The International Schools Review Forum

This is horrible. Any ideas on where she worked?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/us- ... ar-BBghfIr

information hasn't been released as of yet. but likely somewhere in abu dhabi.

v.

Very upsetting news, I can't imagine the pain her children and family are going through. She worked at Al Oula kindergarten in Abu Dhabi.

good news - suspect found and arrested.
the most startling thing about this is apparently no personal ties or connections to the victim.
the emirati suspect also placed a homemade bomb outside an egyptian-american household.
due to the high profile nature of the case, look for the book to be thrown at this one (unlike most
cases involving locals, it doesn't look like she'll see any leniency).

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/crime/ree ... ce-custody

v.

however, it does seem that maybe the call to attack foreign/us teachers and schools was heeded by at least one person...

Teachers get murdered in North America too.

Not because they are Western, they don't.

Terrible that any family would have to endure such needless and despicable loss.

This is why it's important not to teach in countries where the majority of the population seeks to emulate a 7th century pedophile whose idea of "civilization" is based on medieval blood feuds and the oppression of women and all non-believers.

Not to say that random acts of violence don't occur everywhere but I'm not going pre-Enlightenment-not even for that Saudi/Gulf State money!

Educators need to cut the "relativist" poppycock and call spades spades. These people are barbarians. If it wasn't for the ingenuity of Western oil companies they still be Bedouins wandering the desert.

Cafare,

have you ever taught in the Middle East? I spent many years there in a couple of countries (yes, recently), and the picture you paint is similar to "I would never move to the states where your chance of being shot by a gun nut or police man is extremely high and where if you aren't rich you will never get justice."

Having lived in the ME until recently, I would go back if the right position came open. Having a lot of a friends there who go about their daily lives quite happily, the outsider's view you give is definitely influenced by your ignorance, lack of experience in the area, and reading of news sources that have no clue about realities in the area.

I would assume you would go to the US? Yet you have a far greater chance of dying there by violence than in the Middle Eastern countries (except for Syria or Iraq).

No I have never lived in the Middle East but have traveled extensively in the Muslim world. Overall, I've found the majority of the people in my experience to be above and beyond friendly and hospitable-and among the most welcoming in the world. That doesn't mean that I would be willing to expose myself or my family to their medieval a** backwards worldviews on a full-time basis. Yes-having lived and taught in NYC the chances I would suffer at the hands of violent crime are far higher there than they would be if I were living in a Saudi compound. But that's not the point. You can't stay neutral on a moving train and just like I don't support United States military aggression overseas I don't support medieval codes of conduct as guiding principles for civilization in the 21st century. Look at Europe and all the trouble the Muslims are bringing to places like France, Holland, Germany, and the UK. They come to the West for the fruits of the Enlightenment and then want to import those backward values which made them unhappy in their countries to their adopted homes. It's an abomination.

What you and I have are a difference in opinion. I refuse to acquiesce to 7th century barbarism by living in one of those places and working for or among those people, but I will live in Mexico where I find the people and culture far more compatible to my Enlightenment values despite the fact that it is more dangerous.

Yes, I might be robbed in Mexico but what they want is my money not my life. They are motivated by materials where the fringe psychopaths in the Muslim world who are after us want to slaughter us like animals cause they are motivated by an ideology-one that I find nauseating and disagreeable to all human progress since the Renaissance.

So what you are saying is that by working in one of "those" countries, you are supporting what is happening?

Yet you live in Mexico, where by your presence you are giving tacit support to the murder and cremation of hundreds of disappeared students? In a 'medieval' society where small highly armed groups dictate what happens and where the drug 'warlords' seem to really run the show?

Give me Saudi over that any day. I read about more Westerners (Americans and Canadians) being killed in Mexico than I ever heard about Westerners being killed in Saudi. Usually in Mexico it is over sex or money.

No child of mine is going to grow up in a Salafi prison and that's that.

Furthermore, there are a lot of people in Mexico making noise about the corruption and governmental abuses where things are becoming more radicalized in sharia land.

Who is publicly criticizing ISIS? Very few.

Now even the old reliable Turks have Erdo?an who is dragging his feet when what they need is an Atatürk committed to Enlightenment values.

How about a 21st century Nasser for the Arabs? We are stuck with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and King Saud and the princelings.

I'll take my chances in Mexico where at least if my daughter gets raped she won't receive 200 lashes on top of it.

Insha'Allah

lots of people are critisizing ISIS. the gulf countries are firmly against them, for understandable reasons. i understand what you are saying, but it isn't really like that here. and as for having it serve as a guiding principle, again, it's not really like that here in the UAE.

in saudi? yeah, i could see it being worse there and more dangerous. UAE? QATAR? Oman? Kuwait? No, not really dangerous for foreigners right now.

the argument for backwards thinking/enlightenment idea happens with a lot of frustrated, identity in crisis immigrants, not just muslims.

again, i do sympathize and get where you're coming from, but the reality is much different here in the UAE than you're making it out to be.

You know what's really funny? The majority of students I taught in Saudi would LOVE to go back and visit and recall their days with great pleasure. Why? Because in Saudi it is much more safe, in Saudi it is much more free, and in Saudi kids can be kids without as much pressure to be mini-adults.

It was a place where you could send your kids out of your villa to play and not worry about where they were or what they were doing. It was a place where the weather was almost always great and the pool was almost always open (well, except for swim meets). It was a place where, at least at my school, once you got out of the horrible middle school years, students tended to a live and let live ethos (with some very rare exceptions).

When my son left Saudi he swore he would never go back. Yet less than 6 months later, he wanted to come back. Funny, isn't it?

I respect your opinions and experiences. Maybe someday I will eat my words, though I can't imagine it happening any time soon-especially with the way things are developing in that part of the world.