US Schools Did Not Teach Me History of Islamic Colonialism

Submitted by Amendment9 (United States), May 21, 2009 at 10:42

The history I learned in school in the 1960s emphasized the colonialism of the Western European countries. It was pounded into us how shamefully countries like France, Britain, Netherlands, Spain & Portugal oppressed the Africans and Asians.

It is a shame that we were taught virtually NOTHING about one thousand years of Islamic Colonialism aginst Europe, Africa, middle East and Asia, a period which was at least three times as long as the period of western colonialism. I barely read the word "Moslem" in my textbooks, mentioned only as a brief entry indicating that it was one of many other religions in the world.

It is EMBARASSING the extent to which we were ignorant as a result of this neglect to thoroughly teach world history. It wasn't until 9/11 that most Americans even became remotely aware of this history. This is a failure in the approcah to world history in the public schools my youth. I can only wonder what the current approach to the problem is - from what I have read recently, it appears that this history is being covered more these days, but is whitewashed - Ironically, either way, the students lose out!

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".