Campaign bashes effort to go neutral on Islam

A Silicon Valley, Calif.-based lobbying organization has launched a campaign critical of board of education members in Texas who adopted a plan to prevent "distortions" in public school textbooks and demand "that chronic partiality to one of the world's great religions, and animus against another, flout[s] democratic values and the letter and spirit of this rule."

The reason?

It was just a "hissy fit" by the Texas Board of Education, which believes history books "favor Islam over Christianity."

The campaign is being run by the Care2 petition site, where writer Judy Molland told WND that the panel's expressed desire for impartiality is mean-spirited.

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"My concern as an educator and as a Christian should be to promote equality of religion. Yet, the resolution by the Texas Board of Education seems to say, rather than promote equality of religion, it seems to me to be presenting Christianity in a favorable light and Islam in a negative light," Molland stated.

"I'm an educator and as an educator I believe it's really important for our young people to be presented with a true and fair picture," Molland said. "As I read about this, it seemed to me that the spirit of the board was more about stirring up anger and frustration against the Muslim religion."

However, Don McLeroy, a member of the Texas board, said the action followed an analysis that revealed some of the world history and Western Civilization books that were in Texas schools simply cut Christianity out of the picture while openly exalting Islam.

The resolution states that the state of Texas should use balanced textbooks:

"RESOLVED by the State Board of Education, that diverse reviewers have repeatedly documented gross pro-Islamic/anti-Christian distortions in Social Studies texts; that Social Studies TEKS cannot provide relief, because they tell what a course should cover, not all it should avoid.

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"Under the Texas Education Code §28.002(h) and (i), the SBOE must enforce "the basic democratic values of our state and national heritage;" that chronic partiality to one of the world's great religions, and animus against another, flout democratic values and the letter and spirit of this rule; and that Texas Administrative Code §66.66(c)(4) provides, "[N]o instructional material may be adopted that contains content that clearly conflicts with the stated purpose of the Texas Education Code, §28.002(h)."

The resolution concluded with a statement that unbalanced textbooks will be rejected by the Texas Board of Education.

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McLeroy, of College Station, Texas, said the rule adopted by the board improves a student's education.

"This is enhancing the children's education. According to historian Paul Johnson in his History of the Jews, the discovery of monotheism by the Jews is one of the greatest turning points in all of history," McLeroy observed.

But he said one of the products that has been in use takes another approach.

"There's one book, history textbook called "World Civilization by Peter Stearns," it's an AP (Advanced Placement). Judaism is not even mentioned in the Table of Contents," McLeroy continued.

"Not only that, it doesn't even get bold print, it's in the text. It's on page 25 of this book where it talks about the Jews. It even talks about the importance of monotheism. He says, the most influential but smaller Middle Eastern groups were the Jews. They gave the world the most clearly developed monotheistic religion," McLeroy continued.

McLeroy cited examples of several other textbooks that are similar in their treatment of Christianity and Judaism. However, he says that many of the books change their tone when they talk about Islam.

"There's another book where Islam is mentioned 25 times in the Table of Contents. On page 132, talking about Islam, it says, 'The Prophet's teachings proclaimed the equality of men and women before God,'" McLeroy stated.

McLeroy states that in the same text, the book makes a bold claim about how Islam is spread.

"On page 167 it says, 'The fact that Islam won converts overwhelmingly through peaceful contacts by long-distance traders and the preaching and the organizational skills of the Sufis.' I think that's inaccurate," McLeroy continued.

Molland said overt bias in favor of Islam is obviously wrong.

"I believe that would not be the way to go and obviously that wouldn't be fair. I'm a teacher and I seek to present to my students a true picture and so. I mean in terms of Christianity, I used to teach the fifth grade and I taught the Crusades a long time ago and that's a very interesting topic about the campaigns the Christians actually waged against Muslims. As a Christian, I believe it's important for us to know the history of Christianity," Molland said.

"All of this is with the proviso that I haven't actually read any of the books, still I think we should present things as they are," Molland added.

Molland says that despite claims to the contrary, she still believes that the board's motive wasn't the best.

"It seems to me that there was a mean spirit behind this. I haven't been to Texas so I don't know a lot about Texas. There was a video of someone talking about the fear of Middle Eastern money taking over the textbooks. There is no proof of that. I don't know where he got it from," Molland stated.

However, McLeroy says the board didn't act to discriminate against Islam. Board members simply believe that to give balance, all of the religions need to be accurately represented in books used by the state in the social studies program.

He says that concern about Islam being given favored treatment is only half the issue.

"The concern is that Christianity be presented accurately as well. It's a two-edged sword as far as that goes. The resolution itself basically wants accuracy in the world history books that are reviewed by us," McLeroy explained.

"The concern is that if you look at world history books, you'll see that there is a bias and a slant. We put publishers on notice that we want more accurate coverage," McLeroy said.

"There are rules that if they don't do that (give more accurate coverage), the books will be unacceptable," he said.

The Texas resolution, introduced by former Texas school board member Randy Rives, states: "Resolved, That the SBOE will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and/or by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others."

It was adopted on a 7-6 vote.

It includes pages of footnotes documenting the specific offenses discovered in various textbooks, including "patterns of pejoratives toward Christians and superlatives toward Muslims, calling Crusaders aggressors, 'violent attackers,' or 'invaders' while euphemizing Muslim conquest of Christian lands as 'migrations' by 'empire builders.'"

At the time of the vote, Jonathan Saenz, director of legislative affairs for the non-profit legal advocacy group Liberty Institute, told WND the vote "sends a strong message that Texas state board members, and really speaking on behalf of the people they represent, care about keeping textbooks accurate."

"They are against religious discrimination. That sends a message," he said.

Publishers, he said, "will have to live up to standards."

Saenz said the board, whose members are elected by voters, are serving their responsibility to be a "check" on the products used in the state's schools.

The resolution discusses world history textbooks officially adopted for use in Texas between 1999 and 2002, which may still be in some classrooms. The resolution also discusses textbooks used in other parts of the country. In Texas, world history textbooks are used at the high school level.

The resolution pointed out grounds for board concerns.

"In one instance, devoting 120 student text lines to Christian beliefs, practices, and holy writings but 248 (more than twice as many) to those of Islam; and dwelling for 27 student text lines on Crusaders' massacre of Muslims at Jerusalem in 1099 yet censoring Muslims' massacres of Christians there in 1244 and at Antioch in 1268, implying that Christian brutality and Muslim loss of life are significant but Islamic cruelty and Christian deaths are not."

Another point of contention is book authors "spending 139 student text lines on Christian beliefs, practices, and holy writings but 176 on those of Islam; claiming Islam 'brought untold wealth to thousands and a better life to millions,' while 'because of [Europeans' Christian] religious zeal … many peoples died and many civilizations were destroyed;' and contrasting 'the Muslim concern for cleanliness' with Swedes in Russia who were 'the filthiest of God's creatures.'"

As WND reported, American public school textbooks have been used to promote Islam, and publishing company executives are primarily responsible for the content of the texts.