by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n In recent House hearings dedicated to examining Islamic extremism, I stressed that the fundamental stumbling block to effective policy-making is educational and epistemological. What people are taught about Islam needs a serious overhaul before we can expect to formulate strategies that make sense.<\/p>\n Worth heeding is former top Pentagon official [1]\u00a0William Gawthrop\u2019s 2006 lament<\/a>\u00a0that \u201cthe senior service colleges of the Department of Defense had not incorporated into their curriculum a systematic study of Muhammad as a military or political leader. As a consequence, we still do not have an in-depth understanding of the war-fighting doctrine laid down by Muhammad, how it might be applied today by an increasing number of Islamic groups, or how it might be countered.\u201d<\/p>\n Three years later, the situation appears worse. After the War College published something of [2]\u00a0an apologia<\/a>\u00a0for the terrorist organization Hamas, defense analyst [3]\u00a0Mark Perry<\/a>\u00a0concluded, \u201cIt\u2019s worse than you think. They have curtailed the curriculum so that their students are not exposed to radical Islam. Akin to denying students access to Marx during the Cold War.\u201d<\/p>\n Why, at a time of war, are students at top U.S. military schools denied an objective treatment of [4]\u00a0Islam\u2019s war doctrines<\/a>? A report by the [5]\u00a0American Textbook Council<\/a>\u00a0sheds light by showing how these academic failures have much deeper roots.<\/p>\n After reviewing a number of popular textbooks used by American junior and senior high schools, the report found that, due to political correctness and\/or fear of Muslim activists, \u201ckey subjects like jihad, Islamic law, [and] the status of women are whitewashed.\u201d Regarding the strikes of 9\/11, one textbook never mentions Islamic ideologies, referring to the 19 al Qaeda hijackers as \u201cteams of terrorists\u201d \u2014 this despite the fact that al Qaeda has repeatedly articulated its hostile worldview through an Islamist paradigm, with a stress on hating \u201cinfidels\u201d and waging holy war (see [6]\u00a0The Al Qaeda Reader<\/a>).<\/p>\n Speaking of jihad, one seventh-grade textbook explains, \u201cJihad represents the human struggle to overcome difficulties and do things that are pleasing to God. Muslims strive to respond positively to personal difficulties as well as worldly challenges. For instance, they might work to be better people, reform society, or correct injustice.\u201d By not informing students that all these aspects mean something different for Muslims \u2014 killing an apostate is considered \u201ccorrecting injustice\u201d and spreading Islamic law is \u201creforming society\u201d \u2014 the textbook misleads by projecting Western interpretations onto Islam.<\/p>\n Compare this textbook\u2019s definition of jihad with that of an early (non-PC) edition of the venerable [7]\u00a0Encyclopaedia of Islam<\/a>. Its opening sentence simply states, \u201cThe spread of Islam by arms is a religious duty upon Muslims in general. \u2026 Jihad must continue to be done until the whole world is under the rule of Islam. \u2026 Islam must completely be made over before the doctrine of jihad [warfare to spread Islam] can be eliminated.\u201d Muslim legal manuals written in Arabic are even more explicit.<\/p>\n The report finds other disturbing aspects regarding Islam\u2019s whitewashing in textbooks: the well-documented Muslim military conquests demarcating most of what is now known as the \u201cIslamic world\u201d are glossed over or distorted; Islam ambiguously \u201cspread\u201d or was \u201cbrought.\u201d Well-defined aspects of Islamic law \u2014 the subordinate status of women and non-Muslims, execution of the apostate and homosexual, and other issues that appear almost any given day in headlines \u2014 are either ignored or obfuscated. History is distorted to portray Muslims as tolerant and progressive, Christians as intolerant and backwards.<\/p>\n In my [8]\u00a0testimony<\/a>\u00a0to the House, I wrote: \u201cIt should be acknowledged that educational failures exacerbate epistemological ones, and vice versa, leading to a perpetual cycle where necessary knowledge is not merely ignored, but not even acknowledged as real in the first place. When American universities [or high schools] fail to teach Islamic doctrine and history accurately, a flawed epistemology permeates society at large. And since new students and new professors come from this already conditioned-towards-Islam society, not only do they not question the lack of accurate knowledge and education; they perpetuate it.\u201d<\/p>\n This report demonstrates the validity of this vicious cycle. In fact, every last one of those flagrant textbook errors indoctrinating America\u2019s youth is an indisputable \u201cfact\u201d for many of America\u2019s Islam \u201cexperts,\u201d particularly those advising the government. The effects are dramatic. For instance, far from objectively examining Islam, the government is now pushing to [9]\u00a0ban Arabic words<\/a>\u00a0connotative of Islamic ideology from formal analysis \u2014 such as \u201cmujahid,\u201d \u201cumma,\u201d \u201cSharia,\u201d \u201ccaliphate\u201d \u2014 asking personnel to rely primarily on generic terms, such as \u201cterrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n The greater irony is that not only do children\u2019s textbooks in Muslim countries openly [10]\u00a0teach hatred and hostility<\/a>\u00a0for non-Muslims, or \u201cinfidels\u201d \u2014 those same people fervently trying to whitewash Islam \u2014 but so do Muslim schools [11]\u00a0operating on American soil<\/a>.<\/p>\n At any rate, from American junior high texts obfuscating the motivation of 9\/11 to censored intelligence analysts who cannot prefix more meaningful adjectives to the word \u201cterrorist,\u201d until Islamic ideologies are addressed forthrightly, the U.S. \u2014 leadership and lay alike \u2014 will remain philosophically unprepared against the threat of radical Islam. Objective knowledge \u2014 properly taught and disseminated \u2014 is the first step to formulating any long-term strategy. When knowledge is unshackled from the bonds of political correctness and wishful thinking, strategies will naturally present themselves as common sense.<\/p>\n Bottom line: if children are sheltered from ugly truths today, how can they ever be expected to confront them as adults tomorrow?<\/p>\n