Choosing who to offend

Not too long ago I wrote about my disgust that the U.S. considered the "feelings" of another country more important than truth and honesty when discussing the Armenian genocide and how it would be labeled. I used, as part of my logic, the idea that Iran's leader has become somewhat of an international pariah for his dogged determination to claim the Holocaust never happened. After all, what right-thinking person could deny the abundant documentation, written, spoken, and filmed, that millions upon millions of Jews were systematically rounded up and killed for their "crime" of being Jews?

Apparently, the U.K. school system.

Now, I understand they are not saying it did not happen...they simply are not going to bring it up. They will ignore a key component of the morality of the war in Europe. Remove the Holocaust and Hitler is no better and no worse than any other famous European leader...Napoleon, Elizabeth, Phillip...he is simply the most recent aggressor trying to expand empire in Europe.

Nor can history be understood without addressing the Crusades. This was a huge alteration to the manpower of Europe and yes, to the Muslim nations as well. There were fundamental shifts in the balance of power between nations and within nations. There were huge mistakes made.

Remove the Crusades and you cannot honestly discuss several centuries of history without it. Nor can you aptly explain the ramifications of world affairs today without a firm grasp of how we got to where we are...and why.

Without the Crusades it is an open question if the Reformation could have happened...or the printing press developed...or...well, the list goes on.

Simply because you do not like a portion of history or fear it might offend someone is not an excuse for ignoring it. "Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it" is an apt statement.

Much the Muslims have done is highly offensive as well. Should we avoid teaching who and what Mohammad, in whichever spelling of his name you choose, was and how his followers killed and killed and persecuted and harassed in the name of Islam because it might offend the "Christian" peoples? Should we avoid telling how women are treated in Iran because it might offend the women's rights activists? Should we avoid telling of conditions in South Africa because it might offend the black or white populations?

Ignoring things does not make them go away. It simply breeds ignorance. And institutionalizing ignorance in the name of not offending is as ignorant and offensive as things can get.