April 3: The Stealth Jihad: Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood: homework for Monday

Watch the Overview about the Muslim Brotherhood in America. Choose "Click here". It is only 15 minutes. Make some notes. I will have specific questions on Monday. This is one of the main sources for your essay.

The Muslim Brotherhood in America

To watch the course on YouTube, CLICK HERE.

About the Course

Have you ever asked yourself why, despite more than ten years of efforts –involving, among other things, the loss of thousands of lives in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, well-over a trillion dollars spent, countless man-years wasted waiting in airport security lines and endless efforts to ensure that no offense is given to seemingly permanently aggrieved Muslim activists – are we no closer to victory in the so-called “war on terror” than we were on 9/11?

Thankfully, we have been able to kill some dangerous bad guys. The sad truth of the matter is that, by almost any other measure, the prospect of victory is becoming more remote by the day. And no one seems able to explain the reason.

In an effort to provide the missing answer, on April 24, the Center for Security Policy is making available via the Internet a new, free ten-part video course called “The Muslim Brotherhood in America: The Enemy Within.” This course connects the proverbial dots, drawing on a wealth of publicly available data and first-hand accounts to present a picture that has, for over a decade, been obscured, denied and suppressed:

America faces in addition to the threat of violent jihad another, even more toxic danger – a stealthy and pre-violent form of warfare aimed at destroying our constitutional form of democratic government and free society. The Muslim Brotherhood is the prime-mover behind this seditious campaign, which it calls “civilization jihad.”

To watch the course on YouTube, CLICK HERE.

Welcome back :)

Read the two posts below. Respond to the second one by Saturday, March 28th.

March 23 Changes--"see" you soon

Thanks to the CCP Virus having turned the world upside down, we will have to make some changes.

I hope we are only out until April 5th. If so, we will try to go ahead with our Grade 4 project. In the meantime, I am preparing topics based on the lecture series, books, and online sources like Dr Reeve's lectures. If this continues more than two weeks, I will substitute a different major assignment.

You have already had a lecture on the spread of Islam and you've seen evidence of what islamists are doing in the world today. We are going to begin this week reading about and discussing the teaching of jihad, which Dr Daileader downplays. However, jihad--a holy war to conquer the world for Allah--has always been the driving force behind Islam's aggressive conquests. 

We will see how Raymond Ibrahim, a specialist in Islamic history, explains jihad. This will give us an important background to understanding the crusades and the constant attacks against the West of the past 1400 years. 

Homework due by Saturday, March 28: Jihad

Note: the final version of the full timeline will be due on Saturday, April 4th. 

Throughout the Islamic world, Muslims are told that the Crusades were a series of unprovoked, vicious attacks against peaceful Muslims. They are told that the crusade mentality has always existed in the western world. Western powers have always sought to wage aggressive war against the Muslim 'nation', known as the Umma. 

What we call terrorism, many Muslims believe are acts of justified self-defense! Not only are Muslims told this by their religious leaders and politicians, but our own western universities have been telling  the same story to generations of Canadian and American youth. It has the effect of creating a sense of shame and lack of confidence in western, Christian civilization.

We will jump forward from the Carolingian empire of the 9^th century in Europe to the era of the crusades beginning in the 11^th century. Later we’ll come back and pick up the European story where we left off.

While you are at home, I’m going to assign you to read lectures, probably two per week. These are all under the heading "Early Middle Ages: all lectures" on the right of the blog.

Today, I want to introduce a perspective about the spread of Islam, which is that it has always been driven by the teaching of Jihad. 

Read the chapter from the book, “Sword and Scimitar—14 centuries of war between Islam and the West” by Raymond Ibrahim, a scholar of Islamic history and doctrine.

Read this: 


Jihad: the roots of conflict

Here are the questions for the above linked chapter on jihad:

https://innovaacademy-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/ktopalian_innovaacademy_ca/EazpVDC0ob1AlDjp7ZDXCNsBzAaGrjOWb1ZTji3eCb7r5g?e=3sANFV

Save your document as "(your name) jihad 1". You may save it on onedrive and email me the link or just attach the document to your email. ktopalian@innovaacademy.ca

March 6 Homework due tonight

Soon after spring break, we will study the Crusades. The first crusade occurred after more than 400 years of Muslim attacks and conquest of Christian countries. The radical Islamic leaders in the Muslim countries and in the West today blame the Crusaders for unprovoked attacks on peaceful Muslims. This is a "fact" used to stir up anger and hatred of the West. Vast numbers of Muslims in so-called moderate countries will cry "Death to America" "Death to Israel". They aren't kidding.

Today, we'll start with a 10 minute segment from the documentary "Obsession". You will see how Muslim hatred of Jews was a great advantage to Hitler.

Finally, we'll watch 15 minutes of a documentary about the first Crusade. I want to emphasize that the spirit of jihad, a holy war to conquer the world for Allah, has existed almost continuously from the death of Mohammed in 632 to the present day.

What have you learned and/or found interesting about what you've seen today?  10 sentences or more

The "Obsession" segment begins at 35 minutes.
The "First Crusade" is on the left side of the blog.

March 5 the ROM lessons

In my "office" I've set up 7 centers from the ROM kit. They are designed I'd say for 6th grade to 8th, so we can't use any of them exactly as they are intended. But, we may be able to make some use of Center 2: Castles  and Center 5: Knights.

I'd like each group, starting with Jed and Judah to spend 10 minutes. Take a good look at these two centers and for homework, each student will post comments on what you think we could do with them, if anything, in our presentations to the 4's. It won't be a big deal, but we can maybe focus on these centers for 5 to 10 minutes.

I know Jed and Judah are not doing either Knights or Castles specifically, but I'd still like your ideas. Groups must be no more than 10 minutes each.

March 5 Homework and what's next

Today, each of you will look at a different website from the ones I show you at Grade 4 Projects "Fantastic Medieval Websites". There are more sites than you see on the linked page. Scroll down and click on one of the other books at the bottom and different sets of websites will come up.

You need to write a 10 sentence review of what your group might be able to do with the grade 4's using something from the website. Don't rush this. In fact, I don't want anyone to post during class. Do this for homework tonight. 

You may work on it during class and save it to complete later. I will only mark what is posted tonight. You must include the name and url of the website you are reviewing. Agree with your team on which website each is reviewing. I want each to look at a different one.

I changed the goal for tomorrow. You don't have to submit a group plan yet. 

We will have a double period to present, so you can plan for a longer activity or activities. Probably one full period for activities and one period that is mainly presentation.

We only have two weeks after the break to prepare and I can't use every class. If anyone would like to take home a ROM lesson plan during the break, let me know. 

March 2 Grade 4 Project

Each team will work on its topic today. If you look on the blog under Grade 4 projects, you’ll find some relevant items. Also, a few videos on the left. 

Today, each of you will email me a Word doc individually.

Include responses to each of the following:

• Topic:
• What is your goal: what do you want the 4's to know? How will you evaluate your success?
• What part will you lead?
• What activity will your team have?
• Will you have handouts or prizes for a contest?
• Do you have an idea of how the rest of the class can assist while you are presenting?
• Try to have at least 3 specifics:
• Maybe an object, like a knight's glove
• Maybe a few powerpoint slides; 
• maybe an activity--20 minutes max 
• or a contest

Each of you should search for one of the following:

For example, in Josh, Noah, and Alana’s group, it might look like this:

Alana:

·         Photos, drawings, Powerpoints, animations (I’ll show you an example), documentaries

Noah:

·         Lesson plans: each of you will take a turn leading for 3 to 5 minutes

Josh:

·         Activities—plan for about 20 minutes

Contests

Games

Projects—maybe something that could be started but finished later by the 4’s 

Save the url’s, photos, text etc in a Word doc with your name and gr 4 project as the name eg "jed gr 4 project". Email your individual work today. You will combine your work into one document on Thursday, which will be the basis of the draft each team emails to me on Friday.