Hundreds of parents, angry at what they say is a biased student textbook with a decided pro-Islam slant, have launched a campaign demanding equal religious representation and planned a protest at the school board meeting this week.
The book, “World History,” devotes fully 32 pages — an entire chapter — on “Muslim Civilizations,” including descriptions of the Koran and a listing of the Five Pillars of Islam, The Daily Caller reported. But noticeably missing is information on any other religion.
Protesters are demanding that students tear out the Islam chapter until the school, in Volusia County, provide a like number of pages on other religions, the local WFTV reported.
“The problem is there needs to be balance,” said District 2 Deltona commissioner Webster Barnaby, in The Daily Caller. “In America today, Christianity is being relegated to the trash heap. Why relegate Christianity to a footnote in an entire history book, and you give an entire chapter on the teachings of Islam? To suggest that everybody knows about Christianity, that is total ignorance.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, meanwhile, has sent out a statement in opposition to the protest.
“This group is displaying an alarming level of intolerance and brazen disregard of minority religions,” CAIR said, adding that the protesters’ actions were “un-American.”
District officials said in The Daily Caller that they have no plans to drop the textbook, saying that other religions like Christianity and Judaism are randomly represented in other pages.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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