7th Graders Islam Studies Spark Hate Mail, Lawsuits

[John Harrell <johnbharrell@yahoo.com>]

Visioneers;

I dont know how many people on Vision2020 have seen this 
yet, but I thought it worthwhile enough to show what is 
being done in some government schools. Read the details
of what is being required by the 7th graders - it will
astound and amaze you.

John Harrell

----------------------

BRAVE NEW SCHOOLS

Islam studies spark hate mail, lawsuits

Parents: 'Biased' state-adopted textbook
distorts world history in favor of Muslims

By Diana Lynne
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com 
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26074

Word of public-school students pretending to be
Muslims, wearing robes, simulating jihads and
memorizing verses from the Koran in a seventh-grade
California classroom touched off a firestorm of
debate, but WorldNetDaily has learned these
classroom exercises are neither isolated to one school
district nor are they anything new. 

Parents of seventh-graders across the state report
similar experiences, and one tells WND she battled
with her school district over the Islam teachings in
1994. 

As WorldNetDaily reported last week, an article by
Assist News Service described student activities at
Excelsior School in Byron, Calif., where "students are
to pretend that they are Muslims, wear Muslim
clothing to school, stage their own jihad via a dice
game and pick out a Muslim name (to replace their
own) from a list of 30." 

ANS quoted an "outraged" teacher at Excelsior and
parent of a seventh-grader: "We can't even mention
the name of Jesus in the public schools, but ... they
teach Islam as the true religion, and students are
taught about Islam and how to pray to Allah." 

The story sparked outrage and prompted a flood of
500 calls, WorldNetDaily was told, to the Byron
Union School District the following morning. Principal
Nancie Castro also reports receiving about 200 hate
e-mails. The story quickly became grist for talk shows
from 560 KSFO radio to the Fox News Channel's
"Hannity & Colmes" program. And in response to the
story posted on WorldNetDaily, the international
public-interest law firm The American Center for Law
and Justice is demanding Excelsior School permit
students to opt out of the course, contending it "is a
violation of the First Amendment free speech and free
exercise rights of students and violates the right of
parents to direct the education and upbringing of
their children." 

In its letter to the Byron Union School District, ACLJ
states, "We want to make sure this district knows that
it crossed the line. We also want to make sure that
other school districts don't fall into the same trap and
require students to attend courses that violate their
own religious beliefs." 

Dealing with 'hysteria' 

The raging controversy has parents blaming schools,
schools blaming the state, and one lawsuit blaming
the course textbook adopted by the state. Castro also
blames the media. In a letter sent to parents, she
claims the school has been "victimized by a classic case
of misinformation that has led to hysteria among
people outside of our community." Included in the
"misinformation" in the ANS report, according to
Castro, is that it was not mandatory for students to
take names of Arabs of the Middle Ages or to wear
Muslim clothing, and they did not wear the robes to
school but only during the class "simulation." 

As for the simulated jihad Castro explained, "There
was a dice game where, depending on the role, they
had to do various things like answer a quiz bowl
question or read a trivia fact. One roll had them roll
for the highest number and called it a jihad." In a
response to a query from Prophezine News, Castro
explained, "Dressing up in costume, role-playing and
simulation games are all used to stimulate class
discussion and are common teaching practices used in
other subjects as well." 

When asked whether students were to memorize
Islamic terms, phrases, proverbs and the Five Pillars
of Faith of the Islam religion, as reported by ANS,
Castro replied, "There are vocabulary words to be
learned as in every unit. They did not have to
memorize proverbs or prayers. They learned some
phrases such as peace be with you, but nothing
religious or praying to Allah." 

As for lessons from the Koran, Castro said, "There are
some verses in the text that are read, just like there
are Bible verses in the text in the section on
Christianity." WorldNetDaily has learned, however,
that students were offered extra credit if they
memorized verses from the Koran. Sources also
report that no Bible verses were learned, and
Christianity overall was "barely touched on." 

It is this perceived slighting of Christianity and
Judaism contrasted with the virtual promotion of
Islam in public schools that parents are taking issue
with all across the state, from Byron in Northern
California south to San Diego. But WND has
discovered that the issue is not new. 

Valerie Moore says her daughter "was indoctrinated
in the Islamic religion for over four months while in
the seventh grade" in 1994. Moore expressed shock in
arriving at Joseph Kerr Junior High School in Elk
Grove, Calif., one day and being greeted by a "huge
banner on the front grounds of the school that read
'There is one God, Allah, and Mohammed is his
prophet.'" Moore also recounts witnessing "children
dressed in Muslim attire, chanting from the Koran
and praying while marching around the cabala."
Moore recalls the banner being up all day. 

"What if we put up a sign that says 'Jesus is Lord' for
30 minutes? Oh, no. You can't do that – separation of
church and state," Moore laments. "They aren't just
teaching them about Islam; they have them practicing
it. They have them kneeling down and praying to
Allah. I have a problem with that. That's more like
inculcation." Moore says when she complained to the
school officials she was ridiculed and yelled at. 

In her letter to parents, Castro maintained, "At no
point do we teach or endorse religion; we teach about
religions' impact from a historical context. ... students
learn about Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism
and other major religions as they apply to the
understanding of history and the development of
major Western and non-Western civilizations. This is
the state-approved curriculum, using state-adopted
textbooks and has been part of the instructional
program in California for over a decade." 

California standards 

Content standards adopted in 1998 by the California
State Board of Education explicitly state the content
students need to acquire at each grade level from
kindergarten to grade 12. The standards lay out the
following for seventh grade World History and
Geography: 

7.2 Students analyze the geographic, political,
economic, religious, and social structures of the
civilizations of Islam in the Middle Ages. 

  1.Identify the physical features and describe the
     climate of the Arabian peninsula, its
     relationship to surrounding bodies of land and
     water, and nomadic and sedentary ways of life.

  2.Trace the origins of Islam and the life and
     teachings of Mohammad, including Islamic
     teachings on the connection with Judaism and
     Christianity. 

  3.Explain the significance of the Koran and the
     Sunnah as the primary sources of Islamic
     beliefs, practice, and law, and their influence in
     Muslims' daily life. 

  4.Discuss the expansion of Muslim rule through
     military conquests and treaties, emphasizing
     the cultural blending within Muslim civilization
     and the spread and acceptance of Islam and the
     Arabic language. 

  5.Describe the growth of cities and the
     establishment of trade routes among Asia,
     Africa, and Europe, the products and
     inventions that traveled along these routes
     (e.g., spices, textiles, paper, steel, new crops),
     and the role of merchants in Arab society. 

  6.Understand the intellectual exchanges among
     Muslim scholars of Eurasia and Africa and the
     contributions Muslim scholars made to later
     civilizations in the areas of science, geography,
     mathematics, philosophy, medicine, art, and
     literature.

"The state guidelines call for the approach to religion
to be academic, not devotional," stressed Tom
Adams, the adminstrator for curriculum framework. 

"I can't confirm what went on at Byron but I don't
believe they were following the framework," he
added. 

The Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional
Resources (the framework), first adopted in 1988 and
updated in 2000 incorporate the content standards
and serve as the basis for statewide assessment. The
framework for history-social science for grade seven
provides for an examination of "the rise of Islam as a
religion and as a civilization. ... The religious ideas of
Mohammed, the founder of Islam, should be
discussed both for their ethical teachings and as a
way of life. Mohammed should be seen as a major
historical figure who helped establish the Islamic way
of life, its code of ethics and justice, and its rule of
law." 

While the framework encourages "simulations, role
playing and dramatizations," Appendix C specifies
that "the school may sponsor study about religion, but
may not sponsor the practice of religion." 

When asked about the scant coverage of Christianity
and Judaism versus Islam set forth in the content
standards and framework for grade seven, Adams
points to the curriculum for sixth-graders. That
framework instructs: 

     "6. Note the origins of Christianity in the
     Jewish-Messianic Prophecies, the life and
     teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as
     described in the New Testament, and the
     contribution of St. Paul the Apostle to the
     definition and spread of Christian beliefs
     (e.g., belief in the Trinity, resurrection,
     salvation)."

Adams also stresses the state guidelines and
standards "are not mandatory," and the state
recognizes the need for local control within school
districts. Asked whether Byron would exercise local
control and opt out of the Islam studies, Castro
replied, "The state tests our students and ranks are
performance on this curriculum. If we didn't teach
parts of it, students would not succeed in achieving
the standards." 

Pitfalls of discretion 

Parent Valerie Moore believes part of the problem lies
in the discretion exercised by the teachers. 

"The teacher spent four months on Islam and then ran
out of time to teach about the Reformation and all
that," she said. 

Field surveys conducted in 1994 by state educators
substantiate Moore's claim, revealing "gaps in student
learning." Appendix D of the framework states, "For
example, in some sixth-grade classrooms students
never reached the study of ancient Rome because of
the extended time they spent on the study of
Mesopotamia and Egypt earlier in the year. Some
seventh-graders never studied about Europe during
the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Scientific
Revolution" – lessons which follow the unit on Islam. 

'Pro Islamic, anti-Chrisitan textbook' 

Moore and other parents find the course textbook,
"Across the Centuries," to be skewed. 

"I started reading my daughter's textbook and was
astonished that nothing in the book resembled the
history that I had been taught. It had all been
distorted and rewritten," says Moore, "No longer
could the founding of America be traced through
Judeo/Christian beginnings. ... The history had been
altered to now show that America had been given
birth through an Islamic heritage. Everything sprang
up through Islam." 

The Pacific Justice Institute, a non-profit legal defense
organization, has mounted a challenge to the textbook
on behalf of a concerned parent from San Luis
Obispo. Jen Schroeder noticed her son's textbook "had
a distinct bias toward Islam over Christianity" and
proceeded to scour the book, writing a 10-page
content analysis of it over the winter break. (See .pdf
version of Schroeder's report.) 

"I was shocked," Schroeder told WorldNetDaily. 

"Across the Centuries," she says, "instructs our
children to 'imagine you are a Muslim soldier' and
write about it; 'imagine you are on a Mecca
pilgrimage' and write about it; to research what a
mosque looks like and then to build a replica of one.
Another assignment is to write why other nations are
attracted to Islam. ... I found 20 Islamic beliefs stated
as fact." 

While presenting a "white-washed version of Islam,"
Schroeder asserts the textbook goes out of its way to
depict Christianity in a negative light. 

"In the textbook, there is a large three-column block
titled 'Understanding Religious Persecution,' which
blames Christians exclusively for persecuting others
and forcing beliefs, when in fact there have been
more Christian martyrs than any other religion." 

"The Bible says 'Take heed that you do not inquire
how other nations serve their gods,'" continues
Schroeder, "For my son to obey the school, he must
disobey what the Bible tells him." 

Schroeder tried to opt Eric out of the class but says
the principal told her "no" because the state
assessments require the knowledge presented in the
class. 

"It seems everyone has rights except the Christians,
and I have no choice but to file a lawsuit." 

Pacific Justice Institute had scholars comb through
both the textbook and the teacher's version to
substantiate Schroeder's content analysis prior to
filing the administrative complaint. 

"The average parent would be outraged to see this
kind of bias and distortion of world history," said
Brad Dacus, the group's chief counsel. 

California adopted the textbook in 1991. When asked
why ten years have passed without a major challenge,
Dacus replied, "Parents overlooked it, thinking Islam
is far away. They never saw it as having a threat to
their children. [The terror attacks of Sept. 11 have]
changed that and [have] created more scrutiny." 

When seventh-grader Eric, was asked how he felt
about the instruction, he responded, "It hurts my
stomach."

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