RIYADH, 29 September 2005 — Muslim community leaders in Riyadh have expressed concern that a textbook that had been pulled out in the Philippines for erroneous entries about Islam is still being used in some Filipino schools abroad.

The book titled People, Places and Events by Carolina P. Danao wrongly claimed that Muslims pray four times a day, face the direction of the sun and kiss the ground as a sign of respect for Allah, often leaving children from other faiths watching in a state of amazement and confusion.

An accompanying illustration showed children an inappropriate way of praying and in an open, uncarpeted place.

Because of protests by Muslims in the Philippines, the Department of Education withdrew the book and replaced it with a corrected version. The revised 2005 edition correctly states that “Muslims pray five times a day while facing the direction of Makkah and they bring their heads close to the ground while in the kneeling position as a sign of respect to Allah.”

But Saleh Ampaso Bucay, secretary-general of the Federation of Maranao Associations in Saudi (Femas), said he found that the offending book was still being distributed at a school in Riyadh. “Just yesterday, I scanned my Grade I daughter’s textbooks and found allegation to be true,” Bucay told Arab News News earlier this week.

Bucay said he immediately brought his concern to the principal of the International Philippine School in Riyadh (IPSR) “to take immediate and appropriate action to correct the matter.”

It cannot be that Filipino schools abroad are unwittingly becoming purveryors of misguiding information about one of the most important pillars of Islam (prayer), he said.

Bucay described the textbook as “very dangerous and very damaging as it teaches wrong information about Muslims.”

In Dubai, some Filipino Muslim parents have reportedly withdrawn their children from a private Filipino school in protest against its alleged sale and use of the offending textbook.

Vanjo Andig and Adnan Magangcong withdrew their six-year-old children United International Private School when they discovered the textbooks they bought at the school were the 2004 version of Danao’s book.

“We asked the school if the books we bought were OK and they said the books had been approved by the Education Ministry, implying the books were correct. Withdrawing our children was a matter of principle for us,” Andig said.

A report by the Gulf News earlier said that the same textbook had been withdrawn by a Filipino school in Doha, Qatar, following complaints from an Islamic group.

School officials at the Dubai school denied they were still distributing the 2004 version of the textbook, saying they were only selling the corrected 2005 version.

However, she admitted some students were still using the 2004 version, adding that it was not a major problem.

“The teachers will just make a copy of the page and give the correct version to the students using the older textbook,” she was quoted as saying.

Andig said that was not enough. He said as long as the 2004 textbook version was still in circulation, people would still get the wrong information about Islam.

“Even if there are no Muslim students in the school, they should make sure the information is correct. We cannot allow people to be misinformed about Islam. There’s already so much misinformation as it is,” Andig told Gulf News.