By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Writer

A new investigation by Fox News is uncovering major problems in U.S. textbooks that are presenting a biased view of Islam and sugarcoating the facts about Islamic terrorism.

For example, in numerous history textbooks, “key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, the status of women are whitewashed,” said Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, an independent group that reviews history books and other education materials.

Sewall claims that publishers are being pressured by Islamic activists to portray their religion in the most favorable light and to downplay  Islamic terrorism.

“The picture is incomplete … and the reason for this is that publishers are afraid of the Islamist activists. They don’t want trouble,” Mr. Sewall told FOX News.

In one history book, “World History: The Modern World” published by Prentice Hall, an accounting of the attacks of September 11 contained no mention of the terrorists’ religion, referring to them only as “teams of terrorists.”

“On the morning of September 11, 2001,” the book reads, “teams of terrorists hijacked four airplanes on the East Coast. Passengers challenged the hijackers on one flight, which they crashed on the way to its target. But one plane plunged in to the Pentagon in Virginia, and two others slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. More than 2,500 people were killed in the attacks.”

In his report on the text, Sewall called the passage “dismaying” in its flatness and brevity. “In terms of content, so much is left unanswered. Who were the teams of terrorists and what did they want do to? What were their political ends? Since ‘The Modern World’ avoids any hint of the connection between this unnamed terrorism and jihad,” he wrote, “why September 11 happened is hard to understand.”

In another textbook, “History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond” published by the Teachers Curriculum Institute, Sewall says the violent aspects of Islamic jihad are glossed over. Instead, it is presented as an internal struggle or a fight for protection.

“Jihad is defined as a struggle within each individual to overcome difficulties and strive to please god. Sometimes it may be a physical struggle for protection against enemies,” the book reads, noting that Islam teaches “that Muslims should fulfill jihad with the heart, tongue and hand. Muslims use the heart in their struggle to resist evil.”

It’s a lesson that Sewall says needs to change.

“What is frustrating is that repeatedly the textbook publishers have been called on their bias on the sunny, doctored view of Islam” but have refused to balance their books, he said.

None of the publishers of the offending books cooperated with Fox News in their investigation.

However, Muslim advocacy groups say it’s wrong to present the majority of Muslims from the lens of a small extremist community.

“It’s a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the Muslim community, and that’s not how Muslims want to be framed,” said Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement. “I think there is an unbalanced portrayal of Islam seen mostly through a political lens, but that is not the reality of who a majority of Muslims are,” she told FOX News.

Khan said when it comes to teaching about Islam, “I think the more important issue is American values of tolerance, respect and mutual understanding,” which can best be imparted with accurate information about the religion.

Many think the bias in the books goes beyond tolerance, especially parents who were largely unaware of the problem until the Fox investigation.
 
“I was very shocked by what I saw, looking through the book,” said Cindy Ross, a mother from Marin County, California who discovered the bias in her son’s seventh grade history text.

“What did strike me was that all the other religions seemed to be lumped together, where there is an inordinate emphasis on Islam specifically,” Ross said.

She is concerned that unpleasant facts are being ignored for the sake of political correctness in her son’s textbooks.

“When you are talking about a history textbook, that is supposed to be talking about historical facts and they are talking about jihad in terms of spiritual terms … I think it would be completely inappropriate for a public school.”

© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly/Women of Grace. http://www.womenofgrace.com