The Writing On The Wall

George Carlin said it best: "Think how stupid the average person is and then realize half of them are dumber then that."

 

Apparently a hell of a lot of the people on the dumb end of that scale are in Augusta County, Virginia.

Some Augusta County parents raised concerns on Tuesday after calling a student assignment anti-American. Some called it an Islamic indoctrination, but the school superintendent says the assignments are cultural lessons, not a religious statement. 

"When I saw the language, the Arabic language, immediately, I had a bad feeling come over me," concerned parent Kimberly Herndon told WVIR. 

The assignment involved ninth-grade students at Riverheads High School to copy the Shahada. "She told us the paper meant faith, so we didn't think anything of it," ninth-grader Laurel Truxell said. Students found out they translated a message that said, "There is no other God but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger." 

The assignment also involved students dressing up, wearing the Hijab, according to WVIR.

Parent Kimberly Herndon shared her feelings about the assignment on Facebook, which was shared more than 770 times. Her post sparked a community meeting Tuesday night. "These children were deceived when they were told it was calligraphy. This is not calligraphy. This is a language."

And then they CLOSED SCHOOL.  Because of CALLIGRAPHY.  Not because of the actual assignment, but because of angry anti-Muslim assholes coming to possibly do harm to the teachers and students and school officials.

Augusta County schools closed their doors Thursday and canceled all sports and activities for the day. 

All the county’s schools are closed Friday, December 18, too. Meanwhile, all school sports and activities scheduled for the weekend are also canceled. 

It all stems from a world geography class assignment at Riverheads High School that some parents called Islamic indoctrination. 

The directions read, "This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy.” The assignment incorporated Arabic calligraphy, but also included an Islamic proclamation of faith. 

That prompted a community meeting and a lot of anger. That anger apparently coming not just from central Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley, but from outside areas too. 

The school system says it's received so many phone calls and e-mails following that controversial assignment that they felt they had to close the schools as a precautionary measure.

The fear and hatred from "Christians" in this country just makes me physically ill.