>So, I happened across an interview on 2020 last night. A gal was talking with what seemed to be the children of middle east imigrants. The kids have been so misled that they believe the CIA hired Al Qaeda to fly planes into the World Trade center buildings. The reason given, by the kids, for this happening is: So the USA would be at war and could go to the middle east to kill muslims. Is this a common belief in the middle eastern communities? And who is selling them this crap?

I watched a Frontline (PBS) special on the same. The common belief (and actually taught in the schools in Pakistan) is the same and what is being taught is truly scary. And all this time I was concerned about the education in this country....

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/analyses/wahhabism.html
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan802/video/video_index.html
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/pakistan901/video_index.html

Snippet:

It’s a message that is also taught in the country’s public schools, where it can influence far more children. For decades, Pakistani schoolchildren have been learning that their country is in a battle for survival.

“The teachers tell us that India and the British are our enemies,” Fatma says. “They are killing Muslims. They are behind the bomb blasts. I do not know much about America, but generally people do not like America, and they can never be our friends.”

Rabina Saigel is an academic who’s studied public school textbooks for years and found that they have quietly been feeding extremism.

“I feel that a great deal of the ideology that we think madrassas are producing is in fact being produced in state schools,” she says. “And I say that it's the biggest madrassa because it has the widest outreach. It reaches every town, village, and small hamlet. It reaches every nook and cranny of the country.”