BLOGMay 30, 2017

British Teaching Tool for Kids Compares Suffragettes to Terrorists

If you could ask a terrorist six questions, what would they be? That's just one of the exercises suggested in Talking About Terrorism, a controversial teaching resource published in England just weeks before the Manchester Arena suicide bombing.

The booklet teaches that some people commit mass murder because they believe they're being treated “unfairly and not shown respect.” It offers historical examples of “terrorists” whose ideas were deemed extreme, but later turned out to be progressive --- you know, like women campaigning for voting rights at the turn of the last century.

The Suffragettes used violence and were called terrorists. Today many people think of them as brave women and admire their struggle for the right to vote.

"I would think in a place like Europe, Britain in particular after last week, maybe you may teach terrorism with things like, wow, people who kill other people are bad --- especially when you kill the most innocent among us," Doc Thompson said Tuesday, filling in for Glenn on The Glenn Beck Program.

Enjoy this complimentary clip or read the transcript for details.

DOC: Doc Thompson in for Glenn Beck today. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm joined also by Brad Staggs. You want to follow him on Twitter. It's The Blaze Brad and Brandon Morris if you want to follow him on Twitter and today we're using the #whatIlearnedtoday. But we're also going to be using the #KidsTerrorismBooks. You think of some old titles that maybe kids books that they've read over the years, and you have suggestions. Kids terrorism books because over in England, they have a new teaching resources for kids for how maybe he teach kids about terrorism.

BRANDON: Right.

DOC: I would think in a place like Europe, Britain in particular after last week.

BRANDON: Yeah.

DOC: Maybe you may teach terrorism things, like, wow people who kill other people are bad.

BRANDON: Are bad. Right.

DOC: Especially when you kill the most innocent among us, as well. Stuff like that. But that's not how it is, Brandon.

BRANDON: No, it's not. It was released just before the Manchester attack. But at the same time, this is a teaching tool for teachers who it basically encourages them to tell their students to write a letter to a terrorist, ask them six questions. If you could ask a terrorist six questions, what would then?

BRAD: Wow.

DOC: Okay. Wait a minute. Write a letter to a --

BRANDON: Write a letter to a terrorist.

DOC: Will these be delivered or just posted? Because if you say, hey, write a letter to a terrorist, then we'll track it.

BRANDON: This is about writing a letter to your congressman like we were encouraged back when -- no, write a letter terrorist.

DOC: Dear Mr. Terrorist, why are you blowing me up?

BRAD: Why do you want to kill me?

BRANDON: Yeah, so they're -- they're also saying -- this is contained in the pamphlet that they hand out. Use violence in recalled terrorists, the guide suggests. Many people think of them as brave women and admire their struggle for the right to vote.

DOC: What?

BRANDON: So they're basically saying one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist idea.

DOC: And they were mentioning the suffrage.

BRANDON: Right. Comparing the people who fought to right for freedom is the same as going around killing children.

DOC: If I remember right, the Ariana Grande concert in 1911, I think that's where the women blew up the --

BRANDON: That's right.

DOC: And killed some 20 some people; right? Saying right to vote.

BRANDON: She was going crazy on that --

DOC: And Susan B Anthony, the suicide bomber. You remember her. She was with the vest and all of that.

BRANDON: She said votes for women and then killed them all.

DOC: What are you --

BRANDON: This is the stupidest -- don't get me wrong, England can be a very backward country when it comes to certain things like free speech and whatnot. This whole entire going forward the sympathy for terrorist thing, which is just infecting Europe to the point where.

DOC: I get throughout history people have practiced civil disobedience. I get that. Sometimes they cross the lines. Sometimes people do things that broke the law. Maybe even a little bit violent. I've never condoned those.

BRANDON: Right.

DOC: But even so, there is a huge leap from that from even clubbing somebody in the street to blowing up children at a concert. I mean, that's insane. That bleep is light years ahead.

BRANDON: And you know what? These are the -- this is the same radical Islamic extremist that believe raping a woman in the street because she's wearing -- this is a game to them. I think it's called Vada Rush or something like that. I mean, raping a woman in the street because she looks like a westerner. That's a game to them. They're going to compare that to the suffrage?

BRAD: Again, we're going to assign logic to the place where there is none.

DOC: The Suffragettes are fighting for women rights, female rights. You're justifying the way they treat women, which is cover up, you can't drive, you can't vote.

BRANDON: Exactly.

DOC: When you take progressive ideology, which is also this extremist ideology, and you lay out their values side by side, they do not run parallel, they conflict. They are in conflict because the ideas are failed. And that's a perfect example of it right there. So also, write a letter to a terrorist then. And then there are other ideas that you -- questions you should ask them.

BRANDON: No, they didn't say what questions you should ask them. Just if you could ask any terrorist six questions, then you should. But it's supposed to be structured in a question and answer format just talking about terrorism to kids. That's the whole point of it. And there -- like the whole point is to make them seem more human.

DOC: Okay. There's a failure if you think you can actually have a conversation with a terrorist like this because they're so far gone, it doesn't matter. Anybody that could do this, they're out of their minds. And then if there is a question, you could sit down and ask them, it's one question. And that's it. Why are you being such a dirt bag? That's it.

BRANDON: Okay. So one of the things, it teaches one reason why people commit mass murder. Which, by the way, they call a type of work. Is because they believe they are being treated unfairly and not shown respect.

DOC: And this is, again, a teaching tool.

BRANDON: This is a teaching tool for kids.

DOC: Okay. Well, this is the reason -- if it's a teaching tool in a new book, kids terrorism books. Get that. Use that #KidsTerroismBooks. You have to suggest a title via Twitter. Brandon, I get that there are many people who lead people to this. It's not just I want to be an extremist.

BRANDON: Right.

DOC: First of all, there are a lot of people that are just crazy.

BRANDON: Yes.

DOC: They're just nuts.

BRANDON: Absolutely.

DOC: There are some driven by extremist ideology. Some of that if you take it back a step comes from their poverty and lack of education. This is true. This is all over the Middle East. These people have been brain washed not for generations, for millennia. I'm serious. For thousands of years. Every generation going back as far as you can count has been brain washed a little bit more. And it's built on control.

BRANDON: Right.

DOC: It's poverty that forces some people into doing bad things.

BRANDON: Here in America, you can see the exact same thing. Where is crime highest? In low wage areas with zero education.

DOC: And without education. But we still don't justify what they do. And that's what's lost here on this. I can have a is discussion with the crazy people who wrote this book and suggest we talk to kids about this because those are valid points. We can sit down. I agree. And there's a way to handle some of that. Where are you in this teaching tool starting with that's wrong. It's bad. They must be punished. At times, they must be stopped with force. Because that's part of the equation as well.

BRANDON: Yes, exactly. I completely agree with you on that. After every terror attack, you have this entire slew of people going in and a saying, well, they have their reasons. Not all Muslims. And they are correct. But at some point in time we have to realize that this call for peace and prosperity and love, love -- no, it won't. Sometimes you have to stop things with a bullet.

BRAD: They want you to die, and there is no way you can negotiate with someone who's starting point is wanting to kill you.

BRANDON: Exactly. And they have been trained from birth to want to kill you. There is no convincing them otherwise.

BRAD: Nope.

BRANDON: This is their -- this is in their blood. The only thing they're going to understand is a bullet. That's it.

DOC: Unfortunately, the economic situations in these poverty-stricken countries and the lack of education leads to a lot of these people being rulable. That they are easily ruled by dictators. It sets it up. And then when you tie in the religious factor, their faith to it where you can claim as this leader that you are anointed by god to treat people poorly, you know what I mean? It's easy to control. Again, it's learned behavior. It's just what you know. There are cultures that eat disgusting foods. It's because you do at birth, and it's just what you know.

BRANDON: Right.

DOC: There are reasons we do things in America. Have football on Sundays or whatever, it's just ritual. We do these things. There must be both sides of the equation. I believe that we must meet some of this terrorism with force, with strength. But I believe we also have to understand and help as much as we can. Educate, deal with the economic situations.

BRANDON: A lot of these people do get into terrorism because they don't have any other option.

DOC: Right. But we need to make sure this of you that are screaming for this after Manchester and what is likely going to come to America, whatever six months, a year, we'll see another terrorist attack. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. That you also get there has to be a level of force. And the problem is a lot of people that are soft on terrorism do not understand that. They only want to go into the sympathy mode. You're missing out if you don't understand that I get that. Overnight last night, there were two separate car bombings in Baghdad. One outside of an ice cream parlor that killed 27 people. It was a car bomb that went off around people just getting ice cream and killed 27 people.

BRANDON: No headline. This is the if I say time I'm hearing.

DOC: And there was a second one in Baghdad same day in a busy day during rush hour killed 12 people. Both of them wounding dozens other. They killed 39 people in two separate attacks. We had 22 people killed in the Manchester, and we know about it. I agree with we identify Americans first. We identify the west secondly, and it just goes from there. Because we understand them. Our cultures are closer. We understand them more. But if you cannot look at the attacks that happened in Baghdad because those people are different and say that's a problem as well, these attacks happen all over the world. A lot of times in the Middle East, and we don't even pay attention to it. If you're upset that those children were killed, if you look at other terrorist attacks, and you really empathize or sympathize with the people that are killed and say this is horrible, people were killed, then you have to say it about those people as well, even if those people are Muslim. Even if you don't understand those people. The true fact is that ISIS and the extremist Muslims out there that are killing people are killing more Muslims than anybody else by far.

RADIO

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Surveillance footage of the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, NC, reveals that the other passengers on the train took a long time to help her. Glenn, Stu, and Jason debate whether they were right or wrong to do so.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I'm -- I'm torn on how I feel about the people on the train.

Because my first instinct is, they did nothing! They did nothing! Then my -- well, sit down and, you know -- you know, you're going to be judged. So be careful on judging others.

What would I have done? What would I want my wife to do in that situation?

STU: Yeah. Are those two different questions, by the way.

GLENN: Yeah, they are.

STU: I think they go far apart from each other. What would I want myself to do. I mean, it's tough to put yourself in a situation. It's very easy to watch a video on the internet and talk about your heroism. Everybody can do that very easily on Twitter. And everybody is.

You know, when you're in a vehicle that doesn't have an exit with a guy who just murdered somebody in front of you, and has a dripping blood off of a knife that's standing 10 feet away from you, 15 feet away from you.

There's probably a different standard there, that we should all kind of consider. And maybe give a little grace to what I saw at least was a woman, sitting across the -- the -- the aisle.

I think there is a difference there. But when you talk about that question. Those two questions are definitive.

You know, I know what I would want myself to do. I would hope I would act in a way that didn't completely embarrass myself afterward.

But I also think, when I'm thinking of my wife. My advice to my wife would not be to jump into the middle of that situation at all costs. She might do that anyway. She actually is a heck of a lot stronger than I am.

But she might do it anyway.

GLENN: How pathetic, but how true.

STU: Yes. But that would not be my advice to her.

GLENN: Uh-huh.

STU: Now, maybe once the guy has certainly -- is out of the area. And you don't think the moment you step into that situation. He will turn around and kill you too. Then, of course, obviously. Anything you can do to step in.

Not that there was much anyone on the train could do.

I mean, I don't think there was an outcome change, no matter what anyone on that train did.

Unfortunately.

But would I want her to step in?

Of course. If she felt she was safe, yes.

Think about, you said, your wife. Think about your daughter. Your daughter is on that train, just watching someone else getting murdered like that. Would you advise your daughter to jump into a situation like that?

That girl sitting across the aisle was somebody's daughter. I don't know, man.

JASON: I would. You know, as a dad, would I advise.

Hmm. No.

As a human being, would I hope that my daughter or my wife or that I would get up and at least comfort that woman while she's dying on the floor of a train?

Yeah.

I would hope that my daughter, my son, that I would -- and, you know, I have more confidence in my son or daughter or my wife doing something courageous more than I would.

But, you know, I think I have a more realistic picture of myself than anybody else.

And I'm not sure that -- I'm not sure what I would do in that situation. I know what I would hope I would do. But I also know what I fear I would do. But I would have hoped that I would have gotten up and at least tried to help her. You know, help her up off the floor. At least be there with her, as she's seeing her life, you know, spill out in under a minute.

And that's it other thing we have to keep in mind. This all happened so rapidly.

A minute is -- will seem like a very long period of time in that situation. But it's a very short period of time in real life.

STU: Yeah. You watch the video, Glenn. You know, I don't need the video to -- to change my -- my position on this.

But at his seem like there was a -- someone who did get there, eventually, to help, right? I saw someone seemingly trying to put pressure on her neck.

GLENN: Yeah. And tried to give her CPR.

STU: You know, no hope at that point. How long of a time period would you say that was?

Do you know off the top of your head?

GLENN: I don't know. I don't know. I know that we watched the video that I saw. I haven't seen past 30 seconds after she --

STU: Yeah.

GLENN: -- is down. And, you know, for 30 seconds nothing is happening. You know, that is -- that is not a very long period of time.

STU: Right.

GLENN: In reality.

STU: And especially, I saw the pace he was walking. He certainly can't be -- you know, he may have left the actual train car by 30 seconds to a minute. But he wasn't that far away. Like he was still in visual.

He could still turn around and look and see what's going on at that point. So certainly still a threat is my point. He has not, like, left the area. This is not that type of situation.

You know, I -- look, as you point out, I think if I could be super duper sexist for a moment here, sort of my dividing line might just be men and women.

You know, I don't know if it's that a -- you're not supposed to say that, I suppose these days. But, like, there is a difference there. If I'm a man, you know, I would be -- I would want my son to jump in on that, I suppose. I don't know if he could do anything about it. But you would expect at least a grown man to be able to go in there and do something about it. A woman, you know, I don't know.

Maybe I'm -- I hope --

GLENN: Here's the thing I -- here's the thing that I -- that causes me to say, no. You should have jumped in.

And that is, you know, you've already killed one person on the train. So you've proven that you're a killer. And anybody who would have screamed and got up and was with her, she's dying. She's dying. Get him. Get him.

Then the whole train is responsible for stopping that guy. You know. And if you don't stop him, after he's killed one person, if you're not all as members of that train, if you're not stopping him, you know, the person at the side of that girl would be the least likely to be killed. It would be the ones that are standing you up and trying to stop him from getting back to your daughter or your wife or you.

JASON: There was a -- speaking of men and women and their roles in this. There was a video circling social media yesterday. In Sweden. There was a group of officials up on a stage. And one of the main. I think it was health official woman collapses on stage. Completely passes out.

All the men kind of look away. Or I don't know if they're looking away. Or pretending that they didn't know what was going on. There was another woman standing directly behind the woman passed out.

Immediately springs into action. Jumps on top. Grabs her pant leg. Grabs her shoulder. Spins her over and starts providing care.

What did she have that the other guys did not? Or women?

She was a sheepdog. There is a -- this is my issue. And I completely agree with Stu. I completely agree with you. There's some people that do not respond this way. My issue is the proportion of sheepdogs versus people that don't really know how to act. That is diminishing in western society. And American society.

We see it all the time in these critical actions. I mean, circumstances.

There are men and women, and it's actually a meme. That fantasize about hoards of people coming to attack their home and family. And they sit there and say, I've got it. You guys go. I'm staying behind, while I smoke my cigarette and wait for the hoards to come, because I will sacrifice myself. There are men and women that fantasize of block my highway. Go ahead. Block my highway. I'm going to do something about it. They fantasize about someone holding up -- not a liquor store. A convenience store or something. Because they will step in and do something. My issue now is that proportion of sheepdogs in society is disappearing. Just on statistical fact, there should be one within that train car, and there were none.

STU: Yeah. I mean --

JASON: They did not respond.

STU: We see what happens when they do, with Daniel Penny. Our society tries to vilify them and crush their existence. Now, there weren't that many people on that train. Right?

At least on that car. At least it's limited. I only saw three or four people there, there may have been more. I agree with you, though. Like, you see what happens when we actually do have a really recent example of someone doing exactly what Jason wants and what I would want a guy to do. Especially a marine to step up and stop this from happening. And the man was dragged by our legal system to a position where he nearly had to spend the rest of his life in prison.

I mean, I -- it's insanity. Thankfully, they came to their senses on that one.

GLENN: Well, the difference between that one and this one though is that the guy was threatening. This one, he killed somebody.

STU: Yeah. Right. Well, but -- I think -- but it's the opposite way. The debate with Penny, was should he have recognize that had this person might have just been crazy and not done anything?

Maybe. He hadn't actually acted yet. He was just saying things.

GLENN: Yeah. Well --

STU: He didn't wind up stabbing someone. This is a situation where these people have already seen what this man will do to you, even when you don't do anything to try to stop him. So if this woman, who is, again, looks to be an average American woman.

Across the aisle. Steps in and tries to do something. This guy could easily turn around and just make another pile of dead bodies next to the one that already exists.

And, you know, whether that is an optimal solution for our society, I don't know that that's helpful.

In that situation.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Disclaimer: This episode was filmed prior to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. But Glenn believes Max's message is needed now more than ever.
The political world is divided, constantly at war with itself. In many ways, our own lives are not much different. Why do we constantly focus on the negative? Why are we in pain? Where is God amid our anxiety and fear? Why can’t we ever seem to change? Pastor Max Lucado has found the solution: Stop thinking like that! It may seem easier said than done, but Max joins Glenn Beck to unpack the three tools he describes in his new book, “Tame Your Thoughts,” that make it easy for us to reset the way we think back to God’s factory settings. In this much-needed conversation, Max and Glenn tackle everything from feeling doubt as a parent to facing unfair hardships to ... UFOs?! Plus, Max shares what he recently got tattooed on his arm.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

This week has seen some of the most heinous actions in recent memory. Glenn has been discussing the growth of evil in our society, and with the assassination of civil rights leader Charlie Kirk, the recent transgender shooter who took the lives of two children at a Catholic school, and the murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, how can we make sense of all this evil? On today's Friday Exclusive, Glenn speaks with BlazeTV host of "Strange Encounters" Rick Burgess to discuss the demon-possessed transgender shooter and the horrific assassination of Charlie Kirk. Rick breaks down the reality of demon possession and how individuals wind up possessed. Rick and Glenn also discuss the dangers of the grotesque things we see online and in movies, TV shows, and video games on a daily basis. Rick warns that when we allow our minds to be altered by substances like drugs or alcohol, it opens a door for the enemy to take control. A supernatural war is waging in our society, and it’s a Christian’s job to fight this war. Glenn and Rick remind Christians of what their first citizenship is.

Glenn's Show Prep

British Teaching Tool for Kids Compares Suffragettes to Terrorists

Could passengers have SAVED Iryna Zarutska?

Transcript

Max Lucado on Overcoming Grief in Dark Times | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 266

Are Demonic Forces to Blame for Charlie Kirk, Minnesota & Charlotte Killings?

Here’s what we know about the suspected Charlie Kirk assassin