On Friday, the Texas Board of Education passed its anti-Muslim resolution condemning what it claims is a “pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias” in public school textbooks.
After dismantling the social studies curriculum this spring and rewriting it to fit a far-right fundamentalist and evangelical Christian agenda, this late-in-the-game measure seems almost as if conservative board members realized after the fact, “Shoot! We forgot to target the Muslims!”
The resolution says that past textbooks have highlighted atrocities in the name of Christianity (such as the Crusades) and have whitewashed similar atrocities by Muslims. In response to the proposed resolution, the Texas Freedom Network pored through various popular social studies textbooks to see if the board’s claims held up. And surprise! It didn’t. Here is TFN’s debunking of the resolution’s claims. For instance, TFN cites several instances where textbooks included the Muslim attack on Delhi in India in the 14th century: “As many as 100,000 Hindu prisoners were massacred before the gates of the city.”
TFN recorded Friday’s public debate. Here is a clip of a woman defending the resolution, in which she suggests that all textbooks should come with warning stickers so people know of a book’s “biases” before they ever open it.
Notice that she only says what she believes, not what she knows. She presents no facts, nor even information. Rather, she touts her self-stated biases. Sadly, for this woman, and others like her, the truth here is irrelevant. As she makes clear, ignorance is preferable, just so long as it allows her to continue living in her little world in which Christians are always good, Americans always exceptional, and Muslims always bad.
