Stanley Kurz has an excellent article on a subject Joshua's Army Members have already seen explored on these pages...the pernicious, Saudi funded wahabi jihad propaganda exported to our country - not just to the Saudi funded mosques and madrassahs here in America, but via our public schools and universities.
In his NRO piece Saudi in the classroom , Kurz discusses how our Eternal Friends the Saudis discovered how to outflank America’s K-12 curriculum safeguards, using the system of federal subsidies to university programs of Middle East Studies (under Title VI of the Higher Education Act).
Since these Federally subsidized Middle East Studies centers are required to pursue public outreach, including lesson plans and seminars on the Middle East for America’s K-12 teachers, it slips right by the usual public oversight. And needless to say, since the Saudis have essentially purchased the Middle East Studies programs in most major universities, and since the outreach programs are staffed by outreach coordinators or teach trainers they have selected and trained, it's a natural way in for Saudi propaganda in our schools...courtesy of the American tax payer!
Kurz cites an investigation done by Sandra Stotsky, a former director of a professional development institute for teachers at Harvard, and a former senior associate commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Education.
Stotsky was the associate commissioner after 9/11, when the Massachusetts Department of Education decided to organize special seminars in Islamic history for K-12 teachers and decided to utilize a program offered to them by Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies.
The program was supposed to cover topics like
the nature of Islamic Fundamentalism and terrorism, the lack of democracy in the Middle East, and the problem of basic legal and political rights for women in most of the Muslim world.
Instead, the Harvard program concentrated on promoting the Saudi view of the Arab-Israeli conflict, promoting Islam as a religion, and criticizing US policies in the Middle East. Stotsky realized the programwas driven by what she characterized as Harvard's “distorted” and “manipulative” political agenda.
It included training for teachers on the life and teachings of Mohammed, the “revelation” of Islam, and exercises calling on students to “appoint imams,” memorize Islamic principles, and act out prayer at a Mosque.
One of the teaching aids was called the “The Arab World Studies Notebook.” The “Notebook” is essentially a text offering uncritical praise for the Arab world and Islam. Or, as Stotsky referred to it, “a piece of propaganda.” It's especially is designed to induce teachers to promote wahabi Islam and to political views in line with the Saudi-funded the Middle East Policy Council (formerly the Arab American Affairs Council).
Stotsky subsequently published a book on her experiences called The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America’s History Teachers under the auspices of the Fordham Foundation.
In it she wrote : “Most of these materials have been prepared and/or funded by Islamic sources here and abroad, and are distributed or sold directly to schools or individual teachers, thereby bypassing public scrutiny.”
In late 2005, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) put out a major report on How the Saudis influence what children learn k-12 at US taxpayer's expense.
The methods used even included all-expenses paid trips to the Kingdom for specially selected teacher-tools.
Congress may finally be taking a look at this. Senators Ted Kennedy and Mike Enzi have already concluded a bipartisan agreement to reform Title VI and oversee what's being shoveled out in the name of `outreach',but it remains to be seen whether it passes in view of the probable opposition by the teacher's lobby.
Even if it passes, it's merely a good beginning in rooting out Saudi influence in our schools and our society. There's lots more to be done.
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