Due to the efforts of Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) and others, public school textbooks remain rife with Muslim propaganda such as “Assume you are a Muslim soldier.” When the textbook publisher, Houghton Mifflin (HM), came under fire last year with accusations of indoctrination to Islam, Forrest Turpen, Executive Director of CEAI, publicly defended the textbook. TruthorFiction.com noted the “Christian group” and wrote “Turpin says the teaching about Islam has not been "slipped" into the curriculum… In fact," says Turpin, "the state of California has been a leader in requiring a balance of teaching about who we are and what has empowered us as a civilization."
BlessedCause, the organization that originally complained about the Islamic propaganda, wrote to Forrest Turpen pointing out the affronts of the Islam Unit and asked why he endorsed the textbook.
Turpen wrote back: "I agree with you that the response from HM implies that we reviewed the books in the series in total. That isn't the case at all as we focused only our attention on the Christian perspectives that were written and did not look at or compare the other content of the texts... In essence we did no evaluation of the other religions addressed in any of the textbooks of the HM series."
No evaluation. Yet Mr. Turpen, representing a “Christian group,” defended HM and quelled public outrage.
BlessedCause continued correspondence with CEAI, to which Dan Elliott, Ed.D., a member of CEAIs Board of Directors, replied “Our organization is not a “Christian Education” organization. It is a professional educators organization. We support teachers and administrators, working primarily in public schools who are Christians.”
If Christian Educators is not a Christian organization per se, and did not evaluate the Islam unit, why was Turpen quoted like an expert representing Christians? BlessedCause asked CEAI to request TruthorFiction retract their statements. CEAI refused.
CEAI is a paid consultant for HM’s 6th grade textbook “A Message of Ancient Days” which contains the Christian section. BlessedCause has since reviewed this textbook including the chapter titled: “Christianity and the Fall of Rome.” This is a partial list of items found:
- Blame of Christians for the fall of Rome;
- Quotes that Christians should be convicted (death) for their “hatred against mankind” without explanation or opposing view;
- That Christians fed to the lions in Rome were mostly an exaggeration of Christian writers;
- That Jesus was predominantly described as “a popular teacher with ideas”;
- That Old Testament prophets are described in so many words as false prophets whose purpose was merely to explain disasters and allow Jews to retain their faith in God;
- That salvation is earned by “believing as Christians believe,” good works and tithing (what a dry, contrived view of the Gospel!);
- That Jews mistreated Christians more than Nero;
- Secular explanations for the origin of Hebrews;
- Atheist versions of Biblical stories;
- Islam’s beliefs about Jesus subtly passed off as Christian beliefs in the Christian section!
There are many scholars of the Bible and the Quran, but few have closely studied and compared the Bible, the Quran AND the 6th grade textbook. BlessedCause has, and noted that overwhelmingly, what is written as Christian beliefs are actually Islam’s beliefs about Jesus.
What a contrast to the Islam Unit with statements such as:
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“The Quran is the final revelation, just as Muhammad is the final prophet.”
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“In fact, the very first word the angel Gabriel spoke to Muhammad was recite.”
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“Ramadan is a holy time, because in this month Muhammad received his first message from Allah.”
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“These revelations confirmed both Muhammad’s belief in monotheism, and his role as the last messenger in a long line of prophets sent by God.”
Religious beliefs of Islam compose 10 times the text compared to the Christian Unit, with LESS disclaimers such as “Muslims believe.” (see graph) Instead of asking children to assume they are Muslim soldiers, in the Christian section they are asked to imagine they are back in the catacombs of dead Christians. It’s cleverly written in a fun way, but bottom line, that’s the exercise. In the Jewish section, children are asked to imagine they are Jews forced from their homeland.
Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. With California spending $400 million per year on textbooks, Christian Educators sold out Jesus for a mere $500.
We Christians often leap to the rationalization of our anger by bringing up the turning of tables by Jesus. Usually we are wrong to do that. But there are times such as these when one can do no less.
A federal lawsuit has been filed by Thomas More Law Center regarding the Islam indoctrination in public school. I do not accept donations, but Thomas More has been fighting for our rights as a free Christian legal organization. Please help support them if you can.
Christian children, the bodies of Christ, are being crucified on the cross of public school. How long will we abandon our children to suffer this onslaught of their faith alone?
Jen Shroder is founder of BlessedCause.org, where dozens of exact quotes from both textbooks can be found, as well as documentation of children praying to Allah on their hands and knees at the request of teachers.
TruthorFiction also reported that Islam's beliefs were under the umbrella of "The Teachings of Islam." This simply is not so. That heading appeared after four full pages of religious beliefs. This link will show two pages in their entirety, from the start of the lesson, in context. See word for word.
Related article: Houghton Mifflin's Fabricated DefenseSources: http://www.thomasmore.org/news.html?NewsID=12
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/byronislam.htm, Houghton Mifflin textbooks, http://www.blessedcause.org where you can find direct quotes and documentation supporting facts listed as well
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