Here we go again. Some members of the Texas Board of Education are waging a battle against what they allege is a whitewashing of Islam in American world history textbooks. The New York Times decided to give them a prominent platform to go national. Read the article here and then read the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) reaction to these allegations on their website here and here. TFN is a grassroots organization based in Austin, TX that monitors far-right issues in the state. I was hoping that Christine O'Donnell and the Tea Party were going to steal the media spotlight away from Muslims, but it doesn't look like the story of Islam in America is going away.

In the video below, Randy Rives, a conservative who introduced this resolution to the Texas Board of Education this summer, (he ran to be a member of the board but he was defeated) is comparing "Muslims pumping money into buying textbooks" to Nikita Krutchev when he said that he will take over America without ever firing a shot. Yes, Arab Gulf money has been invested into big publishing companies as is Houghton Mifflin Harcourt which published the textbooks Rives is talking about, but the "evidence" he's presenting is very shoddy at best. Arab Muslim money has been flowing not only in the publishing industry, but also in Western banks (Citibank) and big hotel chains. I don't think there's been any attempt to convert those banks into sharia-based financing and the Saudi owners of the Four Seasons Hotel in New York have not issued a ban on Alcohol and unveiled women. Money speaks louder than anything else in these investments. Business is business. Welcome to globalization, Mr. Rives.