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Texas Board of Education to Vote on Pro-Islamic Bias in Textbooks
Pundit Press ^ | 9/23/10 | Aurelius

Posted on 09/23/2010 5:34:58 AM PDT by rightistight

This coming Friday the Texas State Board of Education will be taking a vote on textbooks. This will have nothing to do with important dates or grammar, but something that something potentially insidious: brainwashing of students.

Critics of new textbooks have called on the BoE to investigate and vote on several passages in new textbooks that they believe have a "pro-Islamic bias." According to Republican member of the Texas Board of Education Don McLeroy, the only reason why Islam is getting a favorable writing is because "Academia wants to lean over backwards to be politically correct and not be labeled ethnocentric, so it's kind of a cultural relativism."

McLeroy and other critics of the textbooks cite the fact that Islamic beliefs and rituals are discussed more than twice as long as Christian beliefs, 248 lines to 120. They are also upset with "politically-correct whitewashes of Islamic culture and stigmas on Christian civilization" as well as "sanitized definitions of 'jihad' that exclude religious intolerance or military aggression against non-Muslims."

Possibly most damning is one textbook that McLeroy cited, a 2003 textbook entitled "World Civilizations." In its table of contents, Christianity and Judaism are not listed what-so-ever. Islam, however, is mentioned multiple times.

(Excerpt) Read more at punditpress.blogspot.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Government; Miscellaneous; Politics; Religion
KEYWORDS: bias; education; islam; muslims; obama; palin; texas; textbooks
Let's see what they vote
1 posted on 09/23/2010 5:35:01 AM PDT by rightistight
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To: rightistight

I was just reading this on the MSNBC site..

Texas school board debates ‘pro-Islamic’ bias in textbooks
Members weigh demanding changes in way books portray Muslims, Christians

It appeared that Texas had finished battling over textbooks — with social conservatives winning a clear victory in May — but the Texas State Board of Education is taking up another explosive curriculum question: Are Texan youth being fed a sugar-coated version of Islam while Christianity is unfairly taken to task for its sins?

At a three-day meeting that started Wednesday, the board is scheduled to consider a resolution that would require it to reject textbooks that it determines are tainted with teaching “pro-Islamic, anti-Christian half-truths and selective disinformation,” a bias that it argues is reflected in current schoolbooks.

“I think our documentation clearly shows that the bias is there,” said Randy Rives of Odessa, who drafted the resolution. “And we feel that it was not done on accident.”

The discussion comes as Americans’ distrust of Islam is on the rise, possibly as a result of a bitter controversy over the proposed construction of a mosque near “Ground Zero” of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City. A national poll released earlier this week by the Angus Reid polling firm found that a narrow majority of Americans holds a generally unfavorable opinion of Islam, with 45 percent saying it is a religion that encourages violence. By contrast, only one American in 10 believes that either Christianity or Judaism “encourages violence,” the poll found.

While proponents of the Texas textbook resolution insist that they merely want to provide balance, charges of Islamophobia are already being leveled.

The Texas Freedom Network, a liberal religion and education watchdog group, did a point-by-point analysis and rebuttal of the resolution, which it described as “ill considered” and “filled with superficial, misleading and half-baked claims designed simply to promote fear and religious prejudice.”

Texas speaks, publishers listen
The sheer size of Texas’ textbook market means that the state’s requirements and sensitivities have considerable influence on what publishers produce.

That’s because Texas is the largest of about 20 “adoption” states that make decisions about textbooks at the central level — effectively dictating what some 4.7 million K-12 public school students in the state will read. That also means its textbook contracts are worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

The lengthy article continues...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39311882/ns/us_news-education


2 posted on 09/23/2010 5:41:22 AM PDT by Tennessee Nana
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To: rightistight

They hate Christianity and love the world-domination movement cleverly disguised as a religion that conquered many countries through violence and imposed its way of life through the sword.


3 posted on 09/23/2010 5:41:59 AM PDT by Leftism is Mentally Deranged (Annoying liberals is my goal. I will not be silenced.)
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To: Tennessee Nana

Sending children to public schools is child abuse.


4 posted on 09/23/2010 5:53:08 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek (He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty Psalm 91:)
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged

The United States had better wake up fast, and be very afraid.


5 posted on 09/23/2010 5:54:40 AM PDT by Coldwater Creek (He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty Psalm 91:)
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To: rightistight

I don’t remember exactly why, but the decisions of the Texas School Board generally have a national impact on these textbooks.


6 posted on 09/23/2010 5:59:04 AM PDT by lacrew (Mr. Soetoro, we regret to inform you that your race card is over the credit limit.)
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To: Tennessee Nana
The full resolution is here: http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/sections/news/SBOE_resolution_9.2010.pdf
7 posted on 09/23/2010 6:00:10 AM PDT by The_Victor (If all I want is a warm feeling, I should just wet my pants.)
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To: Leftism is Mentally Deranged

It sounds like the Islamofascists are going to experience a setbak in their shariafication plot against the US.


8 posted on 09/23/2010 6:02:04 AM PDT by chilltherats (First, kill all the lawyers (now that they ARE the tyrants).......)
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To: chilltherats

setbak=setback :)


9 posted on 09/23/2010 6:02:54 AM PDT by chilltherats (First, kill all the lawyers (now that they ARE the tyrants).......)
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To: Coldwater Creek
Sending children to public schools is child abuse.

That deserved to be said twice.

10 posted on 09/23/2010 6:11:50 AM PDT by rightly_dividing
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To: Coldwater Creek
Whether your kids are homeschooled or otherwise,
this curriculum is a must for teaching them where
our freedoms and founding principles came from:


11 posted on 09/23/2010 6:15:35 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a (de)humanist and a Satanist is that the latter knows who he's working for.)
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To: lacrew
. . . but the decisions of the Texas School Board generally have a national impact on these textbooks.

I think it is probably because of the large number of school districts we have in Texas.

12 posted on 09/23/2010 7:18:36 AM PDT by Arrowhead1952 (Remember in November. Clean the house on Nov. 2. / Progressive is a PC word for liberal democrat.)
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