This is not the first time this has happened, and it is the inevitable result of asking Islamic groups to vet public school textbooks. The textbook manufacturers don’t know the pedigrees of the Islamic groups they’re dealing with, and they don’t know enough actual history themselves to know that what they’re being given is heavily biased proselytizing and apologetics, not an honest record.
“Textbook: Islamic ‘jihad’ means doing good works,” by Bob Unruh for WorldNetDaily.com (thanks to all who sent this in):
An Islamic “jihad” is an effort by Muslims to convince “others to take up worthy causes, such as funding medical research,” according to a textbook that is being used for junior high age students in California and other states.
And even at its most violent, “jihad” simply is Muslims fighting “to protect themselves from those who would do them harm,” says the “History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond” book published by Teachers’ Curriculum Institute.
But a parent whose child has been handed the text in a Sacramento district is accusing the publisher of a pro-Muslim bias to the point that Islamic theology has been incorporated into the public school teachings.
“It makes an attempt to seem like an egalitarian world history book, but on closer inspection you find that seven (not all are titled so) of the chapters deal with Islam or Muslim subjects,” wrote the parent, whose name was being withheld, in a letter to WND.
Sacramento’s students are being taught “jihad” is an effort to convince “others to take up worthy causes.”
“The upsetting part is not only do they go into the history (which would be acceptable) but also the teaching of Islam,” she said. “This book does not really go into Christianity or the teachings of Christ, nor does it address religious doctrine elsewhere to the degree it does Islam.”
She said the book’s one page referencing Jews “is only to convey that they were tortured by Crusaders to get them to convert to ‘Christianity.’ (It fails to mention that the biggest persecutors of Jews throughout history and still today are Arab Muslims). It gives four other one-liner references to the Jews being blamed for the plagues and problems in the land. It does not talk about the Jews as making a significant impact on the culture at large.”
“How can the writers of this text get away with this?” she asked.
[…]
One of those experts who contributed to the text, according to the American Textbook Council, which released a scathing indictment of the project, is Ayad Al-Qazzaz.
“Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes,” the ATC review said. “Al-Qazzaz also co-wrote AWAIR’s ‘Arab World Notebook.’ AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an opaque, proselytizing ‘non-profit organization’ that conducts teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools.”
There is much more. Read it all.