Teachers Drop Holocaust Out of Fear of Muslim Students
Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed. It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.
The study looked into 'emotive and controversial' history teaching in primary and secondary schools. It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class. The researchers gave the example of a secondary school in an unnamed northern city, which dropped the Holocaust as a subject for GCSE coursework. The report said teachers feared confronting 'anti-Semitic sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'.
UK Department of Education teachers also report that they are increasingly reluctant to and fearful about teaching the 11th century Crusades--where Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem. They cite that history lessons about the Crusades often contradict what is taught to their Muslim students in the local mosques.
UK teachers who are reluctant to teach history lessons on the Holocaust and the Crusades for fear of the Muslim response today may be even more reluctant to do so in the face of the growing Muslim population. From the Turkish Policy Quarterly--
Today about 23 million Muslims accounting for 4.5 percent of the total, live in whole of Europe (not including Turkey) compared with only 800,000 in 1950. Each year around 1 million immigrants mostly from the Muslim countries are flowing into Europe. Birth rates of European Muslims are more than three times of those of non-Muslim Europeans It is estimated that Muslims will comprise at least 20 percent of Europe's population in 2050. This would be the outcome of not only the increase in Muslim population but also the decline in general European population. As The Economist puts it properly, in many parts of Europe "in local papers death announcements speak of "Pierre" and "Charles;" the births are of "Moussa" and "Fatih."
In 2005, Iranian President Ahmadinejad stated about the holocaust, "They have created a myth today that they call the massacre of Jews and they consider it a principle above God, religions and the prophets". He has also called for wiping Israel off of the map and for the eventual destruction of the U.S. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Ahmadinejad's statements denying the holocaust "totally unacceptable". German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters Mr Ahmadinejad's remarks were "shocking". Israel's spokesman said the Iranian president's remarks reflected a "perverse vision of the world held by this regime".
Some educators find the reluctance to teach the Holocaust and the Crusades in the UK schools unacceptable. Chris McGovern, history education adviser to the former Tory government, said: "History is not a vehicle for promoting political correctness. Children must have access to knowledge of these controversial subjects, whether palatable or unpalatable."
Sources:
Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims, April 2, 2007, Daily Mail, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=445979&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow
Holocaust comments spark outrage, BBC News, December 14, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4529198.stm
THE FUTURE OF EUROPE: ISLAMOPHOBIA? , Turkish Policy Quarterly, March 4, 2007, http://www.turkishpolicy.com/default.asp?show=fall_2005_erdenir
Published by Kimberly West
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11 Comments
Post a CommentThis is just silly
"It found some teachers are dropping courses covering the Holocaust at the earliest opportunity over fears Muslim pupils might express anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions in class. "
Cowards. Eurocowards.
This is such crap! We can't just erase history because it "might" offend some people. It is history, it happend. People need to know. Period.
That's terrible. They don' tneed to drop them, just teach them from an unbiased point of view. Kids need to learn about these important events in world history.
Sophie -- this has been a creeping problem in the UK for the last couple of years, and it's starting to creep into certain US curriculae. My answer: I'm a history buff, and I teach my own kids and those that hang around my home the real facts -- good and bad, controversies, whatever. We drove cross-country over 45 days last fall, and they learned tons. I hope to do a Deep South swing sometime in the next couple or three years to visit important Civil War places, too. Though probably the West will come first. How can kids know where they're going if they don't know where we've been?
Great article! This is just ridiculous and dangerous.
Students needs to learn the facts,the truth, not some made up sugar coated version.Great article!
I'm sick and tired of this sort of thing. History IS fact; not something you should rewrite, but then we do it everyday here in America as well. Public education is nothing more than a huge joke anymore. Teachers who don't have the courage to actually teach should get out of the profession.
I also agree that history in it's factual basis should be taught in all schools. The reality is that, it is not. It is not taking place in America and it's not taking place elsewhere because, many governmental bodies are afraid themselves. It's not the students who are afraid of the truth. Children learn from society and those in authority over them. This manipulation of precious, open minds must end in order for true freedom of all people to exist.
Gee, I always hated gym class and thought it was a myth that it would make me healthy. Maybe I should have found a group of like-minded friends and made some noise so the schools would have dropped it.