When the Texas Board of Education passed a resolution late last month decrying the "pro-Islamic/anti-Christian bias [that] has tainted... Texas Social Studies textbooks," indicating that they would "look to reject [such] prejudicial textbooks" in the future, they were basing their criticism on a biased anti-Arab review. In doing so, they took a dangerous step backward that threatens to widen the knowledge gap that has put the U.S. at risk in the Arab and Muslim worlds.
America has enormous interests in that region. In the past 30 years, we've spent more money, sold more weapons, sent more troops, fought more wars, lost more lives, had more economic and political interests at stake, and expended more diplomatic capital in the broader Middle East than anywhere else on the globe. And yet recent polling shows that two-thirds of all Americans can't point to Iraq on a map, just as many don't know the year that Israel declared its independence, the same number don't realize that Iran and Pakistan aren't Arab countries, and about one-half share prejudicial and stereotypical views of Arabs as angry, backward, violent fanatics.
There are, of course, consequences to this lack of knowledge, all of which came into sharp focus in the lead up to the Iraq war. It was against the backdrop of ignorance that our political leadership and their echo chamber in the media were able to sell the public on: the war's ease; the belief that we would be welcomed as liberators; and the notion that once the dictator was overthrown, democracy would flourish (remember neo-con Bill Kristol dismissing Iraq's Sunni/Shi'a tensions as "pop culture" for which he said "there's almost no evidence of that at all"). Because we knew so little of Iraq's history and culture, our young soldiers marched into Baghdad seeing themselves as "liberators". They had no idea that in the eyes of many Iraqis they were merely the new Mongols who had conquered and now occupied their land.
How did we get into the situation in which we knew so little about a world where we had so much at stake? As I note in my new book, Arab Voices: What they Are Saying to Us and Why It Matters, it all begins with education -- or the lack of it.
For decades the Middle East Studies Association, the U.S.'s premier organization of academics specializing in regional studies, warned that our textbooks either outright ignored the Middle East or, when they dealt with it, conveyed "an oversimplified, naïve, and even distorted image" of the region and its peoples. And after 9/11, when U.S. teachers found themselves lacking the information and materials to address new interest in the Arab World and Islam, a study commissioned by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations found that most teachers "knew little or nothing about" the region and lacked the basic materials to provide their students with answers to the questions they were asking.
In the last decade, some changes have been made, but we are still suffering from a knowledge deficit. The following statistics on language study tell part of the story. Less than 1% of America's high schools offer Arabic language instruction. And of the 2,400 four year colleges in the U.S., only 370 offer Arabic, with a total of only 2,400 American students in advanced language programs that can lead to a proficiency in this critical language.
Recognizing this as a problem has led some to call for improvements and expansion of programs in Arabic, Arab history and Islam. But this has not been without challenges. An organization headed by Lynne Cheney, wife of then Vice-President Dick Cheney, pushed back arguing that adding courses in these areas merely "reinforced the mindset that it was... America's failure to understand Islam that were [sic] to blame" for 9/11! And a group of conservative professional anti-Arab activists pressed for Congressional legislation to monitor and serve as a check on "pro-Arab" curricula. They even launched an organized effort, called "Campus Watch", encouraging students to report teachers who are "pro-Arab" or "pro-Muslim". This same cast of characters was responsible for the movement to shut down the Kahlil Gibran academy, New York's first-ever dual language Arabic-English school.
Education, or the lack of it, isn't the only culprit. Our political culture also contributes to misunderstanding -- with the anti-Muslim venom spewed by political leaders against the Park 51 project, serving as a case in point. Our popular culture is at fault as well, with Hollywood grinding out movies and television programs that have negatively stereotyped Arabs and Muslims for almost a half century.
The bottom line is that if the Texas State Board of Education's (TSBE) warning to textbook companies to provide less information about Islam and the Arab World was intended as a warning shot across the bow, it ought to be viewed as a wake-up call to schools, educators, and all Americans. (Note: the reason why resolutions passed by the TSBE are important is because, as the nation's second largest buyers of secondary school textbooks, they have historically had the ability to influence what the publishers of textbook will and will not publish.)
But if the TSBE has power, so do the rest of us. If the debacle of the war in Iraq taught us anything, it is that we can't afford ignorance -- not knowing has bitter consequences. If America is to productively engage the broader Middle East, we must understand its history and culture and its peoples. Our knowledge must grow, and what is taught in our schools matters to our future.
Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices: What They Are Saying to Us, and Why it Matters (Palgrave Macmillan, October 2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community.
I have read your comment a couple of times. Where is the concentrated effort on behalf of Israel to protect its illegal land grab? Not in the MSM -- the NYT and the LAT are both in the pocket of CAIR. Same for almost any large daily newspaper worth mentioning. This effort is not on the network news programs, nor on their morning shows. They all see American Muslims as victims. If you are referring to AIPAC and the US Congress, please feel free to say so up front. The US has long been an Israeli ally since before it's inception actually in 1948. But traditional US policy has been under attack in the US media and on college campuses with vigor and strong coordination for a number of years without much push back in those venues. Are you saying the press and the elites are united for Israel?
I like these videos I'm linking to today, because they showcase *multiple* viewpoints - which are articulated by some of the best-known voices from all sides of the discussion.
They're very educational videos -- and I feel anyone, with any viewpoint, currently -- can potentially benefit from watching them.
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/town-hall-debate-prevail-americans-fear-islam-christiane-amanpour-11787555?tab=9482930§ion=1206874&playlist=11789418&page=1
Peace to all.
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/video/holy-war-americans-fear-islam-united-states-religious-freedoms-tolerance-911-christiane-amanpour-facebook-11787816
Peace to all.
All "sides" are certainly heard from, in this video:
Non-Islamophobic (aka Moderates; i.e. "Islam as a whole is not a concern")
Daisy Khan, moderate Muslim; wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Islamic community center co-founder.
Azar Nafisi, a moderate Muslim woman who escaped persecution in Iran.
Donna Marsh O'Connor, moderate non-Muslim, who lost her daughter and unborn grand-child on 9/11.
Reza Aslan (via video), moderate Muslim, Professor, Author of No God But God.
Imam Ossama Bahloul, the leader of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tenn.
Islamophobic (*in the literal sense of the term: i.e. "There is a very real threat from Islam").
Rev. Franklin Graham [Billy Graham's son], adviser to former President Bush.
Robert Spencer, anti-Islamic activist and author .
Peter Gadiel, 9/11 victim's parent, who lost his son in the attacks.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (via video), woman raised in Islamic Somalia
With "Special Guest Appearance" (via video) by:
Amjad Choudry (not sure on spelling), radical Muslim, who says that the "Crescent flag will one day fly over the White House (i.e. a "carrier" of Islamophobia).
What did I learn?
No group of Billions can be categorized.
The various views speak for themselves, if we listen closely.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKbzdfQeiFc
http://abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/heated-debate-place-islam-united-states/story?id=11786737&page=1
Peace to all.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opinion/10kristof.html
Toron's link is to a Nicholas Kristof column that includes a quiz about scripture. Kristof summarizes what he thinks is the point of the quiz by stating we should not be "rushing to inflammatory conclusions about any faith, especially based on cherry-picking texts."
When you reflect on his statement, you cannot help but realize what an insulting and deceptive pun Kristof has fashioned, unintentional or otherwise. It is the terrorists attacking the West with their self-immolating bombs, who are "rushing to inflammatory conclusions." It is not the critics of Islam who are cherry-picking sacred texts. They are merely quoting lslamofascist terrorists, and their mentoring imams, who proclaim a verse from the Koran or a hadith as pretext for blowing up innocent people.
Kristof's column is part of a big lie. Both in the print press and on television, the MSM have launched a concentrated propaganda effort to convince their audiences that critics of Islam are not reacting to Islamic terrorism, but are born out of an "Islamophobia" that has no foundation in recent events. But reality says otherwise. Not even in New York are there enough koolaid drinkers to dispute it is the terrorists who are driven to inflammatory conclusions, and it is they who are induced to violence by certain Koranic verses selected by their imams.
"Former CIA analyst Michael Scheuer's states that the Al Qaeda Islamic terror attacks against America are motivated not by a hatred of American culture and religion but by the belief that U.S. foreign policy is a threat to Islam,[18] condensed in the phrase "They hate us for what we do, not who we are."
U.S. foreign policy actions Scheuer believes are fueling Islamic terror include
Unconditioned US support to Israel
U.S. troops on Muslim 'holy ground' in Saudi Arabia (See: United States withdrawal from Saudi Arabia)
U.S. support for "apostate" police states in Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Algeria, Morocco, and Kuwait[19]
The invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq
U.S. support for the creation of the Christian state of East Timor from territory previously held by Muslim Indonesia.
Perceived U.S. approval or support of counterinsurgency against Muslim insurgents in India, Philippines, Chechnya, Uyghur separatists in western China, Palestine.[20]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_terrorism#Middle_East_.2F_Southwest_Asia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N294FMDok98
Worth listening to for any open minded American who cares about the truth here at home.
I thinks it's our arrogance making us this way. We are always right and we don't need to understand anyone else's point of view..........a sure way to remain ignorant.
True, quite true, but would you not agree that your fellow posters, who do not know what you know are hardly going to agree with your viewpoint? Shouldn't you provide a few facts, so others could understand your concerns? -- particularly those who are new to this debate, or who only receive their information from the MSM. Here is a rather eye-opening video clip from a truly gentle soul, who challenges Islam, even as he loves Muslims. Truly an outlier in this debate, but one with a powerful message. Enjoy.
http://www.answeringmuslims.com/2010/10/abc-news-promotes-revolution-muslim-as.html
Christian Arabs live in Lebanon, Palestine,Israel, Syria, Jordan, Iraq etc,
Arab jews live all over North Africa and Mideast up until the establishment of Israel.
Most Americans lack any real knowledge about the Arab World they learn from Fox News and talk radio and they'll read a book written by a muslim hater.
Knowledge is power.
You must be ignorant about sharia law to even say that. Plenty of people, such as every single person who is not Muslim, has things to criticize about sharia law.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/opinion/10kristof.html