A Seat at the Table: Islam Makes Inroads in Education

WASHINGTON -- If you look closely, what is inside your child's textbooks may shock you. They are full of evolution theories, and many liberal historians are rewriting American history as well. But there is even more. How Islam is portrayed in today's textbooks is a subject of concern also.

The familiar images of Islam include praying at Mecca, and the prophet Muhammad, a man Muslims say is the messenger of God. But this is not the whole story.

When all is said and done, the story of Islam is being told and taught to our nation's school kids in their textbooks. But are they getting the whole story, or just part of it?

Since the early 1990's, teaching Islam to kids has taken on a new dimension. As our society moved into the era of political correctness where it became taboo to offend any one group, many educational analysts say that the controversial nature of Islam started to not only be downplayed, but to be totally ignored.

One of the leading critics is the American Textbook Council, which came out with a scathing report a year ago. It is called "Islam in the Textbooks," and in it are numerous examples of how Muslim scholars are simply not telling kids the full truth.

For example, take the word Jihad. It is believed to represent a holy war, and the object is to bring the whole world under Islamic rule and law. But in the textbooks, that is not what kids are reading. In the World History Book, "across the centuries," Jihad is called a struggle "to do one's best to resist temptation and overcome evil."

The president of the American Textbook Council, Gil Sewell, recently spoke about his concerns at a roundtable discussion on Capitol Hill.

Sewell said, "When it comes to Holy War, to Islamic law, to slavery, to the treatment of women, the textbooks fudge, hedge - and it's not accidental."

And the report says, when it comes to women, most textbooks do not mention how many men in the Islamic world look at women as just another possession. Many times, it just ignores that aspect altogether. One textbook says, "Although men had most of the power in Arab society, women had some freedom. For example, women could own and inherit property. Women contributed to the group through such activities as spinning and weaving."

When it comes to putting a positive spin on the teachings of Islam, one of the most influential organizations out there is the Council on Islamic Education, based in California. It is a research institute that gives guidance to publishers when it comes to what they say about Islam.

The founder, Shabbir Mansuri, came to the CBN News studios in Washington, and we asked him if the textbooks today are really giving students a complete and true picture.

Mansuri answered, "I think that is a valid point. I don't think it's a point we shouldn't put on the table for us to discuss. I think it's a valid point."

But, Mansuri says, with just a few pages devoted to Islam in the textbooks, you can only include so much. And, he says, kids in grade school may not be ready to comprehend it all, anyway.

Mansuri added, "You can make an argument that we want them to know the good and bad of it. Valid argument. [But] are they equipped to understand the good and bad of it?"

Which brings us to Whahabbism, an extremist fundamentalist brand of Islam. Whahabbism is being taught to school children in Saudi Arabia, and its most infamous follower is Osama bin Laden himself. This is not being mentioned in American textbooks.

Mansuri remarked, "It's put in some sort of large way that, as a Muslim, I'm scratching my head and saying what are they talking about?

Mansuri replied, "It is not. That is what I am saying. It is in the mind of those who are deniers."

Mansuri said that all his group is trying to do, is to make sure that what is written about Islam comforms to the textbook standards in each state. In California, the standards say, "When ethnic or cultural groups are portrayed, portrayals must not depict differences in customs or lifestyles as undesirable, and must not reflect adversely on such differences."

But Historian David Barton says that all the facts must be put on the table. Barton remarked, "They [Muslims] may want to be presented well today, but historically there are some footprints that have to be looked at."

And he says those footprints are not always so flattering. Barton said, "There was a Barbary Powers war that went on for 16 years in America, where America was dealing with Muslim terrorists for 16 years back, from 1790 through 1806. That is the reason we have the Marine Corps hymn. 'From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli' was because the American Marines went inland in the same area where they are now, to release enslaved Americans [who] had been taken prisoner by Muslim terrorists. And for 16 years, for four presidents, we fought a war against Muslim terrorists."

Barton says that history should not be edited to make a faith look good. "As a Christian," Barton said, "I can't say we're not going to teach the witch trials because that would make me look bad as a Christian."

But in today's textbooks, Muhammad is not made to look bad at all. He is mentioned numerous times in a positive light, but critics are curious as to why there is no mention of the controversy in which he supposedly had multiple wives, and one of them was a very young girl. Instead, you find role-playing exercises for students, like reading the Koran in class or dressing up as Muslim pilgrims on their way to Mecca.

Jordan Rubio in Virginia Beach knows the feeling. At his public school, one of his classmates was asked to go in front of his class and pretend to be an Egyptian pharaoh. Then Jordan and the rest of his classmates had to bow down to him. His mother could not believe it.

Teresa Rubio said, "I asked him how he felt when he did that, and to my surprise, he responded that he immediately went to praying, and asked for forgiveness."

Jordan was not the only one in her family who had a problem. Her daughter Emily was asked to do an English grammar assignment, and the book used was the Koran. Theresa says, why not the Bible?

Teresa Rubio remarked, "I can understand that we need to understand other cultures and other traditions, but when Jesus is not given equal time in the classroom, I just feel that I have to oppose that."

All of Theresa's experiences have led her to a strong conclusion. "We really just need to pay very close attention to where we're sending our children, and what they are learning when they go there."

Mansuri says that the way Islam is taught is not the problem. Instead, he says, Christians simply do not have a seat at the table when it comes to reviewing textbooks at the state level.

He said, "Every committee that I'm invited to sit [on], if there are religious institutions that are brought in, I never see conservative Christians, for example."

That is a problem. And until that happens, the textbooks remain in their current state. It can be debated whether the violent images kids see on TV should be represented in the pages of their textbooks. What is not up for debate is that only some of the facts are being taught to kids in America's classrooms.

Better yet, when in hell will America present a united front to the world in matters of foreign policy, as it did once upon a time???

It scares me, and I'm not afraid of nothing. heh!

For the past two years, Fox News has been ask if anyone thinks the terrorists are in America. And I am screaming at the TV "YES!"

I realize not all these Mosque's are evil people. But every big family has their black sheeps, and what better place to hide the bad guys then in these Mosque's scattered around the U.S.

"And at the same time The Bible and Jesus are not permitted on the premises."

This is what I don't get. In a nation that is at least 85% Christian, school children are not allowed to hear a word about Christianity in their schools, nor to say the Pledge of Allegiance with the dreaded phrase "under God", nor to say a prayer. (Even though the US Congress opens every single day with a prayer and the Pledge, in which they do say "under God").

However, children in various school districts are learning about a religion which has a population base of .5% (that's one half of one percent) in this country, in some cases having to say the Shahada which is a prayer that one says to convert to islam.

Why? Why? Why?

Any school I have been at, they do say the Pledge of Allegiance with "under God" in it EVERY DAY and no one thinks twice about it.

One of the many reasons that sometimes you don't seen God in some cases in school is that ANOTHER RELIGION objects (and no I'm not talking about somone from Islam or other). A lot of times, it is another Christian or someone of the Jewish faith that objects to something done in a classroom and it is sometimes then taken out.

Teaching the educational aspects of Christianity, Islam, etc. should be in the classroom. Doctrinal things probably shouldn't.

How long before our school's history books include accounts of the Pilgrims celebrating Ramadan?

Not ever I'm afraid. I don't believe everything I read in biased media, whether it's the left or right. It's funny how we'll believe anything that someone who supports our political views writes in the media, but don't believe the other side if they write something. People tend to believe what they want to I guess.

Pilgrims are still a valued part of our curriculum.

Not all Republicans are good either. I vote the great majority Republican, but there are a couple of Democrats that I voted for because the Republican cantidates weren't the best people I felt. There are some educational liberals that I won't vote for either because of their agenda against public education, but I don't consider that as my sole basis for voting.

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