Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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Britain's Muslims challenge Holoaust history

It wasn't supposed to to work this way.  When organized Jewry
in Britain pressed for the open-ended immigration policy which
ushered in a demographic shift adding millions of Muslims from
the Third World to Britain's population, it failed to realize that
the same policy could well have some unintended consequences,
as related by one leading London daily.     

Teachers drop the Holocaust to avoid offending Muslims
By LAURA CLARK

The Daily Mail  Monday, 2 April 2007

LONDON - 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 [alleged] atrocity
for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

There is also resistance to tackling the 11th century Crusades - where
Christians fought Muslim armies for control of Jerusalem - because
lessons often contradict what is taught in local mosques.

The findings have prompted claims that some schools are using history
"as a vehicle for promoting political correctness."

The study, funded by the Department for Education and Skills, looked
into "emotive and controversial" history teaching in primary and secondary
schools.

Fears of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel reactions

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'.

It added: "In another department, the Holocaust was taught despite
anti-Semitic sentiment among some pupils.

"But the same department deliberately avoided teaching the Crusades
at Key Stage 3 (11- to 14-year-olds) because their balanced treatment
of the topic would have challenged what was taught in some local
mosques."

A third school found itself "strongly challenged by some Christian parents
for their treatment of the Arab-Israeli conflict-and the history of the state
of Israel that did not accord with the teachings of their denomination."

'Teachers unwilling to challenge contentions versions of history'

The report concluded: "In particular settings, teachers of history are
unwilling to challenge highly contentious or charged versions of history
in which pupils are steeped at home, in their community or in a place
of worship."

But 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."

The researchers also warned that a lack of subject knowledge among
teachers - particularly at primary level - was leading to history being
taught in a "shallow way leading to routine and superficial learning."

Lessons in difficult topics were too often "bland, simplistic and
unproblematic"and bored pupils.

<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=445979&in_page_id=1770>http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=445979&in_page_id=1770