Virginia parents shut down school over Arabic calligraphy homework

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

1 minute ago, MJHolland said:

I can't @ the Islamic excuse makers on this site.

Let's hold all religions equally. Parents have the right to get upset if their kid is mandated to say a pray or declaration of faith; that includes Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. End of story.

Islamophobia though.

[MJHolland 12,725]

Also, I've noticed that the same people that defend all things Islam on this site and the same ones that bash Christians, especially on the right-wing and especially in America for trying to force their religious values onto other people, particularly onto gay people.

Stop making excuses for religious fanaticism. 

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

1 minute ago, MJHolland said:

Also, I've noticed that the same people that defend all things Islam on this site and the same ones that bash Christians, especially on the right-wing and especially in America for trying to force their religious values onto other people, particularly onto gay people.

Stop making excuses for religious fanaticism. 

Some people here have a minority-philia complex.

[Sister 9,907]

7 minutes ago, CustomGueseppi said:

That just breeds ignorance  obviously you shouldn't force religion on children but everyone should have basic understanding of major world religions.

I honestly do not care at all. I have no children. My point is that it is ALL or Nothing. If you say that you will not have religion in school, then you simply do not have it at all. No two ways or slight about it.

I am usually all or nothing with these sort of controversial American topics that end up in our news. If a rule is made, it should be followed by ALL not by some.

[GawdGa 1,399]

another reason why gaga-ism should be the only religion

[LebaneseDude 6,146]

4 minutes ago, Sister said:

I honestly do not care at all. I have no children. My point is that it is ALL or Nothing. If you say that you will not have religion in school, then you simply do not have it at all. No two ways or slight about it.

I am usually all or nothing with these sort of controversial American topics that end up in our news. If a rule is made, it should be followed by ALL not by some.

.The thing is, it would be okay to teach the children about religious cultures such as aesthetics and practices.

You don't ****ing make them write out their religious tenants. That's borderline proselytization. 

[Melech 9,900]

17 minutes ago, MJHolland said:

Also, I've noticed that the same people that defend all things Islam on this site and the same ones that bash Christians, especially on the right-wing and especially in America for trying to force their religious values onto other people, particularly onto gay people.

Stop making excuses for religious fanaticism. 

You didn't understand. If the children would need to write " i luv Jesus xoxo"  nobody would have blinked an eye. But now they wrote an arabic calligraphy to understand the art in it, it causes controversy. 

[MJHolland 12,725]

13 minutes ago, Simon said:

You didn't understand. If the children would need to write " i luv Jesus xoxo"  nobody would have blinked an eye. But now they wrote an arabic calligraphy to understand the art in it, it causes controversy. 

No, you're absolutely wrong. People were outraged DECADES ago because their children were made to write and say "Jesus is my lord and savior".

We already have spent decades having a religious revolution in this country to get Christianity out of our public schools (not to mention several supreme court cases that I've already brought to your attention).

So don't give me the "this is only happening because of Islamophobia" bullsh*t lolol.

[Sister 9,907]

37 minutes ago, Simon said:

If the children would need to write " i luv Jesus xoxo"  nobody would have blinked an eye. But now they wrote an arabic calligraphy to understand the art in it, it causes controversy. 

Not true at all. If it was God, Jesus or Satan, it would get this same outrage and we'd have to hear about it nonstop. I am unsure about Buddha though

[Morphine Prince 109,926]

I thought this thread died yesterday, what kind of resurrection?  

Not teaching about religions in school is so ignorant though... one should have basic knowledge about all world religions since they are part of culture. 

 

[DrewStevens 5,249]

I don't see a problem in teaching about Islam if the assignment is about religions and I think most people overreacted and were probably motivated by their fears... but I do think it was a very stupid decision to choose that specific statement just to give students an idea of "artistic complexity of calligraphy". It's like teaching alternative sexual practices during a sexual ed class. You have to be an idiot to think that no one is going to complain about it.

I don't condemn the teacher for her intentions but for her stupidity.

[Goosey 3,017]

On 12/18/2015 at 0:46 PM, Princess Leia said:

These parents are f***tards. WTH?

No they aren't. Religion has no place in school, especially forcing students to write the Shahada. You think it's appropriate to make people write "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah"? Especially if the kids are religious themselves. For that matter it's even offensive to make atheist students write this nonsense.

There would be an uproar if they made kids copy down hymns. The teacher is a ****tard.

[Seeka 12,372]

Let's all just be honest here. A religious person can be an asshole, and an atheist can be an asshole.

We can all be contemptuous, vain assholes. Can we get past that point?

There is a problem with the text being religious yes, but I must remind everyone this is the Bible belt. There may be as well people with torches tying Muslims to posts and burning them like witches. fear has a higher effect on people in the bible belt it seems Probably the reason why we've been republican states for a while... anyways..

The entire religious situation could've been avoided by not picking a religious statement, or going with a different form of calligraphy. Hebrew may have raised a similar fuss, but not take taken to extremes as Islam is (due to fear mongering brought on by Republicans, and the ignorance already there) and Japanese or Chinese calligraphy would probably have the least impact.

It is more or less the teacher's fault and whoever approved the curriculum. Though, they never knew what happened in Paris and San Bernandino would happen, but they should've had half a brain to change the Arabic or at least the phrase last minute.

[Batwings 12,958]

3 minutes ago, Seeka said:

Let's all just be honest here. A religious person can be an asshole, and an atheist can be an asshole.

We can all be contemptuous, vain assholes. Can we get past that point?

There is a problem with the text being religious yes, but I must remind everyone this is the Bible belt. There may be as well people with torches tying Muslims to posts and burning them like witches. fear has a higher effect on people in the bible belt it seems Probably the reason why we've been republican states for a while... anyways..

The entire religious situation could've been avoided by not picking a religious statement, or going with a different form of calligraphy. Hebrew may have raised a similar fuss, but not take taken to extremes as Islam is (due to fear mongering brought on by Republicans, and the ignorance already there) and Japanese or Chinese calligraphy would probably have the least impact.

It is more or less the teacher's fault and whoever approved the curriculum. Though, they never knew what happened in Paris and San Bernandino would happen, but they should've had half a brain to change the Arabic or at least the phrase last minute.

This response pretty much hits the proverbial nail on the head. Did people overreact? Absolutely. Should the assignment have been given in the first place? No. Everyone could have handled the situation better.

 

[TiphEret 1,320]

But what was the class subject? It's weird, I think most people in France would have reacted like this because of secularism in school and that's a bit too much, that sentence for a secular classroom but I guess closing schools for that is stupid and unnecessary