A 9th grade geography class in Virginia is looking at world religions, and one lesson involved the use of calligraphy as art in Islam (due to injunctions against graven images). As part of that lesson, kids were instructed to try drawing out for themselves the Shahada, a common decorative calligraphy that reads, “There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."
Some parents immediately went berserk, convinced that this was "Muslim indoctrination" because their kids were being forced to write down (well, draw) a statement of faith in another religion, and that this was supposed to (magically) turn good Christian boys and girls into (eek) Muslims.
I don't think it quite works that way. This isn't like opening up the Necronomicon and reading something that causes C'thulhu to suck out your soul. It's more like … um … all those arguments from probably a lot of those same parents that having a Christmas pageant wasn't Christian indoctrination because it's "tradition." It's not indoctrination, it's art, and a regular artistic motif in Muslim architecture, and so worth understanding.
Sure, it was probably unwise of the district, school, and teacher to include this particular lesson, as the reaction could likely have been predicted. But it's kind of hard to teach kids about other religions without exposing them to … well, symbols and words and ideas in those religions. I saw the Aum symbol of Hinduism in those lessons, and teaching about Christianity would certainly include some sort of doctrinal reading. Unless you believe that the Shahadra is somehow black magic, and drawing it somehow cause your kid's baptism to be revoked, this protest seems a tempest in a teapot.
Except that these people seem scared about just that very thing.
Schools Forced To Close Amid Safety Concerns After Christian Parents Protest Islam ‘Indoctrination’
For over a week some parents in one Virginia county have been keeping their children from school, and now have forced the entire county school system to shut down over safety concerns.
There are less controversial things one might teach children to calligraph, that's for sure.
So these people who think Muslims are all terrorists reacted so violently that the school had to be closed? Some people need to put their own houses in order.
+Gaffer Venar That's true. On the other hand, in the context of Muslim decorative art (which the lesson is about), the calligraphing of this particular phrase is a common motif, so it's got some justification.
+Scott Randel The basis for the school closure doesn't seem to have been well communicated; the immediate thought is threats, but the district has denied that to at least some degree.
A bit more evenhanded analysis of the matter here: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/12/augusta-county-virginia-schools-arabic/421194/