U.S. Sends History Books to Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The American Embassy said Tuesday it is distributing books on U.S. history to Islamic schools to counter rising anti-American attitudes in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population.

"(Islamic schools) have very few books and almost none on the United States," said embassy spokesman Stanley Harsha. "They get all their information from television, movies and rumors. We want to give them a real and deeper understanding of American democracy, pluralism and the way the economy works."

The embassy translated the five-book "American Online Series" - with volumes on American history, economics, literature, politics and geography - into Indonesian and plans to distribute them to some 1,000 Islamic boarding schools.

At a book launch on Tuesday, some Indonesians said there were limits to how much the books could change opinions about the United States.

"It's not enough," said Irun Sani, the chairman of the Muslim Student Association. "If the United States wants to change opinions of Indonesians, then they will have to change their foreign policy. It should be helping underdeveloped countries instead of taking them over,"

Since the Afghanistan war in 2001, anti-American feelings have grown in Indonesia.

But there seems to be a wrinkle in the plan - some of the books in the U.S. State Department collection are up to 12 years old. One book, on political history, ends in 1992 with Bill Clinton becoming president.

Harsha played down the age of the books' contents, saying the important thing was getting them to students.