Religion In Schools: Anti-Islam Christian Mother Says Textbook Is Islamic ‘Propaganda’

A Tennessee mother and founding member of an anti-Islam parents’ group has asked for a history textbook to be removed from her daughter’s social studies curriculum, claiming that it "promotes Islamic propaganda."

Michelle Edmisten, a founder of the Facebook group Sullivan County Parents Against Islam Indoctrination, raised the issue in October after her daughter was given an assignment to answer questions about the name of Islam’s holy book and the five pillars of Islam. She complained to the board of education that her child “felt some of the assignments went against her beliefs as a Christian.”

Edmisten called for the textbook, "My World History," published by U.K.-based Pearson to be "yanked from the school immediately."

“I would like to see parents, Christians, veterans, anyone that’s anyone, stand up for this fight. How can I, as a Christian, say that I have these values?” she said at the time.

Recently, Edmisten filed a formal complaint to the school district, alleging that the textbook "promotes Islamic propaganda."

"It gives false claims and views on Islam, trying to ‘normalise’ [it] through our children," she wrote in the complaint.

Sullivan County policy gives the school’s head 15 days to convene a review committee to “determine the extent to which the [challenged] material supports the curriculum,” according to the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC).

The NCAC said the controversy "sadly reflects larger efforts to purge lessons on Islam from schools in Tennessee," with a proposed new curriculum retaining lessons on religions including Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, but removing information "on the history and spread of Islam, the life and teachings of Muhammad, and the study of Islamic art."