Latest news with #HatemAly
CBC
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- CBC
Children's book illustrator, immigrant grateful Bathurst library welcomed his family
Social Sharing Artist Hatem Aly moved from the Middle East to northern New Brunswick and says the local library has been a huge support in his new home. Aly illustrated the children's book The Proudest Blue, which was read by a book club at the Grand Manan Public Library. as part of CBC New Brunswick's Books and Backroads partnership with public libraries. Readers in six small communities in rural areas of the province took part in book clubs, discovering books from an array of genres, all with a connection to New Brunswick. Young readers and their parents read the story about two sisters, Asiyah and Faizah. The story is told through the eyes of Faizah, who is proud of her older sister when she wears her hijab for the first time at school. Aly is a New York Times bestselling illustrator of more than 60 books, including a series that includes The Proudest Blue, The Kindest Red and The Boldest White, all written by Ibtihaj Muhammad & S.K. Ali. He moved from Egypt to New Brunswick in 2007 and now lives in Bathurst with his wife and son. He credits the Bathurst Public Library and especially librarian Diane Gauthier as providing the biggest support for him and his famiy in their new home. "Diane has been with us since my son was a baby," he said. "We used to go to storytime and once in a while she had to read one of the books that I illustrated to other kids." The library is also the best place "to see the kids' reactions firsthand," he said. In The Proudest Blue, Asiyah's hijab is blue, and her sister Faizah sees it as beautiful and powerful, like ocean waves, Aly said. Her enthusiasm, however, isn't shared by other students in the story, who make hurtful comments and bully Asiyah for being different. For Aly, the book is about resilience and family and "finding a ground to stand on and being together as a family." Grand Manan book club member Rory Kinghorne said he loved the story. "If you're dealing with a bully, I think it's not a reflection of you, it's a reflection of them." Conversation flowed over every aspect of the book, including the strength of the main characters, and there was a general consensus that people don't need to change to fit in with norms. "It's not right to bully someone for being themself," Sadie Kinghorne said. Aly said Books and Backroads is a great way to "spotlight the places that have small populations," and he was "really excited about" The Proudest Blue being selected this year. "It was like a little gift, a nice little gift to find some interest," he said. He aso apprecitaed the validation that his work "reached other people." Often, he said, "you feel in isolation" because after a work is published, there usually isn't direct interaction with readers or libraries or other places the book is having an impact. Rachel Woodworth, the Grand Manan library manager, said the first word that came to mind when she found out the library was included in this year's Books and Backroads was "thrilled." She said the program means a lot to her because even before working at the library, she was a fan of the series and saw "the partnership between CBC and New Brunswick public libraries is special."
National Post
17-05-2025
- Politics
- National Post
Jesse Kline: Keffiyeh-wearing kindergarten teachers create hostile environment at Toronto school
Article content This is not the first time something of this nature has happened. To commemorate the anniversary of the Quebec mosque shooting at the end of January, some classes attended a TDSB-sanctioned talk by children's author and illustrator Hatem Aly, who's listed as a participant in a boycott of Israeli cultural institutions. And the day after Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who masterminded the October 7 massacre, was killed by Israeli forces in Gaza, two kindergarten teachers showed up for work wearing keffiyehs. Article content Article content As I noted in an email to the principal at the time, the keffiyeh is 'an overtly political symbol with roots in Islamic terrorism that has become associated with the vile antisemitic rallies on Canadian streets, in which protesters regularly call for the genocide of the Jewish people and have led to violent attacks against Jewish institutions, including schools. It is both divisive and deeply offensive and should have no place in the classroom.' Article content Indeed, although the scarf is a traditional Bedouin garment, it has long been associated with violent Palestinian attacks against the British, who controlled the area after the First World War, and the region's Jewish inhabitants. It was used to hide the identities of Palestinian guerrillas when they launched assaults against the Brits in the 1930s. It was popularized in the West in 1969 as the garment worn in a widely circulated photo of Leila Khaled, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist who was one of the hijackers of TWA Flight 840 from Rome to Tel Aviv. Article content In more recent decades, it became associated with the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a man who turned down numerous viable offers for peace and Palestinian statehood in favour of two bloody intefadehs. And nowadays, it is the fashion choice of the thugs who occupy university campuses, picket outside synagogues and in Jewish neighbourhoods, and fill western streets with calls to 'globalize the intefadeh' and wipe out all the Jews 'from the river to the sea.' Article content Although the principal seemed genuinely concerned with parents' objections to keffiyehs in the classroom, she insisted she had no control over her staff's work attire and suggested reaching out to Erin Altosaar, TDSB superintendent of education. Altosaar, however, also insisted that the 'keffiyeh is a symbol of cultural identity and we do not question … the cultural identities of others.' Article content A TDSB spokesperson defended the more recent heritage month incident along similar lines, stating that, 'Palestinians (Gaza, West Bank) are considered to be a part of West Asia, including the Levant region, and as such cultural attire and other artifacts from that part of the world were represented in the Asian Heritage Month display.' (Though one can imagine the backlash from displaying an Israeli flag or Israel Defence Forces logo for Asian Heritage Month, even though Israel is technically part of West Asia, as well.) Article content Article content School administrators, it would seem, are more than happy to sweep issues like this under the rug and pretend as though the problems caused by their wholesale buy-in to the identity-politics craze and blurring of the lines between education and activism don't exist. But in this case, it would appear as though the keffiyeh was used, not as a means of expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people, but of antagonizing the local Jewish community and politicizing Jewish cultural expression. Article content This incident was orchestrated by those at the school who apparently could not stand the thought of elementary kids celebrating their culture without injecting Middle Eastern politics into the fray. It was aided and abetted by a school administrator who was unwilling to stand up to her own staff, creating a culture of fear among faculty, who are genuinely afraid to speak out. And we can be quite sure that similar things are taking place at public schools right across the country. Article content Unfortunately, the school board is unlikely to do anything to address issues such as this. While the TDSB's inquiry into the field trip to an anti-Israel rally acknowledged 'the deleterious effect on young minds of hearing chants that troubled them,' it spent more time criticizing the media for its coverage of the incident and painting the 'TDSB's Indigenous communities' as the true victims. Article content Article content
