Catonsville, MD – Citing negative stereotyping of Arab culture, a Maryland elementary school has canceled its production of Disney’s “Aladdin Jr.”
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Danette Zaghari-Mask is an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations. She tells WBAL-TV her son decided to drop out of the Westowne Elementary School play when he learned that “Arabs are described as barbaric” in it.
She went to the school with his experience, and says her family is “relieved that the school is considerate of diversity.”
Principal J. Palmer Wilker sent a letter to drama club parents last week in which he said the school wanted to “cultivate students who have a strong self-image, appreciation, and respect for other cultures.”
The school’s drama club will replace the February 2019 production with “an alternative theatrical production with a focus on fables.”
Maybe they’ll perform The Merchant of Venice instead lol. Seriously, though, a giant blow to Disney which likes to be politically correct.
Not something I know, but another site has the following:
> The movie’s opening song “Arabian Nights” begins with this verse: “Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place / Where the caravan camels roam / Where it’s flat and immense / And the heat is intense / It’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.”
Seems to me it is talking about the topography and climate. Otherwise, the correct phrase when referring to people is “barbarians”.
But even if taking it differently, just how would this same child describe, for example, ISIS?