Crowd, most Muslim parents, at Dearborn Public Schools Board meeting for debate over LGBTQ books. Twitter/@nwarikoo
Dearborn (Michigan): Muslim parents in Michigan got into a heated debate for the second time in a week against some LGBTQ+ books in libraries of Dearborn Public Schools. Some called the books “controversial” and said they feel that novels discussing sexual acts, dating apps and other mature themes should not be in school libraries.
“We don’t see the educational merit in these books,” parents claimed.
The Thursday’s meeting came with more rules after Monday’s board meeting descended into chaos by a large and disorderly crowd.
The packed meeting room with mostly Muslim parents Thursday saw many holding signs with anti-gay rhetoric in English and Arabic. “If democracy matters, we’re the majority,” read one sign, while another read: “Homosexuality Big Sin”.
Parents asserted that LGBTQ+ educational materials and books should not be available in Dearborn Public Schools, the third largest school district in Michigan.
However, nothing seemed to be peaceful on last evening’s meeting at Dearborn Schools. Pro-LGBTQ speakers were booed and shouted out insults.
Speaking at the meeting, a gay man said books don’t make people gay. He called for unity between Muslims and gays. “The far right in this country” hates both of us. He is booed and laughed at by crowd,” he said.
Muslim leaders and community activists oppose, protest LGBTQ+ books
On Monday night, scores of protesters packed a Michigan school board meeting and expressed anger over certain LGBTQ+ books, saying they are “too sexually explicit for children”. During the meeting, the protesters were heard chanting “Vote them out!”
Monday protest wasn’t the first. Muslim leaders and community activists in Michigan, US, for weeks, had been asking people to voice their opposition to certain books and educational materials.
CAIR, the largest Muslim organisation in the US, expressed support for the Muslim anti-gay protesters.
Also, during Friday sermon, one of Michigan’s most prominent faith leaders, Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, urged people to attend the protests.
People from the Muslim community in the US claimed that they have the democratic right to decide what is appropriate in their schools since their “faith is now in the majority”.
According to census data, Dearborn has about 47 per cent Arab American, most of them Muslim.
Muslim leaders and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union members, earlier, had released a joint statement saying, “Everyone believes that our schools and classrooms should be safe, welcoming, and supportive environments that are free from discrimination and bullying of any kind. … and that includes young people who identity as LGBTQ.”
The statement further read, “Having resources and books in our classrooms and libraries that speak to the diversity of our students and the broader world we share is critical to providing a quality and supportive education.”
The district said that four out of six of the books that were pulled from the library had LGBTQ+ themes in them.
With inputs from agencies
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