Brigitte Gabriel Sees Islamic Indoctrination Everywhere
This nuttery speaks for itself:
The extremist group ACT! for America has combined the far right’s loathing of public schools and animosity towards Muslims into a new report, warning that public school students are ‘indoctrinated in Islam’ through their history textbooks which have turned classrooms into ‘recruiting grounds for Islam.’ Yesterday, we noted that ACT! for America’s Executive Director Guy Rodgers and Eagle Forum president Phyllis Schlafly urged parents to imitate notorious textbook censor Norma Gabler. Today the organization’s president Brigitte Gabriel appeared on the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios in the Morning where she claimed that their new ‘shocking’ report reveals that textbook publishers and Muslims are using the same tactics as Adolf Hitler to indoctrinate students:
Gabriel: What we found was shocking and we found that history is being whitewashed, Islam is given preferential treatment in public schools, and political correctness has literally altered how history is being taught in our public schools to our children.
…
How can the future generation of America protect America and make the right decisions that will protect and serve America and keep America a great nation if they are being fed mistruths about historical, factual information. Hitler made a very important statement, Hitler said, ‘give me the children, I will change society in ten years,’ and that is exactly what he did and look where we ended up and we’re seeing the same thing happening with our children right now. And by the way, all paid for by our tax dollars in public schools.
Godwin’s Law has gone the way of the 4th Amendment.
Meanwhile, Patrick Glennon of In These Times has some interesting thoughts on why Islamophobia persists:
What makes right-wing alarmism difficult to grasp is its timing: The recent uptick of Islamophobia coincides with a steady decline in domestic terror plots connected to Muslims. A study by the Triangle Center of Terrorism and Homeland Security found that the number of Muslim Americans involved in terror plots fell for a third year in a row, from 49 in 2009 to 20 in 2011. Of the 14,000 murders that occurred in the United States last year, none were connected to Islamic extremism. In Crusade 2.0, Feffer argues that Islamophobia is ‘sustained by U.S. government [foreign] policy’ as well as the ‘growing economic, political and global influence of modern Islam.’ In other words, having grown accustomed to the Muslim character of America’s global enemies, Islamophobes instinctively view the ascendancy of Muslim nations and the prospect of Islam-inspired democracies with trepidation.