Major Development on the Textbook Front

By Kelly Cook, National Field Director & Dr. Rich Swier, ACT! for America Sarasota Chapter Leader:

There is something historic going on in Florida. A group of concerned parents, grandparents and citizens have questioned the apparent bias in a world history textbook against Western Civilization. They were initially rebuffed before a local staff committee and have been granted an appeal before the entire Sarasota County School Board regarding the textbook in question! This is the first time in Florida State history that such an appeal has been granted!

The textbook that has raised the ire of local concerned citizens in Sarasota County is titled World History: Patterns of Interaction, published by McDougal Littell (now currently published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). This textbook is currently on the Florida approved list of instructional materials.

Most, if not all, of the 67 county school districts in Florida use this same world history textbook. The textbook is fatally flawed, historically inaccurate and may violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution according to a comprehensive study of the textbook done by Dr. Terri K. Wonder (Click Here to read the study as a PDF document).

This textbook has an anti-Western, anti-capitalist, anti-Christian, anti-Jewish bias. Conversely it promotes Eastern and Middle Eastern Cultures, promotes Islam as a religion, promotes socialism and fails to address world history in a historically accurate manner.

Sarasota County ACT! for America Chapter Leader, Dr. Rich Swier, has approached the local School Board and asked that World History: Patterns of Interaction be removed from the district approved list of instructional materials. His work has lead to a historic event — the Sarasota County School Board will hear an appeal to the Superintendent of the Sarasota County School District's decision to deny Dr. Swier's complaint.

*****ACTION ITEMS*****

So how can you help to turn back the anti-Western civilization and creeping Sharia contained in this Florida textbook?

Here are five steps to make a real difference in YOUR local school district:

1. Find out if your local school district is using World History: Patterns of Interaction. If so, go to Step 2.

2. File a formal complaint with the School District Superintendent (not at the school level) using the study done by Dr. Terri K. Wonder as the basis of your complaint and request this textbook be removed from the District's approved list of instructional materials. Attach the study by Dr. Wonder to the complaint as the evidence for removal of the textbook.

3. When the Superintendent appoints a Review Committee to address your complaint, be there to listen to the discussion, take notes, and make sure the process is fair and panel is qualified and unbiased.

4. If the Review Committee recommends to the Superintendent to remove the textbook and the Superintendent accepts that recommendation - Declare Victory. However, most likely they will not. If the Superintendent totally denies your complain, go to Step 5.

5. Submit a formal appeal to the denial of your complaint directly to the local elected School Board members. For a copy of Dr. Rich Swier’s appeal that he filed, Click Here.

Never before has a Florida School Board directly heard an appeal to a textbook challenge. That all changed in Sarasota County on June 14, 2010. The Sarasota County School Board was forced into the position to establish an appeals process when Dr. Swier's complaint was denied by the Superintendent. The Board, upon deliberation and advice from their attorney, decided to use a quasi-judicial appellate process to address the appeal. This appeal option is in local school board policy, make sure there is an appeal in your local school board policy, if not they should have one.

In the state of Florida, if this appeal is denied by the local school board, there is a process in place to appeal to the Florida State Commissioner of Education. We will pursue this direction if necessary. There is a state textbook review scheduled for Florida next year. Any cloud of doubt raised through this appeal will really help during next year’s review!

Now is the time to find out if your school district is using World History: Patterns of Interaction and time for you to take a stand to stop the anti-Western bias and creeping Sharia in our children's public school textbooks!

To learn more about how to make a difference in what our children are taught please contact Dr. Rich Swier at rswier@comcast.net or by phone at (941) 923-2541.

If you live in the Sarasota area, the appeal will be heard by the school board on Tuesday, July 20th at the regularly scheduled late afternoon meeting. Each side in this appeal, the District and Rich Swier, will be given ten minutes to present their case with a five minute rebuttal by each side.

The public may comment. Three minutes is allotted to each person speaking. Please consider being there to make your voice heard!

Please contact the members of the board before the appeal to make your voice heard.

Here are the steps to take:

1. Be very respectful in your comments! The board has granted this appeal we’ve requested!

2. Please refer to Dr. Wonder’s work before you send an email to the members of the school board so that your points are well grounded in facts.

3. Here is the contact information for the Sarasota County School Board via email:

* Shirley Brown, Chair - shirley_brown@sarasota.k12.fl.us
* Carolyn Zucker - caroline_zucker@sarasota.k12.fl.us
* Frank Kovach - frank_kovach@sarasota.k12.fl.us
* Dr. Carol Todd - carol_todd@sarasota.k12.fl.us
* Dr. Kathy Kleinlein - kathy_klwinlein@sarasota.k12.fl.us

ACT for America
P.O. Box 12765
Pensacola, FL 32591
www.actforamerica.org

FBI Cuts Off CAIR Over Hamas Questions

The following is an article by Mary Jacoby
IPT News
January 29, 2009
http://www.investigativeproject.org/article/985

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has cut off contacts with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) amid mounting concern about the Muslim advocacy group's roots in a Hamas-support network, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR was made quietly last summer as federal prosecutors prepared for a second trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), an Islamic charity accused of providing money and political support to the terrorist group Hamas, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

CAIR and its chairman emeritus, Omar Ahmad, were named un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF case. Both Ahmad and CAIR's current national executive director, Nihad Awad, were revealed on government wiretaps as having been active participants in early Hamas-related organizational meetings in the United States. During testimony, FBI agent Lara Burns described CAIR as a front organization.

Hamas is a US-designated foreign terrorist organization, and it's been illegal since 1995 to provide support to it within the United States.

The decision to end contacts with CAIR is a significant policy change for the FBI. For years, the FBI worked with the national organization and its state chapters to address Muslim community concerns about the potential for hate crimes and other civil liberty violations in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

But critics said the FBI improperly conferred legitimacy on CAIR by meeting with its officials, even as its own investigative files contained evidence of CAIR leaders' ties to Hamas.

Last autumn, FBI field offices began notifying state CAIR chapters that bureau officials could no longer meet with them until CAIR's national leadership in Washington had addressed issues raised by the HLF trial, according to people with knowledge of the notifications.

CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper declined to comment Wednesday when the IPT called for comment. Before hanging up, Hooper said "We're more than happy to cooperate with legitimate media. But we don't cooperate with those who promote anti-Muslim bigotry."

In one letter obtained by IPT News, James E. Finch, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI's Oklahoma City field office, canceled a meeting of the local Muslim Community Outreach Program, a state-federal program designed to enlist Muslims in terrorism prevention and investigate reports of civil liberties violations.

"Regrettably, due to circumstances beyond my control, the meeting will be postponed until further notice as a result of the planned participation by the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations," Finch's Oct. 8, 2008 letter to Muslim groups in the Oklahoma outreach program said.

Finch made clear the Oklahoma office valued its relationship with local Muslims. He said the stumbling block to further outreach was CAIR's national leadership.

"[I]f CAIR wishes to pursue an outreach relationship with the FBI, certain issues must be addressed to the satisfaction of the FBI. Unfortunately, these issues cannot be addressed at the local level and must be addressed by the CAIR National Office in Washington, D.C.," the letter said.

A spokesman for the FBI's Oklahoma City office referred questions about the letter to the FBI's national press office. In Washington, FBI spokesman John Miller said, "We've certainly been in contact with CAIR chapters" about the un-indicted co-conspirator designation. "The letter speaks for itself."

Letters with similar wording were sent in other states, people with knowledge of the matter said. It is not known how many letters were issued, but the FBI has had strong working relationships with CAIR chapters in states including Ohio, Michigan, Arizona and Florida.

Hamas was formed in 1987 as the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, the global Islamic political movement that aims to spread the rule of Shariah, or Islamic law, throughout the world.

A North American branch of the Brotherhood supervised HLF, CAIR and other organizations to build political, financial and public relations support for Hamas, evidence at the HLF trial showed.

The U.S.-based Brotherhood formed a Palestine Committee, headed by Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzook, in 1988 during the first intifada uprising in Palestinian territories against Israel. Hamas's stated policy is for the destruction of Israel.

CAIR co-founders Ahmad and Awad were early active members of the Palestine Committee, evidence showed. Wiretaps recorded the two CAIR leaders participating in strategy meetings of the committee in the 1990s, and both were also on a phone list of its members, the evidence showed.

The first HLF trial in Texas ended in a mistrial in October 2007. In November 2008, the second trial resulted in convictions of five former HLF officials on all counts of providing material support to Hamas.

It is unclear what changed between the first and second HLF trials to make the FBI rescind its policy of outreach to CAIR. The un-indicted co-conspirator designations were made on May 27, 2007 in connection with the first HLF trial. Moreover, much of the evidence linking the CAIR officials to Hamas was aired in an earlier public trial in 2006.

CAIR, however, vigorously challenged the un-indicted co-conspirator designation as a violation of its First and Fifth Amendment rights, accusing the government of "demonization of all things Muslim" in a brief filed in the summer of 2007 with the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

Click here to continue reading this article.

Something You Can Do About It Right Now: Sign This Petition

This is what it says: I join in unity with all free people and nations in the world against Islamic religious hatred and intolerance being fomented against our human right of freedom of expression. We stand against the vicious threats of bodily harm and destruction being made in blatant protest of this basic right. We ask our leaders to stand up against these threats of intimidation. We ask them to send a strong message to the Islamic world and the perpetrators of hate and intolerance that threats to our freedoms or acts of violence and terror against us will not be tolerated. We demand that our governments of free and democratic nations and all of their legislators speak out in one voice denouncing this growing, fascist, religious assault against human rights and take immediate action to protect the freedoms therein from intimidation and fear of death or destruction.

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