“There Is No God but Allah”: Virginia School Forced to Cancel Class over Arabic Writing Assignment

A rural school district in Virginia felt compelled to cancel all classes and even a holiday concert after angry parents flooded the district with not just thousands, but tens of thousands of complaints over an Arabic calligraphy lesson.

Students were told to copy a Muslim statement of faith known as the Shahada which translates to “There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah” in Arabic. The assignment included other religious faiths as well. The school claimed the lesson was meant to “illustrate the complexity of the written Arabic language”.

While this specific message the kids were writing is a well known profession of faith for Muslims, it also happens to appear on the flags of the Islamic State.

Augusta County Sheriff Randall Fisher said some of the angry messages the school received were “threatening and very profane in nature”. Investigators are sifting through the emails and Facebook posts looking for threats as a precaution.

The whole situation is being referenced as an “anti-Muslim incident.

In other news, parents in a Minnesota town are angry that kids will be chanting “Allahu Akbar” for one of the songs performed at their school’s interfaith holiday concert.