A SERIES of children’s textbooks on Islam contains misleading and inflammatory rhetoric about the religion, and inaccurately portrays Muslims as inherently violent and deserving of suspicion, according to the Pennsylvania chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)
Moein Khawaja: not a happy bunny
The textbooks, under the collective title of World of Islam, are published by Mason Crest Publishing. The blurb for the series declares:
Since the events of September 11, 2001, today’s society is more aware than ever of Islam, often with erroneous facts. This series seeks to educate and enlighten youth to one of the world’s most predominant religions in an easy-to-read format, along with colorful pictures and quotations.
Ah, but the books themselves are erroneous, complains CAIR.
Moein Khawaja, the chapter’s civil rights director, wailed yesterday:
Filled with incorrect information and deception, these books are contrary to the education mission of schools and libraries.
According to this report, it was not immediately clear where the series is being used, but Khawaja said complaints from council chapters across the country lead him to believe it is on bookshelves in about two dozen states.
Mason Crest partnered with the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute to produce the 10-book series, which is designed for ages 10 and older.
Institute vice president Alan Luxenberg, who wrote a book called Radical Islam for the series, defended the texts.
They’re taking things out of context to paint a picture that misconstrues the meaning of the books.
Among at least two dozen examples cited by Khawaja, the book “Muslims in America” says that:
Some Muslims began immigrating to the United States in order to transform American society, sometimes through the use of terrorism.
Foreign Policy Research Institute president Harvey Sicherman said that he is mystified by the reaction to the series, and that:
Well, yes, some people did come to the United States to commit terrorism, and I don’t know how one can quarrel with that sentence.
The institute cited several passages that it says shows there is no anti-Islamic bias in the books, including a description of Muslims as:
An integral part of the American mosaic.
Then there was the statement:
The great majority (of Muslims) reject the Islamist interpretation of their religion and are horrified by the idea of living under an extremist Muslim society.
Khawaja said the problem goes beyond isolated sentences to what he described as the series’ overarching anti-Muslim tone and message.
A book isn’t just a set of quotes – it’s a conclusion you walk away with.
He noted that a chronology in the book Islam in Europe starts with 1988 and lists ten events, seven of which involve extremist Muslims participating in bombings, hijackings or other violence.
Muslims have been in Europe for thousands of years. This is ridiculous.
Luxenberg said that while “maybe the chronology is too short,” the overall book is even-handed.
I don’t think we should be labeled as anti-Islamic.
Meanwhile, we learn from this report that a militant Islamic group in Nigeria has produced a video calling for Muslims to rise up “with the sword and the spear” against Nigerian Christians.
The 10-minute video on the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum – a website sympathetic to al-Qaeda – comes after more than 200 people, mostly Christians, died last week in massacres in villages outside of the central Nigerian city of Jos. More than 300 people – mostly Muslims – died in January during rioting in the same region.
Hat tip: BarrieJohn
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
March 18th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Well, they would be up in arms if someone called Luxenberg is involved with the books. They probably think he’s the pseudonymous Christophe, he of 72 raisins fame.
March 18th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Lets see…. The kakaran (in my kidhood kaka was the accepted slang for shit) and the buybull thumpers state they are the WORD of G0D!!! The MORAL code they live by!!! THEY are FULL of advice that requires stoning-killing-beating-genocide, I guess after you kill everyone they are books of peace. Just because SOME of the believers SAY it is about peace and love does not make it so!!!!
I know the buybull advocates violence, and I’m sure the kakaran does as well, considering how Mo’s extreme intelligence could only come up with a re-edit and name change for the buybull.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
A selection of photographs depicting the aftermath of 911 (perhaps half an arm here or a severed leg there) with the caption “Some Muslims contributing to the American mosaic” will illustrate the book nicely and be difficult to refute.
March 18th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Another day, another whinging muzzie. Remind me, just what was the religion of those terrorists who bombed London and flew planes into the WTC? If the muzzzies don’t like to be reminded of what a vile and violent religion islam is, perhaps they should abandon it.
March 18th, 2010 at 1:32 pm
Better give them what they want.
Upsetting adherents to the religion of peas is bad for your health.
March 18th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
“Muslims have been in Europe for thousands of years.”
Islam is what, 1400 years old? Thousands of years? What is this man blathering about?
March 18th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
I see that Bob Hutton is having a pop at you on his blog, Barry.
Full-on email onslaught everybody?
http://bobhutton1.blogspot.com/
March 18th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
Whenever there is an atrocity commited by extremist muslims the moderates come out and tell us things like ‘there is nothing in the holy book that orders this’ and the all time favourate ‘islam is a peaceful religion’.
Well it’s quite simple if you are so sure about what the koran says about peace don’t tell us that-tell them that.
March 18th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
oops-just wanted to add a comma but the delete request didn’t work.
March 18th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Where’s my comment gone? Anyway, it was something like this:
“I see Bob Hutton is having a pop at you on his blog, Barry.
Full-on email onslaught everybody?”
http://bobhutton1.blogspot.com/
(No doubt the original will now appear immediately before this one!)
March 18th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
If muslims kill Sweden artists is it self defense fore Sweden artists to kill muslims?
Watch and read mohammed T-shirt art from Sweden at,
http://www.mohammedt-shirt.com
March 18th, 2010 at 10:29 pm
It is true that many rugbutters, perhaps because they have never read Mohammed’s Mein Kampf and are genuinely ignorant of what it really says, scream the Big Lie that, “There is nothing in the holy book that orders this.” The reality is that Koran believers are under orders, “Slay the pagans wherever you find them. Make war on the unbelievers and the hypocrites and deal rigorously with them. When you encounter the unbelievers, strike off their heads.”
That is a “peaceful religion”?
March 18th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
If these books bomb (or cause a few), Khawaja can always go back to making karaoke videos for Halifax.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEVjbosMqFM
March 19th, 2010 at 3:42 am
Taqiyya in action. Once more people understand this Islamic dispensation and its modern use, Islamic apologist organizations like CAIR will cease to garner any attention.
March 19th, 2010 at 6:36 am
harwood,
As I am a person who talks a lot of smack, I tend to cut a lot of slack, at risk of being hypocritical, but as a person who wishes to be addressed as “doctor”, your comments are conspicuously devoid of footnote links. You quote muslim scripture without any form of verification of translation. I hold the same disgust for muslims as I do christians, but at the end of the day, aren’t the intellectuals revered because they actually have a legitimate verifiable point???
I’ve read your book reviews and they read alot like your posts. A lot of “brain amputees”, etc. I had heard Canadians were supremely polite, obviously another inaccurate stereotype.
NeoWolfe
March 19th, 2010 at 7:56 am
@Garlic: “Muslims have been in Europe for thousands of years.”
Silly us, according to the lastest blurb, Mohammed was the perfect muslim. But Allah has been around since he spit out the earth and people some 6000+ years ago.
This is also one of the reasons they insist on being called muslim rather than the earlier, more common mohammedan, in an effort to make people believe that they have been around since the year dot (or -4000 CE).
Change a few text books, fluff over a few things, it works.
Peoples memories are very short, try asking around when television was invented, or computers or cars. Lots of children cannot imagine that there was ever a time when they did not exist.
March 19th, 2010 at 8:02 am
mohammedanism.
That’s a word I’ve not heard in a long time. I know Winston Churchill used it to describe islamists in Sudan around 1900.
March 19th, 2010 at 8:40 am
I use the term Mohammedan all the time, Broadsword, just to wind them up, and they ALWAYS take the bait! “We do not worship Mohammed” is the standard reply, showing their very tenuous grasp of logic. I seem to remember it being the word we always used in the 1950s with reference to them, and for some time after. Of course, what it does point out very nicely is the fact that they are followers of a mere man again, whatever they may claim, and that their religion is nowhere near as old as they like to think, as gsw so rightly says.
BTW I love that word “grizzles”, Barry! Another one that you don’t hear nearly enough these days!!
March 19th, 2010 at 10:26 am
I’m laughing my socks off here at Bob Hutton’s latest outburst, Marcus:
In keeping with the general trend of this evil country, as it plunges headlong into ever deeper levels of debauchery, atheism has become much more militant.
What can you say? At least the poor dear loves us!
March 19th, 2010 at 11:44 am
Too much wine last night*, I seem to have had the impression that Khawaja was the author.
* Thought for the morning: in how many countries would this actually make me worse than a terrorist?
March 19th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
Mr Wolfe: As a North American, you cannot be unaware that addressing an individual by his last name is a calculated attempt to be offensive. I have no problem with persons who feel a need to be polite to the braindead. It is not my own policy, but that is a personal preference. Given the space available, your demand that I include footnotes in a posting to this site is unrealistic. I include all necessary citations in my articles and books. Are you suggesting that the Koran passages I cited are not really in there? It seems to me that you are trying to promote disinformation you do not believe yourself.
March 19th, 2010 at 6:26 pm
harwood,
Throughout my school years, all my friends and acquaintences addressed me by my surname. And in this forum, everyone abbreviates, so try to get over it.
I was not calling you a liar, but, any article you intend to publish will contain supporting bibliography. I think if you want to prosecute islam as a religion of hate (let’s be real, they all are), and make your case to the world, you should at least, quote the source of your translation.
I called you “harwood”, and you called me “jackass”. So, please don’t make appeals to me based on etiquette.
NeoWolfe
March 19th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
I accept your explanation. Now PLEASE quit while you are ahead.
March 20th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
I can vouch for the fact that Dr. Harwood’s Koran quote is genuine as I have read it. I did have a quick look to see if I could provide a reference but I’m not sure that it is worth the trouble to dig it out, sorry.