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Monday, December 21, 2015

In Virginia's Bible Belt, an Arabic lesson ignites anger

With the nation already on edge after the attacks in California, a teacher's lesson on Islam in Virginia's Bible Belt sparked an angry meeting of outraged parents that mushroomed into a national denunciation of the educator in the form of thousands of angry emails and social media postings.

As a result, an estimated 10,000 students in Augusta County's public school system got a one-day jump on the Christmas break as a precaution. The cancellation of classes Friday also wiped out a holiday concert and weekend sporting events.

Some of the tens of thousands of emails and Facebook posts "posed a risk of harm to school officials" and threatened protests, Superintendent Eric Bond said in a message to parents and employees Friday.

Augusta County Sheriff Randall D. Fisher said the emails slowly began arriving, but picked up in volume and vitriol after a national conservative radio personality discussed the lesson.

"They started becoming very threatening, very profane," he said.

Fisher said security has been assigned to Bond, the school's principal and teacher Cheryl LaPorte, who created the lesson. LaPorte is worried about herself and her family, Fisher said.

The school closings came one week after the teacher gave Riverheads High School students an assignment that involved writing a statement in Arabic - the Shahada, a profession of faith recited in Muslims' daily prayers.

The statement translated to: "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."

More here

8 comments:

Concerned Retiree said...

Why is Sharia / Islam allowed in our schools when prayers / pledge of allegiance / Christianity / Christian beliefs being taken out of our schools? Why is Islamic holidays being recognized in our schools and political arenas but our Christian holidays are being removed or eliminated by these same hypocrites?

Anonymous said...

Why aren't the atheists screaming bloody murder over this??

Not a peep out of them.

Anonymous said...

It's about time for some backlash. I hope this is just the beginning of a new awakening and movement to purge our society from the enemy within.

Anonymous said...

If Obama wasn't president they wouldn't even try this BS.

Anonymous said...

My imaginary friend is better than your imaginary friend.

Anonymous said...

Every week this is going on in schools thank the muslim obama,

Anonymous said...

I wish you were imaginary.

bayman said...

In other words, leave our children alone. You WILL NOT push any religion onto OUR children. Especially that filthy cult that condones murder and rape. Teachers, our children are just that. OUR children. So back off.