Excerpt:
Skipping ahead, the answer is "A lot." I was actually surprised to find out just how many teachers there are in the state of Texas.
But why ask the question in the first place? It's not a "how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" question. There has been a blog feud over the past week or so regarding Rick Perry, Aga Khan and a 2005-2006 seminar for about 80 Texas teachers regarding Islam and the teaching of world cultures in Texas public schools. World cultures instruction begins early in Texas schools and covers about what you'd expect: Cultures, traditions, religions and such around the world. Islam is going to come up, just as it did when I was a kid in Texas public schools farther back in the mists of time than I'd care to admit. The allegation regarding the Aga Khan seminar is that it's not actually instruction, but a dawah, a call to Islamic faith, and makes Muslims out of the teachers. That's not my view of the curriculum; I don't think it's a dawah. That's the position held by some bloggers including Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. I don't know Geller personally, but I do know Spencer and consider him a friend and a very credible blogger. I do disagree with them on this story, though. They have made their case, but have not proven it, and their evidence backing up the incendiary charge against Perry, because he met with Aga Khan in 2002 to discuss the seminar, is quite weak. The evidence that Khan himself is a stealth jihadist is also quite weak. For one thing, unlike them I actually live in Texas and have a child in the schools here. If sharia is being taught here, it's being taught with such stealth that it has had literally no impact at all. For another, the idea that Rick Perry is some sort of stealth sharia supporter is ludicrous and doesn't square up with his very strong support for Israel at all.