Posted on 12/18/2015 4:05:23 PM PST by mandaladon
A teacher at Riverheads High in Staunton, Va., had students practice calligraphy by copying the Muslim statement of faith. The assignment caused so much controversy that school officials decided to shut down all public schools in Augusta County on Friday. (Reuters)
A Virginia county closed all of its schools Friday because of intense backlash over a class assignment about Islam, with some parents alleging that their children were being subjected to Muslim indoctrination and educators emphasizing the importance of exposing U.S. students to the world’s fastest-growing religion.
A high school geography teacher in rural Augusta County asked students to try their hand at writing the shahada, an Islamic declaration of faith, in Arabic calligraphy. The task, community reaction to it, and a sudden influx of outrage from around the country — including angry emails, phone calls and threats to put the teacher’s head on a stake — led the school district to close rather than risk disruption or violence.
The county, in the Shenandoah valley west of Charlottesville, Va., is the latest to wrestle with how Islam should be portrayed in the classroom and how students should learn about it. It’s a subject that has become increasingly fraught as concerns about Islamophobia have grown alongside fears of extremist violence and terrorism.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
the assignment for monday in calligraphy
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem”
Did you mention Islam's role in the North and South American slave trade?
Seriously, this is how people should be informed about Islam. Islam is responsible for the bloody US Civil War. Islam ran the slave markets in Africa.
For those unfamiliar with "the Shahada," It is the fundamental creed of Islam, which is in DIRECT CONTRADICTION of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.*
The Shahada: "There is no Allah, but Allah, and Mohaxxxxxed is his prophet."
Mohammed taught that Jesus is not divine, did not die on the cross and did not rise from the dead. To recite the Shahada is to verbally reject Jesus Christ and Christianity. It is the seal of the conversion to Islam, to convert to Islam, one merely recites the Shahada in front of witnesses, and they are then considered muslims by the muslim world.
*my wife came from the Middle East, grew up in the midst of Islam, and became a Christian at the age of 20. I know whereof I speak. This was shameful.
Arabic calligraphy can be beautiful, but how about a simple "God is Love" for Christmas, favored by Arab Christians; Arabic christian calligraphy: http://www.arabicbible.com/free-literature/calligraphies/new-calligraphies.html
Let the kids stay home and watch cartoons.
They'll learn more. :)
“”The superintendent said that students tried on head scarves in another lesson that taught them about the modest dress many Muslims adopt””
I am sure she also made the boys wear skirts? A geography teacher??? Calligraphy is tied to a geography lesson how? Calligraphy is used for announcements, invitations and the only thing that idiot could come up with for an example were “drawings” in the muslim world?
I think I speak for everyone here when I say I am so tired of this nonsense....Make these stories public and shame the culprit - IF POSSIBLE!
I think some parents are beginning to wake up and hopefully ALL of them will and rise up against this kind of idiocy so far sanctioned by school districts. Maybe not forever!!!
“”It’s about time parents forced a system to close””
ABSOLUTELY!!!!
Friday before Christmas vacation is a big day for slackers everywhere!
Teachers get an extra day off with pay!
They should be practicing calligraphy in English.
Maybe the teacher should have introduced students to John 3:16.
So just write ‘There is no Allah” in Arabic calligraphy then stop.
Since this teacher loves islam let’s chop off his calligraphy hand. j/k
Parents alleging indoctrination? Of all the things to practice calligraphy this a-hole teacher innocently chose a statement of muslin faith? I don’t think so! This is the kind of liberal hack that would have made children sing songs praising oslama bin fudgepacker. It would be the last day my kids were in public schools. I am thankful that my youngest was out almost twenty years ago and pity the poor teacher that tries this crap with her child.
They could learn some local history... about the muslim found in the woods back in Colonial times who after being captured in the Med and transferred as a prisoner to another ship that was headed to New Orleans, probably loaded with human cargo for sale...was sold up the river and ending up with some indians he found a way to escape after a while. A hunter found him perched in a tree and starving. He was taken back to the Shenandoah Valley and nursed back to health by a preacher in Staunton or Richmond or thereabouts and after a while converted to Christianity.
The local people - Christians - raised enough money to help get him passage on board a ship heading back across the Atlantic. He made his way home to Turkey, but upon finding out he was now a Christian, his father disowned him, and he ended up living out his days in London.
Write “Deus Vult” and call it a day.
If they new what it meant they would be beyond ticked.
BTW if that is recited in front of two muslim they consider the person who recited it to have converted to islam.
Cheryl LaPorte, Riverheads High School
http://www.newsleader.com/story/news/local/2015/12/17/riverheads-high-school-follow-up/77483594/
Not during the lessons on Islam. But when we got to the chapter on the slave trade, of course. Basically, it wasn’t Europeans running around catching Africans— it was other west Africans or Muslim slave traders. For the most part Africa was “protected” from the white man by disease—that’s why the maps of interior Africa were pretty much blank until the latter part of the 19th century, when the international slave trade was pretty much finished.
The black Muslim movement is ironic in that it is blind to the role that Muslims played and still play in the slave trade. Nation of Islam people tell black Americans to reject their “slave names” and embrace Muslim names when it is very likely that back Americans’ earliest ancestors were herded to the slave ships by men sporting Muslim names.
States need to pass laws strictly prohibiting any religion teaching in schools... and provide dozens of examples of what cannot be done... I know this affects the practice of Christians and Jews also - but they have already been outlawed from school for the most part anyway ...
Once a state puts a prohibition on religions teaching in public schools or anything akin to it (no demonstrations of wearing hijabs, etc.) then backed with civil and even criminal penalties this CRAP will stop ... it cannot be left to the individual school district.
This would include no special places for worship or things like foot baths for Muslims ... Yes it also keeps Christ from schools ... but we must cap this open well of Islamic sewage NOW... We can worry about how to treat teaching of religious practices in the future after we get control of the situation.
Not wanting your children indoctrinated into Islam by the State is Islamaphobia...give me a break. The Left steps on it’s crank again.
“Nothing wrong with a little Allah in the morning!”
AND mid-morning, lunchtime, mid-afternoon, suppertime -
is that five or is it six times a day? \s
Try that with anything “Jesus” and you’ll get sued.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.