FEDS FUND 'HOW TO BE A GOOD
MUSLIM' LESSONS FOR U.S. SCHOOLKIDS, Group
demands end to 'Islamic indoctrination' in classrooms across America, by Leo
Hohmann, 4/6/17, WND
A Christian organization has sent a letter to U.S. Department of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos demanding the department pull its support for what it calls “an Islamic Sunday School program” for public-school students.
If DeVos does not respond within 60
days, the Christian Action Network says it will file a federal lawsuit against
the DOE and the producer of the “Access
Islam” lesson plans.
CAN sent the letter to DeVos March 28 claiming the “Access Islam” program is a
gross violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution’s “establishment
clause” because it promotes one religion over the others in lesson plans used
throughout the country by teachers in grades five through 12.
CAN says it is not aware of any
federal funding of comparable programs on Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism or
any other major religion. But the “Access Islam” program teaches students how
to convert to Islam and how to practice its “Five Pillars.”
Produced by an affiliate of the
Public Broadcasting System, it also provides extensive interviews with Muslims
who speak about the positive aspects of Islam from a spiritual perspective.
“There is not one mention about the
history of Islam,” said Martin Mawyer, president of CAN. “It’s all about how to
be a good Muslim. I can’t find anything on their website that links to programs
on how to be a good Christian, Jew or Hindu.”
Watch
video presentation on the “Access Islam” lesson plans being taught in many
public schools:
As of Thursday evening, the
Christian Action Network, represented by a law firm in Columbus, Ohio, had not
received a response to its letter, Mawyer said.
A look at the “about” page on the “Access Islam” website states: “Funding for
ACCESS ISLAM is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.”
Christian Action Network has also
launched a petition drive to support its call for the Department of Education
to pull its support and funding for the Access Islam lesson plans.
WND called DOE spokeswoman Jo Ann
Webb seeking comment. She had another spokesman respond who told WND that the
DOE provided a grant to create the program back in 2005 under the direction of
Congress.
“It was a one-time grant,” he said,
requesting not to be identified because he is Trump transition team member at
DOE and not permanent.
“This is from a grant indirectly to
another organization called the Educational Broadcast Corp., from 2005,” he
said. “A one-time grant. It’s not active, not current.”
He said the program was part of the
post 9/11 effort by Congress and the George W. Bush administration to help
Americans better understand Islam, emphasizing the positive aspects of the
religion.
“I think it’s important to note who
produced it. From this administration’s perspective, it’s not active; it’s not
ongoing,” said the Trump transition team member at DOE.
But Mawyer said it’s not good enough
to just say it’s an old program no longer funded by the federal taxpayer. The
DOE needs to publicly disassociate itself from the program, which is still
being used in public schools, because it’s unconstitutional, Mawyer said.
“This Islamic program has been
available for public schools for over a decade. But nothing that starts off
rotten smells sweeter with age,” said Mawyer. “The Department of Education’s
‘Access Islam’ program is putrid to the U.S. Constitution, and Secretary DeVos
should call this stench for what it is: unconstitutional.”
He said “Access Islam” “carries the
Good Housekeeping Seal of approval” by the U.S. Department of Education. And as
long as that official seal remains on the program, the DOE is, in effect, “an
active participant in the Islamic indoctrination of our nation’s children.”
“This program is certainly not being
hidden by the DOE. It’s promoted by the Smithsonian, promoted by the United
Nations,” Mawyer said. “The Indiana Department of Education lists it as a
resource for schools, and it is also used in California schools among others.”
10
downloadable lesson plans - The “Access Islam” program
contains 10 lesson plans that have students answering such questions as:
·
“What do Muslim prayers sound like?”
·
“What do the movements look like?”
·
“What are some of the things Muslims
say during prayer?”
·
Classroom instructions have children
learning the Five Pillars of Islam, where students must “focus on learning about
the core duties of Muslims” and are asked to “read about what it means to
proclaim faith or belief as a Muslim.”
‘Misconceptions’
about Muslim women - Another lesson plan focuses on
“American Muslim Women” and includes a video component, described as
follows:
“Comprised of immigrants from more
than 60 nations as well as native-born Americans, most African-American,
American Muslim women are confronted by many stereotypes. Anisa Mehdi talks to
a pair of Pakistan-born sisters and a young African-American woman whose
parents converted in the 1970s about the misconceptions they deal with and the
different ways they practice their faith.”
One of the main “misconceptions” is
that Muslim women are not treated equally with men in Islam. Yet, noted former Muslims
such as Dr. Mark Christian – formerly an imam named Muhammad Abdullah who grew
up in Egypt – say the hijab is a symbol of the female’s submissive role in
Islamic society.
Young women must cover themselves in
public in Muslim-dominated countries or face severe punishment. In many
countries, they cannot even leave the house without a male overseer such as a
husband, father or brother.
“Muslims are the very first victims
of Islam,” Dr. Christian told WND. “And women are the worst victims of Islam.
We hear about all these schools and universities having ‘hijab days,’ and we
see a movement to make the hijab fashionable in the West. That is interesting
since Muhammad said for women to cover themselves in public. Why? Because if a
woman doesn’t cover up, she is causing the man to sin. So again, the rule is
for the benefit of the man. Muhammad said this.”
Mawyer said the DOE wouldn’t dare
place its seal of approval on a lesson plan that included the New Testament
teachings of Jesus, such as his statement that “I am the way and the truth and
the life, no man comes to the Father except through Me.”
Yet, this is the type of content
included about Islam in the “Access Islam” program. “We don’t see them funding
lesson programs on Jesus’ sayings about how to be a good Christian,” he said.
“They showed how a Muslim gets dressed to go on the hajj [pilgrimage to Mecca].
Where is the video on how a nun gets dressed or how a priest puts on his
vestments?
“My attorney looked at this and said
you couldn’t find a more flagrantly unconstitutional approach to teaching
Islam. You couldn’t make it any worse if you tried.”
The Trump administration has shown
it is willing to clean up the failures of past presidents, Mawyer said, and he
hopes Trump will “drain the swamp” at the Department of Education.
“‘Access Islam’ is not only a
constitutional failure, but a moral failure to protect the religious rights of
Christian parents and their children,” Mawyer said. “You cannot make America
great again by turning public schools into Sunday school classes on Islam.
Betsy DeVos needs to demand that websites promoting this unconstitutional
program remove the DOE seal.”
Islamic
cartoons for kids - WND
reported last week on a cartoon video being shown
to sixth and seventh graders in New Jersey called “The 5 Pillars.” Two parents
have requested their school board remove it from the curriculum, calling it a
propaganda video. The video starts off with two boys playing soccer on a school
playground, one of them Muslim, the other non-Muslim. The Muslim boy hears the
call to prayer and delves into a detailed explanation of the Islamic faith,
ending with a visit to his mosque.
Further research has tied the
cartoon video in New Jersey to a company in the United Kingdom. “It’s a scandal
what is happening in our public schools right now,” said Philip Haney, author
of the whistleblower book “See
Something Say Nothing” and an expert on Islamic
terrorism. “You watch this video, and it makes the non-Muslim kid look like an
idiot.
And then along comes the Muslim kid
saying, basically, ‘Here, I can lead you to the Messiah.’ It’s meant to make
the people look foolish and the Muslims to look superior and wise. This is
ominous stuff. You’re looking at pure evil. All dressed up as a little
kids-style cartoon.”
Not a
word about violent jihad - The 10 lesson plans in “Access
Islam” include no historical perspective on the hundreds of violent jihads that
Islam has waged against Christians, Jews and pagans. The warnings about Islam
from the Christian church fathers go back to the very beginning.
St. Sophronius, who was the
Patriarch of Jerusalem during the first wave of jihad immediately after the
death of Muhammad, provided graphic descriptions of Muslim attacks on churches,
monasteries, villages and fields, according to researcher/writer Ralph Sidway,
author of the book “Facing
Islam” and a blog by the same name.
Sophronius tells of the Muslims’
tearing down of the crosses and blaspheming the name of Jesus Christ.
Sophronius also wrote of the
Muslims: “Those God-fighters boast of prevailing over all, assiduously and
unrestrainably imitating their leader, who is the devil …”
Such warnings have given way to
silence from the church in the face of “lies and revisionist histories
foisted today on our schoolchildren and in our universities that claim Islam
advanced peacefully in its early years, spread by Muslim preachers and welcomed
by local populations,” Sidway writes.
Mawyer said parents should look for
one key marker indicating biased, unconstitutional religious instruction about
Islam. “If they are being taught the five pillars, that is the key marker to
look for in indoctrination,” Mawyer said. “There are a lot of variations of it
in the public schools, but they all tend to center on the Five Pillars.
“It doesn’t talk about the history;
it just talks about how to be a good Muslim and how to follow the Five Pillars
of Islam,” he added. “This is nothing more than a series of Sunday school
classes on Islam. There are probably mosques out there that do not go into as
much detail as this program does on what a Muslim’s responsibility is before
Allah.
“Much of this so-called educational
material is nothing more than indoctrinating students into Islamic religious
beliefs, duties and actions,” Mawyer said.
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