Truth in Texas TextbooksA Summary of Findings of Factual Errors, Omission of Facts,

Half-Truths & Agenda Bias in World History, World Geography & World CulturesSubmitted by the Publishers for TEA Proclamation 2015

Cengage/National Geographic World Cultures and Geography (Gr 6) (23 of 147)

In2Books brings the Common Core Standards to life with a safe motivating online curriculum that matches students with adult eMentors. Students get authentic experience purposefully reading books with eMentors and sharing ideas about important issues via online letters.

o Common Core is illegal in the State of Texas, therefore this textbook should be rejected on that basis alone. Adult pen pals are not appropriate for eleven-twelve year olds even if approved by the teacher. Teacher must sign (accept) a legal agreement before he/she is allowed to access this textbook.

The National Geographic videos are too coarse for adults, much less 6th graders, dealing with drugs, drug busts, methane, and custody issues for example. And there is an advertisement before every video and throughout the text, distracting the students from the real purpose of learning. Taxpayers and parents should not agree to make Texas public school students a captured marketing audience for any publisher. Ads included Subaru, Ford, National Geographic magazines(even for kids), Apple products, Zulily, Cobblestone magazines, Facebook, Twitter, BASF just to name a few. Must allow the website to store information on the user’s personal computer in order to view videos.

Clicking Connect to NG>National Geographic Current Events>News opens a new window and navigates to the National Geographic website for links to unfiltered current event news stories. From here, a student can navigate anywhere on the web.

Program Consultants v. Reviewers of Religious Content. Shabbir Mansuri, Institute on Religion and Civic Values, Fountain Valley, California.o Omitted is that Mansuri founded the Council on Islamic Education before changing its name to Institute on Religious and Civic Values.(IRCV).

IRCV proselytizes for Islam in the public schools and excludes Islam’s violent jihadist characteristics. Mansuri is endorsed by Hamas-supporting Muslim Brotherhood organization Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

It’s easy to get depressed about Climate Change. The Current cycle of Global Warming is changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon.

o Climate Change is a theory and is promoted as fact throughout this textbook

Titles of video inside the “Animals” heading: Are Mites having sex on my face?o Before EVERY video the student must watch a 30-60 second advertisement. Website touts 1000’s of videos

Picture of Mosque and farming villages, great Rift Valley, Eritreao Eritrea has both Islam and Christianity as primary religions. Therefore there could also be a picture of a Christian church.

Photo of Blue Mosque

o The lack of photos of churches eliminates the history of Christianity in Turkey. “Although Turkey is now 98-99% Muslim, there are still major historical Christian churches in Istanbul. Among them are: The Saint Antony Church, The Saint Antony Church, The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, Surp Kirkor Lusarovic Armenian Orthodox Church and Virgin Mary Suryani Church. Any one of these would provide the student with examples of Turkish architecture as well as some of the history of Christianity in Turkey.” No pictures of synagogues. This totally eliminates the history of the Jews in Turkey which predates the history of both Christianity and Islam in Asia Minor. There are a number of notable synagogues in Istanbul whose pictures could have been included. Among them are: Neve Shalom Synagogue, Ahrida Synagogue, Yanbol Synagogue. There has been a Jewish community in Turkey (Asia Minor) since the 4th century B.C. such as in Sardis. According to the Old Testament, the prophet Abraham was born in Ur in Chaldea. Near the Euphrates (Firat) river, there is a historic and ancient city called Sanliurfa whose initial name was Ur. Jewish communities in Asia Minor continued to prosper throughout the Turkish conquest under Seljuks and Ottomans. Today Turkey's total Jewish population is around 26,000 (the second largest Jewish community in a Muslim country, being the first is Iran), with a great majority living in Istanbul.

The United States was the first modern country to establish a representative democracy.o The United States formed a “Constitutional Republic.”

Settlers carried diseases such as smallpox, which the native people could not fight. Disease killed a large percentage of certain Native American populations.o No mention that the Indians also had diseases that spread among the settlers.

The American Revolution had created the United States of America.o The Treaty of Paris did not create the United States of America. It recognized colonies represented by a Continental Congress. The United States

of America was created by the Constitutional Convention

Experts try to predict when the United States will use up all of its own oil supply, and they don’t all agree. However, they do agree that the demand for oil is growing, rapidly shrinking the supply of this nonrenewable resource. Some expert say that as early as 2020, there won’t be enough oil in the United States for everyone who wants it.

o Other experts say the US has enough oil to last for several hundred years.

When Islam came to Africa beginning in the A.D. 700s, some Muslim began to capture and sell Africans to North Africa and Southwest Asia.o Islam didn’t “come” to Africa; it arrived by military conquest. No mention of the size and duration of the Arab Muslim slave trade.

Islam spread through expansion of Muslim rule and through trade.o Omitted is that Muslim rule expanded by jihad conquest.

The Ottomans were Muslim and they spread Islam throughout the empire. They were known for their religious tolerance. Existing religious groups maintained their own practices and communities within the empire.

o Omitted is discussion of the Janissary Corps and Suleiman’s devschirme, the levy of Christian boys who never saw their parents again after being forced into the Sultan’s military and administrative service. Omitted also is the heavy taxation of Christians and the destruction of thousands of schools and religious structures.

The coalition believed that Iraq was concealing weapons of mass destruction. Although none were found, the coalition removed Hussein from power.

o Omitted is that Hussein had dismantled some nuclear facilities that could have produced weapons grade bomb material had they been allowed to continue operation. Also omitted is that Hussein prevented further inspections. Omitted is that Hussein’s chemical weapons stockpiles have been found recently.

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists, or people who use violence to achieve political results, hijacked four U.S. airplanes. They flew the planes into the towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. A plane headed for the White House crashed in a Pennsylvania field. In response, the United States and its allies bombed terrorist camps in Afghanistan. The Taliban were removed from power and a new government was established, but the violent conflict continued.

o Omitted is that al-Qaeda terrorists are Islamic jihadists and the definition of a terrorist is incomplete. al-Qaeda jihadi terrorists are murderers who usually target civilians in order to strike terror in a civilian population to achieve their political ends. And, as the Jihadists themselves point out, they make no distinction between religion and politics.

One thousand years later, the Mughal Empire was established in 1526 by Babur. Mughal rulers practiced Islam and came form Central Asia. Islam became a unifying force in South Asia and grew into a large religious minority.

o Islam did not unify. It conquered. It became a large religious minority because the Mughals murdered millions of Hindus. “As a contribution to research on the quantity of the Islamic crimes against humanity, we may mention Prof. K.S. Lal's estimates about the population figures in medieval India (Growth of Muslim Population in India). According to his calculations, the Indian (subcontinent) population decreased by 80 million between 1000 (conquest of Afghanistan) and 1525 (end of Delhi Sultanate).”

Islam was founded in Saudi Arabia, but it quickly spread to South Asia.o Again, the text omits that Islam spread by jihad. A simple re-write of the sentence would correct the omission: “but the Arab armies quickly

brought it to South Asia.”

Islam arrived with Muslim traders in the early A.D. 700’s.o Islam arrived with the Arab Muslim armies in the early A.D. 700’s.

In order to profit from India’s rich natural resources, the British used trade practices that favored Britain, They shipped India’s raw material back to England and forced India to import British goods. The British also treid to prevent Indian manufactueres from producing certain goods that British manufacturer made, so that only British goods could be sold. This crippled India’s economic growth for more than 100 years.

o The paragraph tells only the bad side of the British. Omitted are the British contributions that made it possible for an India fragmented by hundreds of political states to enter the modern world as a nation. It is unsubstantiated opinion that Britain crippled India’s economic growth for more than 100 years. British railroads unified India, as did the English language. The British were responsible for roads, telephone, telegraph, dams, bridges, irrigation canals, schools, improved sanitation and public health.

Encouraged by this initial success, Mao set a plan in motion the following year called the Great Leap Forward to make China’s economy grow even faster.o Omitted is mention that, according to Communist Party archives, Mao’s Great Leap Forward ‘killed 45 million in four years’ Mao Zedong,

founder of the People’s Republic of China, qualifies as the greatest mass murderer in world history.

Those who did not comply (with one-child policy) had to pay large fineso China’s one-child policy has been described as arguably the greatest bioethical atrocity on the globe.” Since the 1970s, the Chinese government

has conducted a program of population control through forced abortion, infanticide, forced sterilization, forced use of abortifacient birth control, abandonment of children and deliberate killing of orphans through neglect. The program is enforced through severe penalties for those who do not

comply with the policy, including extortionate fines, destruction of property, imprisonment and even torture.

Discovery World Geography & Cultures (Gr 6) (12 of 22)

“In the 600s and 700s, Arabic language, Arabic culture, and Islamic religion spread to all of the countries in this region.”o This sentence contains the bias in that there is deliberate Chronological Revisionism, which removes the jihad inherent in the spread of Islam. The

Arabic language, Arabic culture and Islamic religion did not just “spread” to all of the countries. Islam spread first, primarily by sword, culture and language followed.

“Though Christianity is the dominant religion in North America, there are different types of Christians.”o Christianity is a belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. There is only one type of Christian though groups may practice their belief differently.

Over the centuries, Christianity has divided into numerous denominations. Each denomination has its own distinctive beliefs or practices, but they are commonly considered branches of the same religion because they agree on such fundamentals as the Bible, the Trinity, and the person of Christ.

“Another consequence of burning fossil fuels is climate change, a long-term change in the average temperatures of the earth’s atmosphere. The gases that are released when fossil fuels are burned stay in earth’s atmosphere and help to trap sunlight, which raises average temperatures all over the world. Many scientists think that the rising temperatures will have a negative effect on life on Earth.”

o Scientists are divided on this issue. According to the US Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, over 400 prominent scientists from more than two dozen countries have voiced significant objections to major aspects of the so-called "consensus" on man-made global warming. These scientists, many of whom are current and former participants in the UN IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), criticized the climate claims made by the UN IPCC and former Vice President Al Gore. According to NASA, throughout its long history, Earth has warmed and cooled time and again. Climate has changed when the planet received more or less sunlight due to subtle shifts in its orbit, as the atmosphere or surface changed, or when the Sun’s energy varied. But in the past century, another force has started to influence Earth’s climate: humanity. Global warming is the unusually rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil fuels.

“The United States and Canada, its neighbor to the north, share much more than a long border. Both countries, for example, have similar governments based on representative democracy. A democracy is a government in which citizens have decision-making power. In a representative democracy, citizens exercise their power indirectly, by choosing leaders to make governing decisions for them.” “While both the United States and Canada have representative democratic and federal systems, their governments do differ. The United States is a presidential democracy.” Mexico—like its neighbor to the north, the United States—is a presidential republic, where the president is directly elected as a representative of the people.”

o The United States is a Constitutional Republic. Though we have a representative form of government, it’s not a representative democracy. Mexico is a Federal Representative Republic.

All maps depict Turkey inaccurately and the Religion Map indicates it is primarily of Eastern Orthodox religion. The line drawn from the label to the country indicates that Turkey is the portion west of Istanbul ignoring Turkey’s land mass to the east of Istanbul. According to the World Population Review; the main religion of Turkey, followed by 99.8% of the population, is Islam, while other religions are followed by the minute .02% of the population.

Unfortunately for these countries, the effects of climate change—including heavy rains, droughts, higher temperatures, diseases, and pests—are hurting the coffee industry.

o Climate change is not the reason for changes in rainfall, and global warming is a fallacy. According to NASA data, up to 95 percent of solar radiation is literally bounced back into space by both CO2 and NO in the upper atmosphere. Without these necessary elements, in other words, the earth would be capable of absorbing potentially devastating amounts of solar energy that would truly melt the polar ice caps and destroy the planet.

As demand for gas in Southeast Asia rises and developed countries around the world look for cleaner alternatives to oil, production of natural gas in the region will likely rise in importance.

o Most pollution can be mitigated by current technology. The text fails to state facts about how pollution can be mitigated, how infrastructure such as proper & sewer drainage systems, water purification plants. No mention of mitigation by use of coal scrubbers, industrial air cleaning mechanisms. Natural gas will be good alternative when the mechanism is in place to make it readily available and efficient. It does not mention the lack of expertise, financial means and motivation to solve the existing problems. They have been mitigated or solve in other countries, cities. Insinuates that problem is not able to be solved.

War is a form of organized violence. War has many different causes.o According to Websters, war: a state of armed conflict between different nations or states or different groups within a nation or state. War is

sometimes a matter of self-defense, protection of person and property. Diplomacy is not always a working solution. Organized violence is a biased and negative description of war which ignores that at times war is necessary and does not include the difference between an acts of violence, aggression and war.

The Muslim conquest lasted in various forms from the 600s to the 1600s. Though the Islamic armies did not force people in conquered areas to convert, the wars spread their religion throughout the world.

o Muslims are commanded to fight unbelievers “infidels” until they are either dead, converted to Islam or in a permanent state of subjugation or Dhimmitude. Islam was spread by jihad. The Muslims were not under attack. They were waging aggressive imperialist warfare for the purpose of establishing the world-wide supremacy of Islam, as mandated in the Qur’an and the hadith. Qur’an 8:39; Qur’an 9:29; Sahih Muslim 1:33.

From 1096 to the late 1200s, Christians from several European countries waged a series of wars against Muslims in Palestine to gain control of a region called the Holy Land, where the Christian religion was founded.

o The statement is a perfect example of Islamist Revisionism of the history of the Crusades. The Crusades were not fought by the Christians to “gain control” of the Holy Land but rather to take back control which had been wrested from them by the Muslims. The Arab Muslims conquered Palestine in 636. They were intolerant of Jews and Christians. With the launching of the Crusades, the Christians took back the region in 1099 and dominated it until the Mamluk Muslims, who originated in Egypt, took it in 1291.

However, in reality, the Nationalist Party established a dictatorship under Chiang Kai-shek. In contrast, Mao advocated the communist doctrine—an ideology that promoted state control of politics and the economy for the good of the common person.

o Communism - a system of social organization in which all economic and social activity is controlled by a totalitarian state dominated by a single and self-perpetuating political party. Utopian concept (Websters, Encyclopedia Britanica). Biased definition that makes communism seem benevolent. Does not address true human condition that arises in communist nations

When Israel declared its independence in 1948, Arab states including Egypt launched a war. In the end, the Israeli forces were victorious, but many Palestinians were forced from their homes. In another war between Israel and Arab states, including Egypt, in 1967, Israel managed to conquer Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and extend its borders even further.

o The textbook does not include pertinent information. Israel did not just declare its independence. Students need to learn the following history of the United Nations Resolution to Partition Palestine. Britain was never able to resolve the contradictory aspirations of Arabs and Jews in Palestine and following World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs and Jews and violence against the British in Palestine compelled Britain to relinquish its mandate over Palestine. The British requested that the recently established United Nations determine the future of Palestine. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to terminate the British Mandate for Palestine and to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The proposed plan was accepted by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine. It was rejected by leaders of the Arab community (the Palestine Arab Higher Committee), who were supported in their rejection by the Arab League. The armies that invaded Israel on May 15, 1948 were from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Iraq also declared war and Libya and Yemen sent volunteers—eight Arab countries in all fought against Israel. As concerns the Palestinians “forced from their homes” what is missing here is the fact that most who fled did so at the instigation of their own local leaders and those of the five Arab nations that attacked Israel.” Many Palestinians stayed; that is why there are about 1.4 million Arabs living in Israel as Israeli citizens today. The reason why those who fled were forced to settle in “refugee camps”, some of which are now viable cities, is that none of the neighboring Arab countries would take them in. They became pawns in the Arab exterminationist campaign against the Jews. A critical fact is missing concerning the 1967 Six Day War. Israel offered to negotiate after the Six Day War and that the Arab response at a meeting held in August 1967 in Khartoum was “no recognition, no negotiation, and no peace with Israel.” Furthermore, Israel subsequently returned more than 90 percent of the territories won in the 1967 war after negotiations with its neighbors. As before, its neighbors rejected Israel’s offers to trade land for peace.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt World History (high school) (20 of 20)

Period from 2000 BC to 250BCo Nothing about Abraham and Jacob’s clan and Israel in Section 1 or 2, except for an obscure video on Solomon, but a significant amount of

material on Hindu and Buddhist religions in Section 1 and 2. Not until Section 4 do they get into Judaism which preceded both Hinduism and Buddhism in time.

Eventually the northern kingdom was destroyed and only the kingdom of Judah remained.o Eventually the northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians (Assyrian capitol was Nineveh in northern present day Iraq) and only the

kingdom of Judah remained.

Israelites Migrate to Egypt: Some historians believe that another Asiatic group, the Israelites, settled in Egypt during the rule of the Hyksos.o The book of Genesis in the Bible states that Jacob’s tribe, the Israelites, settled in Egypt about 1650 BC likely during the rule of the Hyksos.

Zoroaster’s Teachings: Similarities to Zoroastrianism-such as the concept of Satan and a belief in angels-can be found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.o It is unlikely that Zoroastrianism influenced Judaism but it was likely the other way around since Judaism preceded Zoroastrianism and

Christianity is a New Covenant with the God of Abraham (Judaism) through His Son Jesus Christ. Islam may have been influenced by Zoroastrianism and certainly by Jewish and Christian Scriptures since Islam was started by Muhammad 600 years after Jesus Christ and 2000 years after Moses.

Confucian Ideas About Government: “…education could transform a humbly born person into a gentleman.” In saying this, he laid the groundwork for the creation of a bureaucracy.

o One of the characteristics of Confucianism is the significance of the role of education. It has nothing to do with setting groundwork for the creation of bureaucracy. Confucianism has a special understanding of the values in education. In the relation between politics and morality,

Confucianism stresses the important role of morality in maintaining the social order. Education is therefore the significant element in the realization of social stability.

After some of his followers had been attacked, Muhammad decided to leave Mecca in 622.o Muhammad was forced to leave Mecca after he made an alliance with Medina which included provisions of war against the Meccans. The parties

to the treaty were asked “Do you realize to what you are committing yourselves in pledging your support to this man? It is to war against all and sundry.” Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 299; Ibn Ishaq/Hisham 305.

In Medina, Muhammad displayed impressive leadership skills. He fashioned an agreement that joined his own people with the Arabs and Jews of Medina as a single community. These groups accepted Muhammad as a political leader. As a religious leader, he drew many more converts who found his message appealing. Finally, Muhammad also became a military leader in the growing hostilities between Mecca and Medina.

o Muhammad may have displayed “impressive leadership skills” but the remainder of this paragraph is a gross falsification of the relationship between Muhammad and the Jews of Medina. The community of Yathrib was established hundreds of years before the arrival of Muhammad by Jewish refugees who had fled from Roman and Byzantine persecution. Over the years, pagan Arab tribes settled around Yathrib because of the economic activity created by the Jews. When Muhammad arrived in 622 AD, there were three principal Jewish tribes (the Qaynuqa, the Nadir and the Qurayza), and two principal Arab tribes (the Aws and the Khazraj). The Arabs of Yathrib did accept Muhammad as a political and religious leader. They accepted his new religion in part because they had already been exposed to monotheism by the Jews. However, the Jews did not accept Muhammad as a political leader.” Nor did the Jews want to adopt Muhammad’s new religion. They had been following their own monotheistic religion for over fifteen hundred years. Muhammad considered this refusal to be a threat and a betrayal. As a result, he expelled two of the Jewish tribes from Yathrib/Medina and destroyed the third, beheading the men and selling the women and children into slavery. Without this important and essential historical fact of the Medinan period it is difficult to accurately understand the rise of Islam without it.

Sharia law requires Muslim leaders to extend religious tolerance to Christians and Jews.o This statement is false, and represents one of the most egregious misrepresentations of Islam found in many textbooks. There is no requirement in

Shari’a law for Muslim leaders to “extend religious tolerance to Christians and Jews,” not in any way we would understand the meaning of “tolerance.” Shari’a law imposes a litany of burdens and restrictions on Christians and Jews, both in their daily lives and in the practice of their religions. Professor Majid Khadduri, a founding faculty member of the Middle East Studies Program at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, states that the restrictions and burdens imposed on non-Muslims under Shari’a law “are the product of intolerance and oppression, not of toleration.”

o According to Reliance of the Traveller, an authoritative compilation of classical Shari’a law, whose 1991 English translation was warranted as authentic by al Azhar University and the president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought: “[I]t is unbelief (kufr) to hold that the remnant cults now bearing the names of formerly valid religions, such as ‘Christianity’ or ‘Judaism,’ are acceptable to Allah….This is a matter over which there is no disagreement among Islamic scholars….”

o The nature of the “religious tolerance” which Islam has historically accorded to Christians and Jews is clearly reflected in the Qur’anic mandate to wage perpetual warfare on all non-Muslims until they submit and acknowledge the supremacy of Islam and in their characterization in the Qur’an as “apes”, “pigs”, “dogs” and “farther astray” than “cattle”. In assessing the significance of these characterizations, it must be remembered that the Qur’an is considered by Muslims to be the immutable word of God, as revealed to Muhammad. These Qur’anic teachings remain widespread in the Muslim world today. Al-Misri, Reliance, p.846. Qur-an Al-Madinah, p.28 (Surah 2:65); pp.304-305 (Surah 5:59-60); p.452-455 (Surah 7:159-166); p.458 (Surah 7:176); and p.1044. (Surah 25:44).

o The hadith also mandate hatred, intolerance and perpetual warfare against Christians and Jews. According to the authoritative hadith of both Muslim and Bukhari, Muhammad commanded that Muslims “will fight against the Jews and you will kill them until even a stone would say: Come here, Muslim, there is a Jew (hiding himself behind me); kill him.” Both Muslim and Bukhari reported that with his last breath Muhammad

called upon Allah to curse all Jews and Christians. Hadith of Sahih Muslim, USC Sunnah and Hadith, Book 041, Number 6981. See also, Hadith of Sahih Muslim, ibid.,Book 6981, Numbers 6982-6985; Hadith of Sahih Bukhari, ibid., Volume 1, Book 2, Number 25; Volume 4, Book 52, Numbers 176-177,179.

The word jihad means “striving” and can refer to the inner struggle against evil. However, the word is also used in the Qur’an to mean an armed struggle against unbelievers.

o The “inner struggle” meaning of jihad is listed first, incorrectly implying that it is the most important meaning. In fact, according to most classical and modern Islamic theologians, jurists and scholars, “armed struggle against unbelievers”, specifically including aggressive warfare for the purpose of making Islam supreme over the entire world, was, and is, the predominant meaning of jihad. Explicit in the Islamic doctrine of jihad are two issues of extreme importance: (1) warfare in the name of religion, and (2) imperialist aggression.

o According to the Qur’an, it is the duty of every Muslim who is able to wage war to make Islam supreme in the world…[ ] The Sunna, as recorded in the hadith, confirm the fact that the predominant meaning of jihad is waging warfare for the purpose of making Islam supreme in the world.

The persecuted people often welcomed the invaders (the Muslims) and their cause and chose to accept Islam. They were attracted by the appeal of the message of Islam, which offered equality and hope in this world. They were also attracted by the economic benefit for Muslims of not having to pay a poll tax.

o While some of this is acceptable the presentation removes the accuracy and leads to the designation of biased presentation. Many who were attacked by the Muslims converted to avoid being killed or sold into slavery. Although the message of Islam offered equality, Islam does not offer equality, not to dissenting Muslims, women, slaves and conquered ethnicities. The Poll Tax (Jizya) is a part of Dhimmitude – the status of living as a second class citizen. It had no economic role in helping persecuted people accept Islam.

Because the Qur’an forbade forced conversion Muslims allowed conquered peoples to follow their own religion. Christians and Jews, as “people of the book,” received special consideration.

o The Qur’an did not forbade forced conversions. “In the Muslim community, the jihad is a religious duty because of the universalism of the Islamic mission and the obligation to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or by force…”, Ibn Khaldun as cited in Karsh, page.67. As concerns the “special consideration” accorded Christians and Jews: Muslim jurists agreed that the purpose of fighting with the People of the Book [Christians and Jews]…is one of two things: it is either their conversion to Islam or the payment of jizyah. …This leaves no doubt that the primary goal of the Muslim community, in the eyes of its jurists, is to spread the word of Allah through jihad, and the option of poll-tax [jizya] is to be exercised only after subjugation [of non-Muslims]. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Theories of Islamic Law: The Methodology of Jihad. The Other Press, 1994.

o People of the Book (Arabic: الكتاب .Ahl al-Kitāb) is a term used to designate non-Muslim adherents to faiths which have a book of prayer′ أهلThere are actually three faiths mentioned in the Qur’an as people of the book: Jews, Christians and Sabians. Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee, Theories of Islamic Law: The Methodology of Jihad. The Other Press, 1994.

However, the Qur’an also declares that men and women, as believers, are equal.o Examples of inequality in the Qur’an:1. Qur’an Surah 65. 6-11 All children belong to the husband2. Qur’an Surah 4:34 states that men are superior to women, and that a husband may beat his wife if he “fear[s] disloyalty” or “ill-conduct”.3. “The underlying reason for granting the authority of divorce to men is the weaker rationality of women, their being normally overpowered by

emotions, and their inclination to disturb normal life.” Ibn Rushd, The Distinguished Jurist’s Primer, Volume II, Garnet Publishing , Reading, UK, Lebanon, 2006.

After the fall of Rome in a.d. 476, … Muslim leaders and scholars preserved and expanded much of that knowledge.

o Islam wasn’t “revealed” until 610AD. Muslims began invading nations 156 years after Rome fell.

It is in architecture that the greatest cultural blending of the Muslim world can be seen. To some extent, a building reflected the culture of people of the area. For example, the Great Mosque of Damascus was built on the site of a Christian Church.

o Muslims build mosques on conquered sites as monuments to their religion and to remove proof of the existence of the other religions. It is one part of what is called “Soft Jihad” – the archeological conquest of civilization. As an example the Haggia Sofia in Constantinople was converted to a mosque after the Muslims conquered the city and changed the name of the city to Istanbul. Outside Jerusalem a mosque now covers the Prophet Samuel’s tomb and Arabs pray there daily.

Muslims believe in all prophets of Judaism and Christianity.o The Prophets of Judaism and Christianity, according to Islam held the way for Allah and his Messenger. Muhammad believed himself to be a

prophet and messenger of God, the last in a line of seven prophets (beginning with Abraham and ending with Jesus Christ, who was prophet number six) and responsible for inscribing the last and most important of God's direct messages to the world, the Arabic Recitation, which is the full name of the work. The people of God, that is, the Jews and the Christians, were going astray; the purpose of the Arabic Recitation was to restore God's faithful to the proper path.

In 1099, the Crusaders captured Jerusalem and massacred its Jewish and Muslim inhabitants.o The second part of the sentence is correct. The first part reverses history. It is typical of the faulty history of the Crusades which leads students to

believe that Christians were the initiators of the aggression in the Holy Land and that Muslims were the victims who were merely defending themselves. The Christians were in Jerusalem centuries before the Muslims. Muslims invaded the Holy Land by the mid-7th century. The Crusades were launched in the late 11th century, some 450 years later, to wrest back control of the Holy Land from the Muslims and liberate the Christians from the Muslim conquerors.

In 1571, the Pope called on all Catholic princes to take up arms against the mounting power of the Ottoman Empire. Phillip responded like a true crusader.o The use of “true crusader” appears to be an effort to denigrate Phillip II. Phillip responded by supplying ships and weapons and the coalition,

which included Spain and Venice, scored a major victory over the Muslim Ottoman Empire which lost more than half of their ships.

The Spanish Empire Weakens: Inflation and Taxes—When Spain expelled the Jews and Moors around 1500, it lost many valuable artisans…o In the spring of 1492, shortly after the Moors were driven out of Granada, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain expelled all the Jews from their lands

and thus, by a stroke of the pen, put an end to the largest and most distinguished Jewish settlement in Europe. The expulsion of this intelligent, cultured, and industrious class was prompted only in part by the greed of the king and the intensified nationalism of the people who had just brought the crusade against the Muslim Moors to a glorious close. The real motive was the religious zeal of the Church, the Queen, and the masses. The official reason given for driving out the Jews was that they encouraged the Marranos to persist in their Jewishness and thus would not allow them to become good Christians.

Europeans Claim Muslim Lands: Setting the Stage—The Muslim lands that rimmed the Mediterranean had largely been claimed as a result of Arab and Ottoman conquests.

o The Muslim lands that rimmed the Mediterranean had largely been claimed as a result of Arab and Ottoman conquests of largely Christian lands under the Byzantine Empire and Roman Empire.

Ottoman Empire Loses Power: Reforms Fail—They (Europeans) began to look for ways to take land away from the Ottomans.

o They (Europeans) began to look for ways to take land away from the Muslim Ottomans just as the Muslims had taken the land from the Christian Byzantines in the 700’s.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Contemporary World Studies: People, Places, and Societies (Gr 6) (9 of 9)

After a heated presidential campaign Egyptians elected Mohamed Morsi in May 2012. Morsi had the support of the Muslim Brotherhood, a conservative political organization that believes Egypt’s government, laws and society should be based on Islamic law.

o The Muslim Brotherhood is not a conservative political organization. It .is one of the 20th century icons of modern Islamism, whose goal is the creation of a worldwide caliphate, an Islamic empire governed by Shari’a law.

Muslims conquered Palestine in the mid-600s. However, from the late 1000s to the late 1200s, Christians from Europe launched a series of invasions of Palestine called the Crusades.

o Pope Urban II issued a call for what he termed a “holy war,” a Crusade to regain control of the Holy Land. The textbook’s wording illustrates an egregious revisionism of the history of the Holy Land common to the textbooks reviewed which leads students to the erroneous conclusion that Muslims were indigenous to the Holy Land and that Christians invaded it. The precise opposite is true. The Christians were in the Holy Land centuries before the Muslims. In the 7th century Muslims invaded the Holy Land to take control of it, and over 450 years later the Crusades were launched to wrest back control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Yom Kippur, a very important holiday, is celebrated in the fall.o Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement, is the holiest day of the year for Jews.

Zionism, a nationalist movement calling for Jews to reestablish a state in their ancient homeland, began in Europe in the 1800s. Tens of thousands of Jews from around the world began moving into the region.

o Students need to understand that Zionism is a national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their historic homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel where they have maintained a continuous presence since biblical times. The publisher fails to include the fundamental fact that the modern Zionist movement gained its momentum in the aftermath of the Dreyfus affair in 1894. The violence that broke out against the Jews all over France, added to the bloody pogroms that had swept across Eastern Europe since 1881, convinced Theodor Herzl that Jews would never be safe until they had a state of their own. The goal of Zionism was not only to create a homeland—it was to create a haven.

In 1947 The United Nations voted to divide the Palestine Mandate, then under British control, into Jewish and Arab states. While the Arab countries rejected this plan, the Jews accepted it, and a year later created the State of Israel. Five armies then invaded Israel. Against the odds, the Israelis defeated the Arabs.

o Houghton Mifflin Harcourt needs to include information on the British Mandate for Palestine. Britain was never able to resolve the contradictory aspirations of Arabs and Jews in Palestine and following World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs and Jews and violence against the British in Palestine compelled Britain to relinquish its mandate over Palestine. The British requested that the recently established United Nations determine the future of Palestine. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to terminate the British Mandate for Palestine and to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The proposed Partition Plan (which gave more land to the Arabs than to the Jews) was accepted by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine. The plan was rejected by leaders of the Arab community (the Palestine Arab Higher Committee), who were supported in their rejection by the states of the Arab League community. The armies that invaded Israel on May 15, 1948 were from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Iraq also declared war and Libya and Yemen sent volunteers—eight Arab countries in all fought against Israel.

After Israel’s victory, many Palestinians fled to neighboring Arab countries.o Students are not told that it was Arab leaders who ordered the Palestinians to flee. Palestinians were told to vacate their villages and that they

would be allowed to return after the “Zionists” were defeated. “The deliberate depopulation of Arab villages and their transformation into military strongholds were marked corollaries of the Arab campaign from the onset of the hostilities. As early as December 1947, an unspecified number of villagers throughout Palestine were ordered out of their homes by the local leaderships (notably in the Tulkarem sub-district), and this phenomenon gained momentum after the ALA’s [Arab Liberation Army] infiltration into the country. Within weeks, rumors were circulating of secret instructions to Arabs in predominantly Jewish areas to vacate their villages so as to allow their use for military purposes…” Efraim Karsh, Palestine Betrayed, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010), p. 182.

o In addition students are not told that the Arab nations refused to take in the Palestinians; they chose instead to use them and to exploit their suffering for purposes of discrediting and delegitimizing Israel. Although some camps were set up in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, those countries refused to allow the refugees into their societies. Jaffa Newspaper, As Sarih, (March 30, 1948). See Bard, Myths and Facts, footnote #4, page189, for English translation.

In 1967, during the Six-Day War, Israel captured areas from Jordan and Egypt, inhabited by Palestinian Arabs – Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.o The important fact that is omitted here is that Israel offered to negotiate after the Six Day War and that the Arab response at a meeting held in

August 1967 in Khartoum was “no recognition, no negotiation, and no peace with Israel.” Furthermore, Israel subsequently returned more than 90 percent of the territories won in the 1967 war after negotiations with its neighbors. As before, its neighbors rejected Israel’s offers to trade land for peace. Israel also gained the Golan Heights from Syria.

In the 1990s Israel agreed to turn over parts of these territories to the Palestinians. In return, the Palestinian Authority agreed to recognize Israel and renounce terrorism. These territories have continued to be central to ongoing conflicts between Israelis and Arabs.

o First, these agreements were part of the Oslo Accords. The PLO, NOT the Palestinian Authority, agreed to recognize Israel and renounce terrorism. The PLO’s recognition of Israel’s right to exist turned out to be a verbal recognition only. Article 15 of the PLO Charter, which explicitly denies Israel’s right to exist, remains unchanged. The revisions that were supposed to acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel are not shown in any version of the Charter published by the Palestinian National Authority or the PLO. The PLO never gave up terrorist attacks on Israel. Continuous terrorist attacks against Israel from Gaza and the West Bank are central to the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The continuing conflict between Israel and the Arabs is the Arab determination to eradicate Israel.

Control of Jerusalem is a difficult and emotional issue for Jews, Muslims and Christians. The city has sites that are holy to all three religions.o First: the textbook has made an error with the chronological order of the world religions. It should read Jews, Christians and Muslims. This is one

indication of Islamist revisionism. Jerusalem does not appear in the Qur’an and the story of the Night Voyage (Muhammad’s visit to Jerusalem and ascension to Heaven) served to impress the triumph of Islam upon the Jews, and especially upon the Christians from whom Jerusalem had been seized

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt World Geography (high school) (12 of 37)

“Democracy – citizens hold political power, either directly or through elected representatives. Example: the United States.” “The United States is a represented democracy where people rule through elected representatives.” “It is also a federal republic where powers are divided among the …various state governments.”

o The US is a constitutional republic.

Discussion Prompts: “what is the difference between ‘Americanization’ and ‘multiculturalism’?” “Which approach do you think is healthier for a country?”o The discussion leaves room for opinion and the teaching of opinion by the teacher. A teacher schooled in Humanism will teach that

multiculturalism is healthier, and discount the role of European Americans in our history.

“Many People Settle the Land” “These native peoples occupied the land undisturbed until the 15th century, when Europeans began to explore what they called the “New World.”

o Statement implies that there was no conflict among the native people before the arrival of the Europeans: “Most common, however, is a middle position that acknowledges that demographic models of 15th-century Native America must be treated with caution, while also accepting that the direct and indirect effects of the European conquest included extraordinary levels of indigenous mortality not only from introduced diseases but also from battles, slave raids, and—for those displaced by these events—starvation and exposure.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "Native American"

“The people of Central America and the Caribbean face an uneven distribution of income as one of the effects of colonialism” “In general, most of the people in the countries of the region are poor. This is, in part, a legacy of colonialism. The early success of the sugar crop benefited the

colonial planters, not the native or African laborers. Also, the region faced competition in the sugar market, and eventually the sugar trade declined. Further, the fact that the natural resources were exported and not used locally left the region economically weakened.”

“In the 19th and 20th centuries, European colonial rulers developed Africa’s natural resources for export to Europe to manufacture goods there. As a result, many African nations have been slow to develop the infrastructure & industries.”

“European colonialism has caused political, economic & environmental problems in Africa today.” “Why has Africa not been able to take advantage of its abundant resources? As a result of colonialism, the economics of many African nations are based on

exporting resources instead of processing them.”o According to Economist Dr. Thomas Sowell, European colonialism is often blamed for leaving people poor as a cause of world poverty. But this is

a triumph of ideology over facts and factual assessment makes this argument collapse like a house of cards. According to author Mark Hopkins in his book Effects of British Imperialism in Africa, the positive impact of colonialism in Africa include flow of knowledge & infrastructure, health & medicine jumped to a higher level, increased citizen participation in government, the British suppression of the slave trade present under Arabs since the 8th century, trained local people to handle business & govt. & enhanced hygiene & sanitation systems.

“Young people in Cuba receive many benefits from the Communist government, including free education and health care. The education system extends from preschool programs through college to graduate programs. However, young people, like all Cubans, live in a police state that limits their economic and political freedoms.”

o Cuba’s economic freedom score is 28.5, making its economy one of the world’s least free. Cuba scores far below world averages in most areas of economic freedom, and its economy remains one of the world’s most repressed. The foundations of economic freedom are particularly weak in the absence of an independent and fair judiciary. No courts are free of political interference, and pervasive corruption affects many aspects of economic activity. 2014 Index of Economic Freedom Heritage Foundation Study in cooperation with the Wall Street Journal.

In 2003 Libya took responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing & soon after renounced Weapons of Mass Destruction. Since then relations between Libya & the West have steadily improved.

o The diplomatic facility in Benghazi was attacked on September 11, 2012, and the US ambassador and three other Americans were murdered.

McGraw-Hill Education World History (high school) (24 of 24)

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS[:] How can religion influence the development of an empire?o This is, indeed, the “ESSENTIAL QUESTION” with regard to the spread of Islam. The question is asked repeatedly throughout Chapter 9.

However, the information contained in Chapter 9 is grossly insufficient to enable the students to draw any conclusions or make any judgments about how Islam influenced the development of the empire. Further, none of the “Review” sections ask the students to give any thought to how the religion of Islam influenced the development of the Arab empire.

The Quran permitted warfare as jihad (jih • HAHD), or "struggle in the way of God." The courage of the Arab soldiers was enhanced by the belief that Muslim warriors were assured a place in paradise if they died in battle.

o These two isolated sentences constitute the only material in the chapter that addresses the issue of how the religion of Islam influenced the development of the Arab empire. The putative definition of jihad, is not merely inadequate; it is misleading. Jihad warfare “in the way of God” is not “permitted” in the Quran. It is MANDATED in the Quran. Among others, Chapters 5 and 9 of the Quran command all Muslims to wage warfare against non-Muslims until Islam is supreme over the entire world. Chronologically, chapters 5 and 9 are the last and second to last chapters of the Quran. According to the Islamic doctrine of naksh (abrogation), they supersede, or abrogate, all previous passages in the Quran that conflict with the duty of perpetual jihad. The jihad mandated in Chapters 5 and 9 of the Quran is Allah’s final, immutable command to all Muslims. Explicit in the Islamic doctrine of jihad are two obvious issues of extreme importance to history students (and to students of current affairs): (a) warfare in the name of religion, and (b) imperialist aggression. These issues are ignored not only in the textbook’s definition of jihad, but in its entire discussion of the Muslim conquests.

GUIDING QUESTION[:]….How did Muhammad’s successors help expand the Arab Empire after his death? Muhammad’s successors expanded their territory and the reach of Islam through conquest. Unified under Abū Bakr, the Arabs began to turn the energy they had once directed toward each other against neighboring peoples. [THE REMAINDER OF LESSON 2 CONTAINS A DESCRIPTION OF THE SERIES OF CONQUESTS THAT CREATED THE ARAB/MUSLIM EMPIRE]

o A complete answer to this question would be “through imperialistic wars of aggression fought to impose Islamic rule in the conquered lands.” The lesson provides a fair and candid description of the extent of the Muslim conquests, however, the lesson fails to address the nature and purpose of those conquests. The Islamic conquests described in Chapter 9 were obviously “imperialism”. Indeed, the terms “empire” and “Arab empire” appear dozens of times throughout Lesson 2. However, the issue of Muslim “imperialism” is never raised. In fact, the term “imperialism” is never used in the context of Muslim wars of conquest. Further, the students are never asked to consider whether conquest of a vast empire in the name of religion is appropriate. The textbook’s treatment of Islamic imperialism stands in stark contrast to the textbook’s discussion of European and American imperialism in Chapters 17, 25 and 26.

[DEFINITION OF “IMPERIALISM”:] Imperialism [is] the extension of a nation's power over other lands….o Muslims aging aggressive warfare and conquering a huge Islamic “empire” is clearly “imperialism.” The fact that the identity of the aggressor

entity is religious rather than nationalist would not justify excluding the Islamic wars of conquest from the definition of “imperialism”.

Racism is the belief that race determines traits and capabilities. Racists erroneously believe that particular races are superior or inferior.o Muslims erroneously believe that Islam is superior to all other religions, and that they have a duty, mandated by Allah, to wage war to establish

supremacy over all other religions.

[THE TEXTBOOK FREQUENTLY INFORMS THE STUDENTS THAT THE MOTIVATION FOR EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN IMPERIALISM IS ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION.]

[THE TEXTBOOK PRESENTS AN ABUNDANCE OF INFORMATION ON THE EVILS AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN IMPERIALISM IN AFRICA, ASIA AND THE AMERICAS.]

In contrast, no such candid assessment of the motive for or impact of Islamic imperialism is provided in Chapter 9’s description of the early Muslim conquests.

Muhammad, who had been invited to Madinah [Yathrib] by a number of prominent residents, soon began to win support from people there as well as from Arabs in the desert, known as Bedouin. The initial spread of Islam into Madinah was successful as Muhammad formed the first community of practicing Muslims from these groups.

o The textbook omits both the presence of Jews in Yathrib/Medinah, and their expulsion and extermination by Muhammad. It is important for students to learn the historical facts about Muhammad’s relationship with the Jews of Yathrib/Medinah because that relationship established the precedent for Islamic conquest and oppression of all non-Muslims. The community of Yathrib was established hundreds of years before the arrival of Muhammad by Jewish refugees who had fled from Roman and Byzantine persecution. Over the years, pagan Arab tribes settled around Yathrib because of the economic activity created by the Jews. When Muhammad arrived in 622 AD, there were three principal Jewish tribes and two principal Arab tribes.

Muhammad, who had been invited to Madinah [Yathrib] by a number of prominent residents, soon began to win support from people there as well as from Arabs in the desert, known as Bedouin. The initial spread of Islam into Madinah was successful as Muhammad formed the first community of practicing Muslims from these groups.

o The Jews, who originally established the community, did not have any part in “invit[ing]” Muhammad to Yathrib/Medinah, and there were no Jews present at the negotiations that brought him there.

Muhammad, who had been invited to Madinah [Yathrib] by a number of prominent residents, soon began to win support from people there as well as from Arabs in the desert, known as Bedouin. The initial spread of Islam into Madinah was successful as Muhammad formed the first community of practicing Muslims from these groups.

o The Arabs of Yathrib accepted Muhammad’s new religion in part because they had already been exposed to monotheism by the Jews. However, the Jews did not want to adopt Muhammad’s new religion. They had been following their own monotheistic religion for over fifteen hundred years. Muhammad considered this refusal to be a threat and a betrayal. As a result, he expelled two of the Jewish tribes from Yathrib/Medinah and destroyed the third, beheading the men and selling the women and children into slavery.

Islam is not just a set of religious beliefs but a way of life as well. After Muhammad’s death, Muslim scholars developed a law code known as the shari’ah (shuh • REE • uh). It provides believers with a set of laws to regulate their daily lives. It is based on scholars’ interpretations of the Quran and the example set by Muhammad in his life. It regulates all aspects of Muslim life including family life, business practice, government, and moral conduct.

o SHARI’AH – APPLICATION TO NON-MUSLIMS: This formulation accurately describes how shari’ah law encompasses all aspects of human thought and behavior. However, the textbook fails to inform the students that Islamic shari’ah law is also imposed on all non-Muslims living in lands conquered and controlled by Muslims. Shari’ah law is grossly discriminatory against non-Muslims. According to the Qur’an, it is the religious duty of all Muslims to wage aggressive jihad warfare until Islam and shari’ah law are supreme over the entire world

Muslims saw no separation between political and religious authority.o The shari’ah does not separate religious matters from civil or political law.o SHARI’AH – SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: The textbook omits the obvious and critical significance of these facts: there is a

fundamental conflict between shari’ah law and the principle of separation of church and state.

In the conquered territories of Asia and North Africa there were peaceful interactions among Muslim, Christian, and Jewish societies.o This formulation obscures the oppressive and inherently coercive social system imposed by Muslim conquerors. At some times, in some places,

there were “peaceful interactions among Muslim, Christian, and Jewish societies.” However, these periodic “peaceful interactions” occurred only

after conquest by Muslim armies acting in accordance with the Qur’anic mandate to wage war against all non-Muslims until Islam is supreme over the entire world. Further, these periodic “peaceful interactions” lasted only as long as conquered Christians and Jews continued to (a) acknowledge the supremacy of Islam and (b) comply with a litany of burdens, restrictions and legal disabilities, both in the practice of their religions and in their daily lives. This theocratic socio-political system was imposed by force and perpetuated by force. For conquered Jews and Christians, the alternatives to dhimmitude were conversion to Islam, or death.

Both Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their religions. Following the concept of dhimmitude, however, they were also subjected to regulations in order to make them aware that they had been subdued by their conquerors. Those who chose not to convert were required to be loyal to Muslim rule and to pay special taxes.

o The “regulations” of dhimmitude are much more onerous and pervasive than this formulation indicates. An integral part of shari’ah law, the dhimmi requirements and restrictions affect every aspect of Jews’ and Christians’ religious, civil and personal lives. They are burdensome, discriminatory and intentionally humiliating. In addition to paying the jizya tax, Jews and Christians were:

not allowed to pray if the prayer could be heard by a Muslim; prohibited from building new houses of worship, or making repairs to existing ones; not allowed to give testimony in Islamic courts; required to open their homes to Muslims and provide food and lodging on demand; required to rise from their seats when a Muslim sought to sit down; prohibited from bearing arms; not allowed to ride on horses; required to wear distinctive clothing or a badge signifying their non-Muslim identity. (Muslims mandated that Jews wear a yellow badge

more than a thousand years before the Nazis instituted the repugnant practice.)

As in the other early civilizations, slavery was widespread. Because Muslims could not be slaves in Islamic society, most of their slaves from Africa or from non-Islamic populations elsewhere in Asia, resulting in a significant impact on societies in these places. Many had been captured in war.

Slaves often served in the army. This was especially true of slaves recruited from the Turks of central Asia. Many military slaves were freed. Some even came to exercise considerable power.

Many slaves, especially women, were used as domestic servants. These slaves were sometimes permitted to purchase their freedom. Islamic law made it clear that slaves should be treated fairly, and it was considered a good act to free them.

o The quotations to the left constitute Chapter 9’s only substantive discussion of slavery in the Muslim world. The information presented is accurate, but sorely insufficient. The textbook omits critical facts necessary to understand the nature, extent and significance of slavery in the Islamic world. The inadequacy of this presentation is made obvious by a comparison with the textbook’s extensive discussion of the Atlantic slave trade in Chapter 17. The textbook devotes only 12 lines (116 words) covering less than a third of a page to the Muslim slave trade. In contrast, the textbook devotes 87 lines (925 words) covering two full pages and a portion of a third to the Atlantic slave trade. However, this is not merely a question of word count. The substantive omissions in the textbook’s discussion of the Muslim slave trade are much more significant.

As a result of [the Atlantic slave] trade, as many as 10 million enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas between the early sixteenth century and the late nineteenth century.

o The volume and duration of the Atlantic slave trade are accurate. In contrast, the textbook provides absolutely no information on the volume or duration of the Muslim slave trade. Various authorities and scholars estimate the number of black Africans sold into the Islamic slave trade from the seventh to the early twentieth century to be between fourteen and eighteen million. In addition to black Africans, Muslims also enslaved untold numbers of Persians, Christian Europeans, Caucasian peoples (Georgians, Circassians, Armenians, etc), Turks, Persians, Indians, Southeast

Asians and Chinese. The Atlantic slave trade lasted less than 400 years. The Muslim slave trade began in the seventh century and continues into the twenty-first century, more than 1350 years, and counting.

Europeans first bought enslaved people from African merchants at slave markets in return for gold, guns, or other European goods. Local slave traders first obtained their supplies of enslaved persons from nearby coastal regions. As demand grew, they had to move farther inland to find their victims. Local rulers who traded in enslaved people viewed the slave trade as a source of income. Many sent raiders into defenseless villages.

o After the early Muslim conquests in the 7th Century, a vast and complex international slave trading industry developed to serve the voracious appetite for slaves in the Muslim world. When the Atlantic slave trade began in the 16th Century, it depended on the huge and complex Muslim slave kidnapping and transportation industry that had already been in operation for over 800 years. When European slave traders landed on the west coast of Africa looking for a cargo of slaves, they did not trek into the interior of the continent and do the dirty work of kidnapping black Africans. They dealt with middlemen, the vast majority of whom were Muslims. Approximately 80% of all of the black Africans ever enslaved and exported from the continent passed through the hands of Muslims. In order to understand the historical significance and impact of the Muslim slave trade, it is essential that students know its duration, its volume, and its connection to the Atlantic slave trade.

According to Islam, all Muslim people are equal in the eyes of Allah. The Quran granted women spiritual and social equality with men.

o In fact, the Quran and Shari’ah law are grossly discriminatory toward Muslim women. Quran 4:34 states that men are superior to women, and that a husband may beat his wife if he “fear[s] disloyalty” or “ill-conduct”. According to Quran 2:282, in a legal proceeding the testimony of one man is worth the testimony of two women. Muhammad stated that the reduced value of the testimony of women “is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind” and that “the majority of the dwellers of Hell” are women because they “curse frequently and are ungrateful to [their] husbands.”

Women had the right to the fruits of their work and to own and inherit property.o Quran 4.11 provides that a man’s share of an inheritance is twice that of a woman.

The Quran allowed Muslim men to have more than one wife, but no more than four.o TRUE STATEMENT but contradicts the passage in the textbook that “[t]he Quran granted women… social equality with men.” Allowing men to

have up to four wives but women only one is obviously discriminatory.o Muhammad became engaged to his favorite wife (Aisha) when she was six years old, and had marital relations with her when she was nine years

old. Therefore, according to Islamic Shari’a law, Muslim men may have marital relations with girls as young as nine years old. The practice of middle-aged Muslim men marrying and having sexual relations with prepubescent little girls continues in some Muslim countries today.

Women enjoyed certain privileges, like the right to freely enter into marriage, and the right of divorce under some circumstances.o A Muslim man can divorce any wife at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. In contrast, a Muslim woman can obtain a divorce only

under specified circumstances, and even then the consent of her husband is required.

The custom of requiring women to cover virtually all parts of their bodies when appearing in public was common in the cities and is still practiced today in many Islamic societies. It should be noted, however, that these customs owed more to traditional Arab practice than to the Quran.

o The Arab custom of “requiring women to cover virtually all parts of their bodies when appearing in public” did predate Islam. HOWEVER, it is MANDATORY in Islam. Women are commanded to veil their faces and cover their bodies in Quran 24:31 and 33:59.

Identifying[:] Use your notes to identify characteristics of the upper class, slaves, and women in the Islamic world.

o With regard to slaves, despite the failure to present information regarding the extent of the Muslim slave trade and its connection to the Atlantic slave trade, this textbook presents a fair (if exceedingly brief) description of slavery in the Muslim world. However, with regard to women, the textbook has omitted critical facts necessary to determine the status of women in Islamic society.

McGraw-Hill Education World Geography (high school) (12 of 12)

In the 1760s, the British government angered the colonists by imposing new taxes and limiting their freedoms. The thirteen colonies eventually fought for independence from Britain in the American Revolution (1775–1783). The outcome was an independent federal republic called the United States of America.

o The United States is a Constitutional Republic.

Terrorism became a major concern of many Americans after September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked four passenger planes, crashing them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field. After such devastation, the United States launched a war on terrorism focused on Afghanistan and Iraq.

o The book fails to identify the type of terrorism and terrorists. Nowhere in this paragraph does the publisher identify the terrorists as Muslims or Islamic Jihadists. In addition there is no explanation for the targeting these 3 specific buildings and the 4th cite was not identified as the White House.

The Jordan River, which has a tributary in Syria, flows through all of the countries in the Eastern Mediterranean. The river flows along the Syrian-Lebanese border, through the Anti-Lebanon Mountains and near Mount Hermon. It then flows south into the Sea of Galilee. There the river becomes a natural border between the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Jordan before it empties into the Dead Sea. The river is important for irrigation and agriculture. Farmers grow oranges, bananas, beets, and other vegetables on the river’s eastern banks.

o First: This is a geography textbook and this sentence is part of the description of tributaries which flow through the Eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, the river acts as a natural border between the West bank and Jordan. Second: The designation of “Israeli-occupied” is factually inaccurate. It has never been “occupied” and it is still legally called “disputed territory.” This terminology comes from the fact that no settlement of land for peace was accepted by the Arab nations at the conclusion of the Six Day War in 1967. The publisher’s Bias towards Israel is apparent throughout this Chapter and it is not accidental Bias. It is agenda-based and created by the careful inclusion of egregious Factual Errors.

By the A.D. 700s, Islam had spread through the subregion and into Europe and the eastern horn of Africa. Islam had profound influences in these areas. One of the new features in the land use of cities and villages was the mosque, or place of worship.

o Nowhere does the publisher provide the information that Islam “spread” through Jihad.

Following the defeat of the Ottomans in World War I, occupation of the Eastern Mediterranean was divided between Britain and France for protection from invasion, as well as for economic development, health and education. Lebanon and Syria gained independence from France in 1943 and 1946, respectively. Jordan gained independence from the British in 1946. The remaining disputed territory was Palestine.

o The League of Nations divided the territories (Eastern Mediterranean) which had been part the Ottoman Empire into two mandates. First: McGraw Hill needs to provide students with the history of the British Mandate for Palestine and the French Mandate for Syria and Lebanon. The British Mandate for Palestine was a result of the British defeat of the Ottoman Turkish forces during World War I. At that time, the British occupied and established a military administration in Palestine and Syria. In June 1922, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate for Palestine which determined that Britain could divide the Mandate territory into two administrative areas, Palestine under direct British rule, and autonomous Transjordan, under the rule of the Hashemite family from Hijaz. The Mandate formalized British rule in Palestine which continued until 1948. Next: McGraw Hill needs to include information on the British Mandate for Palestine. The terminology “remaining disputed territory” used while referring to the British Mandate for Palestine is incorrect and agenda-based. It subliminally prepares the student for considering the state of Israel

as “disputed territory.” At bare minimum the following history needs to be included if the publisher decides to use a basic geography textbook as a world history textbook. Britain was never able to resolve the contradictory aspirations of Arabs and Jews in Palestine and following World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs and Jews and violence against the British in Palestine compelled Britain to relinquish its mandate over Palestine. The British requested that the recently established United Nations determine the future of Palestine. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to terminate the British Mandate for Palestine and to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab.

Soon after World War II, armed conflicts broke out among Jewish and Arab ethnic groups in Palestine. The Jews wanted an internationally recognized homeland in a part of Palestine. The Palestinians wanted all of Palestine. The Jews accepted a 1947 United Nations (UN) plan to divide Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arabs rejected it, thus setting up a struggle for control of the land. Both groups had a deep religious and ethnic attachment to the land. The British withdrew from the disputed Palestinian territory, and the Jews proclaimed the independent state of Israel in May 1948.

o Terrorist attacks (“not armed conflicts”) by Arabs against Jews in Palestine existed far before WWII. Arabs have used violence and terrorist tactics against the Jews since the riots of 1920. Radical Arab hatred against the Jews was given a voice when the Muslim Brotherhood was founded in March 1928 by Hassan al-Banna and when Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, recruited Muslims to serve in SS killing units during the years 1937-1945. The Mandate formalized British rule in Palestine which continued until 1948. Britain was never able to resolve the contradictory aspirations of Arabs and Jews in Palestine and following World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs and Jews and violence against the British in Palestine compelled Britain to relinquish its mandate over Palestine. The British requested that the recently established United Nations determine the future of Palestine. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted to terminate the British Mandate for Palestine and to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The proposed Partition Plan (which gave more land to the Arabs than to the Jews) was accepted by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine. The plan was rejected by leaders of the Arab community (the Palestine Arab Higher Committee), who were supported in their rejection by the states of the Arab League community. The armies that invaded Israel on May 15, 1948 were from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Iraq also declared war and Libya and Yemen sent volunteers—eight Arab countries in all fought against Israel.

Between 1948 and 2013, tensions over Arab opposition to Israel and Israel’s concern for its security led to seven military conflicts. They involved Israel in conflict with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Hezbollah, a paramilitary group dedicated to destroying Israel. In the 1967 Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel gained control of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights.

o The important fact that is omitted here is that Israel offered to negotiate after the Six Day War and that the Arab response at a meeting held in August 1967 in Khartoum was “no recognition, no negotiation, and no peace with Israel.” Furthermore, Israel subsequently returned more than 90 percent of the territories won in the 1967 war after negotiations with its neighbors. As before, its neighbors rejected Israel’s offers to trade land for peace.

The wars following the birth of Israel forced many Arabs living in Palestine and Jews living in various Southwest Asian and North African countries to become refugees. The status of Arab refugees is an ongoing issue in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. In addition, the Palestinians want an independent country of their own in the West Bank. The Palestinian people have become a stateless nation, an ethnic group without a formal country. Although Palestinians are religiously diverse, today most are Muslim with a significant number of Christians living near Jerusalem.

o This is blatant corruption of historical facts. It is agenda-based Islamist revisionism of the history of Israel. Students are not told that it was Arab leaders who ordered the Palestinians to flee. Palestinians were told to vacate their villages and that they would be allowed to return after the “Zionists” were defeated. “The deliberate depopulation of Arab villages and their transformation into military strongholds were marked corollaries of the Arab campaign from the onset of the hostilities. As early as December 1947, an unspecified number of villagers throughout Palestine were ordered out of their homes by the local leaderships (notably in the Tulkarem sub-district), and this phenomenon gained momentum after the ALA’s [Arab Liberation Army] infiltration into the country. Within weeks, rumors were circulating of secret instructions to Arabs in predominantly Jewish areas to vacate their villages so as to allow their use for military purposes…” In addition students are not told that the Arab

nations refused to take in the Palestinians; they chose instead to use them and to exploit their suffering for purposes of discrediting and delegitimizing Israel. Although some camps were set up in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, those countries refused to allow the refugees into their societies.

o It is incomprehensible that a reputable publishing house should in effect condemn the state of Israel for the refugee problem sustained by the Jews in Arab lands. It is also incomprehensible that it should compare the Arab and Jewish refugees. (See historical information on Arab refugee problem given immediately above).

o The Jews who were not killed were expelled from Muslim lands. Between 1920 and 1970, 900,000 Jews were expelled from Arab and other Muslim countries: from Morocco to Iran, from Turkey to Yemen, including places where they had lived for twenty centuries. The 1940s were a turning point in this tragedy; of those expelled, 600,000 settled in the new state of Israel, and 300,000 in France and Canada.

o The Palestinians are NOT a nation and therefore they are NOT stateless. The Palestinians are the offspring of those Arabs who lived in the region called Palestine. They are without a state because the Arab nations refused to accept the UN partition Plan which would have divided the Palestine Mandate into two states: one for the Arabs (the larger portion) and one for the Jews who accepted.

In 2006 Hamas, an Islamic political party, won elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hamas supported terrorist attacks on Israel. In 2012, in response to rocket attacks from Hamas-governed Gaza, the Israeli military launched air strikes followed by ground forces. Many targeted areas suffered extensive damage.

o Hamas supports the destruction of Israel, not merely terrorist attacks on Israel. The problem was created by Hamas. Israel has the right to defend her people against all terrorist attacks and targeted areas will necessarily suffer extensive damage. The same must be said about damage to Israel’s’ infrastructure. This damage like that in Gaza was caused by Hamas.

Independence in the 1940s was not smooth for Lebanon, Syria, or Jordan. By 1970 Lebanon had descended into a civil war based on religious politics between Christians and Muslims. Following the 1983 Israeli invasion, a group of Lebanese Shia clerics formed Hezbollah. Their goal was to drive Israel from Lebanon. The Syrian government intervened in the conflict, although Lebanese of all religions were opposed to Syrian interference. The civil war ended in 1989 with a new government that divided all administrative positions based on equal ratios of Christians and Muslims.

o The civil war in Lebanon lasted from 1975 until 1989, and ended with the signing of the Taif Accord. Israel went into Lebanon on June 6, 1982 in response to PLO attacks from Lebanon into Israeli territory; they remained there only to prevent further attacks on Israel, until their unilateral withdrawal in 2000. Not all information on the goals of Hezbollah is contained here. Following the Islamic revolution in Shīʿite Iran in 1979 and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, a group of Lebanese Shīʿite clerics formed Hezbollah with the goal of driving Israel from Lebanon and establishing an Islamic state in Lebanon.

The population of the subregion includes many different ethnicities and religious sects. In Lebanon, Christians of various sects make up about 40 percent of the total population. Christians make up smaller percentages in Jordan and Syria.

o Israel is not included. According to a May 2014 NPR report, 2% of the population in Israel is Christian. 160,000 Christians who live in Israel with another 50,000-60,000 who live in the West Bank and Gaza.

The demographics of the Eastern Mediterranean have changed drastically in the past century. After 1990 nearly 900,000 immigrants moved to Israel from Russia. It was the largest immigration to Israel since independence in 1948. Today over 67 percent of Israel’s Jews are native born. Due to military conflicts and resettlement programs, many Palestinians were displaced beginning with the war following Israel’s declaration of independence. They relocated to refugee settlements in neighboring Arab countries. In 2012 the UN reported that there were 4,797,723 registered Palestinian refugees living in 58 camps in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. These include several generations of descendants of the original refugees. This has been a serious humanitarian issue that hampers peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

o This statement is propaganda with very little truth and few historical facts. Arab leaders ordered the Palestinians to flee. Palestinians were told to vacate their villages and that they would be allowed to return after the “Zionists” were defeated. According to Efraim Karsh in Palestine Betrayed,

“The deliberate depopulation of Arab villages and their transformation into military strongholds were marked corollaries of the Arab campaign from the onset of the hostilities. As early as December 1947, an unspecified number of villagers throughout Palestine were ordered out of their homes by the local leaderships (notably in the Tulkarem sub-district), and this phenomenon gained momentum after the ALA’s [Arab Liberation Army] infiltration into the country. Within weeks, rumors were circulating of secret instructions to Arabs in predominantly Jewish areas to vacate their villages so as to allow their use for military purposes…” In addition students are not told that the Arab nations refused to take in the Palestinians; that they chose instead to use them and to exploit their suffering for purposes of discrediting and delegitimizing Israel. Although some camps were set up in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, those countries refused to allow the refugees into their societies. Students are never told that generations of Palestinian refugees have remained in the camps because of the PLO and also UNWRA. The 600,000 Arabs who fled their homes in mandatory Palestine and the nascent state of Israel during the 1947-48 war have been kept in squalid camps for decades by their Arab hosts as a means of derogating Israel in the eyes of the West and arousing pan-Arab sentiments. And as if to add insult to injury, the U.N. Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), established in December 1949 as a temporary means for relieving the plight of the newly-displaced refugees, has transformed into a permanent organization that has substantially exacerbated the problem whose resolution it was supposed to facilitate.

McGraw-Hill Education World Cultures and Geography (Gr 6) (6 of 6)

Since 2000, the United States has faced challenges from the growth of terrorism both at home and abroad. Terrorism is the use of violence against civilians, by individuals or groups, to reach political goals. The worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil was on September 11, 2001, when terrorists seized four passenger planes. Two planes were crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City. A third aircraft damaged the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. military in Washington, D.C. A fourth plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania after what is believed to have been a passenger uprising against the terrorists. Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks.

o The definition of terrorism is correct. However the book fails to identify the type of terrorism and terrorists. Nowhere in this paragraph does the publisher identify the terrorists as Muslims or Islamic Jihadists. In addition there is no explanation for the targeting these 3 specific buildings and the 4th cite was not identified as the White House.

Conflicts also arose over religious beliefs. One of the most important rituals in medieval European society was the religious pilgrimage, a visit to lands that were important to the history of Christianity. Jerusalem was the most important destination for pilgrims, but in the late 1000s, Muslims controlled the city. Pope Urban II, leader of the Catholic Church, called for a crusade to conquer Jerusalem for Christianity. The kings and noblemen of Western Europe formed great armies to meet the pope’s demand. They won Jerusalem in the First Crusade. More crusades followed, but they were not successful. Muslims regained control of Jerusalem, and Muslim power continued to grow.

o Pope Urban II issued a call for what he termed a “holy war,” a Crusade to regain control of the Holy Land. The textbook’s wording illustrates an egregious revisionism of the history of the Holy Land common to the textbooks reviewed which leads students to the erroneous conclusion that Muslims were indigenous to the Holy Land and that Christians invaded it. The precise opposite is true. The Christians were in the Holy Land centuries before the Muslims. In the 7th century Muslims invaded the Holy Land to take control of it, and over 450 years later the Crusades were launched to wrest back control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Deserts: Desert landscapes spread across most of Southwest Asia. The Arabian Desert, which covers nearly the entire Arabian Peninsula, is the largest in the region and one of the largest in the world. It is made up of rocky plateaus, gravel-covered plains, salt-crusted flats, flows of black lava, and sand seas, which are unbroken expanses of sand. In the southern part of the peninsula lies the largest sand sea in the world: the Rub’ al-Khali, or Empty Quarter. Winds have sculpted its reddish-orange sands into towering dunes and long, winding ridges.

o The textbook fails to include the Negev Desert in Israel.

Arab-Israeli Conflict: One of the mandates received by Britain after World War I was the territory called Palestine. It roughly corresponded to the Land of Israel, which was the area inhabited by the Jewish people in ancient times. Most of the people living in Palestine at the time of the mandate were Muslim Arabs. During the same period, growing numbers of Jewish immigrants seeking to escape persecution had been arriving from Europe and other parts of the world. As the Jewish population increased, tensions between Palestinian Arabs and Jews deepened. Jewish nationalists called for the reestablishment of their historic homeland in Palestine. This movement gained support as a result of the Holocaust—the systematic murder of 6 million European Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of Jews who survived the Holocaust were now refugees in search of a place to live. In 1947 the United Nations decided on the issue of Palestine. The United Nations voted to divide the territory into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. The proposal was rejected by the Arabs. The Arabs did not want to give up land. On the day in 1948 that Israel, the Jewish state, declared its independence, armies from neighboring Arab countries invaded. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs became refugees after fleeing the violence. That war ended with a truce in 1948. Other major Arab-Israeli wars were fought, however, in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

o This statement implies that the Jewish people lived in this land only in “ancient times.” Israel has been the uninterrupted Jewish homeland since biblical times.

o Most of the people were not Muslim Arabs. Jews have maintained a presence in Palestine since ancient biblical times. For example, they were a plurality in Jerusalem from the 1840s onward and a majority in the city by 1880. In 1914, although the Jews made up 12% of the population of Palestine, they were 60% of the population of Jerusalem.

o Many facts concerning Jewish immigration have been egregiously omitted. The history of Jewish immigration to Palestine prior to, during and following the Holocaust was determined in most cases by the British under their Mandate. The British limited immigration of Jews to Palestine and in some cases brought it to a complete halt. In the early 1920s, Herbert Samuel, a British Jew who served as the first High Commissioner of Palestine, placed restrictions on Jewish immigration while allowing Arabs to enter the country freely. The greatest number of immigrants came in 1935 (66,472) in response to the growing persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany. The British considered this number too large and cut the quota of Jews to be allowed into Palestine in 1936 to 29,595. From 1937-1941, 71,734 Jews immigrated into Palestine, both legally and illegally. In 1939, the British published the White Paper, announcing that an independent Arab state would be created within 10 years, and that Jewish immigration was to be limited to 75,000 for the next five years, after which it was to cease altogether. It also forbade land sales to Jews in 95% of Palestine. It is important to note that the Arabs rejected the White Paper proposal. This historical fact is typically omitted from the textbooks reviewed for this Report. Palestine remained closed to Jewish immigration for the duration of WWII, adding to the numbers of Jews who perished in Hitler’s “Final Solution.” Six million Jews were exterminated. After the war, the British refused to allow the survivors to find sanctuary in Palestine and seized “illegal” immigrant ships carrying survivors, interning the survivors in camps on Cyprus. Approximately 50,000 survivors were detained in these camps, 28,000 of whom were still there when Israel became a state in 1948.

o In addition the textbook “overlooks” the fact that Arab immigration to Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s slightly exceeded the Jewish immigration to the region.

o The textbook does not use the word Zionism or Zionist. The re-establishment of the Jewish homeland was NOT an act of aggression designed to take land by force or to capture and subdue people.

o Students need to learn that Zionism is a national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their historic homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel where they have maintained a continuous presence since biblical times.

o McGraw Hill needs to provide students with the following history of both the British Mandate for Palestine and the United Nations Resolution to Partition Palestine. The British Mandate for Palestine was a result of the British defeat of the Ottoman Turkish forces during World War I. At that time, the British occupied and established a military administration in Palestine and Syria. In June 1922, the League of Nations approved the British Mandate for Palestine which determined that Britain could divide the Mandate territory into two administrative areas, Palestine under direct British rule, and autonomous Transjordan, under the rule of the Hashemite family from Hijaz. The Mandate formalized British rule in Palestine which continued until 1948. Britain was never able to resolve the contradictory aspirations of Arabs and Jews in Palestine and following World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs and Jews and violence against the British in Palestine compelled Britain to relinquish its mandate over Palestine. The British requested that the recently established United Nations determine the future of Palestine. On November 29,

1947, the UN General Assembly voted to terminate the British Mandate for Palestine and to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab.

o It was NEVER a question of giving up land. It was a question of the Arab commitment to the extermination of the Jews which fueled this five- country attack on the Jewish state. This commitment continues to exist today in the Charter of the PLO and as the raison d’être of Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS. McGraw Hill does not include even the basic information on the virulent anti-Semitism of the Arabs, exhibited in their alliance with Hitler. Haj Amin al-Husseini—the former Mufti of Jerusalem, Nazi war criminal, and spokesman for the Arab Palestinians—organized the Holy War Army. According to al-Husseini, their objective was to “murder the Jews,” to “murder them all.”

o Students are not given any information as to which armies invaded. The proposed Partition Plan was accepted by the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine. The plan was rejected by leaders of the Arab community (the Palestine Arab Higher Committee), who were supported in their rejection by the states of the Arab League community. The armies that invaded Israel on May 15, 1948 were from Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Iraq also declared war and Libya and Yemen sent volunteers—eight Arab countries in all fought against Israel.

o Students are not told that it was Arab leaders who ordered the Palestinians to flee. Palestinians were told to vacate their villages and that they would be allowed to return after the “Zionists” were defeated. “The deliberate depopulation of Arab villages and their transformation into military strongholds were marked corollaries of the Arab campaign from the onset of the hostilities. As early as December 1947, an unspecified number of villagers throughout Palestine were ordered out of their homes by the local leaderships (notably in the Tulkarem sub-district), and this phenomenon gained momentum after the ALA’s [Arab Liberation Army] infiltration into the country. Within weeks, rumors were circulating of secret instructions to Arabs in predominantly Jewish areas to vacate their villages so as to allow their use for military purposes…”

o In addition students are not told that the Arab nations refused to take in the Palestinians; they chose instead to use them and to exploit their suffering for purposes of discrediting and delegitimizing Israel. Although some camps were set up in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, those countries refused to allow the refugees into their societies.

During a brief 1967 war, Israel captured areas known as the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights. Its control of these areas was opposed by Palestinian Arabs and neighboring Arab countries, which led to further conflict. Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 and from the Gaza Strip in 2005. It continues to control the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. Numerous attempts have been made to find a peaceful solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, but so far none have been successful.

o An important fact that is omitted here is that Israel offered to negotiate after the Six Day War and that the Arab response at a meeting held in August 1967 in Khartoum was “no recognition, no negotiation, and no peace with Israel.” Furthermore, Israel subsequently returned more than 90 percent of the territories won in the 1967 war after negotiations with its neighbors. As before, its neighbors rejected Israel’s offers to trade land for peace.

o Every time there was an opportunity for a peaceful settlement—in 1919, 1936, 1946, and 1947—the Jews were ready to accept the settlement, and the Arabs refused.

Changing Governments: More than six decades after it began, the Arab-Israeli conflict continues as one of the biggest issues facing Southwest Asia. The areas central to the conflict are the West Bank and the Gaza Strip territories. Israel captured both in 1967 but withdrew its forces from Gaza in 2005. Two years later, Palestinian Arab voters in the Gaza Strip elected to power an anti–Israel Islamist group called Hamas. Eruptions of violence have limited progress toward a peaceful solution.

o The areas central to the conflict are the West Bank and the Gaza Strip territories. Israel captured both in 1967. No explanation is given that the eruptions of violence have not been due to Israeli aggression but rather to constant terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah.

Pearson World History (high school) (21 of 21)

Culture Core Concepts – Map of World Religions: “This map shows the distribution of major religions around the world.”o Judaism is shown only by an almost invisible dot in what appears to be Israel. Judaism, as a world religion, is practiced in America, South

America, Europe, Russia, Canada, and even in the Middle East. The elimination of all traces of Judaism from the world map completes Hitler’s Final Solution. North America, Europe, South America are NOT completely Christian and should not be presented as such. The ever-growing presence of Islam needs to be shown. The map does not provide the students with any understanding of the spread of Islam and the threat to the Western world. This flawed and clearly biased Map of World Religions has been in Pearson World History textbooks for years.

“The first four commandments stress religious duties toward God, such as keeping the Sabbath, a holy day for rest and worship. The rest address conduct toward others. They include “Honor your father and mother,” “You shall not murder,” and “You shall not steal.” In addition to establishing a moral law, the Ten Commandments also helped develop the “rule of law,” the idea that laws should apply to everyone equally. Finally, the Ten Commandments guided the ancient Jews in setting up their society and government, an influence that endures into our own time.”

o Eliminates Commandment #1 which is the base of Judaic Monotheism

Starting in 1096, thousands of Europeans took part in the Crusades, a series of wars in which Christians battled Muslims for control of land in the Middle East. The Turks had migrated from Central Asia into the Middle East, where they converted to Islam. Before long, the Seljuks had overrun most Byzantine lands in Asia Minor (present-day Turkey) and extended their power over the Holy Land. This area included Jerusalem and other places where Christians believe Jesus had lived and preached. For centuries, Christians had made pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Although Muslims had controlled the Holy Land before, the conflict between the Seljuk Turks and the Byzantines disrupted travel to the Holy Land and was threatening the very survival of the Byzantine empire. In 1095, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I urgently asked Pope Urban II for Christian knights to help him fight the Muslim Turks. Although Roman popes and Byzantine emperors were longtime rivals, Urban agreed.

o Pope Urban II issued a call for what he termed a “holy war,” a Crusade to regain control of the Holy Land. The textbook’s wording illustrates an egregious revisionism of the history of the Holy Land common to the textbooks reviewed which leads students to the erroneous conclusion that Muslims were indigenous to the Holy Land and that Christians invaded it. The precise opposite is true. The Christians were in the Holy Land centuries before the Muslims. In the 7th century Muslims invaded the Holy Land to take control of it, and over 450 years later the Crusades were launched to wrest back control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.

The hijra was a turning point for Islam. In Medina, local people welcomed Muhammad and agreed to follow his teachings. They became a community of Muslims, or umma. Loyalty to the umma was based on Islam instead of old family rivalries. Muhammad created rules that governed and united Muslims and brought peace among the clans of Medina. As his reputation grew, thousands of Arabs adopted Islam. Meanwhile, Meccan leaders grew more hostile toward the Muslims, seizing Muslim property. After Muslims attacked several Meccan caravans, the Meccans prepared for war.

o The textbook fails to inform students that the Jewish “clans of Medina” did not wish to convert to Muhammad’s new religion. As a result, Muhammad expelled or exterminated them. The textbook erases from history both the presence of the Jews in Yathrib/Medina, and their expulsion and slaughter by Muhammad.

The Quran: To Muslims, the Quran contains the sacred word of God as revealed to Muhammad. It is the final authority on all matters discussed in the text. The Quran teaches about what Muslims believe to be God’s will and provides a guide to life. Its ethical standards emphasize honesty, generosity, and social justice.

o The textbook fails to tell students that according to the Qur’an, it is the religious duty of all Muslims who are able to wage aggressive jihad warfare until Islam and Shari’a law are supreme over the entire world.

“People of the Book” According to Muslim belief, Muslims, Jews, and Christians worship the same God. The Quran teaches that Islam is God’s final and complete revelation, while Hebrew scriptures and the Christian Bible contain portions of earlier revelations. Muslims consider Jews and Christians to be

“People of the Book,” spiritually superior to polytheistic idol worshipers. Although Jews and Christians did not have the same rights as Muslims in early Muslim societies, they often enjoyed religious freedom.

o This language creates a false impression of the “freedom” that Christians and Jews “enjoyed” under Islam. Limited religious freedom for Christians and Jews was the norm, and frequently the burdens placed on Christians and Jews were onerous. While Muslims do consider Jews and Christians to be “spiritually superior to polytheistic idol worshipers”, they are explicitly considered to be spiritually inferior to Muslims. On the basis of this dogma of spiritual inferiority, the “Teachings of Islam” imposed upon the “People of the Book” numerous burdens and restrictions in the practice of their religions and in their daily lives. There were various restrictions on the lives of Christians and Jews and they were much more pervasive and onerous than the textbook’s assertion that “although there have been exceptions, the People of the Book have historically enjoyed religious freedom in many Muslim societies.” In addition to paying the jizya tax, Christians and Jews were:

prohibited from building new houses of worship, or making repairs to existing ones; prohibited from bearing arms; required to open their homes to Muslims and provide food and lodging on demand; not allowed to ride on horses; required to rise from their seats when a Muslim sought to sit down; not allowed to pray if the prayer could be heard by a Muslim; not allowed to give testimony in Islamic courts. required to wear distinctive clothing or a badge signifying their non-Muslim identity.

o The Quran, the holy scriptures of Islam, contains 114 suras, or chapters, which are divided into verses. Muslims believe that the Quran is the word of God as revealed to Muhammad. They also believe that God instructed Muhammad to arrange the chapters into the order in which they appear. The following excerpts from the Quran tell Muslims how to be righteous and faithful. They also encourage believers to fast and observe the holy month of Ramadan.

o The textbook fails to tell students that according to the Qur’an, it is the religious duty of all Muslims who are able to wage aggressive jihad warfare until Islam and Shari’a law are supreme over the entire world.

Islam as a Way of Life: Islam is both a religion and a way of life. Its teachings shape the lives of Muslims around the world. Islamic law governs daily life, and Muslim traditions determine ethical behavior and influence family relations.

Islamic Law: Over time, Muslim scholars developed the Sharia, a body of law that includes interpretation of the Quran, examples of behavior from Muhammad’s life, and Muslim traditions. Similar to Jewish law, the Sharia regulates moral conduct, family life, business practices, government, and other aspects of individual and community life. It does not separate religion from criminal or civil law, but applies religious principles to all legal situations.

o Islamic law does far more than determine “ethical behavior and influence family behavior.” If that were all there would be no honor killings, genital mutilation, etc. The formulation accurately describes how Shari’a law encompasses all aspects of human thought and behavior. However, as written it implies that Shari’a law applies only to Muslims. In fact, Shari’a law also “applies religious principles to all legal situations” involving non-Muslims who live in lands conquered and controlled by Muslims. Further, according to the Qur’an, it is the religious duty of all Muslims who are able to wage aggressive jihad warfare until Islam and Islamic Shari’a law are supreme over the entire world.

o Although the textbook does state that Shari’a “regulates…government” and “does not separate religion from criminal or civil law,” it completely ignores the obvious and critical significance of these facts, that there is a fundamental conflict between Shari’a law and the principle of separation of church and state. The textbook attempts to confer legitimacy on Shari’a law by falsely claiming that Jewish law also “regulates… government.” In addition, the text implies that, like Shari’a, Jewish law “does not separate religion from criminal or civil law….”

o Jewish law has evolved, while Islamic Shari’a law has not. The evolution of Jewish law started in the third century C.E., when the Rabbis taught that "the law of the land (or kingdom) is the law." Today, Jewish law does not claim to supersede the constitutional or organic law of all states and nations. Jewish law does not claim to supersede civil or criminal law of individual nations. Jewish law, unlike Islamic Shari’a, fully accepts, and is consistent with, the principle of separation of church and state, enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Islam extended rights and protection to women by affirming the spiritual equality of all Muslims. The Quran teaches that “Whoever does right, whether male or female, and is a believer, all such will enter the Garden.” The Quran prohibited the killing of daughters, granted women the right to inherit, and allowed women to reject a marriage offer. Islam also encouraged education for men and women so that all Muslims could study the Quran…

o Although spiritually equal under Islam, men and women had different roles and rights. For example, women inherited less than men and had a more difficult time getting a divorce.

o There is disagreement among Islamic scholars as to the degree of covering a woman must maintain, ranging from covering of the forehead, cheeks, and neck, to complete covering of the face and head. But as noted in Surah 24:31 and 33:59 of the Qur’an the requirement for women to cover their faces in public did not develop “over time.”

o Qur’an Surah 4:34 states that men are superior to women, and that a husband may beat his wife if he “fear[s] disloyalty” or “ill-conduct”.o According to Surah 2:282, in a legal proceeding the testimony of one man is worth the testimony of two women. The stated justification for this

legal disability is to compensate for a purported disparity in the mental abilities of men and women:“So if one of [the women] errs, The other can remind her.

o Muhammad stated that the reduced value of the testimony of women “is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind."o Surah 4:3 provides that Muslim men can have as many as four wives at once; Muslim women can have only one husband at a time. A Muslim

man can divorce any wife at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. He doesn’t even have to say “I dismiss thee” (“I divorce thee”) three times; if he says it once, but “intends” the pronouncement to count as three, the divorce is effected. In contrast, a Muslim woman can obtain a divorce only under specified circumstances, and even then the consent of her husband is required.

o Surah 4.11 provides that a man’s share of an inheritance is twice that of a woman.

Nomadic Raids: Read the quote. In two sentences, describe how Arab tribes had historically dealt with other tribes. How might this history have helped the spread of Islam? “For centuries, nomadic Arab tribes had been in the habit of making raids, or razzias, on other tribes. The usual aim was to drive off the camels or other livestock of the opponents. The favorite plan was to make a surprise attack with overwhelming force on a small section of the other tribe. In such circumstances it was no disgrace to the persons attacked if they made their escape; and so in many razzias there was little loss of life. . . . From the standpoint of the Muslims, the crossing of the straits of Gibraltar in 711 was . . . one more in a series of raiding expeditions which had been pushing ever farther afield. . . . After experiencing one or more such raiding expeditions, the inhabitants of the countries traversed usually surrendered and became protected allies. —W. Montgomery Watt

o This exercise guides students to equate the spread of Islam by Jihad to early Nomadic Arab raids to drive off camels or livestock.

As early as the 1880s, Jews had begun actively organizing and advocating for the re-establishment of a home in their ancient homeland. The horrors of the Holocaust created strong worldwide support for a Jewish state. Many Jews, including Holocaust survivors, migrated to the Palestine mandate after World War II. In 1947, the UN drew up a plan to meet the competing demands of Arab and Jewish nationalists. The UN General Assembly voted to adopt the plan. While the Jews accepted partition, Arabs rejected the partition plan.

o The textbook gives no information on why the Jews had been “organizing and advocating for the re-establishment of a home in their ancient homeland.” It was the violence that broke out against the Jews all over France in the aftermath of the Dreyfus affair in 1894, added to the bloody pogroms that had swept across Eastern Europe since 1881, that convinced Theodor Herzl that Jews would never be safe until they had a state of their own.

o The United Nations did not draw up the partition Plan to “meet the competing demands of Arab and Jewish nationalists.” Britain had withdrawn from control over the Palestine mandate because of the increasing terrorist attacks of the Arab population against the Jews of Palestine and the increasing retaliation by the Jewish population.

Arabs and Israelis in Conflict: The 1948 Arab-Israeli war created a huge refugee problem. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled their homes in Israeli territory. The UN housed them in temporary camps in nearby countries, where they remained for decades. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands fled to Israel.

o On the surface these statements appear accurate. However they are not because of the omission of pertinent facts and/or explanations. Students have no way of knowing that Israel did not create the enormous refugee problem and that the Arabs who fled Israel in 1948-1949 did so largely at the instigation of their own leaders. Students are also not told that those who stayed were not forced out of the places where they lived and that they and their descendants now enjoy the rights and privileges of being free citizens of Israel.

o Further, students are not told that the Palestinian Arabs who were housed in the UN sponsored refugee camps had no other place to go because the Arab nations closed their doors to them, in compliance with a memorandum that al-Husseini sent them on March 8, 1948 “requesting that they [the Arab nations] refuse to allow Palestinian Arabs to enter their countries.”

Cause – Effect – Effect (one example): Palestinian Arabs Reject Partition Plan for Palestineo Students have not been prepared to do a “Cause- Effect … Effect – Cause” exercise. Material in the chapter is presented with a Bias toward Israel.

In addition there is an egregious error which is indicative of the flawed history in this chapter: There were no Palestinian Arabs at the United Nations. Arab nations (members of the Arab league) rejected the Partition Plan.

Modern Israel was established in 1948 under the United Nations Partition Plan. Palestinian Arabs and nearby Arab nations rejected the UN plan as illegal, even though it offered Palestinians territory for their own state. Instead, they called for the destruction of Israel. (Underlining by reviewer)

o There were no Palestinian Arabs at the United Nations. Arab nations (members of the Arab league) rejected the Partition Plan. The Partition Plan created two states: one for the Jews; one for the Arabs. The word Palestinian did not appear in the Partition Plan. The designation “Palestinians” was coined after the 1967 War.

Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict. In 1948, five Arab nations invaded the newly independent Israel and were defeated. Israel and its Arab neighbors fought three more wars, in 1956, 1967, and 1973. In these wars, Israel fought for its existence, and in the process of turning back attacking Arab forces gained more land. Between and since these wars, Israel has faced many terrorist attacks within its borders, and ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. The United States and other nations worked to find a solution to the long-standing conflict. (Underlining by reviewer)

o No mention is made of the fact that Israel has tried to return land for peace after each war.

The Oslo Accords In 1993, Yasir Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (rah BEEN) agreed to the Oslo Accords. This plan gave Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank limited self-rule under a Palestinian Authority. The PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist and pledged to stop terrorist attacks on Israel. Arafat led the Palestinian Authority until his death in 2004. (Underlining by reviewer)

o The PLO may have recognized the right of Israel to exist but it never revoked its charter and it never stopped its acts of terrorism. The PLO’s goal, as stated in Article Fifteen of the PLO Charter, is still to destroy the Jewish state.

o “Article 15:The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland.”

Another important issue is how to allocate and protect water resources. The distribution of water resources impacts negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians concerning the control of the water supply, water consumption, and the costs of investments in water management. The rights to water resources are also major issues between countries in the region.

o This passage ignores the peace treaty that Israel and Jordan signed in 1994. Article 6 of that treaty provides for an equitable share of the water resources of the Jordan River and the Yarmouk River.

The PLO officially renounced terrorism in 1988.o The PLO renounced terrorism in word only just as it never changed its Charter which calls for the destruction of Israel.

Islamic Fundamentalism: By the 1980s, Islamic fundamentalism—often referred to as Islamism—was on the rise. This conservative reform movement wanted to revive Islamic values and install governments that strictly followed Islamic law, or Sharia. The Islamist movement was partly a response to the rise of secular governments in many Muslim nations and the impact of Western culture. It was also a backlash against foreign support for Israel and the presence of foreign powers in the Middle East. Islamic fundamentalists made Israel or Western nations scapegoats for their problems.

o While this is true, what has been omitted is the critical fact that for many Muslims, and the Islamists in particular, the world is divided into Dar al-Islam, “the House of Submission”, and Dar al-Harb, “the House of War”. The Dar al-Islam encompasses all those lands in which a Muslim government rules and Islamic Shari’a law prevails. Non-Muslims may live there only on Muslim sufferance. Dar al-Harb, “the House of War”, is the non-Muslim world which has not yet been subjugated. According to the Qur’an and Islamic Shari’a law, a perpetual state of jihad, or holy war, exists between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb. While the Qur’an and Shari’a law allow active hostilities in the “permanent state of war” between Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb to be suspended during periods of truce, such truces are only permissible when Dar al-Islam is weak. Further, such truces can only be temporary, and must be limited in duration to no more than ten years (although they may be renewed as long as Dar al-Islam remains too weak to conquer Dar al-Harb). Qur-an Al-Madinah, p.1570 (Surah 47:35); al-Misri, Reliance, pp.604-605

Not all Islamists support terrorism, but in many places, the movement has fed the growth of terrorism. Iran and Saudi Arabia have both provided financial support for terrorist organizations. For some, terrorism is connected to the concept of jihad, an Arabic word meaning “struggle.” The word is most frequently used to describe an inner struggle in God’s service. However, some extremist groups, such as Islamic Jihad, have interpreted the word to mean a violent holy war to defend or spread Islam.

o Most contemporary Islamic scholars, jurists and theologians are in agreement with the classical Islamic authorities that the primary meaning of jihad is mandatory, aggressive warfare to convert or subjugate infidels. The Encyclopedia of Islam defines jihad (djihad) as follows: In law, according to general doctrine and in historical tradition, the jihad consists of military action with the object of the expansion of Islam and, if need be, of its defense. Encyclopedia of Islam, new edition, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960-2003, “Djihad.”

Pearson Contemporary World Cultures (Gr 6) (10 of 10)

Muslims consider Jerusalem a holy city because of its importance to Muhammad and earlier Jewish and Christian prophets. They built important mosques there. Islamic law favored Muslims but tolerated Christians and Jews.

The site of the former Jewish Temple is also the most sacred place in Jerusalem to Muslims. Muslims call this site the Noble Sanctuary. Here they believe that the prophet Muhammad rose to heaven one night and returned after meeting God. On this site stand two sacred Islamic buildings: Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all believe that they worship the God who made a covenant with Abraham. This region is the Jewish Holy Land and the land where Jesus lived and died. According to Islamic tradition, Jerusalem is the place where the prophet Muhammad rose to heaven. Jews, Christians, and Muslims retain an intense interest in this region

o Jerusalem was a sacred city to the Jews centuries before it was so to Christians and many more centuries before Muslims regarded it as sacred.

o Muslim assertion that Jerusalem was a holy city for Muhammad does not come from the Qur’an. The “vision” of Muhammad’s ascent to heaven, called the “Night Journey”, its story is told in Surah 17:1 of the Qur’an. Surah 17:1 does not say that Muhammad’s “Night Journey” went to, through or anywhere near Jerusalem, only that it went to “the farthest mosque.” Although Jerusalem was well known at the time, it is never mentioned by name in the Qur’an. The tradition that Muhammad went through Jerusalem on his way to heaven during the “Night Journey” originated more than fifty years after Muhammad’s death. The purpose was to create a religious connection between Jerusalem and Islam. The reason for creating this tradition was two-fold. It reflected a political and military rivalry between Muslim factions, and it demonstrated the triumph of Islam over the Jews and Christians. There was and is no respect for Judaism or Christianity in Islam.

o Islamic law did not “tolerate” Christians and Jews. The “respect” and “tolerance” to be accorded to Christians and Jews is illustrated by their characterization in the Qur’an as “apes”, “pigs”, “dogs” and “farther astray” than “cattle”, their expulsion from the Arabian Peninsula; and the Qur’anic mandate to wage perpetual warfare on all non-Muslims until they submit and acknowledge the supremacy of Islam.

Crusaders and Muslim Rule: Beginning in the late 1000s, Christian soldiers from western Europe attacked Palestine in religious wars called the Crusades. They aimed to stop the spread of Islam and to take control of Palestine from the Muslims.

o Pope Urban II issued a call for what he termed a “holy war,” a Crusade to regain control of the Holy Land. The textbook’s wording illustrates an egregious revisionism of the history of the Holy Land common to the textbooks reviewed which leads students to the erroneous conclusion that Muslims were indigenous to the Holy Land and that Christians invaded it. The precise opposite is true. The Christians were in the Holy Land centuries before the Muslims. In the 7th century Muslims invaded the Holy Land to take control of it, and over 450 years later the Crusades were launched to wrest back control of the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Jerusalem was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Judah. It was once the site of the Temple in Jerusalem, the most sacred building of Judaism. The Romans destroyed the Temple in A.D.70. The Western Wall of the Temple complex, which still stands today, is the holiest accessible site of Judaism. After the Temple was destroyed, Jewish people built many synagogues in Jerusalem. Several modern synagogues, such as the Jerusalem Great Synagogue, have striking forms.

o The history of the destruction of First Temple by the Babylonians in 425 BCE has been omitted. http://www.jewishhistory.org/destruction-of-the-first-temple/

Arab-Israeli Conflicts Tensions erupted into violence. Five neighboring Arab states attacked Israel. During the Arab-Israeli War of 1948, half of the Arab people in the land that came under Israeli control fled as refugees. Israel gained more territory than under the UN plan. Egypt and Jordan took control of the West Bank and Gaza, most of the territory assigned by the UN to an Arab state according to the partition plan. About 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries came to Israel. Israel and Egypt fought a second war in 1956. (Underlining by reviewer to explain these OF)

o The Arabs who fled Israel in 1948-1949 did so largely at the instigation of their own leaders and the instigation of the five Arab nations, who urged them to get out of the way as the Arab nations sought to annihilate the Jews. Those who stayed were not forced out of the places where they lived; rather, they now enjoy the rights and privileges of being free citizens of Israel. http://www.palestinefacts.org/pf_independence_refugees_arabs_why.php

In 1967, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt massed troops on Israel’s border and threatened to attack. Israel attacked the Egyptian air force, destroying many of its planes on the ground. War soon broke out with Syria and Jordan as well. After six days, Israel controlled the West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem—both of which Jordan had controlled. Israel also gained control of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria.

o An important fact that is omitted here is that Israel offered to negotiate after the Six Day War and that the Arab response at a meeting held in August 1967 in Khartoum was “no recognition, no negotiation, and no peace with Israel.” Furthermore, Israel subsequently returned more than 90 percent of the territories won in the 1967 war after negotiations with its neighbors. As before, its neighbors rejected Israel’s offers to trade land for peace.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Israeli Jews built a growing number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli settlements are places in the West Bank or Gaza where Israelis have settled, or built communities. Many moved to settlements for economic reasons. Israel has since withdrawn its settlers from Gaza.

o No mention is made of the fact that there have been Jews living in both the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza since Biblical times.

A Peace Agreement Frustrated In 1994, Israel signed an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO, which represented Palestinians. This agreement, known as the Oslo Accords, created the Palestinian National Authority to rule the parts of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel agreed to withdraw military forces from Gaza and parts of the West Bank. The PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist and agreed to end terrorist attacks on Israel. (Underlining by reviewer to explain these omissions of fact)

o The PLO may have recognized the right of Israel to exist but it never revoked its charter and it never stopped its acts of terrorism. The PLO’s goal, as stated in Article Fifteen of the PLO Charter, is still to destroy the Jewish state.

o “Article 15:The liberation of Palestine, from an Arab viewpoint, is a national (qawmi) duty and it attempts to repel the Zionist and imperialist aggression against the Arab homeland, and aims at the elimination of Zionism in Palestine. Absolute responsibility for this falls upon the Arab nation - peoples and governments - with the Arab people of Palestine in the vanguard. Accordingly, the Arab nation must mobilize all its military, human, moral, and spiritual capabilities to participate actively with the Palestinian people in the liberation of Palestine. It must, particularly in the phase of the armed Palestinian revolution, offer and furnish the Palestinian people with all possible help, and material and human support, and make available to them the means and opportunities that will enable them to continue to carry out their leading role in the armed revolution, until they liberate their homeland.”

Chances for Peace United States Secretary of State John Kerry made this statement following a meeting with Israeli and Palestinian officials, in which both sides agreed to start peace talks again.

Paraphrase the meaning of each sentence in this statement in your own words.Explain what Kerry is suggesting needs to happen.Then, explain whether you agree or disagree with his statement, and cite evidence from the lesson to justify your position.

o The students have not been given any factual, unbiased information to enable them “to explain whether you agree or disagree with his statement, and cite evidence from the lesson to justify your position.”

Worldview World Geography (high school) (14 of 33)

Migration is especially important for the United States because we are a nation of immigrants. Our diversity is one of the contributors to our strength as a country.

o The textbook fails to show how our diversity contributes to our strength.

The oil refinery and petrochemical industries started to develop. Oil companies took advantage of the modified landscape of the Houston Ship Canal.o The Houston Ship Channel is not a canal.

Note: B.C.E. ("Before the Common Era") is replacing the previous designation of B.C. They both refer to the years before the birth of Jesus Christ. C.E. ("Common Era") is replacing the designation of A.D. They both refer to years after the birth of Jesus Christ.

o The BC/AD system for identifying historical dates has been in continuous use ever since the earliest part of the Middle Ages, at least. Critics view the new system as an attempt to remove the Christian significance inherent in the BC/AD system.

Multiculturalism means that the country is not dominated by one culture and that each culture is recognized as important.o ”…the modern liberal ideal of cultural diversity, or multiculturalism—the principle of not only tolerating but also respecting different religions

and cultures and encouraging them to coexist harmoniously—tends to undermine the traditional culture of any country that tries to put it into practice. It also encourages the excesses of “political correctness”—that is, an overly acute sensitivity to offending people of other backgrounds, outlooks, and cultures.” Encyclopædia Britannica Online

570 million years thru 1-1/2 million years.o ”Old Earth” evolutionary theoretical speculation is presented as factual, and undisputed, yet there is an entire body of “young Earth” scientific

creation research and archeological evidence that refutes the premises of Darwinism and the evolutionary theory, yet it has been completely omitted from the text.

c. 4 B.C.E. - c. 30 C.E. - Life and death of Jesus - Jesus lived in Palestine when it was a Roman province. He is believed to have been a member of a sect of Judaism. He was executed by crucifixion because Jewish leaders and Romans believed him to be a threat to their interests.

o Jesus never lived in Palestine. Palestine was a name given to Judea by the Romans in approximately 132 A.D. Jesus was born, educated and died a Jew. His religion was Judaism and NOT a sect of Judaism. There is no explanation of the meaning of “a threat to their interests” and this is a critical omission. These 42 words constitutes the mention of Jesus Christ in this book. The material on Islam and Muhammad is accurately presented but that on Jesus is not. This is evidence of gross bias on the part of the editor and/or publisher, and the textbook’s indoctrination of students in the superiority of Islam over Christianity.

Jesus Christ (c. 4 B.C.E. - c. 30 C.E.) - A Jewish teacher and prophet in Palestine, Jesus was accepted by followers as the Messiah, the son of God. According to the New Testament accounts, Jesus was tried and crucified in Jerusalem. A new religion, Christianity, centered on a belief in the divinity of Jesus developed as disciples spread his teachings beyond Palestine to Anatolia, Greece, and Rome. Jesus is accepted by Muslims as a prophet, but not as a divine being.

o Jesus never lived in Palestine. The Romans gave the name Palestine to Judea in approximately 131 AD in order to remove all association with the Jews. No one is interested in knowing what Muslims think of Jesus. It is 58 words without this (by comparison, Zoroaster, the founder of Zoroastrianism, got 68 words, the Ayatollah Khomeini got 67, and former Muslim Brotherhood leader of Egypt, Mohammed Morsi got 123). Note the relativistic way the entry on Jesus Christ is presented compared to the entry on Muhammad (underline in this excerpt, and the one that follows).

Muhammad (570 C.E. - 632 C.E.) - Muhammad was a merchant who lived in Arabia and reported having revelations. As the last prophet of God (Allah), he is the founder of the religion of Islam and his teachings, recorded in the Koran, are the basic laws of Islam. Islam dates time from 622 C.E., the year Muhammad and his followers fled from Mecca to Medina (the Hegira). Eight years later, Muhammad took control of Mecca and his followers began the rapid expansion of Islam. By the end of the 7th century, the Muslims had conquered the Middle East and North Africa.

o This is 94 words long. It is almost twice as long as the section on Jesus. It is also written as if it is a fact that Muhammad was a prophet of God.

Christianity originated as a sect within Judaism. Centered on a belief in the divinity of Jesus, it evolved as a separate religion when disciples spread their teachings to gentiles beyond Palestine.

o Christianity was never a sect within Judaism. Judaism is always associated with the Jews, never with the Church. A transition period between the Age of Israel and the Christian Church Age began at the birth of Christ and ended at Pentecost (50-days after Christ’s death.) Judaism was linked with the Mosaic Law and the Old Testament, not with the church and New Testament, except for the 4 gospels, which was the final appeal to the corporate Israel to accept its Messiah. Christianity recognized that Christ’s death, burial and resurrection fulfilled the Mosaic Law and the Old Testament prophesies concerning the Messiah. Therefore, the Church Age and the Age of Israel are two separate and distinctly different historical time frames (eras.). The Book of Acts explains the transition.

Islam began about 600 years later when Muhammad blended Christian and Jewish beliefs with Bedouin culture to begin teaching a new monotheistic religion on the Arabian Peninsula.

o It should read, “…Muhammad blended Christian and Jewish beliefs with Bedouin culture to begin teaching a new, and very different, monotheistic religion on the Arabian Peninsula.”

Muhammad raised the status of women in a patriarchal society by giving them some property rights, defining the duties of husbands, and limiting men to four wives. Later scholars interpreted the Koran to mean that wives should be closely restricted and completely submissive to their husbands.

o This section is highly biased in favor of making Muhammad look good regarding to women. The facts from Islamic texts and teachings are clear that women are seen as inferior and Muhammad was a misogynist. See “Muhammad: A Misogynist” by Ali Sina at faithfreedom.org/challenge/misogynist.htm; also “Top 10 Rules in the Quran that Oppress Women” by James M. Arlandson, PhD at americanthinker.com/2005/11/top_ten_rules_in_the_quran_tha.html.

“Christianity began almost 2,000 years ago as an outgrowth of Judaism when Jesus, a Jew who preached principles of brotherhood, became the object of worship as the son of God.”

o Jesus did not preach the principles of brotherhood. He preached that he was the way, the truth, and the life. John 14:6. He said nobody can come to God except through him. Id. This is not “principles of brotherhood.” Saying that Jesus “became the object of worship as the son of God” is false on at least two levels. First, he did not become this as if Christians in time began to do this, something which was never done. This is an oft repeated Islamic concept about how Christians departed from what Jesus actually taught. Second, Christians have never worshiped Jesus as the son of God but rather as the Son of God. The former is some concept that God fathered a child by Mary like Zeus fathered Hercules in Greek mythology, which is an oft repeated Islamic charge. The latter is the Trinitarian concept of the Son becoming incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

Muslims accept Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as prophets; however, Muhammad is the last and the greatest prophet.o This should read, “…; however, Muslims believe Muhammad was the last and greatest prophet.”

Chapter 19: South & Southeast Asia – Overview: Religion - Islam / Christianityo In this chapter, the text devotes 418 words to Islam and only 42 to Christianity. Granted, there are more Muslims in South Asia than Christians,

but Christianity has a longer history in Asia, having arrived nearly a millennium before Islam, with the missionary work of St. Thomas from the first century. Nothing was mentioned of the 2000-year Christian history in India.

o The attention given to Islam in this publication, relative to the world’s two other major religions, is excessive, given that it is the youngest of all three and does not reflect the majority. In the entire publication, a search of these terms had these results:

Search “Islam”=30 results; "Islamic"-23; “Muslim”=38; “Muslims”=28; Total=119Search “Christianity”=27 results; “Christian"=32, "Christians"=17; Total=76Search “Judaism”=6 results; “Jews"=18; “Jewish”=12; Total=36

Worldview World History Semester A (high school) (47 of 239 entries)

c. 4-2 million years B.C.E. Early ancestors of humankind - The remains of ape-like hominids with some human characteristics were found in East Africa.o Although today’s scientists believe that archaeological discoveries show earliest human forms and have named them “homo sapiens”, other

educated people dispute the relationship of these bones to man. Missing is an explanation of these different outlooks.

The discovery that the mixture of 75 parts potassium nitrate with 15 parts charcoal and 10 parts sulfur was explosive was most likely an accident. However, the use of the mixture to propel projectiles was almost immediately seized upon as a weapon. The Song Dynasty (960-1279) eventually forbade the sale of gunpowder to foreigners, but the formula was too valuable to stay secret for long; by 1280 it had been published in the West.

o It is inappropriate material for K-12 textbook. Making reference to gunpowder would be better than describing the actual formula.

Remember that the years marked B.C.E. (Before the Common Era -- previously designated as B.C.) occurred prior to those marked C.E. (Common Era -- previously designated as A.D.).

o The BC/AD system for identifying historical dates has been in continuous use ever since the earliest part of the Middle Ages, at least. Critics view the new system as an attempt to remove the religious significance inherent in the BC/AD system.

Jesus Christ (c. 4 B.C.E. - c. 30 C.E.) - Jewish teacher and prophet in Palestine who was accepted by some followers as the Messiah, the son of God. According to the New Testament accounts, Jesus was tried and crucified in Jerusalem. Christianity, a new religion centered on a belief in the divinity of Jesus, developed as disciples spread his teachings beyond Palestine to Anatolia, Greece, and Rome. Jesus is accepted by Muslims as a prophet, but not as a divine being.

o A limited view of one who claimed to be God, was dead for three days and rose again. Bias for the reason of providing 9 lines of copy as compared to 27 for Buddha and 30 for Confucius. Even Martin Luther was given twice as many lines as Jesus and even more than that to Wang Schichen.

Muslims accept Abraham, Moses, and Jesus as prophetso The word “accept” connotes approval. This section in the book talks about Islam in the present day, in which there is no approval of Jesus (the text

and teachings deny His crucifixion, divinity & resurrection). If “accept” is changed to “acknowledge”, students will not be misled about modern Muslim beliefs.

The third pillar is to help the poor.o Charity collected under the third pillar is also used to finance jihad. Shafi’I Islamic Fiqh. Reliance of the Traveler, Ahmed al-Misri, translated Nuh

Ha Mim Keller, 1991, Amana Pbl, Beltsville, MD h8.11 and h8.17

The Koran sets ethical standards that stress honesty, generosity, and justice. o Omitted is that the Qur’an has one set of ethical standards for Muslims’ relations with other Muslims and another set for their relations with non-

Muslimso Shakir “O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes

them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people.” Quran 5:51o Omitted also is the Quranic instruction to lie to attain an obligatory goal. “…it is permissible to lie if the goal is permissible…and obligatory to lie

if the goal is obligatory.” Reliance of the Traveler, op.cit. p. 745

The laws cover diet (pork and alcoholic beverages are forbidden), marriage, divorce, family life, commercial relations, and criminal behavior.o This description of Islamic law significantly understates the pervasiveness of Islam over all aspects of human thought and behavior. The textbook

fails to inform the students (a) that Islamic Shari’a law is imposed, to varying degrees, on all non-Muslims living in lands conquered and controlled by Muslims; (b) that Shari’a law is grossly discriminatory against non-Muslims and Muslim women; (c) that Shari’a law regulates and controls all governmental functions, and is incompatible with the concept of separation of church and state; and (d) that according to the Qur’an, it

is the religious duty of all Muslims who are able to wage aggressive jihad warfare until Islam and Shari’a law are supreme over the entire world. See Sharia versus Freedom: The Legacy of Islamic Totalitarianism. Dr. Andrew Bostom. Prometheus Books, 2012

Muhammad raised the status of women in a patriarchal society. He gave them the right to own and inherit property,o Quran 4.11 provides that a man’s share of an inheritance is twice that of a woman. Quran 4:34 states that men are superior to women, and that a

husband may beat his wife if he “fear[s] disloyalty” or “ill-conduct.” According to Quran 2:282, in a legal proceeding the testimony of one man is worth the testimony of two women. Muhammad stated that the reduced value of the testimony of women “is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, USC Sunnah and Hadith, Volume 3, Book 48, Number 826.) Quran 4:3 provides that Muslim men can have as many as four wives at once; Muslim women can have only one husband at a time. A Muslim man can divorce any wife at any time, for any reason or for no reason at all. In contrast, a Muslim woman can obtain a divorce only under specified circumstances, and even then the consent of her husband is required. Women are commanded to cover their faces in Quran 24:31 and 33:59. Muhammad became engaged to his favorite wife (Aisha) when she was six years old, and had marital relations with her when she was nine years old. Therefore, according to Islamic Shari’a law, Muslim men may have marital relations with girls as young as nine years old. (The practice of middle-aged Muslim men marrying and having sexual relations with prepubescent little girls continues in some Muslim countries today.)

Women in some [Islamic] nations have full political, economic, and social equality by law,o In no Islamic nation do women have full equality because all Islamic nations are governed or influenced by Shari’a constitutions or they would not

be called “Islamic.” These constitutions vary from country to country and allow women more or fewer rights depending on the country. All Muslim-majority nations belong to the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC) that are signatories to its Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam. Article 24 of this Declaration states: “All the rights and freedoms stipulated in this Declaration are subject to the Islamic Shari’ah.” Shari’ah imposes upon women all of the burdens and restrictions specified above.

Many people welcomed the Arabs as liberators because they were heavily taxed and unable to practice their own religions.o Few people welcomed the Arab conquests because of their brutality, enslavement, and imposition of heavy taxes on surviving Jews and Christians.

Shari’a details the Caliph’s actions for captured peoples: “The Calpih (o25) makes war upon Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. (O: and the war continues) until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim poll tax.” o9.8, and o9.14 “When an adult male is taken captive, the caliph (def o25) …decides between the prisoner’s death, slavery, release without paying anything himself, or ransoming himself….” Reliance of the Traveller, op.cit. pp. 602-4

…the victorious Muslims were tolerant of other religions.o Though Islamic rulers generally tolerated other religions, it was to the political and economic advantage of people to become Muslims.o Although some Caliphs were tolerant, most followed Shari’a in their treatment of non-Muslims. “The Caliph makes war upon Jews, Christians and

Zoroastrians …(O: and the war continues) until they become Muslim or else pay the non-Muslim Poll tax. Reliance, op.cit. o9.8. If they become subjugated citizens, Dhimmis, and pay the poll tax, “Such non-Muslim subjects are obligated to comply with Islamic rules…(2) are distinguished from Muslims in dress, (4) must keep to the side of the street, (5) may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, (6) are forbidden to openly display wine or pork (A. to ring church bells or display crosses,) recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals and feastdays.” Reliance of the Traveler, op cit, o11.5. Ibn Khaldun 1332-1406, “In the Muslim Community the holy war is a religious duty, because of the universalism of the [Muslim] mission and [the obligation] to convert everybody to Islam either by persuasion or force....” Bostom, Andrew. “The Legacy of Jihad. NY”, Prometheus Books, 2008, p161

Many people of lower Hindu castes accepted Islam because it taught the equality of all before Allah

o Islam did not teach the equality of all before Allah. “Al-shari’a is founded on a three-fold inequality: the inequality between man and woman, the inequality between Muslim and non-Muslim, and the inequality between freeman and slave.” Samir, Samir Khalil. “111 Questions on Islam”. p. 91. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2008. The lower castes who converted did not gain equality because of adherence to social custom and because marriage took place within the original caste group.

Islam spread beyond the Middle East by peaceful and by military means.o Islam was spread much more by military than peaceful means “In K.S. Lal’s 1973 book, Growth of Muslim Population of Medieval India (1000-

1800), the author estimated that about 60-80 million people died in India between 1000 and 1525 as a result of Islamic invasions.”

Prophets who received revelations from God are revered in all three religionso Ask any Jew or Christian if he reveres Muhammad. Muslims neither revere nor respect Jewish and Christian prophets. Pickthall Quran 4:172 “The

Messiah will never scorn to be a slave unto Allah.” Sunan Abu Dawud.37:4310. “When Jesus returns, he does not merely come to convert most Christians to Islam but to literally abolish Christianity entirely. Jesus is said to:

Break crosses.Kill all swine.Abolish the jizyah (a Muslim tax on non-Muslims)Kill the Muslim antichrist and his followers [Jews].

Muslims respect the contributions of Abraham, Noah, Moses, and Jesus,o The “contributions” of the four prophets are their teachings, which have been superseded.

“Though Islam incorporates many of the prophets and beliefs of Christians and Jews, Jews and Christians do not accept many aspects of Islam since it developed after the basic principles of Judaism and Christianity were established.”

o While Islam explicitly professes respect for all prophets before Muhammad, it would be fair to question the sincerity of that professed “respect” since Islam today incorporates almost no beliefs of Christians and Jews. “…it is unbelief (kufr) to hold that the remnant cults now bearing the names of formerly valid religions, such as “Christianity’ or ‘Judaism’, are acceptable to Allah Most High after He has sent the final Messenger (Allah bless him give him peace) to the entire world.” Reliance of the Traveller. op.cit. p. 846

However, for the purposes of this tutorial, they [mathematicians] will be referred to as either Islamic or Arabic, in recognition of the political, economic, and cultural milieu in which they lived and worked.

o Making this arbitrary definition minimizes the contributions of Persians, Greeks, Hindus, Christians and Jews.o Jewish contributions: http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Ancient_and_Medieval_History/632-1650/Culture/Science.shtmlo Hindu contributions: http://sciencefocus.com/blog/5-indias-contributions-science

These scholars [in the Islamic Caliphates] not only preserved the work of their predecessors, they enlarged upon it greatly. It is to them that we owe the modern forms of trigonometry, algebra, and geometry, for they are primarily Arab creations. It is also to them that we owe the foundation of modern medicine.

o Modern forms of trig, algebra and geometry are based on Greek contributions, such as those of Archimedes, Pythagoras and Euclid. Some of these are used today with very little enlargement by Arabs. Galen’s theories of dissection and the circulatory and nervous systems influenced medicine for nearly 2000 years.

The Koran (the Islamic bible) specifies eight categories of people who are candidates for Zakat, including the impoverished, the enslaved, travelers, and those who work to collect for Zakat without a means to provide for themselves.

o Omitted is the 6th category, which is “those fighting for Allah, meaning people engaged in Islamic military operations for whom no salary has been allotted in the army roster (O, But who are volunteers for jihad without remuneration’).” Reliance of the Traveller. op. cit. h8.17

the Koran does not require the … denial of rights to women,o The Qur’an places specific burdens and disabilities upon women enumerated above. “When you contract a debt for a fixed period, write it

down…. And get two witnesses out of your own men. And if there are not two men (available), then a man and two women, such as you agree for witnesses, so that if one of them (two women) errs, the other can remind her.” Quran 2:282. The Qur’an requires women to obey their husbands and denies them the right to command them. Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great. Quran 4:34

Praise Allah, universal Lord, compassionate and merciful, King on Judgment Day! Thee only do we worship. To Thee do we pray That Thou shalt guide us on the road that leads straight to Thee.

o Omitted is the end of the sura that tells the worshipper the Jews and Christians are inferior people. Translated by Muhsin Khan: “The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the way) of those who earned Your Anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians). Quran 1

Excerpt 1, the opening sura: Praise Allah, universal Lord, compassionate and merciful, King on Judgment Day! Thee only do we worship. To Thee do we pray That Thou shalt guide us on the road that leads straight to Thee...

Excerpt 2: In the name of Allah, the God of Mercy, the Merciful!... Set no other god beside Allah... Who hath ordered that you worship none but Him. Show kindness to your parents, and to your kindred, And to the poor, and to the wayfaring stranger. Commit no adultery, for this is taboo and sinful. Slay none whom Allah hath forbidden you to slay. Rob not the orphan. Keep your promises. Cheat not when you sell. Walk humbly on the earth. Other than this is evil, a stench before the Lord.

Excerpt 3: As to those who have believed and lived righteously ...For them the gardens of Paradise Where rivers flow in the cool shade, Where they shall wear bracelets of gold And green robes of silk and brocade, Resting themselves on thrones or lying in bliss On couches of ease.

Excerpt 4: And if one of the idolaters seeks your protection, grant to him protection so that he may hear the Word of God and then convey him to his place of safety; that is because they are a folk who know not.

Excerpt 5: Invite (idolaters) into the way of the Lord by wisdom and mild exhortation and dispute with them in the most kindly manner....and if you make reprisal, then make it proportionate to the injuries inflicted on you...do not be grieved about them (idolaters) nor be troubled for that which they subtly devise, for God is with those who fear him and do good deeds.

o All of the excerpts show the peaceful verses of the Qur’an and none the aggressive verses. 64% of the Qur’an is devoted to hatred of the infidel. See “Islam's Hatred of the Non-Muslim” by David Bukay. Middle East Quarterly, Summer 2013, pp. 11-20. http://www.meforum.org/3545/islam-hatred-non-muslim

o Here is just one verse showing hatred of the infidel. Translated by Sahih International: Remember] when your Lord inspired to the angels, “I am with you, so strengthen those who have believed. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieved, so strike [them] upon the necks and strike from them every fingertip.” 8:12

Muslims, Christians, and Jews had lived side-by-side in relative peace in Spain, North Africa, and the Middle East.

o Muslims in North Africa, Spain and the Middle East persecuted Jews continuously and slaughtered them frequently from the 7th century A.D. onward.

The Muslims were not prepared for the barbarity of the Christian Crusaders,o This is editorial opinion stated as fact. Modern notions of military conduct don’t apply to medieval armies where both Muslims and Christians

observed medieval rules. Stark op.cit. p.110.

The Muslims repressed their hatred of the Western invaderso Hatred was constant from the days of Muhammad and in the 1020’s the Caliph in Cairo destroyed Jerusalem, built mosques on top of churches

and attacked Christian processions in the streets.

Following the massacre of thousands of men, women, and children, and the sacking of Jerusalemo Text omits that massacre was common on both sides when inhabitants failed to surrender. Stark op.cit. p.110.

In response, Arabs called for a holy war (jihad) of self-defense.o The definition of jihad as a war of self-defense is totally irrelevant to the Crusades, and serves to plant the idea that the Muslims were attacked by

the Christian Crusaders. Jihad is offensive as well as defensive. Arabs under Saladin called for jihad against all Christians and attacked the Byzantine Empire, taking Damascus, Aleppo and Iraq in just 12 years.

The trade [salt, gold, ivory, slaves] continued after Islam spread to North Africa in the 7th century C.E. and then to sub-Saharan Africa.o Islam “spread” in the sense of being adopted by people in North Africa, but not in the sense of a peaceful transition to Islam. Islam was adopted at

sword point across North and sub-Saharan Africa.

African civilizations and cultures went into further decline with the arrival of European explorers and traders, and the expansion of the slave trade.o The civilizations were already in decline because of sizeable inter-tribal slave trade that existed long before the European traders. This trade is

mentioned but its scope is not explained.

Crusades - the military expeditions undertaken by Christians against the Muslims in the Middle East and North Africa from the 11th to 13th centuries.o The Crusades were attempts in the 11th through 13th centuries A.D. to reclaim land in the Middle East that had been conquered by Muslims. The

crusades were brutal and evil. Many people were forced to “convert” to Christianity. If they refused, they were put to death. The idea of conquering a land through war and violence in the name of Christ is completely unbiblical. Many of the actions that took place in the crusades were completely antithetical to everything the Christian faith stands for. Mention should be made of the massacre of almost 200,000 Jews in France, Belgium, etc. by Crusaders who included Jews among the infidels as they marched on the way to the Holy Land. Mention also needs to be made of the massacre of Jews in the Holy land by Crusaders and other Christians.

Women servants, slave women and young girls go about quite naked, not even concealing their sexual parts. I saw many like this during Ramadhan; because it is the custom with the Negroes that commanding officers should break their fast in the sultan's palace, and they are served with food which is brought by women slaves, twenty or more of them who are completely naked.

o What is the significance of this story from the view point of a Muslim in an American classroom? Disgusting visual given to the students.

Many people of lower Hindu castes accepted Islam because it taught the equality of all before Allah.

o Islam did not teach the equality of all before Allah. “Al-shari’a is founded on a three-fold inequality: the inequality between man and woman, the inequality between Muslim and non-Muslim, and the inequality between freeman and slave.” Samir, Samir Khalil. “111 Questions on Islam”. p. 91. Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 2008. The lower castes who converted did not gain equality because of adherence to social custom and because marriage took place within the original caste group.

The Delhi Sultanate was later weakened by raids of Mongol troops of Genghis Khan in the 13th century, and destroyed by the plundering armies of Tamerlane in the 14th century.

o Tamerlane was far worse than the typical commander of plundering armies. He killed over 200,000 men, women and children in his march on Delhi, was called the “Scourge of God”, and wiped out almost all the Christians and Jews in his path.

Islamic civilization reached its height during the 16th century under the Ottoman Empire when it surpassed Europe in skilled artisans, sciences, and medicine. o Numerous sources date the Golden Age of Islam from the 7th to the 13th centuries. Unsubstantiated opinion that 16th century Ottomans surpassed

Europe in skilled artisans sciences and medicine. The Istanbul Observatory used instruments very similar to those of Tycho Brahe in Denmark. “From 15th century onward the Ottomans adopted European technologies especially those that related to firearms, cartography and mining”

Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506) - He was the navigator who located the "New World" for Spain in 1492 while attempting to find an all-water route to the Far East.

o One sentence is hardly sufficient for American students. Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer, navigator, and colonizer, born in the Republic of the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Genoa, under Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents. He has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization.

In 1498, Vasco da Gama sailed around the southern tip of Africa to India, looting and destroying East African cities along the way.o Da Gama looted and destroyed Muslim ships, not East African cities. He did fight with some of the Muslims on shore, but also avoided fighting

and accepted a Sultan’s pilot to guide him across the Indian Ocean.

The slave trade depleted sub-Saharan Africa of people, encouraged warfare among Africans, destroyed kingdoms, and set back development of the continent.o The inclusion of this sentence in a section entitled “Transatlantic Slave Trade” implies it caused the sub-Saharan destruction of kingdoms and

slavery. In actuality sub-Saharan slavery had long existed amongst the different tribes and kingdoms. When the Portuguese first landed in Ghana and Nigeria in 1471 they found warfare and a brisk slave trade.

Historians disagree on the numbers; however, some estimate that as many as 50 million slaves were taken between the 1500s and the 1800s, most of whom died resisting enslavement or from the terrible living conditions during the long ocean voyage on slave ships (the Middle Passage).

o Historians’ estimates have a tremendous range, so that accuracy would require the range to be mentioned rather than the extreme. The East African slave trade amongst Blacks and Arabs lasted from ca. 750 CE to the 20th century. During that time roughly 12,000,000 Africans were sold, which is about the same number as those sold in the European slave trade during its 300 years. While most of the slaves taken to Arabia dies enroute, it is an error to say that “most” of the slaves died. It is estimated that the death rate on slave ships reached 25% in the 17th and early 18th centuries.

It is believed that 18 to 20 million Africans were taken into [slavery] bound for the Americaso Inconsistent with Overview section called Transatlantic Slave Trade, now above, also other historians estimates of 12,000,000.

Chap 20. Spanish Exploration and Colonization

o The entire section consisting of 3 paragraphs. Concerning the constant warfare and human sacrificing of the native population that stopped with Spanish conquest. There is also no mention of the sacrificial deaths of hundreds of thousands of their own people by the Aztecs and Mayas in the name of their gods.

Chap 20. Decline of the Native Population - It is estimated that over 90 percent of the native population of the Americas was wiped out in the 1st century after the European Conquest. Many hundreds of thousands of Native Americans died from Spanish brutality, but millions more died from European diseases such as smallpox.

o True in some regions, false in others. Before Cortes arrived in 1520 in the Aztec capital the estimate was 40% dead from smallpox and 20% from starvation. Also historians are unsure of accurate population figures to begin with. “Since civilizations rose and fell in the Americas before Columbus arrived, the indigenous population in 1492 was not necessarily at a high point, and may have already been in decline.” Omitted are the Europeans in Europe who were wiped out by syphilis, polio, hepatitis and encephalitis from the New World.

No one is sure whether Columbus realized that he had not reached the Indies during any of his four voyages.o Numerous references to Columbus cite his continued belief from his first landing to his death that he had reached the outskirts of the Indies.

However, the large-scale enslavement of black Africans did not begin until the Portuguese established trading ports along the coast of West Africa.o Over the centuries there has been “large-scale enslavement of Blacks” starting with the Muslim conquests. The East African slave trade amongst

Blacks and Arabs lasted from ca. 750 CE to the 20th century. During that time roughly 12,000,000 Africans were sold, which is about the same number as those sold in the European slave trade during its 300 years.

Researchers in geology and biology challenged traditional ideas of religion. This was true of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.o Charles Darwin himself did not relate his theories to religion. As a naturalist he described what he saw in the differentiation of species and

developed a theory of natural selection as a reason for the changes. His theories changed over his lifetime of study.

Religious leaders, who believed that the only true account of creation was to be found in the Bible, considered Darwin's theory controversial.o Omitted are names of significant Religious leaders like Catholic Henry Cardinal Manning and Anglican Archbishop Samuel Wilberforce. Also

omitted is that some churches including the Catholic Church eventually accepted evolution as God’s mechanism while believing that God was the sole creator of man.

Social Darwinism was also used to explain the policies associated with the spread of European imperialism to Africa and Asia during the late 19th century.o Omitted are the other policies causing the spread of European imperialism in Africa and Asia. These included British and American missionary

establishment of thousands of schools in Asia and Africa and British military and navy terminating the Atlantic slave trade.

Worldview World History Semester B (high school) (50 of 302)

Political democracy is seen by many as the means to achieve the equally important goals of social democracy (the right to an education, equality, and freedom from discrimination) and economic democracy (the right to choose the type of employment, to own property, and to be guaranteed a reasonable wage and financial security).

o The first part of this quote is an opinion, not fact, that the goals of social and economic democracy are equally important as those of political democracy. The last part of the quote is both contradictory and erroneous. Choosing employment and owning property are characteristics of

individual liberty and free markets, i.e. political democracy. Guarantees of wages and financial security are traits of regulated markets. The text omits that “economic democracy” is a recently coined phrase with no commonly accepted definition. A capitalist definition is that “economic democracy refers to a society in which all persons have equal rights to work, produce, invest, and buy and sell in a free market.

economic democracy - a society which allows workers to form labor unions and guarantees a fair wage for work done under reasonable working conditions; guarantees a reasonable level of financial security for people who are ill, injured, unemployed, or elderly.

o Definition does not distinguish between economic democracy and socialism, as defined at this link.

The basic principal of economic democracy is to give economic decision-making power to the workers rather than to the relatively few employers.o Students are not told that this is a principal of pure communism after the state has withered away. It has nothing to do with a democratic form of

government and confuses government with economics. Here are definitions from the Socialist Labor Party website: “Socialism means economic democracy. Instead of voting once every two or four years for politicians, workers would be making decisions every day where they work and in the field in which they are most qualified.” Here is another: “In socialist society there would be no wage system. Workers would receive the social value of their labor

Economic democracy also seeks to fairly distribute the surplus produced by the economy, and to ensure fairness in both workplace management and income distribution.

o There is no definition of “fairness” nor a definition of which people will “ensure” fairness and who will give them such authority.

Money tends to be distributed unequally among people in market economies because how much each person can earn depends on the value placed on that person's ability to produce goods and services.

o Omitted is that money is also unequally distributed among people in command economies.

The subsidies to farmers increase the supply of agricultural products and keep their prices low, while programs such as food stamps help people buy food.o Omitted is the cost to taxpayers of administering farm subsidies, the cost of fraud and the misallocation of resources caused by them. The result is

to lessen supply for most people. Corn subsidies for ethanol reduced the supply of agricultural products and drove up fuel prices for everyone including farmers. The high price of foods made from corn did not help the poor in spite of food stamps.

Chap 5. Tutorial. Internet Research. How to Determine If an Internet Source Is Authoritative. Para 3, Lines 1-2: In general, governments and international organizations are the most trustworthy [internet sources], followed by educational institutions (particularly colleges and universities). Next in reliability are large nonprofit organizations and corporations.

o Unsubstantiated opinion that the enumerated websites are the most trustworthy. Many researchers find that these sites are biased in favor of their own goals and funders. Omitted are websites of investigative reporters and syndicated columnists who present alternative viewpoints.

Lenin returned to the capital, assumed leadership of revolutionaries opposed to the provisional government, and called for "peace, land, and bread."o Omission of Lenin instituting socialist rule by force rather than peace, land or bread putting the country’s banks, factories, and farms under his

rule.

Jews realized their nationalist goal of a homeland in Palestine as the nation of Israel. o The time period of this entire section of the essay is after WWI and before WWII. There was no nation of Israel then. The correct statement is that

the Jews had a homeland in the British Mandate

The establishment of British and French mandates in Syria, Palestine, Transjordan, Iraq, and Lebanon ended the hopes of Arabs who had fought against the Turks and wanted to revive an Arab empire in the Middle East.

o Arabs had fought with the British against the Turks because of promises that they would be awarded their own kingdoms, not because of an Arab Empire. When the promises were broken, “The supposed unity was nothing but a response to an imperialist enemy.”

Great Britain retained control until Egypt nationalized the canal in 1956. After it nationalized the canal, Egypt refused to allow Israel to use the canal, which heightened tensions until a peace treaty between the two nations was signed in 1979.

o Omitted is mention of the 1967 and 1973 wars which are glossed over as “heightened tensions.” Omitted in the text about nationalizing the Suez Canal is discussion of the Cold War crisis it triggered.

Western diseases often had horrendous effects. New vices were introduced,o Omitted is that western medicine brought tremendous benefits in curing malaria, elephantiasis and other tropical diseases.

Indigenous people were excluded from positions of political power, denied adequate living conditions, and were economically suppressed.o This blanket statement blames colonialists for what already existed under native rulers. In the case of British India, Britain brought benefits,

including quinine, irrigation, increase of arable land, a coal industry, the telegraph and railroad. Britain also brought secularism, democracy, the rule of law, a Constitutional government, a free press, a professional civil service, modern universities and research laboratories and the English language.

Chapter 12. WWII Causes and Effects. Project. Projects [Note: the entire first page of the Project section, called “Projects”, asks students to research projects of their choice and gives many suggestions. They include should Germany be allowed to join the European Monetary Union in 1998; should the World Bank lend to Middle East countries after WWII; should poor Mexicans cross the border into the US if it means becoming illegals; etc. Students without considerable background knowledge of history are hardly qualified to draw even minimally substantiated opinions from researching a few articles supplementary to their main text.]. Omitted is sufficient information for students to use as a base for independent research. Most of the listed projects have nothing to do with causes and effects of WWII.

Anti-communist demonstrations in 1989 led to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall.o The demonstrations were only the proximate cause leading to the actual demolition of the wall. The wall fell because of the implosion of

communism in the Soviet Union and eastern European communist nations, and because of the actions of Reagan and Gorbachev.

With the war now over, Japan faced a number of monumental problems. Japan's industrial complex had been almost completely destroyed by American firebombing, as had many of its cities. There were shortages of food and housing; millions of Japan's citizens were scattered throughout Asia as a result of the war. In addition, many Japanese were fearful of what changes the occupation government would impose.

o No mention of why the U.S. became involved in the war, nor of the help the U.S. supplied Japan after the war.

Many Africans suffer from malnutrition because of poverty, famine, and inadequate diets.o Although poverty, famine and inadequate diets are a few of the causes, corrupt governments and war are not mentioned.

In June 2006, a militia group that supported the imposition of Islamic law gained control of the country's capital. While controversial outside of Somalia, the group is widely seen within Somalia as a law-and-order answer to the secular warlords who have torn Somalia apart.

o The Islamic militia is widely opposed within Somalia, with public demonstrations against it in different parts of the country, where people support the warlords. Although some people support the militia, it is obvious that many do not.

Chapter 18 – Overview - Subtitle: The Economy of Africa, Problems in Other Sectors of the Economy: “Governments adopted socialist economic policies of state control and planning without the experienced personnel to carry out the plans.”

o Gives the student the idea that socialism will work if only “experienced personnel” were to “carry out the plans.”

Islamic fundamentalists: militant Muslims who seek to impose Islamic religious laws and principles on all people in their nations and to increase the influence in government of religious leaders who interpret and enforce religious laws;

o It is an error to use the word “militant” because Islamic fundamentalists are not all “militant”. Islamic Fundamentalism calls for imposition of Shari’a by the sword, the mouth, the pen or the purse. Insinuation into government, into the military, into textbooks, and into schools and churches are all tools used today in all Western countries to impose Shari’a or aspects thereof. Jihad of property or the purse is discussed here: Shafi’i Islamic Fiqh. Reliance of the Traveler, Ahmed al-Misri, translated Nuh Ha Mim Keller, 1991, Amana Pbl, Beltsville, MD. o9.1

After Palestine became independent as Israel in 1948, Jews came to Israel from other parts of the Middle East and the world.o Palestine never “became independent as Israel”. The statement is nonsensical. Israel became a sovereign self-governing state in 1948. There still is

no Palestinian state. Abbas is still seeking recognition for Palestine.

Although Muhammad raised the status of women in a patriarchal society, later scholars interpreted the Koran to mean that women should be closely supervised and wives completely submissive to their husbands.

o Muhammad himself revealed Allah’s words that men are superior to women and must manage them. Quran 4.11 provides that a man’s share of an inheritance is twice that of a woman. Quran 4:34 states that men are superior to women, and that a husband may beat his wife if he “fear[s] disloyalty” or “ill-conduct.” According to Quran 2:282, in a legal proceeding the testimony of one man is worth the testimony of two women. Muhammad stated that the reduced value of the testimony of women “is because of the deficiency of a woman's mind.” (Sahih al-Bukhari, USC Sunnah and Hadith, Volume 3, Book 48, Number 826.)

The establishment of Israel in 1948 caused virtual constant conflict in the region as Arabs united against the new nation.o There were other causes of constant conflict in the region besides the creation of Israel in 1948. Egypt and Iran were hostile; Iraq and Iran fought

for 8 years. Turkey fought the Kurds. Syria attacked Lebanon. The sentence should be re-written to say that “the establishment of Israel in 1948 was one cause of conflict in the region.”

The only theocracy is Iran (established after the 1978-1979 revolution).o Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, and Mauritania are Islamic theocracies. The definition of

theocracy in the Glossary is correct even if its implication here is not.

Multiparty republics are the most democratic nations in the Middle East.o This statement can apply to Israel. The Muslim states governed by theocracies are not democratic even though they have multiple parties. The

statement is true in regard to Kuwait, which is multi-party and not a theocracy.

Islamic fundamentalism receives support even from secular Muslims because it is a regional development, not an import from the West.o Islamic fundamentalism does not receive support from secular Muslims because of being a regional development. It receives support because

Islam requires adherence to Shari’a. The Glossary definition of Islamic fundamentalism is correct.

The conflict between Arabs and Israelis, the dominant issue in the Middle East since the end of World War II, has resulted in four wars, destabilized other nations, and spawned international terrorism.

o The Arab-Israeli wars may have accentuated terrorism, but they did not spawn it. They do not account for the Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Shabaab in Africa, al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, or al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula

In July 2006, Hezbollah (an anti-Israel terrorist organization based in Lebanon) raided across the Israeli border, abducting two Israeli soldiers.o Hezbollah is not solely an anti-Israel terrorist organization based in Lebanon. Hezbollah is primarily a pro-Iranian Shiite terrorist organization. It

has bases in Mexico, the US and Canada.

Some poorer nations, and many poor people in all nations, supported Iraq in the Persian Gulf War because they resented the displays of wealth of the Persian Gulf nations and their unwillingness to share the oil riches.

o There is no evidence that “many poor people in all nations” supported Iraq or that they wanted oil riches. It sounds like a factual error, considering Iraq’s own oil wealth. The primary “poor nation” that supported Iraq was Jordan, a similar Hashemite nation with an economy inter-twined with that of Iraq for many years.

Terrorists, reputedly trained and financed by an international fundamentalist group, attacked and killed American military personnel with bombs in Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

o Students should know these were Islamic terrorists motivated by their religion. Members of Hezbollah were indicted for the murders and hundreds of injuries to soldiers at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. The bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen was done by Al-Qaeda. These attacks were preludes to 9/11 and followed a growing pattern of Islamic jihadis attacking the US.

The Middle East has about 65% of the world's known oil reserveso OPEC has about 65%. The Middle East does not. OPEC includes Venezuela, Ecuador and Angola.

Iraq's economy, which was struggling after the Persian Gulf War in 1991, was destroyed by the U.S. invasion in 2003.o The US invasion did not destroy the economy. The Shia-Sunni terrorists did. Saddam Hussein also contributed to its destruction when he set the

Iraqi oil fields afire.

Over a century of bloodshed has claimed over 15,000 lives in a conflict that seems to have no end.o Since 1920 over 116,000 Israeli and Arab/Palestinian lives have been lost

A year into the Intifada, the Palestinian National Council declared the creation of the State of Palestine.o Omitted is that Palestine is not yet a recognized independent state and that the UN has accorded it the status of non-member observer.

Israel does not want the refugees to return to their villages in Israel because they would sharply increase the Arab population.o Omitted is the differentiation of refugees who at one time lived in Israel and their descendants in multiple generations who never lived there. The

Israelis offered to accept tens of thousands of the original refugees if the Palestinians would recognize the State of Israel. However, Hamas and Fatah refuse to accept Israel.

The Middle East has been the scene of many of the most extreme examples of terrorism in recent decades. The Arab-Israeli dispute has been the source of most of them, with its effects felt in many other nations.

o The Arab Israeli dispute has been the source of many extreme examples of terrorism, but there is no proof that it caused “most” of them. There was Saddam’s gassing of Iranians and Kurds. There was Iran’s sending thousands of boys on suicide missions. Turkey tortured and murdered the Kurds. Syria attacked Lebanon.

Cuba's revolution in 1959 provided an alternative model to the free-market capitalist economy controlled by foreign and business interests.o “freemarkets” by their very definition are not “controlled.” Perhaps ‘supported’ or ‘influenced by’ would be more appropriate.

Cuba under Bautista before 1959 had a socialist economy, not free-market capitalism.o Yes, Cuba’s 1959 revolution did provide a different system that ruined the economy and plunged the nation into poverty. The way the sentence is

written implies the economy was better because it was not controlled by foreigners or business. Omitted is the tremendous relative success of the pre-1959 economy in spite of its socialist control.

Overpopulation is not Latin America's major social problem -- unlike in other regions of the Third World.o There are experts that don’t believe overpopulation is the problem in the Third World. “The Myth of Overpopulation” by Logan Albright

http://mises.ca/posts/blog/the-myth-of-overpopulation/

Since the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, the Native American peoples of Latin America have experienced continuous discrimination and oppression.

o Omitted is the continuous discrimination and oppression practiced by the native American peoples on each other.

Most Latin Americans believe that they are entitled to basic human rights. Which of the following is NOT an example of human rights? 1. the right to bear arms2. the right to a living wage3. freedom of speech and religion4. speedy, public trial by a jury of your peers

o The answer to this question is #1 (the right to bear arms) in the textbook. Displays blatant anti-Second Amendment bias.

Dulles's threat that the U.S. would "retaliate instantly, by means and at places of our own choosing" led to an arms race between the two super powers.o Dulles’s response to the Soviet arms build-up and control of Eastern Europe did not cause the arms race, which was started by the Soviet military

expansion. His statement of immediate retaliation was part of our containment policy to let the Soviets know that if they attacked us we would attack immediately to devastate them.

However, the reform process was often ineptly handled in the attempt to preserve British privilege and influence, and led to violence between different religions.

o [The words “reform process” seem to mean preparing India for self-government.]o The British did not try to preserve special privilege for themselves with the India Independence Act of 1947. The Act set how the new states would

choose to be part of India or Pakistan and was the result of careful preparation. On Aug 15, 1947, India and Pakistan became free and Nehru was sworn in as first PM of India.

o Religious violence had existed long before independence and continued thereafter.

Civil and political rights are more commonly known as "civil liberties" in the vocabulary of American politics.o Civil rights and civil liberties are not at all the same in American politics and never have been. The legal area known as "civil rights" has

traditionally revolved around the basic right to be free from unequal treatment based on certain protected characteristics (race, gender, disability, etc.) in settings such as employment and housing. "Civil liberties" concern basic rights and freedoms that are guaranteed -- either explicitly identified in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, or interpreted through the years by courts and lawmakers.

Frequently in the case of positive rights, the governmental action required is a long-term, coordinated policy that is designed to bring a certain standard of living to people, whether in education, health care, or housing. These rights are known as "civil rights" in the American political vocabulary.

o In America civil rights as defined in the Declaration of Independence and enforced by the Civil Rights Act of 1864 level the playing field and guarantee equality of opportunity. They do not guarantee equality of outcome related to standards of living.

By 1997, it became clear that temperatures around the world had risen more in the 20th century than in previous recent centuries.o Omitted is the fact that rising temperatures in the 20th century were a result of the earth’s coming out of the Little Ice Age, which ended about

1860.

The fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expressed very high confidence (at least a 9 out of 10 chance of being correct) that global warming was the result of human activities.

o This text gives one example of global warming opinion and omits entirely the evidence that it is not caused by humans. Omitted is that 31,487 American scientists have signed a petition, accompanied by a 2007 climate study by scientists from the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, that states: “There is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other gases is causing, or will cause in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the earth’s climate. Moreover, there is substantial scientific evidence that increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide produce many beneficial effects upon the natural animal and plant environments of the earth.” Omitted is that over 400 prominent scientists disputed man-made global warming claims in 2007. Many of them are current or former participants in the IPCC 4th report. This study was conducted by minority staff of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public works.

Researchers have already reported accelerated melting of ice at the poles and in many glacier fields around the world.o The text fails to say that ice is increasing in some parts of the world while it melts in others. “Total global polar sea ice is largely unchanged over

the past 35 years. Antarctic sea ice set all time record for size in September 2013”

However, the average citizen in a command economy is free from the fear of being unable to satisfy basic needs, such as food, clothing, housing, and health care.

o By the end of the communist regime in the USSR the command economy had failed so completely to provide food for the average citizen that shop shelves were often bare and people queued in long lines for a chance to buy their daily food.

Coal mining is expensive, labor intensive, and damages the environment. Burning coal pollutes the atmosphere causing health hazards and contributes to acid rain which damages forests and kills lake fish.

o Coal mining has minimal effect on the environment because when mining is done coal companies restore the land almost completely. Burning coal causes minimal pollution because coal companies use modern technology to scrub the gases before their release into the atmosphere. Because of the scrubbing of gases acid rain is no longer of significant concern.