Educational Jihad Seeks to Convert Western Education

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There are forces, one of which could be called “Educational Jihad”, in American contemporary public education that is seeking to rewrite history, so as to program our youth and in time our society and culture into a world view very much in contrast to the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation was founded.   Galatians 2:8 well warns, saying:   “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”  This can apply to this situation!

Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary, speaking in regards to Galatians 2:8-17 says: “There is a philosophy which rightly exercises our reasonable faculties; a study of the works of God, which leads us to the knowledge of God, and confirms our faith in him. But there is a philosophy which is vain and deceitful; and while it pleases men’s fancies, hinders their faith.”

Jihad is in the news!  In the conflict in Syria and Iraq, jihadist fighters come from sixty countries, among them converts to Islam from Christian backgrounds.  The situation is a festival of violence, similar to the Western criminal and gang subcultures.  They butcher people of all ages, use both sarin gas and hatchets, behead, rape and mutilate their “enemies” with no regard for the fact that until recently the enemy was a neighbor, or at least shared their language and culture. There is extreme brutality going on in the Islamic world, and this is particularly evident in the activities of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Boko Haram, and ISIL, all united by the strict interpretation of Sharia Law.

But there is another type of jihad, and it is going on in the American public schools, and the American public is very much unaware of it. It is like a frog being put in a pot of water and slowly increasing the heat, until the frog is killed and even boiled. And much of this is in the pot of history being taught that ignores the violence spawned and innate in the Islamic faith.

The concept of “history” can be understood from many different vantage points and interpretations, depending on the various religious and philosophical worldviews.   The statement, “It’s historical”, or “I learned it in history class” has a note of true credibility to it, but sad to say we are observing a distortion of history in our public schools in name of history to where by subtle manipulation and selection of events, our children are being programmed into really a non-historical understanding of the Islamic religion in the name of inclusivism and multiculturalism.

There is an educational “jihad” going on, and the American public is very much unaware of it. William Saxton, the chairman of Citizens for National Security,  said they are hearing from concerned parents across the country – and the complaints have generally been the same: public school textbooks favor Islam over other world religions.

“It’s a form of stealth jihad,” Saxton said. “[Jihad] is not just blowing up buildings. It’s more subtle. I began to understand that one of the ways the bad guys are trying to threaten our way of life is through our children. The Islamists want to get to the hearts and minds of our kids.”

It has been observed that: “The goal of Western educational systems is to provide the tools necessary for functioning in society. In the Islamic countries, however, children are taught from infancy that the family and clan are the foundations of their lives and dictate their behavior. Islamic society binds its members in chains, and the individual has no choice but to submit to group pressure. Drowning in blood and violence, his only justification is seeking the death of a shaheed (a martyr for the sake of Allah).”  (“Jihad and Tourism” by Anat Berko –In Depth, October 4, 2013).

A five year study by Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research cites hundreds of such errors and distortions found in “twenty-eight of the most widely used social studies and history textbooks in the United States.”  Their book, The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion, examines the pro-Islamic disinformation they uncovered, including the assertion that Jesus was a Palestinian, not a Jew. They firmly conclude that the textbooks treat Islam with special privilege and tend not to criticize or challenge it, as they do Judaism and Christianity.

There are thirty-six pages dedicated to the religion of Islam, while there are no chapters dedicated to Christianity and Judaism.  For example, the Prentice Hall World History text books, one of basic textbooks for history in our nation’s schools has things such as:

– In reference to Mohammed and his armies taking over Medina States, the book says,    “…people happily accepted Islam as their way of life.”

– The book indicates that Jesus “proclaimed” Himself to be the Messiah, yet stated as fact    that Mohammed was a prophet.

– In the book, Christian battles are called “Massacres” while Muslim battles are called “takeovers.”

– The textbook has large passages quoted from the Koran, but none from the Bible as it             makes declarations about Muhammad being God’s messenger, but does not make declarations about Jesus being God’s son, except that “some believed he was the Messiah”, and he was later executed, while never mentioning his resurrection.

Bradlee Dean in in article, “The Muslims’ Trojan Horse” (August 21, 2014) in the Freedom Output News brings out some interesting facts pointing to the Muslim indoctrination in public schools. Dean brings out that: “Studies have shown over 500 historical errors in public school textbooks, giving an Islamic slant to our youth…. As a result, our youth are subject to the following teachings and practices:

• Learning to become a Muslim
• Fasting for Ramadan
• Learning the five pillars of Islam
• Adopting a Muslim name
• Memorizing verses of the Koran
• Staging a Jihad (war against non-Muslims)”

“Teaching Children Pro-Islamic Propaganda” — by Marc Sheppard—(March 9, 2009, American Thinker) looks at what the book History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond teaches students about the subject.According to Textbook League president William J. Bennetta, the book does, however, fabricate a pro-Muslim, anti-Judeo-Christian version of history and teaches children that only religious views held by Muslims are important. Bennetta accuses both the authors and publishers, the Teachers Curriculum Institute, of “subjecting students to Islamic indoctrination” by “relentlessly presenting Muslim religious tales and religious beliefs as matters of historical fact.”  He further accuses TCI – which provides schools a wide range of K-12 curricular programs — of having “a close relationship with the Islamic Networks Group (ING), a Muslim propaganda agency based in San Jose, California.”

Bruce Thornton  (August 18, 2014- Daily Mailer) observed that:  “Despite being consistent with such statements, dismissed as racist ignorance are the centuries of Western observation and bloody experience showing that, as Tocqueville wrote in 1838, “Jihad, Holy war, is an obligation for all believers. … The state of war is the natural state with regard to infidels … These doctrines of which the practical outcome is obvious are found on every page and in almost every word of the Koran … The violent tendencies of the Koran are so striking that I cannot understand how any man with good sense could miss them” Likewise, Samuel Huntington’s phrase “Islam’s bloody borders” is called a racist lie, used to justify neo-colonial incursions into Muslim lands. Meanwhile, of the seven global conflicts costing more than a 1000 lives a year, six involve Islam.

This is something I’m sure Prentice Hall and the other publishing companies that seek to rewrite history would like to ignore. There is an educational jihad going on in our public schools, not only in the materials being taught in many history classes, but in special exceptions made to Muslim students for times of prayer and increased pressure on educators to accommodate them, while strongly forbidding Christian and Jewish religious expression.  How can any thinking person not argue that there is an educational jihad seeking change to covert Western Education to an unhistorical view of Islam, as it rides under the deceptive banner of “history”.  You can never win a war, just by denying it.

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by Joe Renfro, Ed.D., Educational Columnist, Radio Evangelist, Retired Teacher and Pastor, 5931 West Avenue, Lavonia, Georgia 30553,  706-356-4173, joerenfro@windstream.net

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