What's the deal with religious "turf?"

Why can't some people accept different forms of worship as legitimate as their own?

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/teacher-who-interrupted-muslim-pupils-28710839

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/12/09/pembroke-pines-teacher-fired-after-viral-video-shows-her-interrupting-muslim-students-while-in-prayer/

PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – A Broward County teacher was fired after a video of her interrupting Muslim students while in prayer went viral.

The teacher, who has not yet been identified, worked at Franklin Academy, a charter school in Pembroke Pines.

The video starts with tranquil music and a couple of boys reciting an Islamic prayer in Arabic.

Shortly after, you can hear the teacher saying, “Hold on, this in my office and y’all doing this magic?”

A woman identified as another teacher barges in and starts blowing a whistle.

The teacher is then heard saying, “I believe in Jesus so I’m interrupting the floor.”

The same teacher appeared to step or kick the boys’ hands as she walked over their mats.

The video was posted on TikTok Wednesday and has already racked up over five million views.

Wilfredo Ruiz, of the Council on American and Islamic Relations, told Local 10 News’ Cody Weddle that the video is “repulsive” and that the teacher’s actions were a clear case of bullying.

"y'all doing this magic?"

These are the same people who routinely invoked Jesus like a magic spell during the pandemic. "We command Covid to leave your body in the name of Jesus! I declare healing in your lungs in the name of Jesus!"

Florida Man with ovaries. At least she was canned. Has she gone on Fox yet, whining about being persecuted for her beliefs?

logged out today Wrote:
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> "y'all doing this magic?"
>
> These are the same people who routinely invoked
> Jesus like a magic spell during the pandemic.

Very good point.

It's creepy as hell to me.

My attitude is we have doctors and medicine and science so what the hell is wrong with people who bypass that and go straight to invocations. *That* is not Christian.



Edit to Add: OK, so my bias is showing in that last sentence above. It's the way I was taught within EV Christian circles - that magic is satanic. But as we know there is a lot of variety within Christianity and EVs aren't the full picture (although they seem to take up a lot of the focus).

The teaching against magic kind of went along anyway with how I already felt about it. I have just never liked it and it's always made me uneasy from a very young age so the Christian folks reinforcing that negative impression I already had was fine with me. But I realized today after I posted the above comment that I shouldn't lump all of Christianity into one pile as there is a great variety of individual belief. Not all groups teach the exact same principles. Which would be a reason for a lot of the confusion and irritation about it all but that's a different quibble.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2022 01:27PM by Nightingale.

anybody Wrote:
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> Why can't some people accept different forms of
> worship as legitimate as their own?

If they could all the unrest about it could be stilled.

As far as I can figure it:

1. "There is only one way" (and it's my way)

2. The (fundamentalist) Christian imperative to preach the word (which is the only word and the only way)

I can't claim to know the non-Christian stance on this particular doctrine - do some non-s also have the same attitude and imperative? Even if so at least they're not knocking on my door.

I have become friends with a Muslim family I met when they first came to Canada as refugees. When I'm visiting at their house they pray in front of me at their appointed times and nobody is embarrassed and none of us are preaching to the others about converting to each other's religious beliefs.

I've always looked at it as there is one God and people of different lands and persuasions have their own various ways of worshipping and its all good.

I made a pretty bad proselytizer overall with the JWs and the Mos. I'm glad, though, to know that I never influenced anybody to give up the joy their lives could be outside the more cloistered groups. Or hardly anybody. There was one young woman in crisis I helped and she stayed a JW. Then she married my boyfriend. So yeah, that one I regret on a number of fronts. :)

Although hallelujah that I didn't marry a JW. The rifts and pain that accompany "part member families" are tough to live through. Because if I had married him and then wanted to leave the JW organization what misery would have been ours. And divorce is unthinkable to them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2022 01:10PM by Nightingale.

My one question is what were they doing in her private office (evidently) without permission? There are all kinds of places they could have been directed for prayer -- an empty classroom, a conference room, a corner of the library, etc. It's not unusual for teachers to have private or shared offices that are separate from their classrooms. Oftentimes sensitive material may be stored in such an office (grades, parent contact logs, disciplinary forms, etc.) Obviously, she didn't handle the situation well, but I can understand her initial upset. They were in her personal space, not a community space.

I didn't notice the detail of them being in her office, summer. I can see how that would be disturbing, for the reasons you state.

Too, though, her comment about them doing "magic" would certainly be offensive as well as her angry reaction, apparently walking on their prayer mats and even perhaps over one student's hand/s.

It's hard to think they would have gone into her office, with their mats and music, intending to do their prayers, without either having been given permission or thinking they had received it. I mean, would they have thought they could just claim her office as their own private space? That is hard to imagine.

A lot of questions here.

Many schools and business set aside an area for Muslim prayers -- was the room also used as an office? It doesn't make sense. The students probably would not have gone there unless they thought it was a safe place as they live in FL and would be aware of anti-Muslim bias.

anybody Wrote:
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> ... and
> would be aware of anti-Muslim bias.

As well as not going into a teacher's private space without permission.

You're right. It doesn't make sense.

Also, if the students had done something wrong you wouldn't think the teacher would be fired. Perhaps corrected for her reaction/comments but not fired.

I'm not condoning her actions, but for the reason I stated, the story does not quite add up for me. As for the students, I've seen kids do all kinds of strange things without permission. The kids should have had a designated place assigned to them for prayer. It wasn't just the teacher who dropped the ball here.

When I was a teacher, the Christian students had "Prayer at the Flag Pole."

And any other belief system should also have a designated area for their observances if desired.

A strong leader who sets strong guidelines for what is and what is not acceptable is required to avoid these situations. Everyone is flying by the seat of their pants in these culture wars with strong feelings being the revved engine.

But we have prophets who don't prophesy when we need loving sages instead, and, leaderss who don't lead or are Judas goats leaving teachers to have to watch their backs for lawsuits and firings because they are forced to live in a haze by our society and so in the spur of the moment the thinking is being done when it should have been beforehand.

The smart thing nowadays is to do nothing. But just stopping and letting the adrenaline subside before acting can make a huge difference. Hard thing to do when the high road feels like a sucker move.


The kids weren't sure what to do, the teacher wasn't sure what to do. Of course they all got it wrong. I feel bad for both being thrust into the culture wars which is the wrong nomenclature for the Religious Wars which this is and always has been.

"I believe in Jesus" as a war cry says it all.

I think all forms of religious expression on publicly funded educational property should be banned. It would also negate the need for separate (Catholic here) schools and their extra layer of admin.