‘Outlandish’ passage cut after natives complain

After complaints by Canadian native groups, publishers of a textbook for U.S. schoolteachers are removing passages claiming Muslim explorers came to North America centuries before Christopher Columbus, married natives and became Algonquin and Iroquois chiefs.

A chapter in Arab World Studies Notebook, published by U.S. Islamic groups and marketed to teachers and schools, say Muslims from West Africa had a profound presence in North America as early as the year 889.

“They had reached Canada and were trading and intermarrying with the eastern woodland Iroquois and Algonquin nations,” the textbook says. “Much later, early English explorers were to meet Iroquois and Algonquin chiefs with names like Abdul-Rahim and Abdallah Ibn Malik.”

The claims anger Algonquin and Iroquois native groups.

“The assertion is so outrageous that we are amazed it even made it into publication,” said Peter Di Gangi, director of the Algonquin Nation Secretariate, representing three Indian bands in Quebec.

“It’s outlandish. There is no credible evidence to support these theories in the archival record, academic study or in oral history,” said Mr. Di Gangi.

“We are extremely concerned that such nonsense would be circulated as curriculum intended for use in schools.”

Chief Donald Maracle of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte, part of what was known as the Iroquois Confederacy, said there are no names in his language like the ones printed in the textbook.

“I would doubt the validity of that very sincerely. I have never heard such a story,” he said.

Audrey Shabbas, editor of the book and co-author of the chapter on Muslim exploration, said she is acting on the objections.

“I bow to the knowledge of the Algonquin Nation about their own history,” she said in a statement sent by e-mail.

She said the passage is being removed from the book, a 540-page series of readings and lesson plans designed for Grades 7 to 12, published by the Middle East Policy Council and Arab World and Islamic Resources.

“We are first of all educators committed to multiculturalism ... that is allowing people to speak for themselves and making our classrooms a safe place where all voices can be nurtured and heard,” she said. “It is therefore very important to us that we remove from the text the passage to which you refer.”

She did not answer questions about how the information made it into print or whether the book had undergone any scholarly review.

The contentious passage also remains on the publisher’s Web site as a sample of the book, which retails for US$49.95.

The book was also called into question in the U.S. last week when it was included in a study by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation on supplemental social-studies materials for teachers published by special-interest groups.

The report, The Stealth Curriculum: Manipulating America’s History Teachers, calls portions of the book “propaganda” and “fake history.”

The Arab World Studies Notebook is provided to teachers attending free Teacher Workshops hosted by the publishers.

“The updated Arab World Studies Notebook is of such high standards that the Middle East Policy Council believes it should be in the hands of every educator,” the publisher says in its materials.

The Fordham Foundation report condemned such teacher workshops. “Published by all manner of organizations and interest groups, these materials mislead teachers, distort the curriculum, and deflect classroom attention from the content that students should be learning.”