‘Crusader Knights’ Logo Comes Down
‘Crusader Knights’ Logo Comes Down
by Bill Lockwood
“The legs of the lame are not equal” (Prov. 26:7). A cripple may try to walk or run but his legs do not operate as a coordinated pair. Solomon compares this to “parables” in the mouth of fools—they should not try to be teachers. This is what our government has become. Fools effecting to give instruction.
The United States Army recently removed a sign outside the 8th Special Troops Battalion Warrior Training Center in Fort Shafter Flats, Hawaii, after it drew criticism for its religious imagery. It featured a medieval knight with crosses on his breastplate and shield. The cleansing of the sign occurred within hours after “the head of a religious-freedom advocacy group called for the image’s removal.” The government could not get the image down quickly enough.
Spokeswoman Sgt. 1st Class Mary Ferguson told Army Times that the image representing the “Fighting Knights” is not “an approved logo.” Putting as much distance as possible between the Army and any notion of “religion” Ferguson added, “Ultimately, this was human error and not representative of the unit or the Army.”
Mikey Weinstein, founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, had earlier demanded the removal of the sign in an email to Maj. Gen. Edward Dorman. “Who’s asleep at the switch when it comes to these issues?” he queried.
According to Weinstein, a number of MRFF clients, including some Muslim soldiers, were offended and had asked the MRFF to intervene, which Weinstein was delighted to do. “We commend the Army for doing the right thing, but why did it happen in the first place?” Weinstein pressed. Weinstein’s email to Dorman additionally requests an investigation into the matter and the punishment of responsible parties. Such imagery “enrages our Islamic allies” and “emboldens our Islamic enemies,” he intones. Ocean View School District
At the same time, across the sea in sunny California, in the Ocean View School District, Spring View Middle School social studies class, the teacher incorporated lyrics to the melody of “Fight Song” by pop artist Rachel Platten into a history lesson. The altered words included Islamic teaching that “Allah is the one God.”
The modified lyrics read: “Like a sandstorm; On the desert, Sending camels, Into motion. Like how a single faith, Can make a heart open; They might only have one God, But they can make an explosion.” The chorus of the song goes like this: “Islam … Allah’s on the way; They will preach them loud tonight; Can you hear their voice this time?; This is their fight song; Spread Islam now song; Prove that they’re right song.”
One of the parents, Nichole Negron, objected, and posted pictures on Facebook showing drawings that her son brought home which included the song lyrics as well as a stick-figure man saying, “Believe in Allah! There is no other god!” In the stir that this created school Superintendent Carol Hansen, said, “It was unfortunate the lesson on Islam ended just prior to the tragic world events last week … I apologize on behalf of the district if the song used in the World History lesson may have offended anyone. It was not the intention of the teacher to incite, anger or offend.”
It is all just a matter of WORLD HISTORY! How can people object to World History lessons? The Superintendent seems irritated in this “apology” that we cannot, when it comes to Islam, teach history! It is not meant to “offend.” And she leaves the feeling that the “offense” came solely on the heels of the heightened nervousness due to the Paris attacks. What do we have? When it comes to remotely suggesting Christianity with a picture of a cross on a shield the government military is all about erasing it and punishing the offenders! How could this possibly occur in Mikey Weinstein’s world?!
But when it comes to teaching children in government schools about Islam, even going to the trouble of having them memorize “Believe in Allah! There is no other god!”—and teaching them songs of the jihadists–that is only history. How dare parents object to history! Maybe Mikey Weinstein ought to go back to Junior High where he can learn that the Crusaders with cross emblems were only a part of history. Certain it is that Superintendent Carol Hansen could teach him that World History should not “offend anyone.”