U.S. Bans Qur'an in Iraqi Text Books

[Anonymous]

This is culled from Financial Times:

US Bans Quran In Iraqi Textbooks
Nov 26, 2003
Source: FT.com; search term: USAID =>
(http://search.ft.com/search/totalSearch_Form.html?vsc_appId=ts
<http://search.ft.com/search/totalSearch_Form.html?vsc_appId=ts&symb=&ft
site=FTCOM&searchtype=equity&vsc_query=USAID&searchOption=news&x=12&y=8>
&symb=&ftsite=FTCOM&searchtype=equity&vsc_query=USAID&searchOption=news&
x=12&y=8)

Ala'din Alwan, Iraq's minister of education, has criticised the US
Agency for International Development (USAID) for attempting to limit or
ban Islamic religious references in experimental Iraqi school teaching
materials paid for by the agency.

"Decisions about education in Iraq must be Iraqi decisions," said Dr
Alwan, who added he was not consulted about the move. He said he would
be reviewing the programme - a $4m (?3.3m, ?2.4m) accelerated learning
project for 500 students - in coming days.

The controversy started a few weeks ago when a western consultant
working for USAID asked Iraqi ministry of education experts to remove
verses from the Koran from experimental teaching materials for Arabic
grammar, and replace them with neutral content. One of the experts
disclosed this to the FT on the condition he not be named. The western
consultant, who works for USAID contractor Creative Associates
International Inc (CAII), confirmed the request had been made.

Shannon Meehan, head of CAII in Baghdad, explained they were under
strict instructions from USAID to fund only "neutral, apolitical and
areligious" materials because the US constitution prohibited
proselytising with US government money.

"If there is a sentence such as 'Praise be to God' in a grammar
textbook, we will have a discussion about revising or changing that to
a
different sentence. We do not remove the lesson from the textbook, we
simply change the sentence," Ms Meehan said.

USAID officials deny that they are the source of any pressure to remove
religious themes from learning materials, and insist that all education
decisions in Iraq are "Iraqi-led".

However, several USAID officials confirmed that guidelines exist not to
fund school materials that violate the first amendment of the US
constitution, which prohibits using government funds to promote
religion. One senior USAID official said the guidelines are the result
of a threat to sue USAID in the US, though the USAID press office knew
of no such instance.

"Before we use taxpayer money to print textbooks we need to ensure that
we are not infringing on separation of church and state and the first
amendment," said Jessica Jordan, chief of the USAID education programme
in Baghdad. The USAID guidelines have already been applied in
Afghanistan, where they generated far less controversy, mainly because
they were not widely publicised. The same appears to have happened in
Iraq. When approached by the FT, USAID officials appeared reluctant at
first to admit there were such guidelines.

Harry Edwards of USAID press office confirmed that Afghanistan's
textbooks had already been revised to bring them into line with the US
constitution, before USAID funded the printing of 30m books over the
past two years. They went on to become the core of the country's
national curriculum.

"We intended these textbooks to be a temporary thing for one year, but
the minister of education and President [Hamid] Karzai liked them so
much he said: 'This is the permanent curriculum for the country',"
according to Andrew Natsios, USAID administrator, in a May 18 speech.
According to a senior USAID official, the first amendment guidelines
prevented the agency from funding the printing of textbooks for Iraq's
national curriculum, which were prepared instead by the United Nations
Children's Fund (Unicef) using funds from the UN's recently dismantled
Oil-for-Food Programme.

One contractor, on the condition of anonymity, obliquely criticised the
use of humanitarian aid as part of "a political and military strategy"
and indicated that many aid workers with knowledge of the revisions are
opposed to them. "We are stuck in this bizarre environment that just is
not working and do truly want to help the Iraqis move forward - but it
is just all wrong and very sad," she said. Ms Jordan insists the
ministry of education is leading the development of the learning
materials for the accelerated learning programme, and that USAID is not
reviewing or in any way influencing the teaching materials.

"The Iraqi ministry of education will determine what information
children receive," she said.

But at least one ministry employee, Walid Hashem, resigned from a panel
tasked with revising the history curriculum in protest against removing
religious material from textbooks, according to a confidential project
memo seen by the FT. Mr Hashem could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Dr Alwan, the education minister, denied that he had been
consulted by USAID. He added that he has heard about the controversy
and
USAID's guidelines but no one has discussed it with him yet.

"At a policy level we are not involved yet. We are struggling with many
issues now," he said.

He added that he plans to review the matter to ensure that the process
of writing the materials is led by the ministry.

"USAID is an extremely important partner, but we can work with other
partners on this," he said.

"We are not going to contradict our principles just because they are
funded by a certain agency."

[al_hamza]

i wonder what jack and his slave have to say about this

[lionger]

Well this is plain: the USAID are clearly in the wrong. Yea, they have legitimate basis for their actions from their secular constitution, but Iraq is not an extension of the US so that point is thoroughly void, and infact very insulting to the Iraqi ppl. The other point about not using US taxpayer's money to fund a 'religious' project is also baseless. Isn't it the same taxpayer's money that was used to launch this illegal 'operation iraqi freedom' war in the first place? U might as well finish completely and thoroughly what u started.

Btw I think the title of this thread is a little misleading; gave me the impression that the US had banned the Qu'ran. :-/