World

■

nted
Teachings

What your kids are learning
about Israel, America and Islam.

Editor's note: This is the first part
of a special JTA investigation.

New York/JTA
ith the school year back
in full swing, do you
know what your chil-
dren are learning? In thousands of
public school districts across the
United States, without ever know-
ing it, taxpayers pay to disseminate
pro-Islamic materials that are anti-
American, anti-Israel and anti-
Jewish. Often bypassing school
boards and nudging aside
approved curricula, teaching pro-
grams funded by Saudi Arabia
make their way into elementary
and secondary school classrooms.
These teachings enter school
systems with the help of a federal
program, Title VI of the Higher
Education Act, which is now up for
renewal. Expert analyses of these
materials have found them to be
full of inaccuracies, bias and pros-
elytizing. They also have found
that many of the major history
and social studies textbooks used
in schools across the country are
highly critical of democratic insti-
tutions and forgiving of repressive
ones.
These materials praise and
sometimes promote Islam, but
criticize Judaism and Christianity
and are filled with false assertions.
Most taxpayers don't know
they're paying — at the federal,
state and local levels — for the
public schools to advance these
materials.
Much has been written about
the anti-Israel, anti-American bias
found at many university Middle
East studies departments, some of
which receive Saudi funding.
Critics have also probed the export
of Saudi teachings to American
mosques and Islamic schools.

w

Probe's Findings

A special yearlong investigation by

42

The gates of Dar at Islam, an Islamic enclave in Abiquiu, N.M.,

whilbh ,stands at the center of a network of groups and individuals

involved in teaching Islam in the publiC schools.

JTA reveals for the first time how
Saudi influence is penetrating the
American classrooms of young
children. The investigation uncov-
ers the complex path by which
biased textbooks and supplemen-
tary teaching materials creep into
U.S. public schools. It reveals who
creates these materials and how
some of America's most presti-
gious universities — with the use
of federal funds — become
involved in disseminating them.
Saudi influence enters the class-
rooms in three different ways. The
first is through teacher-training
seminars that provide teachers
with graduate or continuing edu-
cation credits. The second is

through the dissemination of sup-
plementary teaching materials
designed and distributed with
Saudi support. Such materials
flood the educational system and
are available online. The third is
through school textbooks paid for
by taxpayers, some of them vetted
by activists with Saudi ties, who
advise and influence major text-
book companies about the books'
Islamic, Arab, Palestinian, Israeli
and Middle Eastern content.
Ironically, what gives credibility
to the dissemination of these dis-
torted materials is Title VI of the
Higher Education Act, a federal
program enacted in 1958 in part
to train international experts to

meet the nation's security needs.
Under Title VI, select universities
get federal funding and prestigious
designation as national resource
centers for the study of places and
languages the government deems
vital for meeting global challenges.
Eighteen of these centers are for
the study of the Middle East; each
receives an average of about
$500,000 per year. The taxpayer-
supported grants are worth at least
10 times that amount in their abil-
ity to garner university support
and attract outside funding, pro-
ponents of Title VI say.
As part of its federal mandate,
each center assigns an outreach
coordinator to extend its expertise

to the community and to school-
children in kindergarten through
12th grade. Outreach usually
includes workshops, guest speak-
ers,-books, pamphlets and whole
syllabuses and curricula broken
down into teaching modules, with
instruction booklets for teachers,
and sometimes visual aids such
as films.
While some school district
officials are completely unaware
of the material reaching their
teachers and classrooms, others
welcome it: Believing they're
importing the wisdom of places
like Harvard or Georgetown, they
actually are inviting into their
schools whole curricula and syl-

October 27 2005