“These children were deceived when they were told it was calligraphy, this is not calligraphy, this is a language,” charged parent Kimberly Herndon.
Virginia School District Closes After Controversial Assignment Forces Students to Write Muslim Oath
An entire school district in Virginia is closed Friday, after the backlash against an assignment which forced students to write the shahada, the Muslim oath that declares “There is no God but Allah. Mohammed is the messenger of Allah.”
This controversial lesson came from a geography class, whose unit on world religions at Riverheads High near Staunton required students to write the Islamic oath in Arabic calligraphy, without telling them what they were writing. As the Staunton News-Leader describes it:
During a world geography lesson on Friday about world religions, including Islam, teacher Cheryl LaPorte had students complete an assignment that involved practicing calligraphy and writing a Muslim statement of faith, also known as the shahada, which translates as: “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.” Students were also reportedly shown copies of the Quran.
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