Wed, Sep. 22, 2010 Posted: 03:32 PM EDT
The Texas State Board of Education is scheduled to
consider a resolution Friday that would ban “pro-Islamic,
anti-Christian” textbooks.
Randy Rives, who authored the resolution, contends some
past Texas social studies textbooks were favorably biased
toward Islam – devoting more text lines to the religion
than Christianity and praising Muslims as “empire
builders” while criticizing Crusaders as “violent
attackers.”
Other critical allegations include one against the
“sanitized” wording that some textbooks use in defining
jihad, which reportedly exclude religious intolerance and
aggression against non-Muslims, and “whitewashes” Islamic
culture.
“There’s a problem. There’s bias in the books,” said
board member Don McLeroy, who supports the resolution,
according to the Houston Chronicles. “We need to bring
attention to it.”
According to the draft resolution, the State Board of
Education (SBOE) is being called to enforce “the basic
democratic values of our state and national heritage” and
to reject “future prejudicial” social studies textbooks
that treats the world’s major religions unequally in space
coverage or by “demonizing” one over the other.
SBOE Chairwoman Gail Lowe said she has received about 30
letters and e-mails about the resolution, with all except
one supporting it.
But, elsewhere, the resolution has sparked strong
reaction from opponents, who accuse it of spreading
misinformation and promoting religious intolerance.
In a news conference Monday, an interfaith group in
Austin, Texas, released an open letter signed by nearly
100 religious leaders asking SBOE’s 15 member panel to
reject the “inflammatory” resolution.
“We believe this resolution is a thinly veiled attempt to
generate fear and promote religious intolerance, which as
we have sadly seen before in history, can quickly lead to
violence,” [ by Muslims ] the letter
states. “And we ask you to keep this sort of bigotry out
of the headlines – and out of our textbooks – in Texas.”
[ bigotry almost exclusively by Muslims ]
Some of the signers of the open letter include the Rev.
Larry Bethune, senior pastor at University Baptist Church
in Austin; the Rev. Bobbi Kaye Jones, district
superintendent of the Austin District of the United
Methodist Church; and Rabbi Neil Blumofe of the
Congregation Agudas Achim in Austin.
News conference organizer Texas Freedom Network – a group
that seeks to counter the religious right on issues of
religious freedom and individual liberties – reviewed the
textbooks and accused the drafter of the resolution of
ignoring sections of the textbooks that focus on
Christianity. It says the textbooks include passages on
the Reformation, Christian influences during the
Renaissance, the Holy Roman Empire, and church reform,
among other topics that the resolution failed to mention.
The group also points out that the textbooks cited by the
resolution are no longer used in Texas classrooms and have
not been since 2003. But proponents of the resolution say
they are using old textbooks to make a point and try to
prevent such books from being used in Texas classrooms in
the future.
Texas Freedom Network also argues that its analysis shows
the resolution to be based on claims that are
“superficial” and “grossly misleading.”
“This resolution is another example of state board
members putting politics ahead of expertise and refusing
to consider the advice of real scholars [ such
as ? what about actual scholars like Daniel Pipes,
Robert Spencer, Ibn Warraq, etc ] before doing
something provocative and divisive,” states the network,
which strongly opposed new public school curriculum
standards for social studies courses that were approved
earlier this year.
Critics also highlight that resolution drafter Randy
Rives offers no evidence to back up his claim that Middle
Eastern investors in the U.S. public school textbook
“oligopoly” will lead to “more such discriminatory
treatment of religion.” [ this is a bad thing ?
Exactly why should actual morality be treated as if it
was no better than morality that promotes misogyny ,
slavery, and violence ? ]
Notably, Rives, a former Ector (Odessa) Independent
School District board president, is not on the Texas State
Board of Education (SBOE). He ran for a seat on the board
in the Republican primary but lost.
The Muslim-Christian bias in textbooks is the latest
controversy involving the Texas State Board of Education.
In May, the SBOE approved new social studies courses that
emphasized the role of Christianity in society, government
and history. Opponents of the overhaul argue that the
revisions promote religious and political ideologies,
emphasizing that conservative Christians were the force
behind the changes.
Texas’ textbook debates tend to attract national
attention because the state’s decision will likely impact
the rest of the nation. Texas is the second-largest
textbook market in the country, behind California.
