Tennessee parents are fuming after learning that school textbooks justify Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel.
Some parents in Williamson County, Tennessee, are calling for the removal of the high school textbook, believing that it is biased against Israel.
The textbook is taught on a college level elective course called Human Geography, and is available to students in public schools in Williamson County, which also offer an elective course on the Bible.
Parents are against the kind of questions that the book is encouraging teens to ask. One of the book’s questions is: “If a Palestinian suicide bomber kills dozens of Israeli teenagers in a restaurant in Jerusalem, is it an act of terrorism or a war against the policies of the Israeli government?”
Julie West, a mother of a 15-year-old student at Franklin High School in Franklin, Tennessee, said the question is pro-Palestinian.
“We are living in a time where people say: ‘How can someone put a bomb outside a restaurant or on a street with the intention of killing innocent people?’ And we wonder why, when at the same time we are teaching our children a curriculum that suggests it could be fine, or at least it might be okay if these children are Jewish,” West said.
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, head of a pro Israeli group, said: “the book is anti-Semitic.”
Cardoza-Moore said that the book aims to delegitimize the right of the Jewish people to the Holy Land.
“I am shocked that such a book even exists in the U.S. It should be illegal. What is it doing in a school in Tennessee? This book seems more fitting for some radical country located thousands of miles away from the U.S.” Jerold Peralta, of Scottsdale, Arizona told YourJewishNews.com after learning about the book.
“I think it’s a slippery slope to go down if we start banning books, because people have opposing views,” county schools Superintendent Mike Looney said. “I think the fundamental question to be answered is: Does the book create an opportunity for students to engage in deep dialogue about important issues in the world? I think it does,” Looney added.
Original article can be found here.
Comment: Far too many in our nation are still under the illusion, as is the instructor mentioned in this article, that the cause of Arab and/or Palestinian hatred of Jews is somehow rooted in Israeli or United States foreign policy issues. They refuse to recognize that Islamic jihad has been a reality on the historical scene for long before Israel or the United States even existed. Nor do they wish to recognize hatred of Jews has theological roots embedded in Islamic teaching.
Let me quote just a small snippet as an example of the theological roots of hatred against Jews from Muslims. Kate McCord wrote her book “In The Land of Blue Burqas” to tell of her experience of living for five years among common, ordinary Afghanis. In her book, she relates the following:
An Afghan man, a graduate of Sharia law school, explained what he called the correct Islamic perspective on Israel. He said that the Jews have disobeyed God and are forever beyond redemption. That means, even if they convert to Islam, they still cannot be saved. He said that God hates the Jews and will never forgive them. He said that God has ordered the nation of Islam, the entire worldwide community of Muslims, to annihilate the Jews.
Does this sound like Jew hatred is caused by Israeli foreign policy issues?
