A Southern California school board has turned down a call for changes to social studies material on Islam that had been criticized as too positive. The Fountain Valley board decided a request to print up a supplement to the seventh-grade textbook was a decision that would have to come from the California Curriculum Commission and was not something the district should do unilaterally.
| This is how the Central Secretariat maintains control over the system; changes may only come from the top. |
The Orange County Register said Friday the decision disappointed about 100 people who attended Thursday night's meeting to show sometimes-vocal support for the supplement proposal, which had been made by Fountain Valley resident Steve Jackson.
Jackson said the textbook offers a "totally positive view of Islam" that he felt was inaccurate. He has proposed using materials supplied by the think-tank Textbook Alert, which include interpretations of Islam's relationships with Christianity and Judaism as well as the concept of "jihad," the Register said.
| Surprised the Register didn't label him as a 'racist' ... |
After the meeting, Superintendent Marc Ecker expressed frustration with the proceedings and told the Register Jackson's efforts were backed by people who live outside the district and engineered by ACT for America, an activist organization that speaks out on the threat posed by radical Islam. |