THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume X, Issue # 33, February 6, 2008
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
PROMOTION OF ISLAM IN OUR SCHOOLS
By Cinnamon Stillwell
ISLAMIC APOLOGETICS & INDOCTRINATION CARRIED ON IN AMERICA'S PUBLIC ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY SCHOOLS:
K-12 TEXTBOOKS THAT MISREPRESENT & GLORIFY ISLAMIC BELIEFS & HISTORY, OFTEN AT THE EXPENCE OF OTHER
RELIGIONS & CULTURES -- K-12 TEXTBOOKS WRITTEN BY PROFESSORS WHO CONDUCT BIASED & DISTORTED MIDDLE EAST
STUDIES PROGRAMS IN THE COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES -- ISLAMIST APOLOGISTS & PROPAGANDISTS WAGING THE JIHAD BY
SUBJECTING AMERICAN CHILDREN & YOUTH TO PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
FULL STORY:
Public school children in grades K-12 are being assigned textbooks that misrepresent and, in some cases, glorify Islamic
beliefs and history, often at the expense of other religions and cultures. The apologetics and indoctrination common in
university Middle East Studies programs is being carried into public elementary and secondary schools by contentious,
ahistorical, and inaccurate textbooks written by those same Middle East Studies professors.
History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, a textbook published by the Teachers' Curriculum Institute, was
removed from the Scottsdale, Arizona, school district in 2005 for this very reason. The textbook is now causing
controversy in California, and, at the center of the storm, is Cal State University-Sacramento Sociology professor Ayad
Al-Qazzaz.
An Iraqi native who specializes in Middle East Studies, Al-Qazzaz, is both a contributor to History Alive and one
of the gatekeepers who approved it for use in California's public middle schools. And, according to an American Textbook
Council review cited by World Net Daily (WND):
"Al-Qazzaz is a Muslim apologist, a frequent speaker in Northern
California school districts promoting Islam and Arab causes….
[He] also co-wrote AWAIR's Arab World Notebook.
AWAIR stands for Arab World and Islamic Resources, an
opaque, proselytizing 'non-profit organization' that conducts
teacher workshops and sells supplementary materials to schools."
A parent and former student in one of Al-Qazzaz's Middle East Studies courses wrote to WND expressing her own
reservations:
"That was a big flag for me…. After seeing Al-Qazzaz as one of the
main contributors, I began to put two and two together … about
the extra book coming home only in this class, and I questioned
where this book's money source came from – I still do not know."
Al-Qazzaz's contributions to History Alive on the subject of jihad are flagrantly biased, as he consistently presents
jihad as merely a personal struggle, rather than a holy war.
Hence, as noted by WND, the text presents jihad as "an effort by Muslims to convince 'others to take up worthy
causes, such as funding medical research'" and that, "even at its most violent, 'jihad' is simply Muslims fighting 'to protect
themselves from those who would do them harm.'"
In a 2003 KXTV, Sacramento, story on "Islamic War Ethics," he elaborated:
"Al-Qazzaz says there are two levels of jihad. The greater jihad is
every Muslim's quest to live out their faith in their daily lives, to
improve themselves and to become a better Muslim. The lesser
jihad means to protect one's people and fight against enemies, he
says. So the greater jihad prompts devout Muslims to remember
their religious guidelines while fighting, which would cause them
to treat war prisoners well."
One suspects the victims of beheadings and torture would beg to differ. Moreover, that Islamists (otherwise known as
jihadists) worldwide repeatedly cite jihad as a motivating factor belies Al-Qazzaz's contention that war is the "lesser
jihad."
In a 2002 interview with Peace Magazine, Al-Qazzaz rejected the association of "jihad" with "fundamentalism"
and advocated what's come to be known as the "root causes" approach to combating Islamic terrorism:
"You are not going to get rid of suicide bombers by killing them.
You have to know the causes. It is like a disease. You can treat
the symptoms, but, if you don't know the causes, the symptoms
keep coming up."
Yet, when the interview turned to the study of Islam and its connection to terrorism, Al-Qazzaz skirted the issue by
blaming others. After first accusing Islam scholar Bernard Lewis of "becoming progressively anti-Islam and Zionist," he
continued:
"There are two schools of thought about Islam in the US. One
school is headed by Bernard Lewis and Daniel Pipes, who
equate Islam to terrorism. The other school, headed by John
Esposito, argues that there are bad apples everywhere. You
have terrorists in Islam, terrorists in Judaism, terrorists in
Hindu-ism. But the majority of the people, though they may be
backward, do not have a terrorist attitude."
Al-Qazzaz's characterization of both Bernard Lewis and Daniel Pipes is demonstrably false. Neither equates Islam with
terrorism, but, rather, seeks to examine the undeniable connection between the two. John Esposito, who heads the
Saudi-funded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown, is a leading
Wahhabi apologist who consistently seeks to muddle what is in fact an Islam-specific issue.
Considering Al-Qazzaz's troubling viewpoints on these matters, his involvement with History Alive and other
Middle East studies textbooks is cause for alarm. Not only do California education officials need to undertake a
rigorous and unbiased reexamination of such textbooks, but also the gatekeepers approving their use. Otherwise, it's
simply a case of the fox guarding the hen house.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Education & America's Schools
The Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Cinnamon Stillwell is the Northern California Representative for Campus Watch, a program of the Middle East Forum.
Ms. Stillwell endeavors to point out the strengths and expose the weaknesses of Middle East Studies programs in
California colleges and universities. She can be reached at stillwell@meforum.org.
The foregoing article by Cinnamon Stillwell was originally published in Front Page Magazine, February 5, 2008,
and can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks
to define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(Article URL: http://www.meforum.org/article/1848 )
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
February 5, 2008
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity