Textbook consultant Susan Douglass has praised Pakistan's madrassa schools, blamed by the U.S. government for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al Qaeda, as "proud symbols of learning." (WorldNetDaily)
"Look who's teaching Johnny about Islam: Saudi-funded Islamic activists have final say in shaping public-school lessons on religions," headlines Robert Spencer at Dhimmi Watch, citing a WorldNetDaily report:
WorldNetDaily has learned that up until last year [top textbook consultant Susan] Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., which teaches Wahhabism through textbooks that condemn Jews and Christians as infidels and enemies of Islam . . . [The head of a leading Saudi opposition group] says many of the academy's textbooks he has reviewed contain passages promoting hatred of non-Muslims . . . The three major U.S. publishers of world history texts -- Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill and Prentice Hall -- have all let Mansuri and Douglass review their books . . .
Critics complain that Douglass, who taught at the Saudi academy for at least a decade, has convinced American textbook publishers and educators to gloss over the violent aspects of Islam to make the faith more appealing to non-Muslim children. The units on Islam reviewed by WND appear to give a glowing and largely uncritical view of the faith.
It isn't just infidel-hating Wahhabists who are trying to brainwash our children, of course, but interest groups of every stripe. We've blogged about these issues before, here and here and here, noting that textbook companies and educators take the path of least resistance, responding to the squeakiest wheels. As George Archibald in The Washington Times put it,
Publishers acknowledge having buckled since the early 1980s to so-called multicultural "bias guidelines" demanded by interest groups and elected state boards of education that require censorship of textbook content to accommodate feminist, homosexual and racial demands.
*Stealth education is taken from the title of a Marvin Olasky essay.
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