An education expert is warning that some American textbooks present a biased view of Islam and offer a sugarcoated picture of Islamic extremism, a trend that has parents worried about what’s being taught in public schools.

In numerous history textbooks, “key subjects like jihad, Islamic law, the status of women are whitewashed,” said Gilbert T. Sewall, director of the American Textbook Council, an independent group that reviews history books and other education materials.

Cindy Ross, the mother of a junior high school student in Marin County, Calif., said she couldn’t believe her eyes when she read her son’s textbook last school year.

“I was very shocked by what I saw, looking through the book,” she said — shocked at how Islam was portrayed in her son’s seventh grade history text.

“What did strike me was that all the other religions seemed to be lumped together, where there is an inordinate emphasis on Islam specifically,” Ross said.

via FOXNews.com – Critic Says Islamic Extremism Gets Whitewashed in American Textbooks – Local News | News Articles | National News | US News.

Well, this is not stricking at all, specially after knowing that both the Catholic Church (Ohhh, Myyyy) and the Muslims have agreed to erase everything which portraits them in a bad light from history books.

Catholic and Muslim officials want all negative references to each others’ religions removed from school books.
The proposal was put forward in joint statement following talks in Vatican City between delegations from Cairo’s Al Azhar University and senior Catholic officials, Reuters reports.
“Scholastic books should be revised in order not to contain material which may offend the religious sentiments of other believers, at times through the erroneous presentation of dogmas, morals or history,” the joint statement says.
The statement does not detail how the two groups would attempt to achieve this rewrite.

Absolutely shameful. Hiding people’s defects is not the best way to promote peace and justice. It’s just the opposite. Inquisitions, witch hunting, etc have existed, whatever the textbook says.

(UPDATE): Always on Watch has more about the US textbooks whitewashing Islamic extremists.

The lifting of excommunication to the Society of Saint Pius X has caused quite an uproar. I myself wrote in the Spanish blog a post critizising the measure because I think that this people are not worth the end of the religious dialogue with Jews. It results that Pope Benedict is of the same advice, in addition to some other factors which are not really underlined sufficiently by the media.

Pope Benedict XVI confirmed that he is setting himself for a visit to Israel, “holy land for both Christians and Hebrew people”, during a meeting with the representants of the main US Jewish organizations. Recently the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Fouad Twal, informed that the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land will take place on May.

The meeting was held due to the crisis between the Vatican and the Jewish world after the lifting of the excommunication to the Lefrebvrian bishop Richard Williamson, who denies the Holocaust. The liting of the excommunication caused that even several political leaders like German Angela Merkel, called on the Pope to issue a rectification. Finally, the Vatican cautioned Williamson that if he persists in this attitude he will again be excommunicated.

In this context, the Pope “condemned any denial or intent to minimize this terrible crime”, something which would be “intolerable and completely inacceptable”. Moreover, he also used the occaciones to ask for forgiveness because of the ofenses and sufferings which has been caused to the Jewish people, using the same words pronounced by his predecessor, John Paul II, on 2000.

via La Nueva España – Diario Independiente de Asturias – Internacional – El Papa proclama que negar el Holocausto es intolerable y confirma que viajará a Israel.

In addition, you can also read Rob’s post on the matter of which I am going to copy these two paragraphs:

On February 5 the Vatican stated that bishop Williamson must recant “in an absolutely unequivocal and public way” his positions regarding the Shoah. Which was in my opinion a very good news, but perhaps not the best way to settle the whole question, as Norm Geras pointed out at the time: “[T]he Catholic Church could simply state that Williamson’s beliefs about the Shoah about the Shoah aren’t compatible with membership.” This time, Pope Benedict went further: not only is denying or minimizing the Holocaust not compatible with being a bishop, but also with being a Catholic, as ”unacceptable and intolerable” in itself.
However, it is to be recalled that the lifting of the excommunication did not by any means heal the schism between Rome and Lefebvrists, as much as the lifting of the excommunications between Rome and patriarchate of Constantinople ( December 7, 1965) did not mark a return to unity between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches. In both cases, as Sandro Magister pointed out on his website, the lifting of the excommunication was intended to be the first step toward a possible reversing of the schism. Which means that there are still two separated and independent entities, and therefore Williamson couldn’t in any way be expelled from the Catholic Church, for the simple fact that he is not a member of it (which is not that bad, in my own personal view).

Again it’s proved that we are dealing with a bad reporting from the MSM, which instead of publishing the real story, go only to report the scandals…

(Sorry but I scheduled the post in a uncomplete version, now it’s complete).