A story originating from Saudi papers was making the rounds yesterday, “Anti-Islamic US teacher forced to apologize”. Emirates 24/7 carried an English version that was based on those Saudi accounts.
Based on the Emirates story you would be left with the impression that a near uprising of offended Saudi students had forced the University of Central Arkansas to compel its Islamophobic instructor to publicly, if reluctantly, recant her wayward ways.
“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.”
My source, “Deep Camel”, gives a slightly different version. There was no “We” united in outrage. One, count em, 1 individual, a Saudi who is not a student of nor familiar with Ms. Cicily Tubb-Warbington took offense. Ms. Tub-Warbington’s Saudi students have in fact stood by her throughout.
The instructor saw this caption on Facebook and “liked” it: “Who agrees that it is not good to have a pedophile as one of the role models for youth in society”
Unfortunately it was linked to the cartoon you see here. Link. It was Tubb-Warbington’s decision to issue an apology on her FB page. She was not compelled to do so by the university once the misunderstanding had been sorted out. Let that be a warning to “Facebook activists”. Note also that the factually challenged Emirates story mentions a non-existent Son.
Deep Camel adds: “She’s pretty much adored by the vast majority of her students, including all the Saudis. As of this afternoon, around 15 of her Saudi male students had changed their FB profile pic to a pic of her, to show support. They’re horrified and seriously dismayed at how this ONE student has caused so much trouble for her. Two of her former students (Saudis) even complained to the Saudi embassy about the trouble-maker. I’m not sure if they asked for something specific to be done, or if they just made the embassy aware he was causing trouble for a favorite teacher. It’s almost too insane to be believed, that one person who doesn’t even know her has the ability to cause her so much trouble.”
Sound familiar? A single individual, again a Saudi, sparked the Banned in Kamloops Bra-ha-ha.