Parents in Tennessee have expressed their concern over a middle school history assignment in which students were instructed to write, "Allah is the only God." Brandee Porterfield, whose daughter is in the seventh grade at Spring Hill Middle School, says she has no objection with her daughter learning about Islam as part of world history, but the school should also give equal attention to Christianity.
"They did this assignment where they wrote out the Five Pillars of Islam, including having the children learn and write the Shahada, which is the Islamic conversion creed," she said, according to Fox News.
Porterfield said that she had a word with the school's teaching staff as well as the principal and was told that there would not be any lessons on Christianity and Judaism, the Dallas Daily Gazette reported.
After reviewing the state standards, Porterfield found Hinduism and Buddhism lessons upcoming on the curriculum. However, unlike the Islamic lessons, students would not be asked to memorize a creed dealing with those religions.
"They don't study any other religions to this extent. ... It is the state sponsoring religion in schools. They're not going over anything else. For the students to have to memorize this prayer, it does seem like its indoctrination," said Porterfield.
Maury County Director of Schools Chris Marczak released the following statement on the curriculum, according to Fox News:
"Our teachers work together to make sure that our students are learning what is expected through the Tennessee academic standards. For this last section on the Islamic World this past week, our educators had students complete an assignment that had an emphasis on Islamic Faith. The assignment covered some sensitive topics that are of importance to Islamic religion and caused some confusion around whether we are asking students to believe in or simply understand the religion."
