The Seventh Grade history book standard in most California schools is “History Alive – The Medieval World and Beyond.” Medieval generally refers to history from about 800 to about 1500. In terms of historical relevance, European Medieval history is the watershed for most of Western culture. While there were simultaneous historical events in China, India, and the Middle East, their impact on Western culture was minimal and often derivative. For this reason, it is astounding that “History Alive” contains 55 pages on Islam and only 16 pages on Christianity (of which much of the content was negative. Example: “Crusaders wanted to gain control of Jerusalem. . . Many were killed and others lost home and property.”) Judaism is mentioned only in the context of the Spanish Inquisition. The text provides no information about Buddhism as a faith. By comparison, a college-level book from the 1960’s “Readings in Western Civilization” does not contain a single reading by a Muslim, and the words Islam, Muslim, or Muhammad are not mentioned in the book’s 922 pages.
While Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism should all be addressed, the content of a medieval history book for Western readers should emphasize the religions and historical events of Western countries which truly shaped our culture and social values. Today, according to the CIA World Fact book, the Muslim population in the United States is about 0.6 percent of the population, fewer than the Jewish or the Buddhist populations. With 78.5 percent of the U.S. population belonging to various Christian faiths, the extreme Islamic bias of “History Alive” is unwarranted.
Different Ideologies Must Be Presented Analytically
Text books cannot take a “neutral position” with regard to certain ideologies for fear of possibly offending a student. No U.S. textbook published today would describe Communism or Nazism as potential alternate ideologies to consider. Rather, the authors would outline the pitfalls and the dangers of such ideologies.
That is why the treatment of Islam in “History Alive” is particularly disturbing. There is no analysis of Islamic doctrine or Shari’a Law. For example, “History Alive” states, “Shari’a promotes obedience to the Koran and respect for others. Shari’a continues to develop in response to modern ways of life and its challenges.” Does this statement stand up to a close examination of the actual Shari’a Law? These laws were established around 1360, and they are unchangeable due to their conformity to the unchangeable Koran. Here is a sampling of Shari’a Laws that clearly violate the U.S. Constitution and state laws:
1. death for apostates (o8.1)
2. stoning of adulterers (o12.2)
3. female genital mutilation (e4.3)
4. child marriage (n9.2)
5. reduced indemnity for killing non-Muslims and women (o4.9)
6. chopping off hands and feet of petty thieves (o14.1)
8. inheritance for women is ½ that of men (L6.3)
9. a woman’s testimony is ½ that of a man’s (o4.27)
10. slavery k32.0 (See also Koran 24:32)
Shouldn’t students understand that the provisions of Shari’a Law run counter to our nation’s own laws?
Also, in “History Alive” there is a rather innocuous definition of jihad which Muslims “fulfill with the heart, tongue and hand – the heart to resist evil, the tongue to convince others to take up worthy causes, and the hands to perform good works and correct wrongs.” In light of the September 11, 2001, attack on New York and Washington, perhaps a better definition of jihad should come from the ideological mentor of Osama bin Ladin, Sayyid Qutb in his widely published book, “Milestones”:
As to persons who attempt to defend the concept of Islamic jihad by interpreting it in the narrow sense, . . . they lack understanding of the nature of Islam and its primary aim. . . [T]his struggle is not a temporary phase but an eternal state. Islam is not merely a belief [but] a way of life. [H]ence it is the duty of Islam to annihilate all [competing] systems. (pp. 70-76)
The foremost duty of Islam in this world is to depose jahiliyya (ignorance) from the leadership of man, and to take the leadership into its own hands and enforce the particular way of life which is its permanent feature. . . Islam . .has come to abolish all such concepts, laws, customs and traditions, and to replace them with a new concept of human life, to create a new world on the foundation of submission to Allah.” (p. 131)
This statement clearly advocates the overthrow of secular governments, replacing them with Islamic ones. This constitutes advocating the overthrow of our government. Shouldn’t students be warned of this agenda?
This book review is excerpted from a letter that Ms. Tamer sent to the California Department of Education that went unanswered. She is the Los Angeles chapter leader of ACT.
