Islamic bias in textbooks: Well known conservative Law Center files Federal lawsuit against Maryland School District for teaching Islam in schools

Tavares, FL                        Jan. 29, 2016

- A well respected Law Center has sued a Maryland school district administration, the board, the principal and vice principal for violating the Constitution and Civil rights laws by teaching Islam to students.  This is a very well documented lawsuit - read the legal documents linked below, or the reasons (included below).

This has been in the works for awhile but now a formal Federal complaint has been filed by the Thomas More Law Center,  a heavy hitter in the conservative legal field.  They have been collecting case notes and background on Islamic bias in schools for probably 18 months.   Many K-12 textbooks (or required “information documents”) have heavy Islam indoctrination in them, while there is not much on Christianity.  The Islam sections break the US Constitutional boundaries of teaching any religion in schools, and it is time a Federal lawsuit was filed to challenge the biased textbooks and related Islamic teachings.

This case defines the legal reasons why parents and teachers have complained about Islamic proslytization in some classes and textbooks, so now you know.

The Thomas More Center in Michigan just filed the Federal complaint (link is in the article, and filing is dated Jan. 27, 2016) against a school district in Maryland for teaching Islamic indoctrination to a plaintiff’s daughter.  The parents had complained and the school district ignored them. 

“ANN ARBOR, MI – The Thomas More Law Center (TMLC), a national public interest law firm based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, yesterday afternoon, filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of former Marine, John Kevin Wood, and his wife, Melissa, who refuse to allow their teenage daughter to be subjected to Islamic indoctrination and propaganda in her high school World History class.  The lawsuit was filed against the Charles County Public Schools, the Board of Education, and the Principal and Vice-Principal of La Plata High School located in La Plata, Maryland.

The Woods’ daughter was forced to profess and to write out the Shahada in worksheets and quizzes.  TheShahada is the Islamic Creed, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”  For non-Muslims, reciting the statement is sufficient to convert one to Islam.  Moreover, the second part of the statement, “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah,” signifies the person has accepted Muhammad as their spiritual leader.  The teenager was also required to memorize and recite the Five Pillars of Islam. “

READ MORE in the Thomas More Law Center press release here.

Here are the TWO exhibits documenting the student background documents and student assignments/quizzes.  They document how the Islamic indoctrination was a whitewash of what Islam actually practices.   For some reason, they don’t disclose Mohammed was a pedophile and married an 8 year old girl.   

One quiz section asks the student to complete this statement:  “The Qur’an says “Men are the MANAGERS of the affairs of WOMEN and “RIGHTEOUS WOMEN” are therefore OBEDIENT. “  (All caps words are the “correct” answers).

Another question asked “What did Muhammad do when he returned to Mecca (he actually massacred hundreds of Christians), and the expected whitewash answer was “He forgave the people for trying to destroy his message”.  

Question 18 in exhibit two says “How did Muslim conquerors treat those they conquered?  Why?  

            The expected answer was “With tolerance, kindness and respect” which is balderdash.   The truth is conquering Muslims demanded prisoners convert to Islam or 1) pay Jizya which is a tax, or 2) be beheaded.    They also took many women as sex slaves and killed the men.  Over 270-million people have been killed by Muslims, whose main method of expanding is through wars, just like they are doing now in Iraq and Syria.  The other method of expansion is through stealth jihad, which is what they are doing in Europe and the US.   That is not covered at all in these whitewashed textbooks. 

The student was also required to list the five Pillars of Islam, but we doubt they ever were asked to list the 10 Commandments.

HERE is the full Federal legal “Civil Rights Action” complaint filed in the US District Court in Maryland   Defendents include the School District, the Board of Education, and the named Principal and Vice Principal of the school doing the Islamic biased teaching.  Here are all legal reasons cited by the Law Center for the complaint:

1. The First Amendment prohibits the promotion of the religion of Islam over other faiths, such as Christianity or Judaism, in our public schools.

2. The United States Supreme Court has held that our public schools should not promote a certain religion over others: “School sponsorship of a religious message is impermissible because it sends the ancillary message to members of the audience who are nonadherants ‘that they are outsiders, . . . and an accompanying message to adherants that they are insiders.’” Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290, 309-10 (2000) (quoting Lynch v. Donnelly, 465 U.S. 668, 688 (1982) (O’Connor, J., concurring)).

3. United States Supreme Court precedent does not create a double standard that allows for the promotion of Islam in our public schools while disallowing and silencing the teachings of Christianity and Judaism.

4. This case, therefore, seeks to protect and vindicate the fundamental constitutional rights of two Maryland parents and their daughter, C.W., who were harshly punished for voicing concerns about the desecration of their Christian beliefs and heritage and the promotion of the Islamic faith in the Defendants’ World History class.

5. Defendants concealed that their high school World History class promoted Islam. The class syllabus failed to mention that the course involved the teaching and promotion of Islam. The class syllabus also failed to mention that Defendants were using two different textbooks. Defendants required that students keep the second textbook, which extensively covered Islam, at the school. Defendants only allowed students to take home the first textbook that did not extensively cover or devote a separate chapter to Islam.

6. Defendants patently rejected the valid requests and complaints of Plaintiffs, as concerned parents, and discriminated against Plaintiffs’ daughter, C.W., by removing her from the academic environment of her World History class, relegating her to the student library, and issuing her failing grades on assignments because C.W. refused to deny and insult her Christian beliefs by affirming, for example, that Muslims hold stronger faith convictions than Christians. See Exhibit 1 (“Most Muslim’s faith is stronger than the average Christian.”) (emphasis in original).

7. Defendants’ curriculum, practices, policies, actions, procedures, and customs promote the Islamic faith by requiring students to profess the five pillars of Islam and to write out faith statements of the religion. Defendants require that students write out and confess the Shahada, the Islamic Profession of Faith.

8. Defendants, however, do not treat Christianity in the same manner as Islam. Defendants do not require students to profess or write out faith statements of Christianity, including creeds associated with Christianity. In fact, Defendants teach about Christianity in a disparaging manner and do not require students to learn any tenants of Christianity or Judaism, such as the Ten Commandments.

9. Defendants spent only one day teaching Christianity, but devoted approximately two weeks to promoting Islam.

10. A school cannot achieve diversity by punishing and alienating students who hold Judeo-Christian beliefs, while bolstering the doctrines and teachings of other religions.

11. Defendants have treated Plaintiffs’ Christian beliefs and heritage as subordinate to Islamic beliefs and heritage, have treated Plaintiffs’ Christian beliefs and heritage with deliberate indifference, and have been hostile toward C.W. and her family.

12. Plaintiffs challenge Defendants’ acts, policies, practices, customs, and procedures, which deprived and are depriving Plaintiffs and C.W. of their fundamental right to be free from a public school’s promotion of certain religious beliefs, their fundamental right to be able to speak freely and raise concerns about religion being taught in our public schools without retaliation, and their fundamental right to be free from unjust discrimination against their Christian heritage.

13. Plaintiffs bring this civil rights action under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and under the laws of the State of Maryland.

14. Plaintiffs seek a declaration that Defendants violated Plaintiffs’ clearly established constitutional and statutory rights; a preliminary and permanent injunction barring Defendants from continuing the acts, policies, practices, customs, and procedures that violate the rights of Plaintiffs and other school children as set forth in this Complaint; and a judgment awarding nominal and compensatory damages for the loss of Plaintiffs’ constitutional and statutory rights. Plaintiffs also seek an award of the reasonable costs of litigation, including attorneys’ fees and costs pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 and other applicable law

Can you imagine the outcry from liberals if similar sections and student assignments were used for Christianity?

Meanwhile, here in Lake County, FL, the School District also uses books from Pearson containing heavy Islamic indoctrination but no parent complaints have been filed yet by local parents.  It could be that Lake Schools don’t require those chapters to be included in curriculum, but we do not know for sure.   After reading the above reasons for the case, we think the Lake County Board should ensure no teachers or schools are educating students about Islam to the detriment of equal actions for other religions.

I would expect a subsequent legal action could be taken to require that School Districts dispose of Islam biased textbooks, lesson plans, etc.   

Parents should review student assignments, which could be disguised as World History lessons in culture, etc.  They need to see the quizzes and homework instructions which are usually from the TEACHER editions of the textbooks and are not in the student editions.   They should grill teachers about inclusion of Islam bias in all types of classes, including word problems in math or biased segments in reading classes.

Here is one of many articles on Islam bias in schools.  Just search on “Islamic bias textbooks”.    

Here is our FiscalRangers.com picture album on Facebook of the Islam biased sections of a Pearson World History book used by the Lake County, FL School District.  The book whitewashes Islam without telling about Islam violence, jihad techniques, beheadings, stonings, female genital mutilation, Sharia law extremes, etc. 

See our Factsheet on Islamic bias in textbooks at http://tinyurl.com/WorldHistoryIslamBias  which has more details on textbook Islamic bias. And, to balance out the whitewash sections, read this separate Factsheet on Islam dangers so you know the other side of the story not covered in the textbooks. 

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers.com