LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — The crackerjack Texas Board of Education has dropped a popular children’s book author from the third grade curriculum because board members confused him with an author of a book on Marxism.

The late Bill Martin Jr. wrote Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, one of the most endearing children’s books of all time. Bill Martin, a philosophy professor at DePaul University in Chicago, wrote Ethical Marxism, which oddly has never been popular with schoolchildren.

So, which bright lights on the Texas BoE confused the two authors? For those of us living outside the Lone Star State, their names, Pat Hardy and Terri Leo, are not so important, I suppose. But I will note that they are both Republicans and both dead set on purging the Texas school curriculum of anything that isn’t 100% True Blue Amurrican. Rather than, say, check their facts, these two concluded that (1) Marxism is un-American, (2) political analysts frequently moonlight as children’s book authors (or vice versa) and (3) such authors would undoubtedly conceal their Marxist propaganda in children’s books as part of the worldwide commie conspiracy to overthrow This Great Nation™ through the hearts and minds of its children.

Thanks to the keen minds of Hardy and Leo, Texas schoolkids are now safe from the pernicious influence of Brown Bear, who is probably one of those commie Russky bears anyway.

January 26th, 2010 | Tags: Bill Martin, Republican, Texas Board of Education | Category: Civil liberties, Schools | Leave a comment

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY — Here’s the short version. Fathima Rifqa Bary, the teenaged Muslim-to-Christian-convert runaway, does not have to rejoin her parents in Columbus, Ohio. She and her folks agreed that she will stay in foster care until she turns 18 in August.

Bary became a minor celebrity several months ago when she ran away from her parents, saying she feared she would be put to death for being an “apostate,” someone who had abandoned Islam. Aided by Christian church leaders in Columbus, she boarded a Greyhound bus for Orlando, Florida, to stay secretly with husband-and-wife pastors, Blake and Beverly Lorenz, for a week or so. Once her whereabouts became known, Bary entered the world of child protection services in first Florida, then Ohio, and became a poster child for religious nutjobs building up anti-Islam fervor.

In the aftermath, the Lorenzes have lost their jobs. (Their church board took issue with the Lorenzes breaking the law by harboring a runaway child without notifying the proper authorities.) Her parents have lost their privacy and a great deal of their reputation. (Law enforcement investigations found the parents posed no threat to their daughter’s safety, but Bary’s anti-Islam fans still trumpet that the girl’s life was in danger.) And Bary will likely end up with a new identity as a “persecuted Christian” who escaped the clutches of Islam — a newly minted spokeswoman for the Religious Fear-mongering Right.

You wait. There’s bound to be a book or movie deal waiting in the wings. And the obligatory appearance on Oprah.

January 22nd, 2010 | Tags: Blake Lorenz, Christian, convert, Florida, Islam, ohio, Rifqa Bary, runaway | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, religion | Leave a comment

JISHOU, HUNAN — Child welfare workers in Ohio have recommended that teenage religious runaway Fathima Rifqa Bary and her parents sit down and talk about their religious differences. Trouble is, the girl does not want to see her parents ever again.

Rifqa fears her parents will have her killed for converting from Islam to Christianity. Her parents say they will do no such thing.

Here is the Associated Press story on this latest chapter in the Bary family drama.

There’s some mostly rational discussion at the Volokh Conspiracy. And some mostly unhinged ranting at Free Republic.

December 3rd, 2009 | Tags: Christianity, Islam, Muslim, religion, Rifqa Bary | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, religion | Leave a comment

JISHOU, HUNAN — The Bary family of Columbus, Ohio, had one place setting empty last Thursday, because religious hysteria and rightwing busybodies have interfered with return of their runaway daughter to their care.

That’s the tale told by Shayan Elahi, the attorney for Fathima Rifqa Bary’s father, in today’s Orlando Sentinel.

Rifqa Bary ran away from her home at age 16, assisted by Christian pastors and Facebook friends who enabled her to take a bus to Orlando, Florida, where she stayed with another Christian pastor and his wife for nearly two weeks before anyone notified child welfare authorities — or her parents — of her location.

Fueled by unfounded allegations that Rifqa fled her home to avoid an “honor killing,” a complete “Save Rifqa Bary” movement has blossomed from whole cloth, led by a combination of Christian activists, Muslim-haters, and otherwise well-meaning folk who think they are saving a teenage girl from certain execution.

In any other situation, had a teenager been lured away from her home by friends she met on Facebook or while unescorted by her family, assisted in her flight to a different state and housed (illegally) for two weeks, her return home would have been swift and definitive.

But, because the parties involved are “Christians,” their interference in a family’s life somehow gets a free pass. As far as I know, no one has been charged with any crime in enabling Rifqa to run away. And official sources give no credibility to the idea that Rifqa’s Muslim parents or the family’s mosque will kill the girl because she has become a Christian.

December 1st, 2009 | Tags: Christian, Islam, Muslim, religion, Rifqa Bary | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, religion | Comments (1)

JISHOU, HUNAN — Ah, but the wheels of justice turn slowly …

‘Way back in June 2006, high school valedictorian Brittany McComb, after agreeing to school officials’ changes to her Christianity-laced graduation speech, proceeded to use her original text anyway. School officials’ “rapid response team” quickly cut off McComb’s microphone, to avoid anyone getting the idea a public school was preaching Christianity.

Mayhem ensued. Well, mostly legal challenges.

McComb, who is now a student in Biola University in California, acquired the legal backing of the Rutherford Institute, which filed a complaint in federal district court alleging Clark County, Nev., school officials had trampled her rights of free speech and equal protection under the law. The court found in favor of the school officials.

McComb took her case to the federal appeals court, which found no reason to overturn the previous ruling.

Then she took it to the Supreme Court, where it died a quiet death. (Technically, the SCOTUS denied a petition for a writ of certiorari, meaning the Justices were not going to tell the lower courts to hear the case all over again.)

So, what’s it all mean? McComb’s attorneys claimed that Foothill High School, by attempting to cut off her valedictory in midstream, abridged her rights of free speech and equal protection. The courts (all three, basically) said, “Not.”

November 23rd, 2009 | Tags: brittany mccomb, Foorhill High School, nevada, religion, Rutherford Institute, Schools | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, Schools, religion | Leave a comment

JISHOU, HUNAN — You would think Fathima Rifqa Bary, 17, was some kind of political prisoner, or a modern day Joan of Arc, instead of a runaway in foster care.

People held signs that said “Free Rifqa” and “Sharia sucks. Free Rifqa Bari. (sic)” There was a large poster that showed violence done to Muslims who have converted to Christianity, as Bary said she did four years ago. People prayed, and people spoke, and people made a controversy where none exists.

Hence, a manufactroversy.

How many people? Well, one of the organizers demagogues, Pamela Geller, says “hundreds.” The Columbus Dispatch says “about 120.”

Bary ran away from her Columbus home back in September. She and her family are Muslims from Sri Lanka, and according to newspaper accounts, her parents were perfectly OK with her reading the Bible, hanging out with Christian kids, and being a cheerleader.

But her many “supporters” — most of whom are fervent Christians — fervently believe her family, or the middle-of-the-road mosque to which they belong, will put the girl to death if she is sent back to her family. Law enforcement officers discount that likelihood, but since when do True Believers™ believe John Law?

The rally “crowd” was also upset that a family court judge has closed to the public the hearings being held to decide whether Bary is an unruly teenager, as her parents allege, and whether she can leave foster care. They also have their underwear in knots about court orders restricting the girl’s access to the Internet, email and her cellphone.

November 17th, 2009 | Tags: Christian, Islam, Nonie Darwish, ohio, Pamela Geller, rally, Rifqa Bary, runaway | Category: Civil liberties, Commentary, Skepticism, religion | Comments (1)