Ask the California State Board of Education Members to Adopt the South Asian Histories for All (SAHFA) Coalition Proposed Edits to History Textbooks
The California State Board of Education Members will be voting on the final version of middle and high school history textbooks that will be adopted in the curriculum across California on Thursday, July 14th which will be in effect for up to 10 years, and likely adopted by other states across the United States.
The current version of the textbook has blatantly inaccurate representations of Muslims, Sikhs, and Dalits, put forth by the Hindu American Foundation, which is attempting to erase and rewrite the histories of our communities from history textbooks.
If this version without our proposed edits is adopted, it will pave a path towards institutionalized Islamophobia and complete erasure of marginalized identities and experiences from our youth's understanding of history.
How can you support?
1) Sign your name on our action alert to urge the California State Board of Education Members to adopt the proposed edits before the hearing on Thursday!
2) Attend the hearing! Sign up to testify at the hearing to share your concerns. Remember to bring a state-issued ID to enter. Find more info and "attending" on the Facebook Event Page + invite your friends!
WHAT: California State Board of Education Hearing
WHEN:Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 9 AM
WHERE: California Department of Education | 1430 N Street, Room 1101, Sacramento, CA 95814
3) Learn more about the erasure of South Asian history from the textbooks by reading the following articles:
- California Textbooks: The Next Stage of the Battle
- South Asian Histories for All May 19th Press Release
- Erasing Cast: The Battle over California Textbooks and Caste Apartheid
Examples of the Islamophobic text that is found in the textbooks are:
Current Text: "Muslims often did not force Christians or Jews, "people of the book," to convert, but people of other religions were more often forced to convert."– Chapter 11 (Grade 7) Pages 265-266, Line 554-559.
Our Recommendation: Replace with "The Qur'an explicitly forbids forced conversion to Islam. Despite that, some Muslim rulers did force some non-Muslims to convert at times, while certain Umayyad rulers actively discouraged even voluntary conversion to Islam."
