Multiculturalism: California's educrats have put out new rules for
teaching Islamic studies to seventh-graders in public schools, and they are as
biased as ever. They'll also likely spread eastward.The lesson guidelines
adopted by the bellwether state whitewash the violence and oppression of women
codified in Islamic law, or Shariah. And they're loaded with revisionist
history about the faith.
For example, the suggested framework glorifies Shariah as a liberal reform
movement that "rejected" the mistreatment of women that existed in Arabia
before Muhammad and his successors conquered the region, according to Accuracy
in Academia. The guidelines claim that Islamic law established for the first
time that men and women were entitled to equal "respect."
Not so, says Islamic scholar and author Nonie Darwish, who grew up Muslim
in Egypt.
"I am shocked that that is what they teach," she said. "Women had more
rights in Arabia before Shariah."
In fact, "wife beating is allowed under Shariah" today, she added. "It
allows a woman seen without a headdress to be flogged, punishes rape victims,
and calls for beheading for adultery."
California's course on world religions also omits Islam's long history of
jihadist violence, while portraying Christianity as an intolerant and
bloodthirsty faith.
Christianity isn't given equal time, either. It's covered in just two days
— as opposed to up to two weeks for Islam — and doesn't involve kids in any
role-playing activities like the Islam unit.
Students do get a healthy dose of skepticism about the Christian faith,
including a biting history of its persecution of other people.
Islam, in contrast, gets a pass from critical review. Even jihad is
presented as an "internal personal struggle to do one's best to resist
temptation," not waging holy war.
"California schools are pushing an unbalanced religious agenda that favors
Islam and minimizes Christianity and Judaism," Accuracy in Academia warns in
its latest Campus Report.
Who helped build the California Education Department's framework for
Islamic studies? Islamist "scholars" with the Council on Islamic Education, or
CIE, a Saudi-tied activist group.
The consultancy changed its name after former IBD Washington bureau chief
Paul Sperry, author of "Infiltration: How Muslim Spies and Subversives Have
Penetrated Washington," exposed that its chief researcher and textbook
consultant for years taught social studies at a Saudi madrassa just outside
Washington.
The Islamic Saudi Academy is a breeding ground for terrorists, including
the valedictorian-turned-al-Qaida agent recently sentenced to life for
plotting to assassinate President Bush.