The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that Citizens for National Security, a Boca Raton-based nonprofit, will file a lawsuit against Gov. Rick Scott, the state, and the Florida Department of Education tomorrow. According to theĀ complaint (.pdf) released on the groupās website, the suit seeks temporary and permanent injunctive relief rescinding Senate Bill 2120, which requires two-state or national experts to review textbook selections.
In its complaint, Citizens alleges that it is ānot possible for two people to review all the textbooks in Florida within a four-month period of timeā and that S.B. 2120 ārenders it impossible for the Defendants to provide high-quality education to all children in Florida as required by law.ā
The group, which says it āeducates, motivates and activates ordinary citizens who are committed to keeping our country safe from threats to our national security, especially threats from extremist, violent, religious groups and other radical ideologies,ā has ties to a Florida lawmaker.
Rep. Allen West, R-Fort Lauderdale, recently sponsored a Capitol Hill briefing by the group, titled: āHomegrown Jihad in the USA: Culmination of the Muslim Brotherhoodās 50-year History of Infiltrating America.ā
According to Talking Points Memo, the hearing consisted of PowerPoint presentations, charts, graphs, and a list of nearly 6,000 people and 200 organizations that Citizens claims are in some way connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.
One attendee of the briefing pointed out that āDaniel Pipes, a member of the advisory board of Citizens for National Security, was cited 11 times in the manifesto written byā Anders Breivik, the man who confessed to the recent shootings in Norway.
The groupās concerns over fundamentalist religion are highlighted in its complaint against Scott, which reads, in part: āThe present danger of fundamentalist religion is often obscured, the negative influence of fundamentalism is downplayed and the teaching of one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all times, i.e. evolution, is often ignored, questioned or denied due to the failure of this State to properly monitor its textbooks.ā
Citizensā founder, William Saxton, has a history of alleging that textbooks are rife with Islamic propaganda and has been quoted as saying it is an āepidemicā not limited to Florida.