Now, before you make a prejudgment about what happened, as I originally did when I saw the headline on the Fluent News app on my iPhone, check this out
A group of Arab-American high school students were reprimanded for wearing sweatshirts they made which school administrators said “distastefully” referenced the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center.
Eleven boys from Edsel Ford High School’s graduating class of 2011 in Dearborn, Mich., wore hooded sweatshirts to school Monday depicting the numeral 11 with windows drawn on each digit, so they looked like towers. Alongside the towers is a thunderbird, the school’s mascot, flying towards them. The text below the images read “You can’t bring us down.”
“The whole design gave prominence to the 9/11 tragedy, and of course was very upsetting to staff and students,” said Principal Hassane Jaafar in a statement.
School officials said the boys intended the shirts to be displays of class pride and did not understand that they would be perceived as offensive.
“After talking with the students, it became clear that there were no intentions of harm, rather a very inappropriate and distasteful attempt to draw attention to themselves and to the class of 2011,” said Jaafar.
Now, looking at the t-shirt design, I actually have to say I support the students. We often forget that not all Muslims, if, in fact, these students are Muslims (since not every Arab is a Muslim), support the work of the Islamic extremists. When I look at that design, if I see the Twin Towers in them, I see students saying that Islamic jihadis can bring down the towers, but, not America and its People.
Of course, I could be completely wrong, without knowing what was truly in the boys’ heads. What do you think?
