"Hey Achmed, there's a few hiding over here!"
Posted on 05/03/2004 4:55:16 PM PDT by Sun
Look who's teaching Johnny about Islam Saudi-funded Islamic activists have final say in shaping public-school lessons on religions
Posted: May 3, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Paul Sperry © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON -- A top textbook consultant shaping classroom education on Islam in American public schools recently worked for a school funded and controlled by the Saudi government, which propagates a rigidly anti-Western strain of Islam, a WorldNetDaily investigation reveals.
The consultant, Susan L. Douglass, has also praised Pakistan's madrassa schools as "proud symbols of learning," even after the U.S. government blamed them for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida.
Douglass, routinely described as a "scholar" or "historian," has edited manuscripts of world history textbooks used by middle and high school students across the country. She's also advised state education boards on curriculum standards dealing with world religion, and has helped train thousands of public school teachers on Islamic instruction.
In effect, she is responsible for teaching millions of American children about Islam, experts say, while operating in relative obscurity.
WorldNetDaily has learned that up until last year Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., which teaches Wahhabism through textbooks that condemn Jews and Christians as infidels and enemies of Islam. Her husband, Usama Amer, still teaches at the grades 2-12 school, a spokeswoman there confirmed. Both are practicing Muslims.
Susan L. Douglass, CIE consultant
The Saudi government funds the school, which has a sister campus in Fairfax, Va.
"It is a school that is under the auspices of the Saudi Embassy," said Ali al-Ahmed, executive director of the Washington-based Saudi Institute, a leading Saudi opposition group. "So the minister of education appoints the principal of the school, and the teachers are paid by the Saudi government."
He says many of the academy's textbooks he has reviewed contain passages promoting hatred of non-Muslims. For example, the eleventh-grade text says one sign of the Day of Judgment will be when Muslims fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees that say: "Oh Muslim, oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him."
Al-Ahmed, a Shiite Muslim born in predominantly Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia, says the school's religious curriculum was written by Sheik Saleh al-Fawzan, a senior member of the Saudi religious council, who he said has "encouraged war against unbelievers." Al-Fawzan has authored textbooks used in Saudi schools.
A report released last year by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that the Saudi Ministry of Education publishes texts presenting Islam as "the only true religion" and denouncing all other religions as "invalid" and "misguided."
"Christians and Jews repeatedly are labeled as infidels and enemies of Islam who should not be befriended or emulated, and are referred to in eighth-grade textbooks as 'apes and pigs,'" the report said. In addition, it found that "some Saudi government-funded textbooks used in North American Islamic schools have been found to encourage incitement to violence again non-Muslims."
Critics complain that Douglass, who taught at the Saudi academy for at least a decade, has convinced American textbook publishers and educators to gloss over the violent aspects of Islam to make the faith more appealing to non-Muslim children. The units on Islam reviewed by WND appear to give a glowing and largely uncritical view of the faith.
I wonder if Ms. Douglass have ever been in a madrassa... I have. If she has she can explain to everyone to everyone here in America what the "tajud prayers" are, but I bet she won't.
Like Communism, Islam needs to useful idiots as well to help it propagate.
"Hey Achmed, there's a few hiding over here!"
We can't "stay out of" "their" countries.
First of all, there are no "their" countries. Yes there are countries in which a majority of the population is Muslim, but that doesn't make that country "owned by Muslims" or a "Muslim country". I reject that thinking. To see why I object to the phrasing: the majority of Americans are Christians but that doesn't mean it is valid to call it a "Christian country", or to say to a Jew, "why are you living in America, that's their [Christians'] country, not yours!"
Second, you seem to ignore/forget that people in some of those countries which are majority-Muslim, have entered into business, political or other kinds of relationships with Westerners.
For example, to develop oil fields, Western Company X signs a deal with "Muslim country" powerful-guy Y. Company X proceeds to make a large investment in moving equipment, manpower, etc to that country, to set up an oil extraction facility. This is property which belongs to Westerners. To say "we should stay out" is to say "we should let 'Muslim countries' steal the stuff we've already moved there".
Also, typically in such cases, much of the equipment/infrastructure is not capable of being operated/maintained by the natives anyway; thus to say "we should stay out" is to say "we should let those natural resources go un-extracted". But actually, a more likely result would be that some other Western country with less scruples, i.e. France, moves in and takes over operations (along with resulting profits). And we still get the hatred, of course.
There are other special cases worth mentioning, e.g. Egypt, which most people say we are not "staying out of", because of the fact that we send them money. But to say we should "stay out of" Egypt (=not send money) is to say that we should abandon the Egypt-Israel peace agreement (because that's the only reason for the money in the first place). (Ironically the example of Egypt is often raised by the very same people who idolize the guy that put us "into" Egypt in the first place, and supported giving him a Nobel Prize.)
2.Keep them out of your Country---or they will try to turn your country into theirs.
Luckily we have a separation of church and state, and a Bill of Rights protecting our basic liberties, which I believe will be effective in preventing that. European countries, alas, often do not seem to be faring so well.
Perish the thought that American schoolchildren would learn any thing about Christianity in shcool!
Luckily we have a separation of church and state, and a Bill of Rights protecting our basic liberties, which I believe will be effective in preventing that. European countries, alas, often do not seem to be faring so well.
Our Constitution has never stood in the way of activist courts before. You must have more faith in our judges than I do.
In general you may have a point there.
What about the Egypt example? Should we stop sending the money to Egypt? Because that too isn't "staying out". In fact it's precisely the kind of thing which garners us the charge of "propping up" dictators.
Over the years the locals have learned to operate this equipment.
I doubt it.
Tell the Muslims in Fallujah that it isnt their country.
I would if I could. Iraq is not a "Muslim country", Iraq contains people besides Muslims, including Christians and Druze. That illustrates my point.
Tell the Palestinians it isnt their country
Right again. First of all there is no "Palestine" country to speak of. Second of all as we are so often told, there are many Palestinian Christians. So once again, the statement "[future] Palestine is a 'Muslim country'" is completely and totally false, as is the statement "[future] Palestine is 'their' [Muslims'] country".
It would be ok (if such a country ever comes into existence) to say it's the Palestinians' country. Just not a "Muslim country" or "their" [i.e. Muslims'] country.
Tell the Muslims in Fallujah that it isnt their country. Tell the Palestinians it isnt their country ,. I think you will find they feel a bit different than you do.
The problem here is that you seem to have missed my point, and are blurring the lines between being an Iraqi (or Palestinian) and being a Muslim.
Obviously I am not saying that Iraq isn't the Iraqis' country. What I'm saying is that it isn't a "Muslim country", whatever that would mean. Yes, the Muslims in Fallujah would say it's "their" country - "their" meaning "Iraqis". If they say it's "their" country meaning "(Sunni) Muslims'", then we've got a problem, because I don't care for that kind of bigoted theocratic fascist nonsense.
And if someone in Fallujah or Palestine "feels different" about that than I do, then I'm happy to tell them where they can shove that feeling.
I don't have "faith" in anyone, that is to overstate things.
I do believe that we are not in any real danger of having shariah law imposed on us by "activist courts". Let me know if you honestly disagree.
More like the Day of Judgment will be when Marines and Rangers fight and kill Muslims who hide behind women and children and say: "Oh C130, there is an enemy soldier behind me. Come here and kill him."
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