Western Resistance

May 11, 2008

Islam in the Classroom: The American Textbook Council 2008 Report

Bad news on the American public education front. The American Textbook Council has put out their 2008 Report: Islam in the Classroom. According to the report, there has apparently been no progress in eliminating the politically correct airbrushing of history and promotion of Islam in the junior and high school level text books since I last reported on it two and a half years ago.

Gilbert T. Sewall, the author of the report reviews the nation's ten most widely used textbooks for junior and senior high seems well aware of the multicultural and politically correct bias that pervades textbooks today.

I encourage anyone concerned with what textbooks the taxpayers are funding for the education of our children to read this report. It critiques several example passages and gives a good idea of the distortions and omissions about history and Islam that are presented in these texts. There are several examples of passages that are deliberately offering very little insight into important geopolitical forces like terrorism, fundamentalism and modernity that affect national security. Also, while Islam is played up and whitewashed, European and Christian history is painted in a harsh light its relevance is downplayed.

Sewall places the blame mainly on the schoolbook publishers and governing boards who too quickly cave in to deflect protests from "pressure groups" such as the Council on Islamic Education. He says that the political climate in education that places heavy emphasis on "diversity" and the catering of students who can't or won't learn history makes it easy for these pressure groups to get away with their version of history. Parents who attempted to block the books at a local level were dismissed as racists. Yes, it's racist to want history accurately portrayed.

According to ATC, California and Texas adopted their textbooks in 2005 which will apparently be used for years to come. What they've done is ensure that millions of children will be trapped using books that offer mediocrity and a soft petaled version of history. More than that, I fear that the multicultural mind-rot offered to our children will discourage critical thinking to such a degree that we will produce a generation that is ill-equipped for the challenges of the future. The slide in education has been taking place already for the last forty years.

What can be done? In my 2005 piece, I said that parents have a high degree of power at a local level in choosing the textbooks for the students. However, clearly, I was wrong. The forces of multiculturalism and politically correct thought is so strong that we see that the voices that stand for truth and accuracy are again shut down as racist. Still, I think it's worth it to continue to challenge school boards locally over the curriculum and textbook matters. Even if the efforts fail, it's important that the administrators know that these textbooks will never go unnoticed and unchallenged.

Home schooling has becoming an increasingly viable option since there are so many online resources available for the home schooling parent. Also, the growing homeschooling phenomena is of increasing concern to the public school system - tax dollars lost and all. If this phenomena continues to grow academics will finally be compelled to change the offending textbooks in order to keep students.

Homeschooling is not an option for most working parents but they can still stay actively involved in what the children are taught in social studies and history. Stay on top of what books are at issue - the top ten are included in the report - and review your child's textbooks. You can find supplemental reading for your child that offers a more accurate accounting of history and world affairs. This might even be an excellent opportunity to teach your child about the multicultural agenda and teach them to question information they receive from books, government and schools. You might not be able to home school your child, but you can still take on the task of helping your child develop critical thinking skills that are so lacking in the educational environment now.

We aren't beaten yet, but we're going to have to get extremely pro-active when it comes to the education of our young. Start now.

addendum:

California, that liberal paradise and consequently, bastion of freedom and self-determination has recently outlawed homeschooling at the appeals level.

Apparently, it does work to take up the fight at the local level in other states besides California:

Posted by Isabel de Castilla at 6:41 PM | Comments (1)

May 8, 2008

Malaysia: First (Living) Woman Allowed To Leave Islam

Malaysia attempts to present itself as a "liberal" Muslim state. Article 11 of the Malaysian constitution states that a citizen can follow any religion of their choosing, contains a clause which shows that Malaysia has no concept of religious freedom but adds: "The law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam." Article 3 states that Islam is the official religion of the state, but Article 3 (1) of the constitution states that 'other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in any part of the Federation'.

Additionally, there is a racist element in Malaysia's constitution. All ethnic Malays are said to be Muslim. At the age of 12, each person in Malaysia is issued with an identity card - called MyKad - upon which the person's religion and race are listed. And all Malays are automatically said to be Muslims.

The problems are made worse by the racism of Malaysia's ruling party - UMNO. This party has ruled in a coalition since Malaysia became independent in 1957. After race riots in 1969, the party has actively promoted a racist policy of "ketuanan Melayu" which gives job preferences and privileges to Malays and Muslims above other racial/religious groups.

In the history of modern Malaysia, the only person who was allowed to leave Islam was an 89-year old widow called Nyonya Tahir. She had married a Chinese Buddhist man in 1936 when she was aged 20. She became a Buddhist. Her choice to become a Buddhist was made long before the Malaysian constitution was written. Nyonya had tried repeatedly to have the National Registration Department (NRD) change her status to "Buddhist".

The NRD never makes any decisions of this nature, as an amendment tot he constitution was brought in by the ruling UMNO party in 1988. There are two systems of justice in Malaysia - the civil courts, and the sharia (Syariah) courts. Article 121 (a) was introduced in 1988 which stated that any issue which fell under the jurisdiction of the Islamic courts could not be dealt with by the civil courts. As for a Muslim all issues of "religious status" are dealt with by the Islamic courts, all appeals to civil courts on issues of apostasy are rejected.

Nyonya Tahir made history when on January 24, 2006 she was allowed to be granted the status of being a Buddhist. This status had been denied her ever since Malaysia became independent in 1957.

Unfortunately, this privilege was not fully appreciated by Nyonya Tahir, as she had died on January 19 of that year. Her body had been refused a burial until Seremban State Syariah Court had decided on the issue.

The custom of body-snatching by Muslim courts has shocked the Western world since December 2005, when the corpse of a Hindu former mountaineering hero was refused burial. The Islamic courts had been told that Maniam Moorthy had become a Muslim convert, a fact his wife Kaliammal had denied. Moorthy had been in a coma when the allegations were made, and could not confirm or deny the claims. Kaliammal tok the case to the HIgh Court. The judge said that because of Article 121 (a) he could not intervene. On December 28, 2005, Lance-Corporal Moorthy's body was taken away by representatives of the Islamic courts and buried as a Muslim in a Muslim ceremony.

Since that time there have ben several cases where the bodies of Buddhists, Christians and Hindus have been denied burial until representatives of Islamic courts have battled to take possession of the cadaver. Such actions, shocking to outsiders, naturally cause upset and offense to grieving relatives. Muslim women are not allowed to marry out of their faith. As a result, families have been forcibly ripped apart when Islamic courts have decided that a Hindu woman is officially a "Muslim".

One 57-year old Malay woman, Kamariah Ali, had publicly rejected Islam in 1998 and in 2005. An Islamic court sentenced her on March 3, 2008 to two year's jail for the "crime" of leaving Islam. She has been jailed for being a non-Muslim before. She was a member of the heretical "Sky Kingdom Sect" which welcomed Buddhists, Muslims, Christians and Hindus to its compound. She was jailed twice before for not being a "proper" Muslim. In this decade she was jailed for insulting Islam, and in 1992 she was jailed for apostasy.

Another Malay woman who has fought for the right to leave Islam is Lina Joy. She became a Christian in 1981. The NRD refused to recognize either of her change of name from Azlina Jailani to a Christian one (Lina Joy) or to accept her conversion out of Islam. Eventually the NRD allowed her to have her Christian name on her MyKad, but refused to list her as a Christian.

Lina Joy took her case to the Federal Court - the highest court in the nation - in 2006. The result was delayed and delayed. Eventually, in May 2007 the judges at the Federal Court ruled by two to one that she had no right to leave Islam. Outside the court, Muslims cheered the result. Lina is not allowed to marry her Christian boyfriend while she is officially a "Muslim". She and her lawyer have received death threats from Muslims.

I wrote earlier this year:

"A similar case involved an ethnic Chinese woman from Nibong Tebal, Penang state, who was originally called Tan Ean Huang. She had married an Iranian man called Ferdoun Ashanian in 1999. Before she married him, she converted to Islam in July 1998, and her MyKad was changed by the NRD to acknowledge her conversion. She became known as Siti Fatimah. Only a few months after the marriage Ashanian deserted her, and his whereabouts are now unknown. In May 2006, she applied to Penang's Islamic Affairs Council to declare that she is not a Muslim. Siti Fatimah wanted her MyKad religious status to be officially changed to Buddhist.

She claimed that her conversion to Islam was only a means to get married, and after the failure of her marriage she had gone back to her Buddhist beliefs. She maintained reverence for Buddhist deities such as Kuan Yin and others. On August 11, 2007, Judge Othman Ibrahim Othman ruled at Penang's Syariah High Court that a decision would not be made until December 3. He ruled in the meantime that she should undergo Islamic counseling. As in other such cases, a decision has still not been made."

In Penang state, in northwest Malaysia on Thursday, a Shariah High Court' decided that the 39-year old cake-seller could leave Islam. The court ruled that when Siti married her husband, the official Islamic authorities and her husband had both failed to give her proper guidance on Islam.

The judge, Othman Ibrahim, ruled that "The court is disappointed because MAIPP (Penang Islamic Religious Council) did not act quickly to save the faith of a Muslim and provide a procedure to control and supervise a Muslim convert so that she did not abandon Islam. Without reasonable methods, perhaps more will come to court to renounce Islam."

Othman also criticized the Penang Islamic Religious Council (MAIPP) for failing to attend the court until the proceedings were nearly over, despite MAIPP being issued with a summons and statement of claim.

Judge Othman ordered MAIPP to cancel the certificate that claimed Siti had converted into Islam.

Lawyer Ahmad Munawir Abdul Aziz of the MAIPP said: "So you can't blame her for her ignorance of the teachings and wanting to convert out."

Siti was pleased, and said: " I want to go to the (Buddhist) temple to pray and give thanks."

Siti had filed her appeal on July 10, 2006, naming MAIP as a defendant. She asserted that she had only converted on July 25, 1998 only to be able to marry her Iranian husband. He had absconded four months after the marriage. Siti claims she still eats pork.

Her lawyer said it was a landmark decision. Some minority groups have said that this was a victory for minority rights, but until Muslims are allowed to leave Islam, just as any other person can leave their religion to convert into Islam, there has been only a lucky result for Siti.

It is of no consolation to Kamariah Ali who is in jail, to Lina Joy, or to Hindu women such as Revathi Massosai who was placed in an Islamic "rehabilitation center", wher she claims she was mentally tortured. It is no consolation for the family of Hindu rubber tapper Marimuthu. His wife, by whom he had six children, was said to be a Muslim. He was told that unless he converted to Islam, he would be prosecuted for "khalwat" - being in close proximity to a person to whom one is neither a relative or marriage partner. His wife has been forced to leave her family.

Until these injustices are addressed, and the racist parts of the constitution (Article 160, section 2) that define all Malays as Muslims, and the amendment of 121 (A) is struck off, there is nothing here to celebrate. The news is good for Siti, but it is a fluke, rather than a basic right. I am reminded of the saying "one swallow does not a summer make".

Siti may not even be out of the woods yet - MAIPP has the right to contest the decision from the state's Syariah High Court. Ahmad Munawir Abdul Aziz, representing MAIPP, said that his group would be lodging its appeal within 14 days at the Penang Syariah Appeals Court.

Siti had also tried to have the NRD change the religious status on her MyKad identity card from "Muslim" to Buddhist". Judge Othman Ibrahim had refused, stating that his court did have jurisdiction over this matter.

Malaysia's largest trading partner is America. Perhaps the American government should be pressing for Malaysia to allow freedom of religion for all people in Malaysia. As a member of the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the Malaysian government has moved further towards Islamism.

In 2007, during the nation's 50th anniversary celebrations of independence (Merdeka), Malaysia's chief justice Ahmad Fairuz suggested that common law should be abolished and replaced with Sharia law.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at 9:47 PM | Comments (0)