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Why Haven't Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar, and Rashida Tlaib Even Mentioned Iran's Hijab Protests?
by Phyllis Chesler
IPT News
https://www.
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The College Board’s Racial Pandering
By Jason L. Riley
Even before the pandemic, a majority of fourth- and eighth-graders were unable to read or do math at grade level, and outcomes are even worse for minority students. New York City Schools Chancellor David Banks said last year that 65% of his black and Hispanic students never reach proficiency on standardized tests and then quipped, “If everybody in the Department of Education went home and all the kids went to school, you could get those same results.”
Nevertheless, Democrats from President Biden on down advocate for “universal” prekindergarten programs, even though studies have shown little to no evidence that they improve test scores. Progressives also want explicit sex education in earlier grades and have fought successfully to introduce racial propaganda into curricula via the controversial New York Times Magazine “1619 Project.”
The latest evidence that reading, writing and arithmetic are secondary concerns comes by way of the College Board, the nonprofit organization that runs the Advanced Placement program. AP courses are offered to nearly three million students in more than 22,000 high schools across the country. Students who complete the courses take a final exam, graded on a 5-point scale, and those who score a 3 or higher can be eligible for college credit.
Last month, the College Board announced that it will begin offering a course on African-American studies. In recent years, gifted-and-talented programs and exam schools have increasingly been attacked by political progressives for their lack of racial balance. The AP program hasn’t escaped similar criticism, because many low-income minorities who complete the courses don’t score high enough to receive college credit. The best way to address this achievement gap would be to direct help at struggling students. Instead, the program has decided to lower its standards and pander to black kids.
The College Board declined to release a sample syllabus of the new course but did allow on its website that students will “look at the history, politics, culture, and economics of North American people of African descent.” It also explained that students will “examine the hardships African-Americans faced during their history” and “dive into the difficult issues, such as unequal educational opportunities, they deal with today.” There is nothing wrong with high schoolers learning about America’s past treatment of blacks, from enslaving them to legally segregating them to twice electing one of them to the White House. It’s all part of our history.
But if the College Board description is any guide, expect ideology to trump pedagogical concerns. The course is likely to punctuate white mistreatment of blacks in the past and uncritically cite it as the only plausible explanation for social and economic inequality today. Jews and Asians also faced “hardships” in the past that included lynchings, internment camps and “unequal educational opportunities,” yet today both groups outperform white Americans academically and economically and have for decades. What are the chances that the new AP African-American studies course will provide that sort of context?
We shouldn’t be surprised that these developments have coincided with the ascendance of the progressive left. In the late 1960s, under similar pressure from liberal radicals in general and black separatists in particular, the first black-studies programs began appearing on college campuses, and higher education has never been the same. Like the AP program today, colleges were acting out of expediency. If schools wanted a more diverse faculty and student body, it was much easier to establish black-studies programs with weak standards than it was to incorporate blacks in established academic disciplines.
Yet not all black intellectuals at the time signed on to this approach. J. Saunders Redding, the first black faculty member at an Ivy League school, wrote in 1970 that the “concept ‘Black Studies,’ conceived in frustration and bitterness by an articulate and highly emotional minority, is of questionable validity as a scholarly discipline.” The civil-rights activist Bayard Rustin, a confidant of Martin Luther King Jr., was also highly critical of these programs and posed some pointed questions about their intent. “Is black studies an education program or a form of ideological indoctrination?” he asked in a 1969 essay. “Is it designed to train qualified scholars in a significant field of intellectual inquiry, or is it hoped that its graduates will form political cadres . . . ?” And “finally, does it offer the possibility for better racial understanding, or is it a regression to racial separatism?”
Excellent questions. And they apply equally to the latest effort to turn students who haven’t even learned to read and write into social-justice warriors.
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3001 Arabian nights
The Saudi crown prince means to transform the kingdom
By Clifford D. May
RIYADH – The last time I visited Saudi Arabia was February of 2017. Changes were occurring. “Baby steps,” as one savvy young Saudi woman told me, adding: “There is at least an acknowledgement that we need to evolve.”
Four months later, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud appointed his favorite son, Mohammed bin Salman, crown prince. The monarch, now 86, soon made MBS, as he’s known, de facto ruler. Since then, the baby steps have become leaps and bound
Most visible: In 2018, the prohibition on Saudi women driving cars was lifted. Today, it’s common to see women behind the wheel – stuck in Riyadh traffic alongside men but, also like men, on their way to work.
On The Boulevard – an outdoor mall in Riyadh featuring elegant restaurants, high-end stores, fitness centers, hotels, fountains, and sculptures – veiled and unveiled women peacefully coexist and both mingle freely with members of the opposite sex. There are no “morality police” as there are in Iran. “To cover or not is now a matter of free choice,” one Saudi woman told me.
Many of the briefers at the government ministries I visit are women – smart, educated, and confident.
Most significant from an American national security perspective: Saudi Arabia now opposes terrorism, jihadism, and other manifestations of “violent extremism.”
Years ago, of course, this was not the case. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and the siege of Mecca that same year by what have been termed ultra-Wahhabis, Saudi policy aimed to demonstrate a commitment to destroying the Judeo-Christian West.
The Muslim World League (MWL), underwritten by the royal family, funded madrassas in Pakistan that trained boys for “martyrdom.” Radical imams were assigned to mosques around the world.
Saudi policy changed following al Qaeda’s attack on America 21 years ago this month, and its attacks directly on the kingdom in 2003 and 2004. As one prominent Saudi candidly (though privately) told me: “We created a Frankenstein monster. It went after you and then it went after us.”
Today, the MWL promotes a tolerant reading of Islam and opposition to “political Islam” of any stripe.
Two years ago, its secretary-general, Muhammad Al-Issa, led a delegation of senior Muslim scholars and clerics from 28 countries to Auschwitz.
Saudi Arabia has not joined the Abraham Accords, the historic peace agreement between Israel and a growing list of its Arab neighbors. But no Arab leader would have signed without the tacit approval of MBS.
Saudis are acutely aware that Iran’s rulers pose an existential threat both to Israelis and Saudis, that Israel has the strongest military in the region, and isn’t about to “pivot” away – as they fear the U.S. will. “Like us, the Israelis have nowhere else to go,” one Saudi official noted.
Establishing formal diplomatic relations with Israel – informal relations already flourish – will require that several ducks line up. For one, whoever is in the White House at the time will benefit. That’s a gift MBS will not be eager to give President Biden unless relations between the two improve.
For another, MBS would like to see progress toward a Palestinian-Israeli settlement. That said, Saudi officials with whom I spoke understand that Hamas, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, will never make peace with Israel. Nor will Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad. As for 87-year-old Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, even if he wanted to cut a deal, he’s too weak to do so.
The framework for the economic and social transformation MBS is attempting to realize goes under the name of Vision 2030. MBS is determined that Saudi Arabia become economically diverse and dynamic, rather than depending on fossil fuels in perpetuity. He wants to attract investors, businesspeople, tourists, scientists, and scholars.
Achieving that goal was unlikely so long as women were excluded from meaningful participation in Saudi society. Achieving that goal will remain unlikely if, every time foreigners hear “Allahu al Akbar,” they tense for an explosion.
The jewel in the crown of Saudi development ambitions is Neom, a futuristic city on Sindalah island in the Red Sea, scheduled to open next year. Renderings show men and women in bathing suits. Wine and cocktails reportedly will be permitted.
One additional feature in MBS’s vision is worth stressing. Ruhollah Khomeini, leader of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, famously said “Patriotism is paganism.” In other words, it’s sinful for Muslims to love their country. They must be willing to sacrifice their homelands for the power and glory of Islam – as interpreted by him.
MBS, by contrast, is encouraging love of and dedication to Saudi Arabia. Based on polls and other data, it appears that young people in particular – two-thirds of Saudis are under 35 – are not just receptive but enthusiastic. They see nation-building at home as a great and worthwhile project. They see no conflict with faith.
To accomplish all this within the timeframe MBS has set will be challenging. There are fewer than 3001Arabian nights between now and 2030.
I’ve left the thorniest topic for last. MBS is a reformer – not a democratizer. The murder of Jamal Khashoggi was – to paraphrase an 18th century French diplomat – worse than a crime, it was a blunder. Does anyone believe that the Saudi dissident was more influential as a contributor to the Washington Post than he is as a martyr?
MBS is 37. He intends, when he’s as old as his father is now, to be reigning over a powerful, influential, and modern nation. Has he learned that such an end-state will not come about if he’s seen as a belonging to the same club as Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and Ali Khamenei? It won’t take half a century of Arabian nights to find out.
Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and a columnist for the Washington Times.
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Iranian rioting continues and Iranian Morality Guards keep killing:
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Rights group says at least 76 dead as Iran protests rage despite violent crackdown
Officials say 1,200 arrested, authorities working round the clock to crush dissent sparked by death of 22-year-old Masha Amini while in morality police custody
By Stuart Williams
Sympathizers of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) take part in a demonstration in support of Iranian protesters near the Iranian Embassy in Vienna,Austria on September 26, 2022. (Joe Klamar/AFP)
PARIS (AFP) — More than 75 people have been killed in the Iranian authorities’ crackdown against unrest sparked by the death of Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in morality police custody, a rights group said Monday.
The authorities last put the death toll at 41, including several members of the security forces.
Officials said Monday they arrested more than 1,200 people as the dragnet widens against the nationwide demonstrations over Amini’s death, following her arrest for allegedly breaching the country’s strict rules on hijab headscarves and modest clothing.
Tensions with Western powers grew as Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador and Canada announced sanctions, a day after the European Union deplored the crackdown and Tehran called in the British and Norwegian envoys.
Protests had flared for a tenth consecutive night on Sunday across Iran. A Tehran crowd shouted “death to the dictator,” calling for the end of more than three decades of rule by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 83, in footage shared by Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR).
The group said at least 76 people have been killed in the crackdown in Iran, up from a previous count of 57.
September 25 – Tehran, #Iran
Sattarkhan district
Protesters chanting: "Death to Khamenei!" referring to regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. They also torched a pro-regime banner. #IranProtests2022 #MahsaAmini#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/lt6FCHXqJI
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) September 26, 2022
“Woman, Life, Freedom!” crowds have chanted as female protesters have defiantly thrown their hijabs into bonfires and blazing rubbish dumpsters — a rallying cry that has been echoed at solidarity protests worldwide, including in London and Paris at the weekend.
‘Police on duty 24 hours’
“We call on the international community to decisively and unitedly take practical steps to stop the killing and torture of protesters,” said IHR’s director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.
Video footage and death certificates obtained by IHR showed that “live ammunition is being directly fired at protesters,” he alleged.
Iranian riot police in black body armor have beaten protesters with truncheons in running street battles, and students have torn down large pictures of the supreme leader and his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, in recent video footage published by AFP.
In Iran’s biggest protests in almost three years, security forces have used water cannons but also fired birdshot and live rounds, according to rights groups, while protesters have hurled rocks, torched police cars, and set public buildings ablaze.
Authorities say about 450 people have been arrested in northern Mazandaran province, on top of over 700 reported Saturday in neighboring Gilan, along with dozens in several other regions.
Twenty journalists are among those arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
“Rioters have attacked government buildings and damaged public property,” Mazandaran’s chief prosecutor Mohammad Karimi told official news agency IRNA, charging that they were steered by “foreign anti-revolutionary agents.”
This video shows the Islamic Republic’s security forces brutally beating an old man in Tehran’s Ekbatan Town on Sunday night. The beating, however, does not keep him from expressing his protest. #IranProtests#IranProtests2022
— Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) September 26, 2022
Tehran police have been deployed “24 hours a day” and many have not slept, said the Iranian judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, thanking exhausted officers and the capital’s police chief during a visit to their headquarters Sunday, in a video posted by Mizan Online.
Ejei earlier stressed “the need for decisive action without leniency” against the protest instigators.
But a powerful Shiite cleric long aligned with the country’s ultra-conservative establishment urged authorities to take a softer line.
“The leaders must listen to the demands of the people, resolve their problems and show sensitivity to their rights,” said Grand Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani on Sunday.
Despite sweeping internet restrictions, including blocks on Instagram and WhatsApp, new videos shared widely on social media showed protests Sunday night in Tehran and cities including Yazd, Isfahan, and Bushehr on the Persian Gulf.
Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw said a protest was held in Amini’s hometown of Saqqez “despite a heavy military presence”, and there were reports of a 10-year-old girl being shot and hospitalized in the northern town of Bukan.
Reports said that students at Tehran and Al-Zahra Universities and the Sharif Institute have gone on strike and urged professors to join them.
Tensions with West
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Sunday slammed Iran for its “widespread and disproportionate use of force against nonviolent protestors.”
He said the EU would “continue to consider all the options at its disposal … to address the killing of Mahsa Amini” and the state response to the protests in Iran, a country already under punishing sanctions over its nuclear program.
Germany on Monday said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador over the crackdown on the protests.
Tehran, for its part, said Sunday it had summoned Britain’s ambassador to protest what it called an “invitation to riots” by London-based Farsi language media and Norway’s envoy over the parliamentary speaker’s “unconstructive comments” on the protests.
The United States last week imposed sanctions against the morality police, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Monday that his own country would follow suit as part of a sanctions package “on dozens of individuals and entities.”
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Fetterman and friends:
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Fetterman Gave Nod to Crips Street Gang During Mayoral Campaign
By Chuck Ross
Fetterman’s nod to the Crips at his loft in Braddock, where a city sign emblazoned with the gang’s graffiti hangs / New York Times
As a mayoral candidate in 2005, Senate hopeful John Fetterman adopted a unique tactic to appeal to the youth of Braddock, Pa.: tout the borough’s connections to the notorious Crips street gang. After his election, he downplayed the gang’s prevalence in his town, and attributed some of their gang activity to the acts of "disenfranchised" and "disenchanted" youth.
During his first mayoral run in 2005, Fetterman adopted the slogan "Vote John Mayor of Braddocc," a nod to the spelling that local Crips gang members used for the town. After he was elected, Fetterman created the website Braddocc.com as part of a revitalization project to appeal to young people in the dilapidated steel town. The now-defunct website, which Fetterman launched with his own money, explains that "Braddocc" was "unofficially renamed" by the "young and disenfranchised for its Crip allegiance." The Justice Department considers the Crips, founded in southern California in the 1970s, to be one of the country’s most violent street gangs.
Fetterman, the Pennsylvania lieutenant governor, has come under fire during his Senate bid for his progressive views on criminal justice reform. Republicans have portrayed Fetterman as soft on crime for calling for the release of up to one-third of Pennsylvania’s prison inmates. As chairman of Pennsylvania’s Board of Pardons, Fetterman cast the lone vote to free several people convicted of first-degree murder. His appointee for secretary of the board has called to "disarm the police," and has referred to cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal as her "friend" and "buddy," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Fetterman has denied that he glorifies the Crips or gang culture, though he has acknowledged that his embrace of the "Braddocc" nickname helped him in his 2005 campaign by attracting younger voters.
"Ultimately I carry their flag, because they’re the ones that made the difference that I won by one vote that first election," he said in 2015. "It’s not a glorification of gang violence, or embracing gang violence," he added of the "Braddocc" moniker, noting that he "caught some flak … because some people thought I was spelling it like a gangster."
While Fetterman promoted Crips lingo, he downplayed the gang’s presence in Braddock after his election win. In 2006, he said gang graffiti that appeared on buildings in the borough were the act of "a disenfranchised young person who is disaffected and has few options."
"You have ‘C'z Up' and ‘Ghuttacide,' but at the end of the day it's not a movement; it's not a reflection of what's going on. One shouldn't make the erroneous assumption that it's some kind of movement, some kind of criminal element," he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2006.
Fetterman said punishing the teens behind the graffiti was not an ideal remedy and that the graffiti "appears more fearsome than it is."
But Crips were active in Braddock during Fetterman’s tenure as mayor.
Members of the gang appeared in a video from the late-2000s discussing their life in Braddock, promoting their music with the Braddock-based "Geto Bred Entertainment," and warning rivals against "snitching" to police. The video, which also employs the "Braddocc" moniker, shows gang members rapping in front of graffiti that bears the "C’z Up" and "Ghuttacide" tags that Fetterman discussed with the Post-Gazette.
Fetterman's campaign denies that Fetterman has any affinity for the Crips.
"The notion that John Fetterman has any affinity for the crips is complete and utter bullshit," Fetterman's communications director Joe Calvello told the Free Beacon. "Under John, crips in Braddock were taken off the street and put in jail."
Fetterman’s nod to the Crips can still be found at his loft in Braddock, where a city sign emblazoned with the gang’s graffiti hangs above his refrigerator. The New York Times photographed Fetterman in front of the sign for a 2011 profile. Fetterman’s wife posted a photo to social media in 2020 with the sign in the background.
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Jewish philanthropists have donated hundreds of millions to these colleges. It is time they rethink:
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Columbia, NYU and Brooklyn College get failing grades on confronting anti-Semitism: report
By Carl Campanile
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