On Friday, the Texas School Board passed a resolution in a 7-5 vote that Texas textbooks should limit the references to Islam because of fear of a "creeping Middle Eastern influence in the nation's publishing industry."
Need I say more on the story? This is wrong on so many levels.
So what if there is more Middle Eastern influence? America is getting so paranoid about other cultures that happen to be from that region. Newsflash: not all Arabs are terrorists! I would like to think that we're beyond that point of Islamaphobia, but recent story such as the Mosque in NY have led me to believe otherwise.
I also think that it's completely ignorant of the School Board, if not on a humanitarian level as a political level. A lot of what is fueling the tensions between the West and the Middle East is the lack of understanding and education on both parts. Those in the Middle East are told that Americans are all pigs and care about nothing but materialism, which may be true to an extent, but does not accurately describe American culture as a whole. Furthermore, we're told that the Middle East is full of radical Islamic fundamentalists who want nothing but the destruction of the West and our way of life. Which, again, could apply to SOME people but certainly not the culture as a whole. Curbing this lack of understanding is a key step in ending the viscous cycle of war and violence. This cycles costs a lot in human life as well as trillions of taxpayers' dollars.
The day that America as a whole is able to get over its fear of Islam may be the day I'm gone from this Earth. But it has to start somewhere, right?
I've had a fun time blogging and (hopefully) stirring things up. My parting message is: speak the truth and be honest. If people think you're mean, you've done your job right, because the truth hurts. Keep it real, people.
Love, The Power Gay
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4 comments:
And they say Religion, and School are all separate. >.< Proves the point that the "Separation of church and State" isn't really true/enforced.
I would have to agree that limiting references to Islam in textbooks is not a wise decision. Ignorance just perpetuates hatred and conflict in free countries. When people are not taught to understand both sides of an argument, they very often formulate their own opinions based off of fragmental or distorted evidence.
Of course, this finding is no surprise considering the Texas School Board has been at the heart of many a controversy; in the past, it has been criticized for trying to replace the phrase "Atlantic slave trade" with another without the word "slave," deemphasizing slavery as a major cause of the Civil War, and even focusing on the Civil Rights movement from the perspective of the majority white population, emphasizing how whites "willingly" gave more power to minorities (even though they would have never done so without the Civil Rights Movement). While it is important that school textbooks forge a common national identity and help create some national pride, there must be a balance between unfairness towards minorities and overcompensation or distortion of reality for the sake of minority emphasis. The Texas school board, however, has taken consistent, drastic measures that encourage cultural ignorance.
I agree with you Jason in that this is ridiculous. We cannot just cherry pick the information from history so it sounds the way we want it to. By limiting references to Islam, Texas will be promoting ignorance in an extremely controversial topic. Like Peter said, ignorance will just cause more conflict and misunderstanding. Islamophobia is a reoccurring topic around the world that needs to be tamed. The United States, especially, should not be discriminating (or in this case, censoring) on the basis of religion. Like Jason said, if the West and the Middle East tried harder to understand each other, then they would have a better chance of lessoning the tensions. It is sad to see that the Texas School Board is even considering limiting Islamic references in textbooks. It is often important to see history from an objective point of view. Therefore, by omitting certain facts because of a "creeping Middle Eastern influence in the nation's publishing industry," the Texas School Board is robbing students of the chance to form their own perspectives. How will this ever help patch things up with the Middle East?
Yawn Texas does another dumb thing and the world continues. This seems to be the newest chapter in Texas v. History through textbooks.
Maybe the textbooks should next get rid of any mention of Protestantism because of the KKK.
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