This week, the New York Post exposed the religious bias found within the New York State Regents exams. According to the Post, “State testmakers played favorites when quizzing high-schoolers on world religions — giving Islam and Buddhism the kid-glove treatment while socking it to Christianity.” The bias was found in specifically global history and geography exams, proving yet again that the liberal tenet of separation of church and state applies solely to Christianity.�

Surprisingly, it was teachers who discovered and complained about the reading selections from the exams that “featured glowing passages pertaining to Muslim society but much more critical essay excerpts on the subject of Christianity.” Let’s face it.� New York City teachers are not known for their conservative, pro-Christian ideals, (for example, read) but clearly the reading passages were disturbing enough to provoke anger from some of the most liberal teachers in the nation.

One Brooklyn teacher complained, “There should have been a little balance in there.”

Mark MacWilliams, a religious-studies professor at St. Lawrence University in upstate Canton, reacted to the passages. “I can see why some people might see these questions as skewed. Why does the exam seem to have only documents that portray Islam as a religion of peace, civilization and refinement, while it includes documents about Christianity that show it was anything but peaceful in the Spanish conquest of the Americas?”

The Post reports that one of the most “troubling passages” was Daniel Roselle’s “A World History: A Cultural Approach," which read: “Wherever they went, the Moslems [sic] brought with them their love of art, beauty and learning. From about the eighth to the eleventh century, their culture was superior in many ways to that of western Christendom.”

Elsewhere in the exam, the Post found the following:

The Muslim reading:

• “Some of the finest centers of Moslem life were established in Spain. In Cordova, the streets were solidly paved, while at the same time in Paris people waded ankle-deep in mud after a rain. Cordovan public lamps lighted roads for as far as ten miles; yet seven hundred years later there was still not a single public lamp in London!”

Source: Daniel Roselle, A World History: A Cultural Approach
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The Christian reading:

Common Procedures used by Friars in Converting Areas in Spanish America:

• “Idols, temples and other material evidences of paganism destroyed.”

•“Christian buildings often constructed on sites of destroyed native temples in order to symbolize and emphasize the substitution of one religion by the other.”

• “Indians supplied construction labor without receiving payment.”

• “In a converted community, services and fiestas were regularly held in the church building.”


Source: Based on information from Charles Gibson, Spain in America

Amerpundit.com reacts to the portrayal of Islam on the exam: “Apparently there’s no mention of historical Islamic violence in the name of spreading the religion.� No explanation as to why Istanbul is called ‘Istanbul’ and not ‘Constantinople.' "

Despite the presence of such fierce bias, state education officials argue that they’ve attempted to present historically accurate information through fair reading excerpts.
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R Jensen said:

New Yuck Yet another reason to homeschool your kids, and also move to a state with lower taxes, where you are not paying for this.

August 26, 2010

Flu-Bird said:

What about the constitution? Hey dosnt the U.S. CONSTITUTION prophibit A ESTABLISHED RELIGION? where the ACLU,SPLC or other leftists bunch to file suit to stop this like their always doing when it comes to crosses and nativaties and why dose the NEW YORK COMPOST favor islam but not christian?

August 26, 2010

Eliezer Alapa said:

This is favoring Islam alright. I have never read these books but taking from Daniel Roselle’s “A World History: A Cultural Approach," It looks like a cultural approach. I'm not favoring Islam or anything like that because I myself am Christian, and I don't like those passages about western Christianity at all. But it's a CULTURAL approach. Think back to those times, would you rather have been around cities and a civilized people such as the Muslims that lived in Spain and North Africa? Because even to this day, those cities and those monuments are pretty awesome. Or would you have rather lived in the Medieval western Europe? I'm not biased, I'm not a Muslim-loving Biggot. I'm not ignorant. I am an AMERICAN who isn't so Narrow-minded. Thanks

August 27, 2010

brad anderson said:

horribly out of context I think if you've read a history book in the past 20 years you'd see much of the same thing, boring as s**t. Either way, having the luxury of a 1000 page history book to pull less than 10 quotes out of... you could make this book sound like it was written by godd**n Hitler. Think about that before you pull your kids from public schools and move halfway across the country.

August 30, 2010 | url

donald said:

... WASHINGTON – American Muslims have enjoyed the direct support of President Obama. In April, Obama traveled to Egypt where he told the Muslim world that the United States no longer considers itself a Christian nation. Obama later traveled to Turkey and announced that America was one of the largest Muslim nations in the world (despite the fact that 78% of Americans claim to be Christians but only 1% claim to be Muslims). Later in May, President Obama refused to invite Christian and Jewish leaders to the White House to participate in the National Day of Prayer (as former presidents have done), but in September, he did invite Muslim leaders to the White House for a special Muslim Ramadan celebration to commemorate Allah delivering the Koran to his prophet Mohammad. Heartened by this new encouragement, Muslim leaders have called 50,000 observant Muslims to come to the Capitol that Friday, September 25, for a day of Jummah (Friday congregational prayer). The Whitehouse promised that from 4AM to 7PM, “the Athan [the call given five times each day for Muslims to participate in mandatory prayer] will be chanted on Capitol Hill, echoing off of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and other great edifices that surround Capitol Hill.” The goal of this event is that “the peace, beauty and solidarity of Islam will shine through America’s capitol.” -In 1952 President Truman established one day a year as a National Day of Prayer. -In 1988, President Reagan designated the first Thursday in May of each year as the National Day of Prayer. -This year, 2009, President Obama, decided to cancel the ceremony for the National Day of Prayer at the White House. The reason… not wanting to offend anyone. -On September 25, 2009 from 4am until 7pm, a National Day of Prayer for only the Muslim religion will be held on Capitol Hill, beside the White House.

September 07, 2010