is just not the case, especially in Britain, where Muslims make up about 3.5 per cent of the population and are by-and-large progressive and peaceful in their piety....
Read entire article at Gateway Online (The student newspaper of the University of Alberta, Edmonton)
History is full of assholes. Hitler being one of the worst, though of course there were others.
The BBC reported on Monday that a number of British schools are planning to avoid teaching the Holocaust in history classes for fear of upsetting Muslim pupils. Other contentious subjects include the Crusades, the slave trade, the history of Israel and gravity.
According to a government-funded report, “Staff may wish to avoid causing offence or appearing insensitive to individuals or groups in their classes.” It went on to say that, “In particular settings, teachers of history are unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place of worship.”
Fair enough. Delving into the socio-political quagmire that is Israel-Palestine might be a bit much for 12-year-olds. But last time I checked Wikipedia, the Holocaust wasn’t a contentious event. The facts are cut and dried, despite whatever Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is currently spewing forth.
It should be patently obvious, but history books shouldn’t be edited to assuage concerns of political correctness. The world is full of sexists, racists, misogynists and good old-fashioned bigots. It’s a fact of life that there are and were a lot of douchebags around, many of them in prominent political positions. A lot of them did really stupid things. The historian’s job is to dissect and critique past actions, especially those that are particularly heinous, as this will—hopefully—lead to people being nice to each other in the future.
Clearly there’s space in our society for religious pluralism. But there’s absolutely no room for acquiescing to anti-Semetic fringe groups that neither represent the values of the faith they espouse, nor understand history’s basic bullet points.
To a large extent, public bodies are paralyzed every time they deal with an issue surrounding Islam. Every Muslim, it seems, is a big dude with a beard and some TNT strapped to his chest—don’t argue with his opinion on the Holocaust, or he’ll get a fatwa slapped on your ass.
But in reality this is just not the case, especially in Britain, where Muslims make up about 3.5 per cent of the population and are by-and-large progressive and peaceful in their piety....