Thursday, August 26, 2010

Sharia-Compliant Education

Dr. Andrew Bostom chronicles the pro-Muslim propaganda that passes for “religious history” in the testing materials used by the state of New York:

Islamophilic Indoctrination in New York High Schools

Mahmud of Ghazni, early 11th century Muslim jihadist who ravaged Hindu India during at least 17 conquering expeditions waged over 25 years.

What New York High School students are required to affirm on their State Regents exams in global history: “Wherever they went, the Moslems brought with them their love of art, beauty and learning. From about the eighth to the eleventh century, their culture was superior in many ways to that of western Christendom.

A summary description of Mahmud of Ghazni’s final expedition to Somanath by Indian historian A.L. Srivastava: Mahmud captured the place [Somanath] without much difficulty and ordered a general slaughter in which more than 50,000 persons are said to have perished. The idol of Somanath was broken to pieces which were sent to Ghazni, Mecca, and Medina and cast in streets and the staircases of chief mosques to be trodden by the Muslims going there for their prayers

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A New York Post report (published 8/24/10) by Yoav Gonen highlights the selective Islamophilia readily apparent in reading extracts from the New York State global history and geography Regents examinations. Gonen’s investigation reveals that,

State testmakers played favorites when quizzing high-schoolers on world religions — giving Islam and Buddhism the kid-gloves treatment while socking it to Christianity, critics say. Teachers complain that the reading selections from the Regents exam in global history and geography given last week featured glowing passages pertaining to Muslim society but much more critical essay excerpts on the subject of Christianity.

One unnamed Brooklyn teacher who administered the Regents exam, opined bluntly, with an obvious reference to the Ground Zero mosque controversy in lower Manhattan, about ill timing:

There should have been a little balance in there…To me, this was offensive because it’s just so inappropriate and the timing of it was piss-poor…

Interviewed by Gonen, Michael Dobkowski, Chair of Religious Studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY, maintained that Christianity, alone, was described in both a salutary and negative light, as opposed to the purely hagiographic assessment of Islam:

Some [essays] suggest a kind of Christian triumphalism and the desire to convert the other that is not present in the treatment of Islam. My impression is that there is certainly a divergence of approaches and impressions that should not appear in a Regents exam of this caliber.

And Gonen cited as perhaps the most disturbing passage this bowdlerized, ahistorical extract about the Islamic jihad conquests from “A World History: A Cultural Approach, “ authored by Daniel Roselle:
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Wherever they went, the Moslems brought with them their love of art, beauty and learning. From about the eighth to the eleventh century, their culture was superior in many ways to that of western Christendom.

Roselle’s characterization is a grotesque distortion of historical reality. The jihad ravages of various Arab Muslim invaders, and subsequently Islamized Turks, during the identified “8th to 11th century” period, wreaked havoc — massacre, pillage, enslavement, and deportation — upon culturally more advanced civilizations, not only Byzantine Christian, but also Zoroastrian, and Hindu. Below are some illustrative examples of the actual brutality and cultural devastation that accompanied these Muslim conquests.

Here is a description by the medieval chronicler Michael the Syrian of the 838 CE Muslim conquest of Amorium in Byzantine Anatolia (the current Turkish village of Hisarköy) by the Abbasid Caliph al-Mutasim, who ruled from 833-42 (see, pp.598-99):

The sword of the Taiyaye [Arab Muslims] began the slaughter and heaped them up by piles; when their sword was drunk with blood, the order came to massacre no more, but to take the population captive and to lead it away. Then they pillaged the town. When the king entered to see the town, he admired the beautiful structure of the temples and palaces. As news came which worried him, he set the town on fire and burned it down. There were so many women’s convents and monasteries that over a thousand virgins were led into captivity, not counting those that had been slaughtered. They were given to the Moorish and Turkish slaves, so as to assuage their lust: glory to the incomprehensible judgments of God!. They burned all those who were hidden in houses or who had climbed up to the church galleries. When the booty from the town was collected in one place, the king, seeing that the population was very numerous, gave the order to kill four thousand men. He also gave the order to take away the fabrics and the gold, silver and bronze objects and the rest of the yield from the pillage. They also began to take away the population: and there was a clamor of lamentation from the women, men and children, when children were separated and removed from the arms of their parents; they shouted and howled.

The subsequent Muslim conquests by the Seljuk (and later, Ottoman) Turks, beginning in the 11th century, completed this violent, destructive, and chaotic Islamization of the heartlands of Byzantine civilization, as summarized by the great historian Speros Vryonis (see, p.678):…

Visit Dr. Bostom’s place for the rest of his report, including the footnotes and source references. As he says, “The New York State Regents exams themselves now reflect the corrosive ‘success’ of a sustained campaign of Islamophilic historical negationism. Cultural jihadism has achieved an ominous victory to the great detriment of New York city’s secondary school children, their parents, and society at large.”

25 comments:

Svartwulf said...

Muslim culture was superior to Western Christendom.

Right...

Let's just forget the Byzantium Empire. Lets ignore the Roman Empire, which, though falling, was being carried on and absorbed by the very Germanic tribes that were taking over. Lets ignore such wonders as the Library at Alexandria. Let's ignore the Northern Germanic tribes and Norse and Celts, whose metal working, poetry, culture, and societies were flourishing beautifully.

Lets ignore that the Muslims burned down the Library, a repository of knowledge and experimentation unequaled to this day, where they closest thing we have is the Smithsonian, and even that is hard to compare considering some of the wonders said to exist at Alexandria. Lets ignore the annihilation of Byzantium. The fact that civilization in Europe was driven Northwards because Muslim Pirates controlled the Med. Let's ignore the destruction of Al Andulus, that great Vandal Kingdom which is said to have been a pretty decent place to live, with its mixture of Germanic and Roman culture.

Let's ignore history, so we can make a bunch of people who have done nothing but murder and destroy look like saints.

Vlad Z. said...

I think the identity of those responsible for the burning of the library at Alexandria is still an unresolved controversy, with several non-Muslims vying for the honors.

I also do think that Muslim culture did produce some good things, many of the mosques from the turn of millenium are quite beautiful.

None the less your larger point stands: this is PC history.

I wonder if a student, failing to get good grades on this test, would be willing to sue the Regents of NY? I can think of several grounds, starting with marking students wrong when the test is actually wrong -- and possibly continuing to a violation of the first ammendment 'establishment of religion' prohibition .

EscapeVelocity said...

I heard Charles the Hammer Martel is now a hatemongering War Criminal in French history textbooks.

And the Ottoman/Turkish invasions of Europe are now being taught from the Turkish Muslim perspective in Germany. They were just trying to bring the light of truth to the evil kuffar. LOL! But they kept getting hung up at Vienna, where not supeior technology, but logistics ruled the day.

Vlad the Impaler is a War Criminal.

And so on and so forth.

Bring back Vlad! Muslims can respect(or at least fear) the strong horse.

Svartwulf said...

Actually, from what I know the Destruction of the Library was accomplished thus:

There were some random fires due to experiments that went out of control. Damage was done, but nothing that could be recovered from in due time.

There were some Christians who took part in later fires, but again failed to completely destroy the library. As much as possible was rebuilt.

The Final destruction though, was at Muslim hands. I got this, from the Complete Idiots guide to Alchemy, as unbiased a book towards Islam as I've found. It is said that having taken the city, the Muslim Commander was told of the Library and replied that "The knowledge within does not come from Allah, burn it to the ground." Or words to that effect. Thus, was the Library razed to the ground and all was lost.

Svartwulf said...

Uh, Baron, which comment? I'm not sure what provocative thing I said.

I didn't start any discussion of that yet. And believe me, I'm just as sick of having them as you are. I'm more interested in live and let live.

Zenster said...

NorseAlchemist: … the closest thing we have is the Smithsonian …

A more apt comparison would be the Library of Congress.

The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with nearly 145 million items on approximately 745 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 33 million books and other print materials, 3 million recordings, 12.5 million photographs, 5.3 million maps, 6 million pieces of sheet music and 63 million manuscripts.

Slightly off topic but germane to the running battle that continues to appear in these comments.

The true enemy of liberty and freedom is theocracy. Regardless of what brand or flavor, theocracy − be it democratically instituted or forcefully installed − is inimical to human rights.

Islam's inability and abject refusal to delegitimize theocracy makes it foremost in the threats arrayed against modern civilization.

Very much to its credit, Christianity was sufficiently enlightened to abandon its quest for theocratic rule and managed to reconcile itself to obtaining its followers through charismatic fellowship.

Nothing of the sort can be said for Islam.

More Germane to this thread's topic is how these ersatz historians manage to explain away, or vigorously ignore, Islam's total stagnation. Try as they might to blame White culture for so many of this world's historic ills, Islamic ossification was well in place before the Crusades and, without any European intervention, was amply serving to impoverish Muslims even as it does today.

For such a supposedly bounteous culture, Islam has brought very little to the table, both in times past and today as well. What's more, if Christianity had, indeed, preyed upon Islam so grievously, would there not be persistent traces of cultural overlays lifted from Muslim culture?

In fact, a cursory examination of the Qur'an shows that quite the opposite is true. Finally, if Islam is so noble and admirable, why is it entirely unable to adopt any of the benisons conferred by Christianity upon Western cultures?

Islam's willing embrace of mechanized weapons technology seems to be the limit of its ability to modernize. A fact neatly glossed over by Muslims and their fellow travelers alike. What, exactly, is it that Islam promises to bring modern man that is of such high esteem?

The answer to that simple question remains to be seen. Superficial aspects such as temperance and piety are rendered farcical by their involuntary enforcement. Far more important core elements of Islam somehow manage to escape close scrutiny by these lopsided historians.

History and truth have always had a rather tenuous relationship. Part of Western enlightenment was making sure that there was a more solid unification between these two previously disparate entities.

Islam has displayed no such tendency and, in fact, has engaged in an adamant effort to do the exact opposite. Obscurant and opaque, what passes for Islamic knowledge and history is the most pathetic sort of propaganda that only theocracy could learn to love.

It is this benighting characteristic that makes Islam, and theocracy in general, the enemy of mankind.

Svartwulf said...

Baron, I thank you for clearing my name.

Zenster, the Library of Congress is indeed very close, but the reason I compaired it to Smithsonian is because the Library of Alexandria was the foremost institute for the study of Alchemy, Engineering, and other associated fields in addition to being the repository of knowledge. The Library of Congress doesn't have a branch dedicated to continued experimentation and advancement and I believe the Smithsonian does in addition to its massive storehouses of relics, information, and so on. Honestly, the best way to describe it from what I've read is if one fused the LoC, Smithsonian, NASA, and CERN.

EscapeVelocity said...

"Starting from Zero" is a disaster.

Dymphna said...

Looks like Islam has 1/6th of the land mass and 1/6th of the global planetary population, cohesive enough to rally together...

If there's one thing Muslims aren't it's "cohesive". In fact, their inability to truly work together may be what destroys them eventually. Mohammed thought so.

Sean O'Brian said...

Zenster,

The true enemy of liberty and freedom is theocracy. Regardless of what brand or flavor, theocracy − be it democratically instituted or forcefully installed − is inimical to human rights.

It's interesting you should say that so soon after Dymphna published this in another thread:

"Even we, ardent Israelophiles that we are, recognize Israel as a democratic theocracy, or, if you prefer, a theocratic democracy."

Israel is fairly well-governed even compared to some strictly secular democracies, like Turkey. Then there's Vatican City which is a theocratic monarchy (or monarchical theocracy), has minimal taxes, immaculate civil liberties and social services, and its monarch is elected.

I think the jury is still out on non-Muslim theocratic government. For small, homogenous countries it provides a measure of religious protectionism e.g. in 2004 the Greek Orthodox Church prevented the Greek government from sanctioning a mega-mosque in Athens.

Baron Bodissey said...

I've deleted ALL comments concerning the Christians-vs.-Pagans argument. This is a tedious and pointless fight, and I'm sick of it.

I do not want it taken up again in this thread -- or in any other thread, unless the topic of the post concerns the conflict between Christians and Pagans.

If you can't control yourselves, I'll close the thread to comments.

If it spreads to other threads, I'll execute the Nuclear Option, and close ALL threads to comments.

I can't tell you how sick I am of all this. This is a third-grade level food fight.

1389 said...

Aussie Muslims and Curriculum Corruption

Juniper in the Desert said...

A footnote: It was Saladin who tried to destroy the pyramids in Egypt during the Crusades!

Dymphna said...

@Zenster--

Spackle was courteous in his reply to your blanket dismissal of all theocracies.

Israel works: just look at the number of venture capitalists who want to start businesses there.

And most Israeli citizens work darn hard to make it a productive, energetic place in spite of their death-dealing neighbors.

Minorities in Israel run into the same problem minorities face everywhere, but it's not because Israel is a theocratic democracy.

Show me any government or any organization that is always fair, just and compassionate. There aren't any and there never will be.

The true enemy of liberty and freedom is us, Zenster. You and me and all other human beings. Obviously you've forgotten your Pogo???

We can strive for those ideals, but we'll fall short as often as we'll succeed. Batting .500 is darn good, and Israel is definitely in the big leagues.

Is your prejudice against religion driving this assertion, Z? Just asking -- a reasonable person might wonder if this were the case.

If it's not the case, could you point to a democracy in which liberty and freedom reign supreme? They sure have a lot to teach the rest of us.

EscapeVelocity said...

I can't tell you how sick I am of all this. --- Baron


Ditto. However, the attacks on Christianity will continue apace.

Im sick to death of Islam too. But that too will not just go away.

Im sick to Death of Marxists and Cultural Marxists....but alas, they simple will not go away.


These are the issues that we have to deal with. The division of the West is the reason for the Muslim invasion. Those who continue to support that division are enemies of Western Civilization.

A divided house cannot stand.

Zenster said...

Something is badly broken with Blogger. Here and elsewhere I have posted replies that show in "Recent Comments" and even in the "Post a Comment" box but then disappear when opening the "Read Further" link.

While not GoV's fault in any way it is still frustrating beyond words.

Zenster said...

Sean O'Brian: I think the jury is still out on non-Muslim theocratic government.

I was well aware of Dymphna's previous mention regarding voluntary theocracy (e.g., Israel or Hamas), and did note it myself by alluding to its "democratically instituted" form.

That said, Israel is reduced by its theocratic practices. There is internal dissent over businesses remaining open on the Sabbath and other disputes that do not necessarily serve the nation's or even Judaism's best interests.

Be that as it may, quite clearly Israel is not utterly crippled by its dalliance with theocracy in any way approaching that of Islam. However, if human rights are at question, then even Jewish theocracy is still a violation of them.

To Israel's credit, they do not force anyone to involuntarily endure these constraints in that individuals are free to leave both Israel and Judaism itself without exceptional penalty. Nothing of the sort can be said for Islam.

The simple fact remains that a huge portion of this world's ills have originated with and continue to spring from theocracy and that should be sufficient reason for such a practice to be despised by all free people.

Put another way; how much worse off would our world be without any form of theocracy at all? Now consider the immense evil that currently arises from Islamic theocracy alone and then come up with your own answer.

Theocracy is a corruption of spiritual practices just as governmental and commercial corruption are a violation of ethical practices. They are all forms of corruption in general and it is corruption that drives the vast majority of human suffering in our modern world.

For a vivid demonstration of this, I invite you to compare two simple images.

Earth by Night

Transparency International Map of Global Corruption

Compensating for issues of population density (e.g., Australia), the stark equivalency of corruption and an absence of nighttime metropolitan illumination speaks volumes. Especially so in the case of North Korea, one of the most cannibalistic and corrupt nations on earth.

The global corruption map also highlights the intense deprivation that occurs throughout the Muslim world and that alone is a sufficiently damning indictment of Islam.

Svartwulf said...

Zenster, the issue of businesses staying open on the Sabbath and other such issues don't arise because Israel is a theocratic democracy. That arises from the Jews themselves. Even if their government was secular, they would still have those issues caused by their religion, because it is such an part of them. Israel couldn't exist without the Jews, and the Jews wouldn't exist without Judaism.

Zenster said...

Dymphna: Israel works: just look at the number of venture capitalists who want to start businesses there.

Foreign Capital Investment is not the sole measure of a nation's functionality. Yes, it can be a good yardstick but it must be accompanied by other metrics of actual sanity.

Israel continues to exhibit some very questionable practices. Among them are its inability to overcome the influence of nearly suicidal portions of its own population that adamantly refuse to discard what is clearly a non-functional negotiation process with the "Palestinians".

Just as suicidal is Israel's sale of advanced technology to its own enemies. A recent example of this is Turkey's purchase of military drone aircraft from Israel. Software backdoors or no, allowing your enemies to reverse engineer vital military technology devised and perfected at great cost is simply insane.

Israel has also taken military hardware technology shared by its most significant ally, America, and sold that off to our own enemy, Communist China.

All of that betrays a dysfunctional profit motive or demagnetized moral compass that confounds some of the most basic survival principles there are.

So, no, I do not think that Israel is any sort of shining example of a functional theocracy. If anything, it is the "morally enabling" aspect of Jewish theocracy that may well facilitate a debilitating case of hubris which manifests in a delusional degree of self-perceived immunity to consequences found within Israeli circles.

Lynn said...

Good thing I didn't toss my history books. My kids will be using them extensively, no matter what their uninformed teachers have to say. I've already had to straighten out some of the *knowledge* being imparted to our oldest one concerning historical fact. I don't care much for revisionism.

Zenster said...

NorseAlchemist: … the issue of businesses staying open on the Sabbath and other such issues don't arise because Israel is a theocratic democracy. That arises from the Jews themselves.

I'm not quite certain how you manage to decouple the Jews from Jewish theocracy. While there are Jewish factions that are not fully supportive of theocracy, it is still put in practice by a sufficient majority whereby it constitutes the will of Israel's people (i.e., the Jews).

This seems to be some atypical hairsplitting upon your part.

Svartwulf said...

Actually, Zenster, that hair splitting is typical of me, something I picked up in my many studies, including alchemy and Judaism, as I was on my way to finding the Heathen path I now live.

In conversations like this, it is important to split hairs. It is the alchemical way, to break things down as small as you can, then rebuild them back up. It leads not only to a better product, but a better understanding of that product.

Zenster said...

NorseAlchemist: … hair splitting is typical of me, something I picked up in my many studies, including alchemy and Judaism, as I was on my way to finding the Heathen path I now live.

To that, I can only say, de gustibus non est disputandum. However, you have yet to adequately demonstate a useful decoupling of the Jews from Jewish theocracy.

Profitsbeard said...

Two quotes come to mind:

"The only thing we learn from History is~ that we learn nothing from History,"

And:

"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken."

"History" texts which whitewash the sepulchre of Islam do not dare open its Koranic crypt and examine the 13 centuries of imperialisticc depredations, slavery, carnage and degradation spawned by the desert warlord.

Or the "holy" open bar cum whorehouse that is the shabby, polymorphously perverse Islamic ideal of Paradise.

Theocratic rule always leads to Lord Acton's dictum: Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

And there is nothing more Absolute or corrupting that the notion that you hold the Keys to Eternity in your primate mitts.

xlbrl said...

If Israel is ruled by any one thing, it is ruled by atheists. To imagine it is a theocracy requires a great imagination.