The Softer Side Of Islam
Joanne Jacobs points out the cuddly way textbooks refer to the religion that literally means submission -- and the coverup of the Quran's mandate to convert or kill anybody who isn't an Allah-worshipper. Here's some of the weenying in print, from a piece she links to in the Christian Science Monitor by Gary Bauer:

In his 2008 study "Islam in the Classroom: what the textbooks tell us," Gilbert Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council (ATC), reviewed 10 of the nation's most widely used junior and senior high school history textbooks. The results should disturb anyone interested in conveying to our children a truthful history of the religion whose extreme adherents drive so many of today's tragic headlines.

At a time when America is locked in a battle of ideas with Islamic extremists and other enemies of freedom, accurate knowledge is indispensable. Yet, Sewall's findings underscore how political correctness is distorting the next generation's understanding of this battle.

...Sewall found that many textbooks gloss over or delete important facts. For example, in the 1990s, "jihad" - which has many meanings, among them "sacred" or "holy" struggle but also "holy war" - was defined in the Houghton Mifflin junior high school book only as a struggle "to do one's best to resist temptation and overcome evil."

The many acts of violence committed on behalf of Islam in the past decade have made that definition incomplete, to say the least. Yet, as ATC notes, "by 2005, Houghton Mifflin apparently had removed jihad from its entire series of social studies textbooks."

In discussing sharia law, the Islamic code that can be used to subjugate women and deal death to wayward believers, many textbooks are intentionally vague. Holt Rinehart Winston's 2006 "Medieval to Early Modern Times" junior high textbook states simply, "[Sharia] sets rewards for good behavior and punishments for crimes." Another popular history textbook states, "Muslim law requires that Muslim leaders offer religious toleration."

Descriptions of Islam since 9/11 are particularly disturbing. Though Islamic extremism has become a fact of life throughout much of the world, most of the reviewed textbooks suggest instead that poverty, ignorance, and the existence of Israel are at the root of terrorism. The closest that any textbook gets to suggesting a faith-based component to terrorism is Glencoe's "Modern Times," which states broadly that "Muslims have not accommodated their religious beliefs to the modern world."

No fucking kidding...although they've done a pretty good job in using technology created thanks to the Enlightenment and Western values -- using it in service of murdering thousands upon thousands of "infidels."

My comment on Joanne's site, quoting somebody else's at the top:

"They're still upset about the Crusades, for goodness sakes."

Yeah? And Jews are a little tweaked about the Holocaust, but as courageous Wafa Sultan pointed out, you don't see them running around blowing up German restaurants.

Oh, and note that one is called "courageous" whenever one speaks out against the barbarism that is Islam. When one speaks out against the evidence-free belief in god that is Judaism or Christianity (I'm critical of any evidence-free belief) one is merely called wrong or rude by Jews and Christians, who will likely argue with you, but not approach you while wearing a bomb vest.

Joanne via Insty