The Foreign Policy Research Institute and Mason Crest Publishers have come out with a 10 volume series of textbooks titled “World of Islam” which is littered with fearmongering, anti-Muslim sentiment, inaccuracy and bias.
Muslim Group Condemns Book Series
The Pennsylvania chapter of a Muslim-rights group accused a Philadelphia think tank and its Broomall publisher yesterday of “fearmongering,” inaccuracy, and bias in a 10-volume series of textbooks titled World of Islam.
The 64-page volumes, produced and edited by the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Mason Crest Publishers, are aimed at middle and high school students.
At a news conference at its Center City office, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-PA) cited passages it deemed inflammatory. Among them: “Muslims began immigrating to the United States in order to transform American society, sometimes through the use of terrorism.”
The group contended that such language obscured the reality that most people, Muslims included, come to America simply for better lives.
“When you finish reading these books you walk away with the impression that Muslims are inherently violent, that Islam is a second-rate religion, and that one should be wary of Muslims in any society,” said Moein Khawaja, civil rights director of CAIR-PA.
Alan Luxenberg, vice president of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said that the allegations were “without basis” and that CAIR had “misconstrued the intended meaning of the books.” Founded in 1955, the nonprofit institute conducts research and education on international affairs.
No one from the publishing house was immediately available for comment, although the company has offered to send complimentary copies for review “to any journalist on request.”
Khawaja said he did not know which, if any, school districts had bought the series. But he said complaints from other CAIR chapters suggested the books were in public and academic libraries in more than 20 states.
“The Free Library of Philadelphia” has a set, he said, “and we thought it better to speak out now” before the series gets wider distribution.
Khawaja urged schools and libraries that have the books to replace them with another 10-part series, Introducing Islam, which is also published by Mason Crest. That series, he said, “does what a schoolbook is supposed to do: educate.”
Khawaja said he would donate a set of that series to the Free Library.
Library administrators were not immediately available for comment.
Contact staff writer Michael Matza at 215-854-2541 or mmatza@phillynews.com.
