TENNESSEE
– State educators are removing a majority of Islamic related history lessons,
following complaints the old teachings were too friendly toward Islam.

The State
Board of Education has released draft revisions
to Tennessee’s social studies standards for kindergarten through high school.

Critics
said the previous standards, especially those used in middle school world
history classes, were “indoctrinating” students by focusing too much
on Muslim beliefs.

The
state suggestions especially trims down on teachings of the Islamic world for
Middle School students. 

The
new draft of the textbooks removes the origins of Islam and the life and teachings of
the prophet Muhammad, as well as the religion’s historical connection to
Christianity and Judaism.

It
also ommited information on the Quran, the history of the Sunnis and Shi’ites,
Muslim art and scholarship, and more.

Sara
Heyburn, executive director of the Tennessee State Board of Education, said the
revision was “part of our ongoing and comprehensive process to ensure that
Tennessee students have the highest academic standards.”

Tennessee’s
population is 81 percent Christian and only 1 percent
Muslim, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center report. Nearly 80 percent of
state is white, and less than 5 percent of residents were born outside
of the U.S., according to the state’s census.

Educators
don’t seem all too worried about criticism following the news of the religon’s omission.

“It’s
still part of history,” Susan Lodal, the Kingsport Board of Education Vice
President, said. “We’re just not teaching it to our children.”

The
proposed standards also don’t contain much about Muslim theology, says Paul
Galloway, executive director of the American Center for Outreach, a Muslim
rights organization.

He
feels the removal could give students the wrong impression about the
relationship between Islam and other faiths.

“It
does set up kind of a false narrative that there has to be a clash of
civilizations, rather than all of things that are in common and the many, many
examples of Muslims and Christians and other faiths living in harmony,” he
said.