Texas weighs bid to rid schools of 'pro-Islam' books

[47of74]

Source: BBC

The Texas school board is set to vote on a resolution urging publishers to keep "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian" language out of textbooks in the state.

Among other complaints, the non-binding decree says some textbooks devote more lines to Islam than to Christianity and print "whitewashes" of Islamic culture.

Critics say it relies on a flawed reading of books that are out of use.

In May, the panel adopted guidelines that critics said injected conservative political ideas into the curriculum.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11402606

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Ugh. What's next from these idiots?

[muntrv]

1. What next? They'll ban "pro-black/anti-white" language out of the textbooks.

[MadMaddie]

2. Just a matter of time

Then they will go after successful women. I am guessing they are eager to strike Ann Richards from the books too.

This is what the TeabaggersRepug salivate over. This is how history is lost and civilizations implode.

[Joe Bacon]

11. They ain't gonna teach none of that "Al-Geebra" in Tex-Ass any more.

Hey, if they want to be stupid, let them be stupid. Let them have their bible while their state goes downhill. And while they're at it, let them secede. Let them be the laughing stock of the whole world.

[Thor_MN]

17. Yeah, they gots them those Ayrabic symbols on the corner of every page...

Must be some sorta code...

[sakabatou]

3. "Ugh. What's next from these idiots?"

South wins Civil War?

[FSogol]

9. Newt Gingrich already wrote a book in which the South wins the Civil War.

Bet it's on the shelves in Texas.

[grilled onions]

13. Winning ANY War Is Not Possible

How can Newt(I do picture something rather slimy crawling on a limb,here)claim the south won the war. The North didn't win it. When you see all the carnage buried from north to south of the Mason Dixie,when you hear people talk(especially in the south) still bitter over losing land,control of the status quo,their distant kin,when you see all the sacred battle fields knowing blood from both sides finally came together at these locations, how can the grand Newt consider anyone won that war or any before or since? The pain of war never goes away. If does not realize you cannot rewrite history and undo the carnage. You cannot whitewash what was for something you wish it to be. Will text books soon be little more then tall tales handed down from ancestors with each generation coloring it to their benefit? Will students one day be so confused about reality versus fiction that they will have to seek out old books--vintage books printed before the mass hysteria of those who wanted to change history THEIR way????

[CatholicEdHead]

15. Newt's book was a work of fiction

and it is officially presented that way. He just hypothesized on what would have happened if a few things went differently during the Civil War if Gettysburg and afterwards went differently.

http://www.amazon.com/Gettysburg-Novel-Civil-Newt-Gingrich/dp/0312987250/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285449797&sr=1-4
http://www.amazon.com/Grant-Comes-East-Newt-Gingrich/dp/0312987269/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1285449797&sr=1-12

I agree that some wingnuts will take this revision of history as what actually happened. It is a pipedream and only a small minority will take delusions farther.

[FSogol]

16. Historic Fiction. Plus a lot of wishful thinking by those old losers: the Confederacy.

:puke:

[nolabear]

4. All fundamentalists are alike. Soon we'll be just like the extremeists they freak out over.

I am frankly right at the edge of what I can believe. What the hell happened to progress, the good of mankind, equality, democracy, AMERICA?

[earcandle]

5. We have to grow up and stop letting the image or possibility of $$$$$ influence anything.... we have

to be smarter than that and we are.... we just have been told
we can't go there, being the smartest.

I say... O YEAH?  

[pampango]

6. "There is something wrong with xenophobia, fear-mongering and patently obvious distortions of basic

historical truths in the name of education and objectivity."

Anti-Islamic resolution undermines secular society

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7215435.html

"The resolution egregiously takes different quotations out of context from different textbooks and strings them together to create the misleading impression of a pro-Muslim narrative. Above all, there is the appeal to anti-Muslim sentiment by claiming that Middle Easterners desire to "buy into the U.S. public school textbook oligopoly." As absurd as this allegation is in fact, it nevertheless evokes the conspiratorial idea that foreigners are attempting to brainwash unsuspecting Americans. Substitute the word "Jews" or "Reds" for "Middle Easterners" and you get the idea."

Fortunately, in Texas and in other parts of this country, saner, more rational American voices are insisting that racism and hatred are not part of either modern American or Christian identity. Even if President Obama has only timidly and cautiously defended fundamental American freedoms, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has forcefully come out for a fundamental principle that has made this country prosper: its secularism and its embrace of difference. Even if the neoconservative New Republic editor Martin Peretz has recently insisted that Muslim-Americans don't deserve First Amendment rights and that Muslim life is "cheap," other Americans such as Jon Stewart have strongly come out in favor of fundamental American freedoms for all Americans. And here in Texas, the shenanigans of extremists on the Texas State Board of Education reflect only one side of America, the side that has previously hated blacks, Catholics, Japanese and Jews and now feels free to hate Arabs and Muslims. But there has always been a more noble side of America that has time and again overcome xenophobia and racism.

Ultimately, this wave of Islamophobia will pass. In the meantime, it will not only further erode America's standing in the Muslim world, but will undermine the fabric of a secular, democratic American society. Like all other hatreds, Islamophobia is not an indictment of real Muslim and Arabs, but of those Americans who have projected onto them all their fears and insecurities. It is also a test of what kind of America we really want to be.

[chieffeathers]

10. text books

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houghton_Mifflin_Harcourt


Don't be too sure that it's absurd. The above company, after buy out, after buy out, had, as a result, the royal family of Dubai via their Istithmar World Capital investment vehicle as the major stakeholders. This publisher also has an interest in educational text books.

We shouldn't be so naive as to think that huge conglomerates of Transnationals, plus opportunists in our own society, are not biting at the bit ...to get in on the privatization of our public school system and the publishing of new text books. Hoeing low cost in teaching will, of course, make sense to them, as they intend to make profit and most likely will eventually have our school systems listed in the stock market. Waiting for Superman could be like waiting for the Prince of Dubai to rescue us. We will no longer have citizen of the USA writing and making curriculum, but it will be an international forum, accepting and rejecting books and topics to put in world-wide text books. Big money to be made!

What else is new?

[DeltaLitProf]

19. Wait a minute? Doesn't a Saudi Muslim own 5.7 percent of Newscorp?

See here for more:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9584104

[tanyev]

7. What's next is that the worst of these idiots are out of office come January 2011.

Can't happen soon enough. Perhaps they are trying to do as much damage as they can before they have to leave.

[Bill McBlueState]

8. well, they shouldn't be pushing any religion

Obviously, that's not what they're going for.

[Joe Bacon]

12. Are Texans infected with the Acquired Stupidity Syndrome?

Are they infected by the A.S.S. Virus? Are the majority of people there just that stupid?

[panzerfaust]

22. Nope. Gotta be worked at. As one of our Governors said about bilinguality ...

"If the King's English was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me!"

Governor Ma Ferguson, 1925


Praise the Lord - jus like we do in Texas.

Gov Ferguson was elected following the impeachment and conviction for dishonesty of her husband who was a former governor. She said that she would follow his example and advice.

Didn't get impeached though.

[TomCADem]

14. What's next? Gays? Hispanics? Asians? Evolution? Global Warming?

If they don't teach it, it does not exist?

[mikeSchmuckabee]

18. What a waste!

Texans don't know how to read, just check out their elected officials.

[daleo]

20. My invisible friend is more popular than your invisible friend

That's what these things remind me of - it's quite pathetic really.

[panzerfaust]

21. All Arabic numerals in Texas Texts to be converted to Roman by XXXI/XII/MMXI

Durn. Sure makes a man proud to be a Texan!