Is There a Pro-Islam Bias in Texas Textbooks?
- Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:29am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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A band of members on the Texas Board of Education are upset about supposed claims of pro-Islam (and anti-Christian) bias in Texas history textbooks, and come Friday the board will vote on a resolution that would let publishers know the state won’t stand for it.
“The purpose of this resolution is to ensure there is balanced treatment of divergent groups,” Gail Lowe, the chairwoman of the board, told the New York Times. “In the past, the textbooks have had some bias against Christianity.”
The resolution claims that past textbooks have devoted more lines to Islamic beliefs and practices than to Christianity and spelled out atrocities committed by Christian crusaders while ignoring similar atrocities by Muslim fighters. For example, the resolution says that textbook writers habitually call Christians “violent attackers” or “invaders” while playing down Muslim conquests in Europe as “migrations,” and ignore Muslim practices involving sexism, slavery, and persecution of non-Muslim groups.
Some disagree. According to MSNBC, The Texas Freedom Network, a liberal education and watchdog group, called the resolution “ill considered” and “filled with superficial, misleading and half-baked claims designed simply to promote fear and religious prejudice.”
While if adopted the resolution might not have an immediate effect, it does say that the board would “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.”
That might hold more weight than one might think. MSNBC notes that Texas is the largest of about 20 “adoption” states that make decisions about textbooks at the central level — meaning the state board dictates what its 4.7 million K-12 public school students read. That also means its textbook contracts are lucrative: worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
“If you can control or influence our education system, you can start taking over the minds of the young people,” said Randy Rives to the Times. Rives, a member of the school board in Odessa, TX, drafted and submitted the resolution to the state board. “And so I think we are real passionate that you need to make a bold statement to the publishers that pushing this agenda will not be tolerated in Texas.”
“I think our documentation clearly shows that the bias is there,” Rives added to MSNBC. “And we feel that it was not done on accident.”
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Comments (61)
JD Carp
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:56amI think it is imperative for students to study and understand all religions, their similarities and differences. Okay, so that’s in a perfect world. Unfortunately the progressives have so maligned and distorted Christian doctrine and beliefs we are essentially banned from even mentioning God in Judeo-Christian context. Allah is fine, Zoroaster is fine, Buddha is fine just don’t say God or Christ unless you are cursing which is also fine.
Report Post »LadyLibertea
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:34amThis is very dangerous stuff. Islam’s ultimate goal is to take over because there is no grey area of acceptance with them. You are either with them or you are the infidel who must be killed. I won’t even get started on Sharia Law because my post would look like a chapter in a book. We cannot allow this filth to be accepted anywhere in America. PERIOD. They want to use our constitution against us and force their way into American life. If we don’t stop this NOW pretty soon it will be too late….and if you want to know what the future looks like for America if we don’t stop it, take a look at the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Germany, Great Britian…..it’s atrocious. There is a documentary about it called “Multiculturalism and the Islamification of Great Britian”. It will open your eyes. God bless America.
Report Post »missmarie
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:25amI applaud this group for standing up for principles. I elected conservatives to the TX BOE for a reason and they have been harassed, protested, personally attacked, and the Board has been sued by liberal groups who are upset these people are doing the jobs we hired them to do – keep facts in our textbooks, fair and balanced facts. Liberals infiltrated the committees approving reading list materials for our children all over the country, have successfully re-written history, and their teachers are been indoctrinating our children for years. Texas is the last stand, folks. Put up or shut up.
Do you have an opinion for or against this? They vote on Friday. Voice your opinion at:
sboesupport@tea.state.tx.us
“A band of members on the Texas Board of Education are upset about supposed claims of pro-Islam (and anti-Christian) bias in Texas history textbooks, and come Friday the board will vote on a resolution that would let publishers know the state won’t stand for it.
“The purpose of this resolution is to ensure there is balanced treatment of divergent groups,” Gail Lowe, the chairwoman of the board, told the New York Times. “In the past, the textbooks have had some bias against Christianity.”
Report Post »Gary Smith
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:11amOur schools should be teaching the truth period. The problem as I see it is the progressive ideology involved. Has our country done bad things? YES it has. Has Christianity done bad things? Yes it has.
Report Post »Has the Muslim faith done bad things? Yes it has. So given the truth why only teach the bad things on one side not all sides. How come they are not teaching the good things? Oh that’s right separation of church and state. Which only applys to the Christian faith.
WhiteFang
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 12:24pmTrue Christianity has done nothing bad throughout these last 2000 years. It is Christendom that has committed the atrocities. Those who do not live up to the teachings of Christ or pretend to be christian or those who want to design their own religion are the ones who give true Christianity a bad name . There is a difference in these two groups. The teachings of Jesus Christ are only pure, it is disobedient man who makes it filthy by his own desires and bad ways. Rom 1:28-31
Report Post »AsianForTeaPartyConservative
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:58amI can’t believe this happens in a Republican state. It’s time for Rick Perry to go. These Rhinos are are just the same as progressives.
Report Post »texasred
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 2:16pmRick Perry has got to go? Are you kidding or just don’t know what the score is? Bill White, the Democrat running against Perry was the mayor of Houston who turned that city into a sanctuary city. He borrowed so much money to promote his ******* policies, that city is now 2 billion dollars in debt. He loves the EPA and would destroy the oil refinery industry in Texas which would affect the whole US in gas prices. This guy is Obama Jr. (although he will not appear with Obama). Rick Perry has been appearing at Texas Tea Parties for years, and at one last year, when asked what Texas would do if the Federal Government tried to force their liberal control of our lives on Texans, he replied, “Well, Texas can secede.” Don’t think, if it comes down to it, that we will not. Yea, there are alot of weird liberals in Austin, the Katrina refugees that never went home are running Houston politics, but the people of Texas will never let the Feds take over and ruin our state. When we joined the union, it was only with the proviso that at any time, we can secede and return to being the Republic of Texas. There’s not a dam* thing the Feds can do about it. And as Texas goes…….
Report Post »Bids
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:46amMaybe in Texas they can hand out textbooks with blank pages in them. This is the same state that wants creationism taught. Why is this not surprising.
Report Post »vennoye
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:33pmMaybe it is because we would like OUR children to know both views and not have just ONE (with no scientific proof) crammed down their throats. When the evolutionist advocates start bringing in the evidence (you know, the fossils of the missing links) we might change the curriculum.
Report Post »rlmeals
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:16pmThe “Big Bang Theory” is a THEORY. Look! It even says “theory” in the title! And Creationism is a THEORY, mainly because there is no proof that the world was created that way. But since both are unprovable, and 70+ percent of Americans are Christian and believe that the Bible is the true word of God, why NOT teach both in school? It’s actually much more plausible than “hey, one day all these particles collided with each other and BANG! the earth was formed.” Do you realize how complex our world is? And people actually want us to believe that was an accident of science??? This is not about forcing Christianity on all kids, or the fake argument of “separation of church and state”, it’s about presenting two schools of thought about a very significant scientific event and letting the kids make up their own minds. Besides, are we supposed to teach kids “this is the answer, the only answer” or are we to teach them how to be able to think for themselves and come to their own conclusion? Yes, let’s teach Creationism!!!
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:46amanyone think the best thing to do is take all those pro-islam textbooks to the village square AND BURN THEM in protest? media, folks, media. WE THE PEOPLE will not allow islam and the COWARDLY (and PAID OFF) dem libs to indoctrinate OUR AMERICAN CHILDREN.
Report Post »American Dad
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:44amIslam is unconstitutional – Anti American
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/27856
Report Post »Glock45
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 7:47pmSheik Obama, our American hating muslim president is working to destroy our country from within.
Report Post »AsianForTeaPartyConservative
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:44amThis is another example of trying to be politically correct. In this case, it is totally bias and skewed. Whoever recommended such publication should be taken of the board. We have too many liberal bias in our public system. Either we remove all these liberal bias or never send our children to public school. I don’t understand why they have a Moslem seated at the board of education in the first place. Totally PC stupidity. Nonetheless, we need public school because its cheap, but our kids should not be indoctrinated in such a manner that promotes globalism and Islamization. If anything, we should promote our history of Judeo-Christian values. Our public schools is supposed to promote the concepts of the free market system and capitalism and how capitalism can be improve. How the American way is good and how best to improve it. Instead we are telling our kids about other failed ideologies. Teaching them crap and appeasement. It is totally mind boggling. The liberals and progressives has truly contributed to the deterioration of our nation. Progressives and globalist should be hang for their de-development plans for America. On and on and on, progressives are destroying the very foundation of this country. Its time we identify them and prosecute them for treason.
Report Post »skiyryder77
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:24pmCheck your state laws first on recording and if your child reports liberal bias in class have them take a small recorder for proff. In North Carolina, my daughters teacher continually told her class to tell your parents the George W. Bush was an evil man and they should vote for Obama. I reported this to the principle and nothing was done. I reported it to the NC State Board of Education, and nothing was done. Most of our teachers are liberal and want nothing more than to turn our children into sheeple. Keep up the fight. Round 1 is November 2nd
Report Post »printdesignchicago.com
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:39amthis is the continued usurpation of our culture, principles and way of life. WWGWD? What would George Washington Do?
Report Post »enufisenuf
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:00amSad but true…Several weeks ago I returned home from work and as I walked through the door I noticed my daughter was reading a book. It was not unusual to see her reading but what caught my attention, in bold letters, was the word Afghanistan.
My daughter is in 5th grade and when I asked her what she was reading ,she replied a story about a 10 year old girls life in Afghanistan.
In short…The author made every attempt to create parallels and pitty in an effort to create unconditional acceptance. What was bothersome is the lengths the author went to create acceptance knowing a 5th grader would not have the knowledge or confidence to ask why the material is important etc.
Report Post »I understand it is a kids book but get’em while their young….????
Another subtle nudge here another nudge there….
janddjohnson
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:00amHow can we go about getting our schools to teach in English only. I don’t understand this teaching in Spanish. I thought we spoke English only here. Any ideas? I would like to be involved to get this changed.
Report Post »BurntHills
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:48amget out those yellow highlighter markers and get to work on those textbooks. teach your kids that anything in yellow is ANTI-AMERICAN and ANTI-CHRISTIAN, and to call the teacher out on it– anything like “”hey teacher, this is propaganda, MY PARENTS want to speak to you about this propaganda because IT IS HARMFUL TO ME.”" should let those lib teachers know WE THE PEOPLE are NOT going to let them indoctrinate OUR AMERICAN CHILDREN.
Report Post »TattooQ
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:43amThe Muslim Brotherhood talked of collapsing the West from within . Text book bias is definitely no accident . Radical Islam has found a helpful ally in the America haters on the left .
Report Post »Glock45
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 7:46pmAgreed, plus we now have a muslim president who agrees with their goals of world domination.
Report Post »SAVEISRAEL
Posted on September 26, 2010 at 7:15pmDitto
Report Post »news12kim
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:36amwhat is the name of the textbook?
Report Post »news12kim
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:20amDoes anyone know the name of that textbook?
Report Post »mtnclimberjim
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:32amBetter start fighting the muzies now, before it’s to late. The enemy within…….
Report Post »megansmom
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:16ami am glad that state is starting to do something.now if the parents would do something like refuse to let their kids use the text/
Report Post »gunfighter26
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:53amWe are so rapped around being politically correct we downplay anything that would negatively reflect on Islam. The fact is it is a violent religion that preaches that any means to spread Islam is encouraged. Either by lies, or the sword. It is all out there you just have to go look for it. Read the Qouran!
Report Post »Docrow
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:53amCome and take it!
Report Post »DagneyT
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:49amThankfully, more & more parents are either home-schooling or sending their kids to Christian schools in Texas. Texas is a very good state for home-schoolers.
Report Post »TexasGranny
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:43amTexas will stand even if they have to stand alone – Remember the Alamo! We do not want our children indoctrinated with liberal bias – we want them to learn real history – not someone’s liberal ideas.
Report Post »vennoye
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:09pmDon’t forget that we have gone through a time where we have had 1000-1200 people a week moving to Texas!!! I think our own elections in November are going to be interesting. Liberal progressives what ever you want to call them are spending millions of dollars to try to get Democrats elected at the state level. There have been several articles about the liberal political machine spending in our state. We are not nearly as immune as we would like to think!!!
Report Post »grnhrn
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:41amAll religions have their dark days, seems though that islam is only getting darker and you would have to spend all middle school years to cover their violence in the last 100 years alone. Make america a sharia law free zone. All religions in america have to follow us law or do not come here
Report Post »Marylou7
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:57amOur God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, tells us we are to abide by the laws of the land NOT by the law of another religion or another country….. OUR LANDs LAW.
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:40amwhy am i not surprised msnbc would cover a group that made that claim. they are completely biased toward the left . They should be ashamed along with all the other lamesteam media sources that claim to be “news” for not doing the job that the media ( as the unofficial fourth branch) was intended for.
THANK GOD FOR FOX AND THE INTERNET AND RADIO
Report Post »Freelancer
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:39amIt’s called “Stealth Jihad.” If you didn’t bother to read this yesterday, here is the link to a paper written by the Center for Security Policy. It will explain how and why this is being done and what the end result will be if it is NOT stopped.
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/upload/wysiwyg/article%20pdfs/Shariah%20-%20The%20Threat%20to%20America%20%28Team%20B%20Report%29%2009142010.pdf
Report Post »wingedwolf
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:06amFreelancer, I have tried to get to your link and I keep getting a “file not found” page, I even typed the entire thing in myself but can’t get there. Can you remember the name of the article? thanks! LOL
Report Post »duncan
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:28amI am using windows 7 and got in with no problem. Make sure you can download pdf.
Report Post »wingedwolf
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:42amThanks, I have it. I finally got there by typing Sharia, the threat to America in the search engine and went right to it! Well, at least I’m awake now! LOL
Report Post »Bids
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:28amOf course, the Muslims planted all this pro Islam stuff in the Texas textbooks years ago in order to stealthily infiltrate or educational system. Talk about paranoia. @@
Report Post »Freelancer
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 11:36amWow! I would never have expected some liberal to try and deny what they are doing…. I’m quite surprised by this.
Report Post »BrerRabbit
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:34amRead The Grand Jihad by McCarthy. It is no accident but part of a plan.
Report Post »heidi586
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 8:33amIn Texas?
Report Post »ME
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:12amWhy not? the teachers have been pumping out blatant leftist propaganda in the text book for years. Now is the time to move into pro islam and last time I checked islam is no friend of anyone but islam.
Report Post »Oh, God!
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 9:41amYes, in Texas. I live here and would never, EVER send my kids to public school. My two school aged kids go to a parochial school and my four year old I am homeschooling. My two year old is hopefully (praying on this one) picking up what I am teaching my 4 year old. If our finances keep getting worse, I will end up homeschooling all of them. I would never send them to a school where half of their day is taught in spanish to accommodate the non-english speaking kids.
Report Post »conservativejazzman
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:17amtexas aint what it use to be
Report Post »Freelancer
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:40amHere is what they do when they think no one is looking…. LMFAO!
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=433054322692
Debrabate
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 1:45pmOne word answer: YES
I read all of the text books my kids learn from…. here, parents can check them out from the office for review. and yes there is a bias. However, I take that opportunity to teach my kids, at home, about multiple religions and cultures as I know them.
Unfortunately there is a phrase that teens use around here, “Daddy aint there and Momma dont care.” Learning and teaching starts at home, but when parents dont check, they only learn what the teachers are ordered to teach.
Report Post »AynRandLives
Posted on September 23, 2010 at 10:09pmJust like what happened in Arizona and Colorado…the loser liberals are leaving the collapsing California and moving to Texas (Austin that is). They think they can make their progressive ideas work this time in another state. We need to block the borders before it is too late…not just our state’s southern border.
Report Post »larrybigbear
Posted on September 24, 2010 at 11:00amhttp://www.campus-watch.org/article/id/7157
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