The Islamically Correct Indoctrination of Children

Children are being taught to like Islam and hate Christianity, according to elected officials in Texas, who say they're hellbent on stopping it.

Members of the state's Board of Education will vote on a new resolution on Friday that argues textbooks dedicate more time to teaching the Muslim faith, while offering less information about Christian history.

The information is also skewed, the resolution states, showing Islam in a positive light while demonizing Christianity.

For example, it argues, "120 student text lines" in one book were dedicated to "Christian beliefs, practices and holy writings," while more than two times as many focus on Islam, "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."

This is not the first time this has happened - not by a long shot. Only a month ago, similar complaints were registered in New York. Consider the following contrasting extracts regarding Islam and Christianity from standard reference works:

The Muslim reading:

* “Wherever they went, the Moslems [sic] brought with them their love of art, beauty and learning. From about the eighth to the eleventh century, their culture was superior in many ways to that of western Christendom.

* “Some of the finest centers of Moslem life were established in Spain. In Cordova, the streets were solidly paved, while at the same time in Paris people waded ankle-deep in mud after a rain. Cordovan public lamps lighted roads for as far as ten miles; yet seven hundred years later there was still not a single public lamp in London!”

Source: Daniel Roselle, A World History: A Cultural Approach

The Christian reading:
Common Procedures used by Friars in Converting Areas in Spanish America:

* “Idols, temples and other material evidences of paganism destroyed.”

* “Christian buildings often constructed on sites of destroyed native temples in order to symbolize and emphasize the substitution of one religion by the other.”

* “Indians supplied construction labor without receiving payment.”

* “In a converted community, services and fiestas were regularly held in the church building.”

The Islamic reading is whitewashed nonsense. Muslim Spain was no paradise of multicultural tolerance. Non-Muslims were treated as dhimmis, second-class citizens denied basic rights and frequently presecuted by the Muslim masses. And while Christians certainly did the things the textbooks say, their reading is almost entirely negative, not getting the same fluffy treatment as al-Andalus.

For further background, see this 2008 PDF report by the American Textbook Council, which provides numerous examples of the pro-Islamic and anti-Christian bias in American school textbooks. Additionally, Bat Ye'or has documented in her must-read book Eurabia how these nasty habits - particularly the treacly whitewashing of the often brutal reality of medieval Muslim Spain - are commonplace in Europe, as well:

"The Muslim version of history is now being taught and accepted in Europe and America, while more accurate treatments such as historian Paul Fregosi's book Jihad in the West faced a wall of opposition. Mainstream views of jihad gloss over its fanaticism and such practises as enslavement and massacre. The responsibility for the jihad wars' atrocities is attributed to Christian resistance to Islamisation and to the iniquitous Crusades - but not to the concepts of jihad and dar al-harb, the land of war where the infidels must be subdued...There is no doubt that this chorus of tearful contrition helps to strengthen the Muslim opinion that Islamic jihad is a liberating and peaceful favour granted to the infidels." (p.195)

The reason for this biased indoctrination of our children is twofold:

1. Self-imposed dhimmitude. Western leftists despise Western civilisation, and seek to besmirch it at every turn. In the process, they must necessarily elevate other cultures to a superior position, even when they are demonstrably backward and inferior. They also in many cases fear for their reputations and safety if they dare to publish anything that presents Islam in a negative light.

2. Muslim groups such as the Council on Islamic Education personally vet many textbooks, ensuring that negative depictions of Islamic teachings or history are never printed, while other groups bully education authorities into censoring their books.

The ultimate effect of all this false information is that people of all ages are ill-prepared to understand and consequently deal with the very real threat posed to free, democratic societies and human rights by certain Islamic teachings that are incompatible with 21st century life. We continue to ignore these aspects at our own peril.