[ April 26, 2024 ]
It wasn’t really an “islamophobic” poem at all. It was a poem satirizing “islamophobia.” Removing it was a bootlicking subjugated move, prostrating before the “islamophobia” gds. It may have been well-intentioned, but it was blasphemous! And so it had to be removed by sharia-compliant library officials. The left eats its own once again.
“Aurora Library Removes Poem After Accusations Of Islamophobia,” by Jonathon Sadowski, NBC Chicago, April 23, 2018:
The Aurora Public Library is facing criticism for displaying and subsequently removing a poem some have labeled as hate speech that condones violence against Muslim women.
Story continues below advertisementThe poem, “Hijab Means Jihad,” was part of an exhibit called “Placeholders: Photo-Poems” on display at the library starting Friday. Over a background of a Confederate flag, the poem begins “Every kid should be like my kid / And snatch a hijab.”
Members of the public quickly denounced the poem as Islamophobic on social media. Poet George Miller, chair of the philosophy department and professor at Lewis University in Romeoville, said the piece was satirical, according to the library.
Miller did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The library posted three Facebook messages addressing the controversy over the course of the weekend.
“There is a lot of discussion about Dr. Miller’s poem titled: ‘Hijab Means Jihad,’ which is superimposed on a Confederate flag,” the library wrote Friday morning. “Some have commented on the satirical nature of the poem…. Others view it as ‘hate speech.’ We are pleased that people are talking.”
But that post did not dispel the backlash. Dozens of people commented on the post, not satisfied by the library’s explanation.
Miller appeared at the library to discuss his exhibit the next day, according to a Facebook post. Hours later, the library made another Facebook post announcing it would remove the poem from the exhibit.
“While the intent was satirical according to the poet, we are aware that this is not the message the panel is sending to our community,” the post reads. “We want everyone to feel safe and welcome at Aurora Public Library, and we will remove the panel before we open for business tomorrow.”
Library board president John Savage on Sunday wrote an apology on Facebook, saying that once he was aware of the backlash, he made the decision to remove the poem. The library, he said, is committed to inclusivity and providing “a meaningful experience for our patrons.”
“When I read the words in that display, my heart ached,” Savage wrote. “I was disgusted by the language and saddened by the fact that very person who read it could believe this was condoned by the Aurora Public Library because it was allowed to be on display in our main branch. I am angry that still in 2018 these examples of hate and prejudice are alive and well—and now being shrouded under the banner of ‘art.'”
Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin wrote in a statement on the official City of Aurora Facebook page that he personally requested that the poem be removed from display. The poem, he wrote, “should never have seen the light of day in our city.”
Irvin also criticized the library for its initial post because it “nonchalantly stated” that it was happy with the discussions surrounding the poem….
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37 Comments
6 years ago
The West is guilty of Islamophilia much more than “Islamophobia”.
6 years ago
The next step is to burn the books. Germany 1933. Back to the future.
6 years ago
Reply to
tatka150
I was thinking their next move might be to paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa. That would suit their tastes.
6 years ago
What’s next? Book burnings? Sieg Heil !!!!
6 years ago
Wasnt there a mass murder in a theatre in Aurora? Maybe they are happy with that situation. They have no idea how subjugated they are.
6 years ago
Reply to
cassandra
James Holmes has been convicted of 24 counts of murder — two for each
person he killed at the Century 16 multiplex in Aurora, Colorado, on
July 20, 2012.(Not Aurora Illinois).
6 years ago
Reply to
cassandra
Colorado, my home state. Dang, how stupid. Supposed to throw acid at women I guess and leave dumb hair coverings alone.
6 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
Yes, shooter instance was in Aurora theater. I am live in Colorado.
6 years ago
Ri-i-i-ight. And, the “Indian with a scalp” line isn’t also hate speech?
I see a lot more wrong with this poem than any redeeming social value in it. I’m Jewish. Should I not have the same reaction if the poem had said, “Every kid should be like my kid and snatch a yarmulke?” What nice little Nazis we are teaching the children to become! The library made absolutely the right decision. I’m gobsmacked how this poem got approval in the first place. No, it’s not “Sharia law;” it’s treating others’ personal space the respectful way we would like to be treated.
5 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
It may be offensive but, it’s protected speech. And if there is ANY place where offensive speech should be safeguarded in accordance with the 1st Amendment, it’s in public libraries and universities. Once that’s gone in those places, IT’S gone. What is so hard to understand about that.
6 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
Apparently a lot of people who post things like that never read “Nineteen Eighty Four” by George Orwell….the man was absolutely psychic when he wrote that…..
…..It used to be required reading, but now the enemies of America -within and without – don’t want young people being warned where they are heading……so many things happening today come right out of the picture he painted in his book…..it ends horribly for us and future generations once we go down those paths…
6 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
No, I don’t think it’s okay to say anything you want in a public library. For one thing, it’s disruptive, and children may be present, so decorum must be maintained. The Constitution prevents the government from putting prior restraint on your speech based on its content, but reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions on speech are permitted by the First Amendment. Moreover, the government has no obligation to PROVIDE YOU A FORUM for your “speech” unless they offer an unlimited, uncurated forum to others, but EXCLUDE you, based on the content of your speech. I said that, the first time around. This was not a public-access bulletin board; it was a curated display. THE LIBRARIAN GETS TO DECIDE what goes there, because they CANNOT display EVERYTHING. There just isn’t room. They have to use their professional judgment.
6 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
Actually, no. The First Amendment does NOT require a public library to make anything and everything available to patrons. The library is a curated service, not a soapbox for display of anything anyone wants to post there. The librarians get to pick and choose what to display, applying reasonable community standards. Refusing to display what may amount to hate speech, and which is at the very least cheeky and disrespectful to an element of the community, is perfectly within the librarians’ rights to curate their displays. It would be different if they simply offered a free-access public bulletin board and said “anyone can post anything they want here.” In that case, they could not discriminate on the basis of content — that would be government censorship. But a curated display is not censorship.
6 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
You are right……and it’s why I haven’t been back to a library in many years…..many things are offensive and too Libtard there…..I don’t support them or their activities at all…..
6 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
Deciding what is offensive to display or not at a public library is not up to one person but up to the people, just as the Amendment intended. The Amendment was created for controversial speech and not for all the power for its censure to lie in the few.
6 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
Which is exactly why you are allowed to say whatever you want. At an appropriate time and place, and in an appropriate manner, of course. Being civil, and observing decorum, does not get thrown to the wind by the First Amendment just because you feel you have something of value to say.
The library is NOT a public forum where a soapbox is provided that anyone can take turns standing on and saying whatever they want, like Hyde Park Corner. It is a curated display of SELECTED materials as a SERVICE to the public, not as a required part of government’s role. Most US jurisdictions DO offer free public libraries to their denizens, just like they offer free public education, because of a policy judgment that such resources help create an INFORMED public who will make better decisions at the voting booth, and also to make the benefits of critical thinking and access to the culture’s storehouse of knowledge available to all as a public service. But it is still more like an edited newspaper, or a (pre-24/7 cable era) network news show, than like the firehose of unfiltered info we get now from the Internet. Though that, too, is available at most libraries, now — subject to filtering for objectionable porn or hate speech, but that’s better than not having free public access to the Internet available at libraries at all.
6 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
So….what book or poem do the Libtards get to get rid of next? Who decides? Once you go down that road….it’s Sieg Heil, friend….
6 years ago
Reply to
ladywarrior
Oh, for heaven’s sake! You do know that the people LEADING the fight against library censorship by politicians are mostly librarians themselves, right? And of course, even being a “banned book” doesn’t mean nobody can read it; it just means the library or other institution is not going to PROMOTE it — as they have no duty to do, since it’s impossible to promote EVERYTHING, and they have to make choices about what to display within the space and funds available.
There is a big difference between a trained professional curating a collection to contain (within his limited budget) works that he believes have enduring value, as well as those more ephemeral works that seem to appeal to a significant segment of the local community, versus a politician (more often a reactionary conservative than a “libtard”) interfering with that process for purely partisan, vote-getting or indoctrination-demanding, political reasons.
You do realize that it is JUST as fascist for politicians to say to a librarian, YOU HAVE TO display this (portrait of Hitler, poem about ripping off a Muslima’s hijab, or whatever) as it is to say YOU CANNOT display this (book written by a Jew, book that teaches kids about sex, or whatever), right? They are not opposites — they are the flip sides of the same coin.
6 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
Oh For HEAVEN’S SAKE! I said nothing about “politicians”…..you said that. The public decides what they will and will not put up with. If a person finds what the libraries do or not do they write the Library and tell them their objections…..if nothing changes then you just quit utilizing that library……going to the library is a choice…..not a mandate…..FOR HEAVEN’S SAKE!
The day I saw actual porn on display in a library…..I never went back…..more and more people are doing the same thing…..and the libraries are becoming obsolete because of the internet….most people in them either don’t have internet or need a place to dump their kids for awhile…..something tells me you are a librarian….
6 years ago
Reply to
ladywarrior
No, I’m a lawyer, but I’m a frequent library patron, and ours is one of the busiest library systems in the country. Also, some of my best friends are librarians.
I would be curious what kind of “porn” you saw at your library. (Not in a prurient sense, of course.) Was it something a patron had pulled up on a publicly visible computer screen, on a system that did not filter out porn sites? Was it a legitimate (e.g. educational or scientific or literary) website that had nude pictures, or medical/anatomical photos, or something? That’s not the librarian’s fault — but I do think they should filter out actual “porn” sites when there is any possibility children are around. Or, are you talking about materials on the shelves? DVDs? Photo- or art-books with nude images? There is a major difference between erotica and porn, unless you’re lumping all that together, so it’s hard to tell what you’re talking about. Should libraries offer “R” rated DVDs for patrons to check out, or to watch on computer viewscreens at the library? I think they should — almost all movies suitable for grownups these days fit in that category. I would argue that any political attempt to ban all “R” rated material from the library would be improper censorship.
And yes, you’re right, the impetus to remove books or materials from a library typically starts with a patron — an ordinary citizen — who sees something he doesn’t like, then complains to the librarian. If the librarian agrees, they remove the display, which is exactly what happened in this case, and what people on this site are complaining about! If that doesn’t get action, then the NEXT step, for the concerned patron, is usually to go to a local politician to try to pressure the library system to remove the offending item. Either that, or instead of or in combinataion with, starting a “citizen’s action committed” to put additional pressure and/or publicity on the library and which also puts additional pressure on said politician. Obviously I was not describing the likely process in full detail. And to me, anyone who engages in politics is a “politician,” including citizen-activists, not just elected officials.
5 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
My local library doesn’t have a single counter-jihad author’s title among its collection. Furthermore, ALL counter-jihad websites are blocked.
If that’s not fascism pal, what is?
6 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
I have to admit I was surprised this poem was published. Your disgusting comparison to nazis is nothing but Godwin’s Law in action and muslums, all of them, are f’ing fascists because that’s what their religion is.
6 years ago
Reply to
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
What do you mean, MY “disgusting comparison to Nazis?” I made no such comparision. I was responding to “ladywarrior” who wrote “Once you go down that road….it’s Sieg Heil, friend….”
I was DEFENDING against her accusation that curation of library displays means the librarians are being Nazis.
5 years ago
Reply to
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
Right. I realized I said that and owned up to that, and posted about it here, yesterday, long before your above reply. No need to be nasty.
5 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
The least I owe muslums, muslum apologists and muslum sympathizers is contempt.
6 years ago
Reply to
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
Okay, I DID mention Nazis by means of a parallel analogy to a hypothetical “snatch a yarmulke” poem. But in that case it was right on point and not an invocation of Godwin’s Law. Who else but Nazis go around snatching yarmulkes off of unwilling Jews?
And who else but an objectionable Islamophobe would go around snatching hijabs off of unwilling Muslimas?
If you think THAT comparison is objectionable, does that mean you feel people SHOULD go around yanking hijabs off of people’s heads? I suppose it’s not assault, if the victim is a Muslima?
5 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
Your “nice, little nazis” leaves little doubt as to your comparison.
I don’t give a FFF what people do to f’ing muslums anymore.
NJOI your totalitarian muslum future fool.
5 years ago
Reply to
IzlamDownpressesHumanity
No, the totalitiarian state is the one which does not recognize “live and let live” as a guiding principle. If your society starts not giving a flying flotilla what happens to Muslims, it won’t be long before they also don’t give a flying flotilla what happens to Jews.
No, that doesn’t mean I intend to buckle under to Sharia law or accept that we are forbidden to criticize anything Muslims do, out of fear of being called Islamophobic. That would be idiocy, and I fully agree with Ms. Geller’s approach on that. THAT’S WHY I’M HERE, ON THIS SITE.
But — we’ve had this conversation before, you and I — that also doesn’t mean it’s okay for us to abandon our own liberal, tolerant principles and genuinely discriminate against or assault individual Muslims just because they are Muslims. Sorry, that’s not a society I want to live in. And I don’t want to let our society become one like that — going over to the other extreme.
5 years ago
Reply to
Michael Jacobs
Bwahahahahaha, what a buffoon. The muslums have ALREADY been enforcing shari’a law under other auspices in Dearbornistan, Michigan.
You’ll make a fine muslum collaborator in the totalitarian, theocratic muslum states of north america.
6 years ago
What a joke—–Aurora is so full of crime and gangs—-NO one wants to live in that pos city.
For suburban Chicago, Aurora is ranked No. 1 with a crime rate of about 300 per 100,000 residents.
Not including Chicago, here are the 10 Illinois cities with the MOST VIOLENT CRIME:
1. Rockford 2. Springfield 3. Peoria 4. Champaign 5. Aurora———-
And this ass kissing Mayor and the Library board president is worried about not offending the filthy savage Muslims……..
I’m glad I NO longer live in that sh*thole Illinois.
6 years ago
Like a muslim, has to should be
Violent for all to see
Ignorant violence is islam
muslims don’t give a damn
Deport them all immediately.
5 years ago
Muslims should not have been allowed into the country. And supporting a savage terror cult only encourages it.
Sharia Police in Uk are not willing to protect those who speak truth about islam https://tinyurl.com/ya6j3phj
Instead go after those who expose the jihadi crimes and their Left/Liberal supporters !
6 years ago
Truth hurts, don’t it. The poem should stand.
