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Raising Expectations with Pastor Joe Schofield
California's Muslim Holidays Law, Campus Islamization, and Parental Rights Battles with Denise Gary-Pandol
Pastor Joe Schofield welcomes longtime guest Denise Gary-Pandol, a Bakersfield school board candidate, for a wide-ranging look at California's new Muslim holiday law, campus activism, and parental-rights fights over gender curriculum in public schools.
Opening Prayer and a Golden Ticket Recap
Pastor Joe Schofield opens the Monday broadcast of Raising Expectations by thanking listeners and restating that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for sins, so expectations can rise in daily life. He reviews recent Golden Ticket guests tied to California's midterm races, mentioning Herb Morgan's run for state controller and Janet Price's appearance with the Republican women, and previews a coming interview with a former lieutenant governor. Schofield welcomes his cross-country team, Dr. Paul Hall joining from Lompoc, California, and Dr. Craig Thayer, the Christian surgeon and author, joining from Dalton, Georgia without his wife Stephanie, offering the couple a belated happy anniversary. He notes Ron Greer in McKinney cannot appear this week. Schofield then introduces Denise Gary-Pandol, calling her a family favorite making roughly her ninth appearance on the show, and frames the hour around staying awake to the forces shaping today's leaders before turning the microphone over to her.
AB 2017 and the Muslim Holidays Law
Denise Gary-Pandol opens from Bakersfield in Kern County, in California's San Joaquin Valley, to discuss Assembly Bill 2017, signed by Governor Newsom at the end of September. She explains the law adds two Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, and the end of Ramadan, to the school calendar, requiring teachers to build curriculum around them. Gary-Pandol objects that no comparable recognition exists for Jewish holidays such as Passover or Hanukkah, arguing the Jewish people gave the world monotheism, the Ten Commandments, and the natural law tradition underlying American government. She ties the bill to a wider pattern, noting FBI counterterrorism work in Kern, Los Angeles, and Orange counties uncovered what she describes as a bombing plot targeting synagogues and churches around Hanukkah and Christmas. She urges listeners to vote for Steve Hilton for governor and Michael Gates for attorney general, and says the concern pushed her to run for a seat on the Norris School District Board of Trustees.
Muslim Student Associations and Outside Funding
Gary-Pandol links the holiday law to what she calls a broader Islamization effort, pointing to unrest in Paris, where she says more than fifty organizations, including the Muslim Student Association of France, have destroyed buildings and businesses. She says similar Muslim Student Association chapters sit on California's university and community college campuses, and recalls that Bakersfield's chapter held a celebration the month after October 7, 2023, mourning Palestinian deaths while marking what she calls the torture of Israeli civilians. She traces Palestinian Arabs to the Arabian Peninsula, arguing they settled in the region as British-era laborers before Israel's founding. Gary-Pandol alleges the Democratic Socialists of America, with chapters nationwide including Bakersfield, now works alongside these campus groups, funded in part by Qatar, Russia, China, and Iran, and backs the Muslim Brotherhood, which she says sits behind Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. She cites Senator Ted Cruz's bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
Answering Charges of Genocide and Apartheid
Responding to campus chants of genocide, apartheid, and occupation, Gary-Pandol argues none of the terms apply to Israel. She says Palestinians are Arabs rather than a distinct race, that Israel's military warns civilian neighborhoods by phone, text, or leaflet before entering, and that Arab citizens serve in the Knesset, work as doctors, lawyers, and judges, and may volunteer for the Israeli Defense Forces even though service is mandatory only for Jewish citizens. She argues the true unresolved refugee population is the roughly 850,000 to 900,000 Jews driven from Arab countries in the 1930s and 1940s, citing New York Times archives she has collected and historian Martin Gilbert's book Exile and Return. She recounts that Haj Amin al-Husseini worked with Adolf Hitler to target Jews in the Middle East, and that the yellow badge Jews wore under Nazi rule traces back to the Muslim world's Charter of Omar. She recommends MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, for further documentation.
Parental Rights, the SAFETY Act, and The Trevor Project
Gary-Pandol turns to California's SAFETY Act, which she says bars teachers and administrators from telling parents if a child expresses confusion about gender identity. She cites two Supreme Court rulings she says push back on that approach, Mirabelli v. Bonta and Mahmoud v. Taylor, both affirming parents' right to direct their children's religious upbringing and requiring notice before LGBTQ+ instructional material is taught, alongside a January executive order from President Trump condemning school indoctrination. She warns that California student ID cards list a phone number for The Trevor Project, which she describes as a grooming platform linked to sites introducing minors to witchcraft and Satanism, and connects it to rising child sex trafficking, noting federal funding aimed at combating it. Gary-Pandol says these concerns, along with Islamic curriculum mandates, drove her to run for the Norris School District Board of Trustees, Area 5, and she asks listeners to help elect Michael Gates as attorney general to support conservative school board members like her.
Bakersfield's Islamic School and a Call to Act
Gary-Pandol closes by describing the Sunrise Community Center, a planned full-time Islamic school and musalla in Bakersfield, warning that mosques can conceal weapons and serve as outlets for propaganda. She criticizes UC Santa Barbara professor Dr. Butch Ware for an online post praising the October 7 attacks, and recalls that Palo Alto schools bused students to a mosque where a pro-Palestinian activist denied any occupation existed. Running short on time, Schofield asks her for a closing summary, and Gary-Pandol urges parents nationwide to examine classroom curriculum, restore the Ten Commandments and Judeo-Christian history to schools, and push back against both Islamization and the Democratic Socialists of America. Schofield thanks her, promises to republish her American Thinker article on AB 2017, and lets his wife Melva, present in the studio, exchange a quick hello with Gary-Pandol. He closes the broadcast asking listeners to pray and promising to return next week at the same time.
California's Muslim Holidays Law, Campus Islamization, and Parental Rights Battles with Denise Gary-Pandol
Pastor Joe Schofield welcomes longtime guest Denise Gary-Pandol, a Bakersfield school board candidate, for a wide-ranging look at California's new Muslim holiday law, campus activism, and parental-rights fights over gender curriculum in public schools.
Opening Prayer and a Golden Ticket Recap
Pastor Joe Schofield opens the Monday broadcast of Raising Expectations by thanking listeners and restating that Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for sins, so expectations can rise in daily life. He reviews recent Golden Ticket guests tied to California's midterm races, mentioning Herb Morgan's run for state controller and Janet Price's appearance with the Republican women, and previews a coming interview with a former lieutenant governor. Schofield welcomes his cross-country team, Dr. Paul Hall joining from Lompoc, California, and Dr. Craig Thayer, the Christian surgeon and author, joining from Dalton, Georgia without his wife Stephanie, offering the couple a belated happy anniversary. He notes Ron Greer in McKinney cannot appear this week. Schofield then introduces Denise Gary-Pandol, calling her a family favorite making roughly her ninth appearance on the show, and frames the hour around staying awake to the forces shaping today's leaders before turning the microphone over to her.
AB 2017 and the Muslim Holidays Law
Denise Gary-Pandol opens from Bakersfield in Kern County, in California's San Joaquin Valley, to discuss Assembly Bill 2017, signed by Governor Newsom at the end of September. She explains the law adds two Muslim holidays, Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, and the end of Ramadan, to the school calendar, requiring teachers to build curriculum around them. Gary-Pandol objects that no comparable recognition exists for Jewish holidays such as Passover or Hanukkah, arguing the Jewish people gave the world monotheism, the Ten Commandments, and the natural law tradition underlying American government. She ties the bill to a wider pattern, noting FBI counterterrorism work in Kern, Los Angeles, and Orange counties uncovered what she describes as a bombing plot targeting synagogues and churches around Hanukkah and Christmas. She urges listeners to vote for Steve Hilton for governor and Michael Gates for attorney general, and says the concern pushed her to run for a seat on the Norris School District Board of Trustees.
Muslim Student Associations and Outside Funding
Gary-Pandol links the holiday law to what she calls a broader Islamization effort, pointing to unrest in Paris, where she says more than fifty organizations, including the Muslim Student Association of France, have destroyed buildings and businesses. She says similar Muslim Student Association chapters sit on California's university and community college campuses, and recalls that Bakersfield's chapter held a celebration the month after October 7, 2023, mourning Palestinian deaths while marking what she calls the torture of Israeli civilians. She traces Palestinian Arabs to the Arabian Peninsula, arguing they settled in the region as British-era laborers before Israel's founding. Gary-Pandol alleges the Democratic Socialists of America, with chapters nationwide including Bakersfield, now works alongside these campus groups, funded in part by Qatar, Russia, China, and Iran, and backs the Muslim Brotherhood, which she says sits behind Hamas, Hezbollah, and Islamic Jihad. She cites Senator Ted Cruz's bill to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
Answering Charges of Genocide and Apartheid
Responding to campus chants of genocide, apartheid, and occupation, Gary-Pandol argues none of the terms apply to Israel. She says Palestinians are Arabs rather than a distinct race, that Israel's military warns civilian neighborhoods by phone, text, or leaflet before entering, and that Arab citizens serve in the Knesset, work as doctors, lawyers, and judges, and may volunteer for the Israeli Defense Forces even though service is mandatory only for Jewish citizens. She argues the true unresolved refugee population is the roughly 850,000 to 900,000 Jews driven from Arab countries in the 1930s and 1940s, citing New York Times archives she has collected and historian Martin Gilbert's book Exile and Return. She recounts that Haj Amin al-Husseini worked with Adolf Hitler to target Jews in the Middle East, and that the yellow badge Jews wore under Nazi rule traces back to the Muslim world's Charter of Omar. She recommends MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, for further documentation.
Parental Rights, the SAFETY Act, and The Trevor Project
Gary-Pandol turns to California's SAFETY Act, which she says bars teachers and administrators from telling parents if a child expresses confusion about gender identity. She cites two Supreme Court rulings she says push back on that approach, Mirabelli v. Bonta and Mahmoud v. Taylor, both affirming parents' right to direct their children's religious upbringing and requiring notice before LGBTQ+ instructional material is taught, alongside a January executive order from President Trump condemning school indoctrination. She warns that California student ID cards list a phone number for The Trevor Project, which she describes as a grooming platform linked to sites introducing minors to witchcraft and Satanism, and connects it to rising child sex trafficking, noting federal funding aimed at combating it. Gary-Pandol says these concerns, along with Islamic curriculum mandates, drove her to run for the Norris School District Board of Trustees, Area 5, and she asks listeners to help elect Michael Gates as attorney general to support conservative school board members like her.
Bakersfield's Islamic School and a Call to Act
Gary-Pandol closes by describing the Sunrise Community Center, a planned full-time Islamic school and musalla in Bakersfield, warning that mosques can conceal weapons and serve as outlets for propaganda. She criticizes UC Santa Barbara professor Dr. Butch Ware for an online post praising the October 7 attacks, and recalls that Palo Alto schools bused students to a mosque where a pro-Palestinian activist denied any occupation existed. Running short on time, Schofield asks her for a closing summary, and Gary-Pandol urges parents nationwide to examine classroom curriculum, restore the Ten Commandments and Judeo-Christian history to schools, and push back against both Islamization and the Democratic Socialists of America. Schofield thanks her, promises to republish her American Thinker article on AB 2017, and lets his wife Melva, present in the studio, exchange a quick hello with Gary-Pandol. He closes the broadcast asking listeners to pray and promising to return next week at the same time.