UPDATE: The teacher in this Saudi article, Cicily Tubb-Warbington, says the Saudi newspaper got it wrong. She left this explanation in the comments section of this post. I appreciate the clarification.
And this as well:
By the way -the excerpts taken from my FB page that are shown in the Emirates story were taken way out of context. They got virtually everything wrong -from the fact that I have no son to the number of students who complained. I am just shocked that anyone would given any credit to what it published......
Why wouldn't we? How would we know? I hope Ms. Cicily Tubb-Warbington writes to Emirates 24.
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More sharia on university campuses. Something is said that is considered untoward and Islamic supremacists in the West enforce the blasphemy laws under the sharia. They threaten, intimidate and whine, knowing that anywhere American law and Islamic conflict, American law will give way.
A teacher at an Arkansas university "liked" a picture on facebook ....... and you know what happened next.
Saudi readers reacting to the incident poured praise on the students while an angry reader who was not identified said :”As if the twin-towers disaster was not enough for them (Americans),” in a reference to the 2001 September terror attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
Mind you, this was a teacher who said, “I care deeply about my Saudi students…last term for example, I rearranged my class schedule so that the men could attend mosque and not have to miss class...."
Islam-offending US teacher forced to apologise Emirates 24 (hat tip David)
Saudi students in US protest anti-Islam remarks by female American teacher
A female university teacher in the United States had to apologise to her Saudi students for offending Islam after they protested her behaviour to the management, Saudi newspapers reported on Tuesday.
The students went straight to the teacher’s direct manager and complained that she had placed anti-Islamic pictures with abusive remarks in their books. They threatened that in case no action was taken, they would go to the chairman of the University of Central Arkansas in the southern state of America.
“We went into the office of the manager of the institute where we study and submitted a protest…we told her that if she does not take action against the teacher, we will go to the head of the university,” Saudi student Ahmed bin Daheem Al Hajour said, quoted by the Saudi Ajel newspaper.
“The manager did take action as promised and forced that teacher to apologise to us by sending messages to each of us on our Facebook pages…. she even removed her son’s picture from her Facebook page and replaced it with the flag of Saudi Arabia.”
Ajel published what it said was a copy of the US teacher’s message to the students apologising to them and saying it was an intentional mistake.
“I just want to apologise to you if you saw something here the other day that was offensive to Islam…I liked the picture because I liked the caption-- I didn’t even look at the picture I was liking…it was a stupid mistake and I didn’t even realise until a student complained to Amy (manager) and she talked to me,” the teacher said in her message.
“I want you to know I care deeply about my Saudi students…last term for example, I rearranged my class schedule so that the men could attend mosque and not have to miss class…..I have always tried to be sensible and respectful, so I feel terrible that I made such a stupid and thoughtless mistake… I would never intentionally do something to be offensive.”
Saudi readers reacting to the incident poured praise on the students while an angry reader who was not identified said :”As if the twin-towers disaster was not enough for them (Americans),” in a reference to the 2001 September terror attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York.
Thank you, Ralph B. I'm sorry to say the truth isn't that exciting. It's pretty mundane -certainly not as dramatic as the other stuff that's being said :-) But here are the basics: I inadvertently LIKEd a photo on FaceBook. I don't remember doing it -I don't know if I did it by accident while scrolling on the IPhone ap or if I did it because I liked the caption (which said something about not having pedophiles as role models in society -seemed like a fair judgment call!) What I didn't notice or realize was the accompanying cartoon which said something to the effect of "all religions are bs". I am a Christian, so I know I would NOT have liked this cartoon intentionally. As I said, I'm really not sure what happened there. However, one Saudi student complained -one -and he's someone who's never been in my class and doesn't know me. The school did not force me to apologize -I made that decision because I realized it was offensive. And for the record, yes I apologized to my Muslim students. I also apologized to my Christian students. I don't want to offend anyone of any religion, and I did feel the cartoon was -at the least -rude. After emailing with the student who complained, he accepted my apology, and I thought everything was over. At that point, however, he choose to go to the Saudi press. Why -I do not know.I do want to say that EVERY other Saudi student of mine has been amazingly supportive. They have sent me countless texts and emails saying they were not offended, they know I wouldn't do anything to be intentionally hurtful, and that they support me 100%. I've had far more support from the Saudis than from the American blogs. And that's it -that's the whole story. Like I said -not very thrilling, but those are the facts.