cont'd from page 1
Whitewashing
Islam’s History
The publisher of the materials used by the California schools is the
Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Company, a major provider of children’s
textbooks and fiction. Summaries, outlines, and lesson plans for the books
used in the Byron schools are readily available on the Internet and were
reviewed by this writer. My reading of the material confirms the
conclusions reached by ANS that the resources are biased, unbalanced, and
clearly tilted away from the Christian perspective.
Although it is
not feasible to include major portions of the resource material in this
article, readers can visit the Houghton Mifflin Web site to examine course
summaries, outlines and lesson plans. You can find the 6th grade materials
(A Message of Ancient Days) at
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/6/index.html and 7th grade materials (Across
the Centuries) at
http://www.eduplace.com/ss/hmss/7/index.html.
Across the
Centuries
(7th grade) is made up of 18 chapters covering historical
events from the dawn of the Roman Empire to the American Revolution. There
are no chapter lessons devoted to Christianity, but Islam is
comprehensively and favorably covered in two chapters, five lessons, and
one unit activity. The unit activity covers the “Growth of Islam” and
includes a lesson on the Crusades, which has a distinct Muslim bias.
A Message of
Ancient Days
(6th grade), which includes the Christian material alluded to
by Miss Castro, is made up of 15 chapters covering the ancient Eastern and
Middle Eastern cultures up to the fall of Rome. There are no chapters
dealing exclusively with Christianity, but lessons in Chapters 10 and 15
include certain Christian perspectives that lightly outline the faith. At
best, they are incomplete and misleading. Unlike the coverage of Islam,
there are no unit activities devoted to Christianity. The teachings of
Jesus are covered in little more than a footnote, yet lessons on Buddhism
and Confucianism comparatively lavish praise on the faith of their
founders.
Muslims
Pleased
Not surprisingly, the Muslim community has reacted favorably to the
California program. A report entitled Effects of Curriculum Reform in
California on the Treatment of Islam in World History Textbooks,
prepared by Dr. Gulnur Tanriogen for the International Islamic University
Research Centre, said:
The results of this
study showed that Islam receives more comprehensive and more accurate
treatment in the California adopted textbook on world history than it did
in textbooks accepted before 1989 when California's new standards were
adopted. The findings of the content analysis demonstrate that the history
and culture of Islam were not well developed in any of the textbooks
except the 7th grade Houghton Mifflin text (Across the Centuries)
which was adopted in 1990. … The Houghton Mifflin text was judged
significantly superior in its treatment of Islam to all non-adopted
texts.“ [emphasis added]
The deconstruction
of Christian influence in America’s public institutions has been going on
for some time, but has greatly accelerated in recent years. Christmas has
become “winter holiday,” Easter is now “spring break,” and any mention of
“Christ” or “Jesus” (unless expressed as a curse word) is enough to bring
charges of a violation of church and state. Negative, if not blasphemous,
representations of Christianity in art and media are commonplace. The
overt promotion of Islam in California public schools, utilizing a biased
series of textbooks, is clear evidence that social revolutionaries are
pressing their war against Christianity and family values to a new level.
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Islam in California public schools
