Denial of history in the UK

Barry Rubin:

AS a Middle East specialist, I daily see material from Arab and Islamic sources containing hair-raising threats against America, Israel and the West. But an item in a British newspaper may be the scariest sentence I ever read: A report by the U.K. Department for Education and Skills says that schools in England are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils.

And it's not just that the institution most entrusted with preserving democratic society and Western civilization - the school system - is betraying that trust.

The really scary sentence is this: "Some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial."

Get it? These kids are told at home or by Muslim preachers that the Holocaust never happened - teachers aren't challenging that misinformation, they're shutting up so as not to disturb a world view based on lies.

By the same token, schools are dropping lessons on the Crusades. And not even for the poor excuse that such teaching might stir social conflict, but rather because "lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques." Another worry cited in press reports: "Fears [that] Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class."

It's not just Britain; in France, the rot has gone even further.

Thus, British and French educators are ready to abandon 500 years of progress owing to open intellectual inquiry through the use of logic. The schools won't confront or challenge students but rather will leave them safe in their prejudices.

Aside from the broader implications, such behavior constitutes a reinforcement of racism, intolerance and hatred in the name of a philosophy - political correctness - that is supposed to combat these things.

...

It would be interesting to see how the same schools would react if Muslims were as exercised about "creation science." Isn't the answer to bigotry an exposure to the truth. Most Muslim violence is caused by the religious bigotry that people have been taught. If we do not teach them the truth we will never stop the cycle of bigotry that sustains our enemy.