Hate rears its ugly head again in America's Wang™

I'm kind of surprised this didn't happen in Santa Rosa County ... but maybe it's just a matter of time.

Already during this first week of school in most Florida counties, Christianist students at several Gainesville-area schools have been sent home for wearing T-shirts saying "Islam Is Of The Devil" to class:

On their front, the T-shirts had a verse from the Gospel of John: "Jesus answered I am the way and the truth and the life; no one goes to the Father except through me," and this statement, "I stand in trust with Dove Outreach Center." The message "Islam is of the Devil" is on the back of the shirt.

On Monday, a 10-year-old fifth-grader at Talbot Elementary was sent home because of the shirt. On Tuesday, two Eastside High students and one Gainesville High student were sent home and a student at Westwood Middle had to change clothes because of the shirt, according to members of the Dove [World Outreach Center] congregation.

Dove Senior Pastor Terry Jones said no local company "had the guts" to print the shirts. Dove member Wayne Sapp said he then ordered the shirts over the Internet from a company that allows individuals to design their own shirts. His daughter, Faith Sapp, 10, was the Talbot Elementary student sent home Monday. She said she was allowed to wear the shirt to school on Tuesday - with the Gospel message on the front visible but the anti-Islam message on the back covered.

Wayne Sapp's daughter, Emily Sapp, 15, was the student sent home from Gainesville High on Tuesday. Both Faith and Emily Sapp said it was their decision, not that of their parents, to wear the shirts to school in order to promote their Christian beliefs. Emily Sapp said the "Islam is of the Devil" statement was aimed at the religion's beliefs, not its members.

"The people are fine," she said. "The people are people. They can be saved like anyone else."

Wayne Sapp said he believed the school district's dress code allowed too much room for subjectivity when principals and school administrators determine what is offensive or distracting clothing.

He added that his children decided it was time to "stand up for what they believe instead of saying the rules might not let me do it" and said that society has grown "so tolerant of being tolerant" that free speech is eroding.

Jones said that, to him, spreading the church's message was "even more important than education itself."

Wait -- I thought a dove was the symbol of peace?! Apparently not to these hateful, hypocritical fucks -- I mean the parents, not the kids -- who would send their children to school with this kind of filth displayed on their clothing. A ten-year-old? My own son turned 10 yesterday, and as smart and savvy as he is, he's nowhere near mature enough to wear something like that T-shirt, nor are his classmates mature enough to understand it or perceive it as the faux-religious political message that it is. If you want to indoctrinate your 15-year-old into that kind of hate, that's one thing, but leave the younger kids out of it, you sick lunatics.

And as for Pastor Jones' lament that no one "had the guts" to print that shit locally, I think he meant that no one had the sense to print it.

What is it about radical Christianists and their sudden obsession with freedom of speech? I sure didn't hear them defending free speech rights when students wore anti-Bush T-shirts to school (Pennsylvania, 2005; Michigan, 2003), but it's all okay now? These hypocrites love to wave around the Constitution when it suits them, wresting it away from the Bush crime syndicate now that they're done wiping their collective asses with it, but as soon as it goes against them, they'll toss it away again.

Moreover, the Christianists have a horribly distorted view of freedom of speech, both in Gainesville and in Pace (and elsewhere). As I've pointed out many times before, it's settled law in the United States that the vaunted freedom of speech is not unlimited and, indeed, as lawyers and legal scholars noted in the above-linked article from Gainesville, the school district in Alachua County is on solid legal ground by banning these offensive messages through the school dress code. Hate speech constitutionally can be restricted, and it should be.

Keep an eye on these whackjobs, because sure as they are making their presence felt in Gainesville, they'll be spreading their hate far and wide as soon as they can. They're just like cockroaches: if you can see one, you know there are many more hiding out of sight.