While Fox & Friends loves persecuted Christian parents, it doesn't have the same affection for Muslim parents who feel aggrieved. In April, Muslim parents, who objected to public school flyers which advertised an Easter Egg roll to be held at a Christian church, were harshly critiqued on Fox & Friends. Flash forward to this morning's Fox & Friends during which Steve Doocy suggested that if only Muslim parents had been more considerate, a Maryland school district wouldn't have taken the religious labels off the Christian and Jewish school holidays. And in addition to promoting the patented Fox anti-Islam meme, Doocy was also able to ascribe the school board's decision to political correctness ("PC") which is also on Fox's shit list. The messaging got even sweeter with his Koch backed guest's claim that the decision to eliminate religious labels - wait for it - violates religious freedom!
The segment employed the patented Fox & Friends visual and sound effects for the "PC Police." Doocy reported that a Maryland school district has, OMG, "cut Christian and Jewish holidays from the school calendar just because the Muslim community complained that their holidays weren't being recognized." He scrunched up his face as he asked how this happened. He introduced his guest, Whitney Neal who, according to Doocy is "with the Bill of Rights Institute and a former teacher." What he didn't mention is that her group is an organization, founded by the Koch brothers, which provides educational materials that "promote a conservative slant on the Constitution." He also didn't mention that she is director of grass roots with the Koch funded Freedom Works. In September she appeared on Fox & Friends where she advocated for more civics education.
Doocy did his patented "summary" of what happened. He explained that after the school district published their holiday schedule, Muslims "went to the school district and said 'you know we got two holidays, could you put at least one on'." He asked Neal what the school's response was. Neal said that the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group reviled by Fox News, went to the district and asked the school district about recognition of the holidays. Neal added that the school superintendent went to the school board with three options - the same calendar, one in which there were no Jewish or Muslim holidays, and one in which only one of the Muslim holidays was added. As she spoke, the chyron advanced the patented Fox persecuted Christian meme: "No More Christmas, Religious Holidays Cut From School Calendar." Neal, identified as a "former teacher," reported that the board decided not to recognize any religion. Doocy groaned.
Making sure that the Fox & Friends audience knows where to send the nice Christians death threats, Doocy read a statement from a school board member who said that the issue was about "equity" which is something not big on Fox News. Doocy shouted "here's the problem, people of all religions need to do some planning and they've got the calendar right here [he held up papers while his voice got louder] it's just helpful to have the dates on there." (Note - the dates remain, only the label is missing)
Neal noted that the school district has a list of days which, while not holidays, are days in which students are excused from school for a religious reason and stripping the labels off of Christmas, Easter, Yom Kippur, and Rosh Hashanah seems silly. More agitprop on this "Cavuto marked" chyron: "Hiding Holidays, Did School Board Go Too Far In Calendar Edit." In response to Doocy's question of how many Muslims attend the schools, Neal said that the school district reports that absenteeism on Muslim holidays is only slighter higher than on any other day as opposed to absences on Jewish holidays. Doocy asked if it would make more sense to include all religious holidays. Neal said that there is no penalty for student's who miss school for the non-official religious holidays and zeroed in for the propaganda message for the piece: "By eliminating religion altogether from the school calendar, we're taking away the freedom of religion for those students whose holidays were mentioned." Doocy claimed that this will cause problems for parents "who look at that calendar and they're wondering 'when is Easter this year cuz we're going on vacation..."
Doocy never mentioned that Muslim parents didn't want the Christian and Jewish labels removed and only want recognition for their holidays. While the decision of the school board was strange, Doocy's speculation that parents' only source for religious holiday dates is a school calendar is even stranger. But then, that's Steve Doocy fer ya!
So, these “good, concerned Christian” parents are more concerned about their vacations rather than how they’ll celebrate EASTER? And wouldn’t real Christians know (maybe by checking with their pastors, ministers, priests or what-have-you) when Easter will be? Then again, as I implied, real Christians wouldn’t plan something as mundane as a “vacation” on what is (at least, to real Christians—including FoxNoise’s favorite denomination, the Roman Catholic Church) the most sacred of holidays. FoxNoise may like to fight against the “War on Christmas” but Easter is the day that Christianity truly began (without Christ’s Resurrection, there wouldn’t be much of a religion;it’d just be another sect of Judaism).