History the Malaysian way

History is the issue of the day in Malaysia as recently two historians spoke out as to why the history book has given prominence to Islamic civilization than a fair share of history. Well I am not a historian but I did extract some points from a mail by a concerned mother which was published in MT. Some of the points that were highlighted were as below and that makes us wonder what kind of history is the government and education ministry trying to teach the young minds.

a) The Form 4 history textbook devoted 100 pages to Islamic civilization while the other religious civilizations are barely mention with 460 and out of 10 chapters, 5 bulky chapters are devoted to Islamic history.
That's makes us all as parents to question why 5 chapters to Islamic civilization and why it is so great that it need such space? Why not write about the current Islamic civilization? I thought it was under Islamic History those days!

b) There is a detailed study of the life of the prophet Muhammad (pg 102 – 107). He is repeatedly praised throughout the chapters. Students are then repeatedly exhorted throughout the book, to emulate him as a ROLE MODEL in life (pg 106, 111, 124, 133, 137, 138). I wonder why?Is the Malay-Muslim emulating him?

c) Religiously biased viewpoint some statements found in the textbook:-
(1) Islam is described as a religion easily acceptable and not confined to any race, nation or geography (pg 185).
(2) Islam can be accepted by many people because of the purity of its teaching (pg 110).
(3) The uniqueness of Islam resulted in many people embracing the religion (pg162, 163, 185).
(4) The conversion of some Arab leaders to Islam in 629 AD is described as “an act done after rational investigation into the truth of Islam” (pg 133).
(5) Islamic social policies are described as so attractive that European Christians converted to Islam during the Byzantine era (pg 163).
(6) Islam requires rational thinking and therefore is accepted by all levels of society. (pg 185).( Really not seeing any in Malaysia at least)

Why is that the Malay-Muslim mind think with such narrow view about history and religion. Enough is done to educate the Malays in the religion and why such an emphasize in history lesson? It clearly show how shallow they are in their thinking and talking about the past and never about the present Islamic civilization? I wonder what they can talk about?

http://www.malaysia-today.net/mtcolumns/letterssurat/36721-school-history-textbooks-historical-facts-or-political-and-religious-propoganda