BlessedCause's FULL RESPONSE to Houghton Mifflin's denials:

RESPONSE TO “Q & A"  REGARDING HOUGHTON MIFFLIN’S TEXTBOOKS
Detailed Version

By BlessedCause.com

CEAI  (Christian Educators) concurs that they were contributory to the writing of the textbook.  CIE has never responded directly to my asking.

8.  HM’s Q: How did Houghton Mifflin decide which topics to include in the textbooks?

HM’s A: The initial edition of the textbooks was written to conform to state standards in California. However, these two books present an excellent view of European, Asian and African history, and have been used in many states across the country for more than ten years.

BC Comment:  Clearly the state standards need to be changed to prevent textbooks from publishing such bigotry ever again.

9.  HM’s Q: Does the textbook spend more time on sub-Saharan Africa than India?

HM’s A : Indian history is well represented in this text. “A Message of Ancient Days” dedicates Chapter 8 (22 pages) to ancient India. “Across the Centuries” includes 14 pages in Chapter 7 to Indian history. Sub-Saharan Africa is covered in 41 pages, only slightly more than the 36 pages these textbooks spend on India. Sub-Saharan Africa is not covered at all in “A Message of Ancient Days.”

BC Comment:  Again, it’s not about page numbers.  If 50 pages promote Islam and 50 pages denigrate Christianity and Judaism, balance is not achieved.

10.  HM’s Q: Do the textbooks take an “apologetic” tone to covering Islam? Does the text praise only Islam’s “great cultural flowering,” and including nothing about Muslim violence, war, or the decline of its empire?

HM’s A:  Religions and belief systems are presented appropriately; not as better than another, and not apologetically.

BC Comment:  NINE TIMES in the Islam section, Islam is praised for its tolerance of other beliefs.  Christians are never described as peaceful, tolerant, etc..  A whole section is titled, “Understanding Religious Persecution” and ONLY THE CHRISTIANS are named as persecuting anyone else.  Children are asked to write what is attractive about Islam.  In the Christian section, they are asked how they think others felt to be called an infidel.  This is common practice throughout the sections.  Is this “appropriate” as HM claims?

HM’s A:  Lesson two, in Chapter 8 of “Across the Centuries” is titled “The Flowering of Chinese Culture” (page 202).

BC Comment:  I had objections to this chapter as well in that the writer’s own philosophy is presented.  This is NOT the duty of a historical textbook!  Textbooks are not to be used as tools to confuse the beliefs of impressionable children.  Regarding a painting, the textbook states, “Notice the person in the foreground.  The size of the figure in relation to the landscape seems to suggest that people, or human activities, are not very important when compared with the beauty of the natural world.  Nevertheless, the painter chose to place a human figure in the scene.  Perhaps the painter is implying that people can live in harmony with nature, provided they recognize their small place in it.  Chinese painters tried to represent the spirit, or essence, of the subject.”  Wang Wei is then quoted, “Such paintings cannot be achieved by the physical movements of the fingers and the hand, but only by the spirit entering into them.”  (pg 203)

I realize our environment is of critical concern right now, and should be.  The Bible states that the first job God gave Adam was to tend the garden.  Taking care of the planet has always been important.  But what the textbook is pedaling are philosophies, not fact, and are opposite of what certain faiths believe.  The ideas are leading children into areas that are not the right of public school.  Test scores both nationally and internationally are embarrassing.  Public schools need to use the time allotted to teach our children FACTS, not the textbooks “ideas.”  The textbook described Jesus as “a popular teacher with ideas.”  We have chosen those “ideas.” Stop trying to lead our children to beliefs other than what we, as parents, have a right to teach them.

HM’s A:  One section in Chapter 6 of “A Message of Ancient Days” is titled “The Remarkable Sumerians” (page 152). In Chapter 10 of “Across the Centuries,” the “great Jewish communities” are described as “blossoming… in the centers around the Mediterranean and along the Rhone and Rhine rivers” (page 259).

BC Comment:  Interesting.  I looked up this last sentence above, in the textbook.  It’s proceeded by “Jewish trade networks also grew because Jews were free to move around Muslim lands, while Christians were not.” (page 259)  I’m sure they have some fact somewhere to base this statement on.  But I find it amazing how Muslims are credited at every opportunity while Christians are continuously painted as cold, calculating persecutors. 

Both Muslims and Christians attacked and conquered.  When Christians claim victory, the descriptions are such, “Charlemagne made his defeated opponents accept the Roman church and swear loyalty to him…he forced illiterate clergy to become educated, and tried to rid the church of corruption.”  (pg 258)  When Islam conquers a nation, it is amazingly done with tolerance.  Below, Houghton Mifflin brings out the harshest words about Islam in the textbook.  But surrounding those words are descriptions of the “tolerance” of Islam as shown in the context following: 

HM’s A:  The textbooks include accounts of positive contributions, as well as accounts of cultures, including Islam, using violence to conquer lands and peoples. Chapter 4 of “Across the Centuries” includes a section about how the Abbasids “forcibly took over territories” using a “strong standing army”. (page 86)

 BC Comment:  That is not what the book says.  It says, “Once the Abbasids had achieved power, they were able to hold onto it because of their strong standing army.”  The other fragmented quote can be found two paragraphs prior to that, it states, “The Abbasids forcibly took over the territories that had been conquered originally during the time of the old Umayyad Empire.” 

WOW.  For this explanation sheet, Houghton Mifflin is resorting to cutting and pasting facts together from paragraphs completely apart, to show how fair and balanced their textbook is?

HM’s A:  In the same chapter, the text states that “some [Muslim] rulers forced people to take on Muslim ways” (page 81).

BC Comment:  Check out the words before and after that sentence!  The context is: 

“Over the centuries that followed, many people in the lands under Muslim rule converted to Islam.  Some rulers forced people to take on Muslim ways.  Many Christians and Jews kept their traditional faiths.” (pg 81)

Does anyone not see what I see?  Surrounding the sentence, first we are given a gentle term, “converted,” and what is forced is Muslim WAYS.  (Forced prayer and submission to Allah is a little more realistic). After we are reminded that Christians and Jews were allowed to keep their "traditional faith", a statement I’d like to see evidence of, as that is not what the Quran teaches.

HM’s A: Finally, Chapter 4 details the downfall of the Muslim empire (page 84).

BC Comment:  Most of page 84 talks of the split between Umayyad and Abbasid Muslims, led by al Abbas.  The textbook states, “Some historians say that al Abbas was an uncle of Muhammad.”  “The Umayyad Empire had gained the reputation of being too much of a worldly kingdom and not interested enough in the religious ideals of the prophet Muhammad.”   I find it amazing that at every chance Muhammad is credited, yet in the Christian section Jesus is omitted or limited to “teacher.” 

11.  HM’s Q: “Across the Centuries” describes the word “jihad” meaning to “’struggle’ to do one’s best to resist temptation and overcome evil.” Doesn’t “jihad” in contemporary definitions mean “violence” and “murder”?

HM’s A: This book defines, “jihad,” in full, as a “struggle to do one’s best to resist temptation and overcome evil. Under certain conditions, the struggle to overcome evil may require action. The Qu’ran and Sunna allow for self-defense and participation in military conflict, but restrict it to the right to defend against aggression and persecution” (“Across the Centuries,” Chapter 3, page 64).

BC Comment:  Stop right there.  The Quran and Sunna REPEATEDLY state DEATH to all infidels, Christians and Jews.  Quoting “Across the Centuries” claim to “restricting violence to self defense” is self-authenticating.  Yes, there are verses to that effect in the Quran, as Muhammad was trying to claim he was a prophet to the Christians and Jews.  But once rejected, DEATH became the overriding principal of the Hadith and Quran.

HM’s A: This definition of an “internal struggle” was agreed upon by scholars from a variety of institutions, including:  

 Radical Muslims in contemporary society have used the word “jihad” in a manner that associates it with terrorism and murder. Although some contemporary Muslims may use the word differently, the responsibility of “Across the Centuries” was to define the word on which Muslim principles were built. The contemporary use of the word should be covered in a modern history textbook.

BC Comment:  Claiming they gave a correct historical term, and today’s definition is a contemporary version, is not true.  The QURAN, the root of “where Muslim principles were built, lists “jihad” many times.  Does this word “jihad/strive” sound like it means “internal struggle?” 

“O Prophet! Strive hard against the Unbelievers and the hypocrites, and be harsh with them. Their abode is Hell,- an evil refuge.” (66:9)

For such “elite” historians to claim the meaning of “jihad” has changed is an outrage and a cover up.  Americans are finally realizing that many universities in this nation are forcing a liberal agenda on its students, as they force Islam propaganda to be required reading upon a students enrollment.

HM’s A: Regardless of the present-day actions of certain factions of any culture or religion, it is inappropriate to comment in an ancient history book on the present-day actions of these groups.

BC Comment:  Islam began with The QURAN and SUNNA, which describe what “jihad” is, and as HM states, they both “make up the authentic sources of Islamic beliefs and practices”!  The presentation of “jihad” in the textbook is where the error lies, and HM needs to admit it.  It is a whitewashed fairy tale fed to children as historical fact.

HM’s A:  Some readers and critics expressed concern that the textbooks do not make mention of present-day Muslim terrorists or of oppressive Muslim governments. However, this would be no more appropriate than citing actions of the Irish Republican Army, or of Nazis in Nazi Germany, or the Japanese military in the Pearl Harbor Bombing.

BC Comment:  True.  We don’t need to write current topics in a history book.  But we do need to convey historical FACTS, not fairy tales, and “jihad” is NOT limited to “internal struggle.”  Does this sound like “internal struggle?”(from the Sunna)  ”Allah ‘s Apostle said, “ I have been ordered to fight with the people till they say, ‘None has the right to be worshipped but Allah” (4:52:196) The only internal struggle I see are American’s struggling to accept the reality that a religion hates us purely because we do not believe as they do.

12.  HM’s Q: The text says that Islam gives “clear rights” to women. However, today some of the most oppressive places in the world are Muslim countries. How can this be?

HM’s A: The two textbooks, “A Message of Ancient Days” and “Across the Centuries,” cover history only up to the year 1789. Although today some women are oppressed in certain parts of the world, in 500 A.D. Muslim women had freedoms that were forbidden in most other parts of the world. The right to get an education, the right to work, the right to control one’s own earnings, the ability to make contracts and the right to serve as a witness in court were all rights that Muslim women had during parts of the Islam Empire (“Across the Centuries,” Chapter 3, page 64).

 BC Comment:  Islam did not exist until after 600 AD, and HM claims that in 500 AD, Muslim women had all these various rights?    If that was just an unbelievable typo, I would like to know of ANY rights women had similar to what HM claims, because per the Quran or Sunna, women were sex objects akin to slaves, fully authorized to be beaten, slapped and scourged!

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