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WASHINGTON, D.C. , In what education experts are calling a bold new approach to history, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has reportedly released a school resource guide suggesting that the September 11 terrorist attacks were less about Islamic terrorism and more about America's unfortunate habit of supporting Israel, you know, the Jooooooze!
The guide, released as part of CAIR's “Back to school resource guide,” was apparently designed to help teachers explain the 2001 attacks to a new generation of students who might otherwise make the historically outrageous mistake of believing that terrorists were responsible for the terrorism.
The guide, released as part of CAIR's “Back to school resource guide,” was apparently designed to help teachers explain the 2001 attacks to a new generation of students who might otherwise make the historically outrageous mistake of believing that terrorists were responsible for the terrorism.
How Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of them, eh.
Thankfully, the guide appears to have been removed shortly after its publication, presumably after someone remembered that telling American children that their country basically had it coming for supporting Israel might not be considered traditional civics education. But I bet it wasn't Randi Weingarten who had the guides removed.
Among the guide's more creative historical formulations was the claim that the attacks were carried out not by Islamic terrorists, but by a “group self-identifying as Al Qaeda hailing from the mountains of Afghanistan.” In fact, some of them may have even looked Jewish.
This distinction is important. After all, if a group calling itself Al Qaeda hijacks four airplanes, murders nearly 3,000 people and attacks the Pentagon and World Trade Center, the least we can do is carefully avoid jumping to conclusions about whether it might have had anything to do with Islamic terrorism.
The guide also cited American support for Israel and the U.S. military's involvement in the Gulf War as grievances that supposedly helped justify attacks against the United States. In other words, we had it coming.
Apparently, the terrorists had grievances, America had foreign policy, Israel existed, and therefore everyone can go home with a B-plus in History.
The guide's explanation of the aftermath of 9/11 was even more remarkable. According to the materials, the Global War on Terror helped create an “Islamophobic” culture in which the words “terrorism” and “terrorist” were supposedly applied primarily to Muslims.
“While Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism existed long before the 9/11 attacks, this time period marked a stark shift in US policy and state sponsored Islamophobia in the U.S. and abroad. There was immediate backlash against anyone perceived to be Muslim,” the propaganda read.
Of course, there was also an immediate backlash against people who flew airplanes into buildings, murdered civilians and attacked the Pentagon. But apparently that distinction was considered too nuanced for the back-to-school crowd.
The guide also included terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's “Letter to America” as “resource material,” apparently because nothing says "educational enrichment" quite like assigning students the writings of the man responsible for the murder of thousands of Americans.
Among the gems included in bin Laden's letter was this passage:
“Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy.”
Somewhere in Israel, a history teacher is presumably preparing a lesson explaining that this is definitely not antisemitic, but merely another example of America's complicated relationship with foreign policy.
Nicholas Haros Jr., whose mother Frances was killed on 9/11, wasn't buying it.
“The further we get from 9/11, this new generation of kids will learn to blame our country. These kids are going to be poisoned – and that’s the intent.”
Sen. Tom Cotton had already warned about CAIR's efforts to influence American schools nearly a year earlier.
“I write to alert you to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’s (CAIR) efforts to influence K-12 schools … It is well documented that CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and publicly supports Hamas’s terrorist activities,” Cotton wrote in part.
“Such an organization should never have access to our nation’s children,” he asserted, adding, “The organization offers ‘educational’ materials on its website that perpetuate pro-terrorist, anti-Israel rhetoric. CAIR Philadelphia recently issued guidance for educators titled ‘Remembering and Reflecting: Teaching September 11, 2001, in Diverse Classrooms.’ The guide directs teachers to avoid using ‘inaccurate and inflammatory terms such as ‘Islamic terrorists,’ ‘jihadists,’ or ‘radical Islamic terrorists,’’ when describing the September 11 terrorists.”
“The U.S. Department of Education must ensure that CAIR is not given an opportunity to push its radical, pro-terrorist, anti-Israel ideology on American schoolchildren,” he concluded.
The whole episode raises an important question for American parents: When their children come home from school saying that Israel somehow caused 9/11, should parents correct them, or simply congratulate them for successfully completing Advanced Blame-America Studies?
Fortunately, there remains one group that cannot be blamed for the attacks: Israel.
But give the education establishment another semester and somebody will probably assign that possibility as extra credit.
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Thankfully, the guide appears to have been removed shortly after its publication, presumably after someone remembered that telling American children that their country basically had it coming for supporting Israel might not be considered traditional civics education. But I bet it wasn't Randi Weingarten who had the guides removed.
Among the guide's more creative historical formulations was the claim that the attacks were carried out not by Islamic terrorists, but by a “group self-identifying as Al Qaeda hailing from the mountains of Afghanistan.” In fact, some of them may have even looked Jewish.
This distinction is important. After all, if a group calling itself Al Qaeda hijacks four airplanes, murders nearly 3,000 people and attacks the Pentagon and World Trade Center, the least we can do is carefully avoid jumping to conclusions about whether it might have had anything to do with Islamic terrorism.
The guide also cited American support for Israel and the U.S. military's involvement in the Gulf War as grievances that supposedly helped justify attacks against the United States. In other words, we had it coming.
Apparently, the terrorists had grievances, America had foreign policy, Israel existed, and therefore everyone can go home with a B-plus in History.
The guide's explanation of the aftermath of 9/11 was even more remarkable. According to the materials, the Global War on Terror helped create an “Islamophobic” culture in which the words “terrorism” and “terrorist” were supposedly applied primarily to Muslims.
“While Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism existed long before the 9/11 attacks, this time period marked a stark shift in US policy and state sponsored Islamophobia in the U.S. and abroad. There was immediate backlash against anyone perceived to be Muslim,” the propaganda read.
Of course, there was also an immediate backlash against people who flew airplanes into buildings, murdered civilians and attacked the Pentagon. But apparently that distinction was considered too nuanced for the back-to-school crowd.
The guide also included terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden's “Letter to America” as “resource material,” apparently because nothing says "educational enrichment" quite like assigning students the writings of the man responsible for the murder of thousands of Americans.
Among the gems included in bin Laden's letter was this passage:
“Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts. Behind them stand the Jews, who control your policies, media and economy.”
Somewhere in Israel, a history teacher is presumably preparing a lesson explaining that this is definitely not antisemitic, but merely another example of America's complicated relationship with foreign policy.
Nicholas Haros Jr., whose mother Frances was killed on 9/11, wasn't buying it.
“The further we get from 9/11, this new generation of kids will learn to blame our country. These kids are going to be poisoned – and that’s the intent.”
Sen. Tom Cotton had already warned about CAIR's efforts to influence American schools nearly a year earlier.
“I write to alert you to the Council on American-Islamic Relations’s (CAIR) efforts to influence K-12 schools … It is well documented that CAIR has deep ties to pro-Hamas terrorist organizations and publicly supports Hamas’s terrorist activities,” Cotton wrote in part.
“Such an organization should never have access to our nation’s children,” he asserted, adding, “The organization offers ‘educational’ materials on its website that perpetuate pro-terrorist, anti-Israel rhetoric. CAIR Philadelphia recently issued guidance for educators titled ‘Remembering and Reflecting: Teaching September 11, 2001, in Diverse Classrooms.’ The guide directs teachers to avoid using ‘inaccurate and inflammatory terms such as ‘Islamic terrorists,’ ‘jihadists,’ or ‘radical Islamic terrorists,’’ when describing the September 11 terrorists.”
“The U.S. Department of Education must ensure that CAIR is not given an opportunity to push its radical, pro-terrorist, anti-Israel ideology on American schoolchildren,” he concluded.
The whole episode raises an important question for American parents: When their children come home from school saying that Israel somehow caused 9/11, should parents correct them, or simply congratulate them for successfully completing Advanced Blame-America Studies?
Fortunately, there remains one group that cannot be blamed for the attacks: Israel.
But give the education establishment another semester and somebody will probably assign that possibility as extra credit.
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