Schools Closed in Virginia District After Uproar Over Arabic Calligraphy Lesson

[47of74]

Source: NECN

A central Virginia school district has cancelled classes Friday after concerns over the "tone and content" of calls and emails received about a lesson in Arabic calligraphy.

Augusta County Public Schools, near Staunton in central Virginia, will be closed after the district received "voluminous phone calls and electronic mail locally and from outside the area" about a high school World Geography class lesson, the district announced Thursday evening.

In a lesson Friday on the Middle East, students were presented with an Islamic statement of faith written in Arabic calligraphy, superintendent Eric Bond told The News Leader.

"The students were presented with the statement to demonstrate the complex artistry of the written language used in the Middle East, and were asked to attempt to copy it in order to give the students an idea of the artistic complexity of the calligraphy," a statement Bond gave the paper said.



Read more: http://www.necn.com/news/national-international/Schools-Closed-in-Virginia-District-After-Uproar-Over-Arabic-Calligraphy-Lesson-362874551.html

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Jesus. Can't have people learning about other cultures/religions/etc now, can we?

[BlueJazz]

1. Christ! We're not going to die from global warming or Isis or whatever. We'll die from stupidity

[47of74]

3. Damn right.

I've always felt it wouldn't be an external enemy that would destroy us, but it would be some internal idiot.

[3catwoman3]

6. If stupidity were suddenly fatal starting tonight, the US population...

...would be a hell of a lot smaller by tomorrow morning.

This is a total embarrassment.

[montana_hazeleyes]

30. Amen!

[Ms. Yertle]

58. Yup,

as is censoring "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

[tularetom]

2. And god forbid anybody should be caught using Arabic numerals

A sheer sign of a terrorist IMO.

[w0nderer]

21. LOL

would be awesome seeing these people try to work through their checkbook balancing in roman numerals

[yellowcanine]

72. Makes my hair hurt even thinking of adding and subtracting using Roman numerals.

Whoever invented "Arabic numerals" should be a saint. Or at least a knight.

[NV Whino]

4. Oh, oh. Back to Roman numerals, it is.

[3catwoman3]

7. Didn't someone pronounce the last Superbowl as...

...Superbowl Ex-Licks?

(we are effing doomed)

[louis-t]

49. My favorite Superbowl cartoon from 2005 is

a sporting goods store with shirts saying 'Superbowl XL'. A lady walks in and says "Do they come in any other size?"

[840high]

11. I would not want my child

writing that Allah is great.

[starroute]

26. Why not?

Here's one example. What harm do you think it would do your child to attempt to copy out those elaborate brushstrokes?

[yeoman6987]

27. Would you want your kids to write Jesus Christ is the one true God in a public school?

I would not want my kids writing allah is good in public school. Either except all or none.

[starroute]

50. "Allah" is just the Arabic word for "God"

it's used in the Middle East by Christians and Jews as well as by Muslims. It's cognate with the Hebrew "Elohim."

"Jesus Christ is the one true God" is a statement of dogma (and probably one that's heretical by Christian standards, since it denies the Trinity.) "God is great" is a generic statement of belief in a higher power. It's not something I would want my child printing out in English letters, but I see nothing wrong with copying a highly stylized calligraphic symbol as part of a study of the culture which uses that symbol..

Would you object to your child copying a set of Egyptian hieroglyphics that express a prayer to Amun as part of a unit on ancient Egypt? Would you be afraid that they might fall into Amum-worship as a result?

Or what about the Om symbol of Hinduism? Would you have a problem with that?

[yeoman6987]

51. Yes I would object

We can't allow any religion in public school at all. The minute you allow this then it will be a free for all and each religion will demand equal equality. This is why the school brilliantly made the right choice. They know they screwed up. Hopefully the teacher is reprimanded or fired at least.

[yellowcanine]

56. "Hopefully the teacher is reprimanded or fired at least."

Last edited Fri Dec 18, 2015, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

Right. Get rid of the teachers who actually show a little imagination in their lessons. Your world is a grim cold vindictive world. I hope that neither my granddaughter nor grandson ever have a teacher with your attitude. The teacher should be commended for creativity and given suggestions for how to avoid running afoul of the Christian Taliban in Augusta County while still being a creative teacher.

[yeoman6987]

67. I am a teacher. Lol. Sorry I have more invested in this. Our school would not tolerate blatant

Violation of religious activity. Fired yes. Charges or jail time. No.

[840high]

32. How would you react if I asked your

school child to write - Jesus is my God?

[cynzke]

34. Unless your child can read

Arabic, for all they know, they are coping a recipe for falafel! Did you see what the text looked like in the original article. I doubt that any one could copy the full elaborate text in the time frame of one class. And you just type "Allah is great" in English. Are you forever affected by that? No.

[EL34x4]

41. They weren't writing a recipe for falafel

They were writing the Shahada, the Islamic statement of faith: "There is no God but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of God."

Which begs the question, they couldn't have found something else to write? A falafel recipe perhaps? Sorry, but the teachers were extremely tone-deaf on this.

[yellowcanine]

57. The teachers were trying to teach in a creative way.

We should be protecting them from the Christian Taliban, not punishing them. The lesson was about decorations on mosques. I fail to see why a teacher should not be able to use calligraphy associated with a mosque in the same way art students might make drawings of stained glass windows which might happen to contain a cross.

[EL34x4]

61. This wasn't a stained-glass window that "might" contain a cross.

This was the Shahada, the Islamic statement of faith declaring belief in the oneness of God and the acceptance of Muhammad as God's prophet.

The equivalent would be giving a lesson on Christianity that included baptizing the students.

[yellowcanine]

65. Now you are grasping.

Never mind. A closed mind is a dying mind.

[840high]

69. Let's have a lesson in writing "Jesus is God".

Any objections from you?

[840high]

68. You got it. ty

[LiberalElite]

78. I would assume that there is a lot more one can write in Arabic besides

Allah is great.

[3catwoman3]

5. American "exceptionalism" (whatever the hell that really is) is going...

...to end up meaning exceptional willful ignorance and arrogance, which is a reeeeeeeeeeeeally bad combination.

[Feeling the Bern]

8. You realize in World History, you have to teach about the rise and spread of Islam

also in AP World History too.

[840high]

12. .... here

n a lesson Friday on the Middle East, students were presented with an Islamic statement of faith written in Arabic calligraphy, superintendent Eric Bond told The News Leader.

[Feeling the Bern]

14. So? I had my AP students read the Koran.

[Fed up in NJ]

9. This just in....

.... schools across the entire state of Virginia have banned the use of long used Arabic numbers. They have decided to instead resort to using Roman numerals... story at XI!

[mwrguy]

10. This country is an Islamophobic shithole

[tomm2thumbs]

13. I think the actual message was the issue, not the writing style

Having everyone in the class write '“there is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah" probably wasn't the most thought-out plan for a lesson on calligraphy.

To me, it would be akin to having the class write "Jesus Christ is the son of our Lord God and Savior"... in a Bible-styled script, and frankly, I don't think it would stand up to muster either.

For what it's worth, the uproar about closing the school over this issue does go a bit far, but no doubt the crazies who have voiced their anger have done so in a way that must have been taken as threatening and serious enough for a cool-off period.

[840high]

15. Thank you. Fully agree.

[truthisfreedom]

16. Match to gasoline

[hollowdweller]

18. Yeah really. You'd think they would have seen it coming.

[bigmonkey]

29. I would guess the most complex calligraphy is almost always religious in content.

So, you'd have to skip the lesson entirely. Similar complexity is displayed in one of the Tibetan scripts, but there the text is also religious.

[Coventina]

40. Actually, in the case of Arabic calligraphy, I think that honor goes to a Tughra

Some of which are incredibly ornate:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tughra

Irony: I've had my Art History students design their own Tughras for extra credit and it's never caused any fuss. But then, it's extra credit, and creative, not copying.....

[bigmonkey]

70. Well, in that case, it was a poor choice on the instructor's part.

Thanks for the background. A Tughra would clearly have been a better choice.

[Xithras]

76. Legally irrelevant.

Again, how would you feel if your kid came home and said, "We practiced cursive at school today! The teacher gave us all Bible quotes and asked us to copy them by hand!"

Besides, there are plenty of examples of Arabic calligraphy that would have been less controversial. There was no valid reason to select that one.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

37. I think you've got the point.

Last edited Fri Dec 18, 2015, 11:49 AM - Edit history (1)

I'm guessing that whoever chose that text did so because he looked at it and thought, "gee, that's pretty. Let's copy that," without knowing what it said.

Fine. Mistake recognized. Time to move on. Not time to close every school in the district. "School will be open today, and if you don't show up, your absence will be noted. Have a medical excuse ready when you return."

Maybe Friday was to be the last day of class before the winter break. I don't know.

Best wishes.

[adigal]

42. If the writing was presented in context as Arabic belief, how is it different than "Paradise Lost"?

In which we read that Satan fought God, was defeated, went down to hell, schemed with Beelzebub, and decided to continue to fight God. I continually tell my students, many of whom don't have any religious background, that this is a Christian story and what the Christians believed. Not what my students have to believe.

Oh, "Paradise Lost" is ok, cause the 'muricans belief that particular myth. Got it.

[Throd]

47. Don't bring up facts that might get in the way of outrage.

I find Arabic calligraphy beautiful and fascinating, but non-religious examples of Arabic writing would have been a better choice.

[yellowcanine]

54. Maybe but the lesson was also about the decorations on mosques.

Hard to see how a mosque decoration would not have a religious context. Would the parents object to students drawing a stained glass window which contained a cross? I really doubt it. The assignment in question for context:

[yellowcanine]

52. It was not translated though. All the students knew was that it was a faith

statement which appears on the walls of mosques. The point was the artistic value of the writing. Hard to see how one could illustrate the calligraphy found on a mosque without it being some kind of faith statement. Does a student copying a calligraphic which he does not understand constitute trying to convert? I fail to see how. Yeah, in light of the overwrought sensitivities, maybe seek a substitute. But wow, it is too bad that is necessary. We are diminished by this, imo.

[Xithras]

77. It's the same message as is on the Taliban and ISIS flags.

Given the age of the students involved, any teacher with an ounce of common sense should have known that a substantial portion of the students would recognize it, and that having students copy it was going to be an issue.

And before anyone corrects me, I'm aware that the message on the ISIS flag uses a different script and has a different appearance, but it's the same words and message.

The swastika is a beautiful and ancient pattern that can be found in cultures around the world as well. Most teachers are intelligent enough to understand that it's improper to ask students to draw swastikas in art class, even if the topic of the day is "Ancient Eastern Geometric Patterns" and has nothing to do with history or the Nazis. While a teacher might take a minute to discuss the symbol and its meaning, every teacher I've ever met would pick other designs for the students to actually create for their homework. "Mommy, I drew swastikas at school today" is a comment that can end careers. Asking students to draw the shahada, at the same time it's being used to justify mass murders, rapes, and slavery a few thousand miles away, was an idiotic move.

[Blue_Tires]

53. Please...

I had to memorize how to say that for my world religion class, and this was at a VERY conservative Catholic school 22 years ago...

[Xithras]

75. I agree. It's like having students practice cursive by copying Bible quotes.

There are plenty of Arabic scripts that could have been used for this lesson. Choosing to have students copy the Shahada was stupid and possibly illegal.

[Mosby]

17. Arabic calligraphy is pretty cool

It's very similar to hebrew calligraphy art.

http://mosbyspace.tumblr.com/post/51766225359/calligrapher-omar-al-jomni

[roody]

19. No more algebra should be allowed either.

[RobinA]

35. I'm For That

I wish I had the time wasted on failing Algebra applied to a subject that could actually have taught me something.

[Kurska]

20. I'm sure everyone here would be cool if we taught students Latin

Last edited Fri Dec 18, 2015, 03:16 AM - Edit history (1)

By having them write "Jesus is lord" repeatedly.

[47of74]

24. Well I dunno

Some "Christians" see Latin as a tool of the devil.

[McKim]

22. Cancel the Chess Club too!

Yes, so cancel the chess club, stop eating oranges, lemons, artichokes, and eggplant while you are at it!

[Turbineguy]

23. Will we have to change our numbering system?

That would be expensive.

[47of74]

25. 30 would present a number of problems.

Cause in Roman it's XXX.

[Thunderbeast]

28. Allah be Praised. I invented the zero!

Allah be Praised. I've invented the zero!

What?

Nothing....Nothing

[dhol82]

38. Actually, they stole it from the Hindus

It has an even longer history but, from what I understand, the Muslims took the concept from India.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_%28number%29

[yellowcanine]

71. They didn't steal it, the Hindus had no copyright on it. And the Hindus still have it.

[LanternWaste]

73. Acculturation is not stealing.

Acculturation is not stealing, its a standard historical process dating back to paleolithic humans.

[dhol82]

74. To state that it was their original discovery is not acculturation

[montana_hazeleyes]

31. We better stop using American money.

It says in God we trust. Well. which God? There are lots of gods, so no telling really.

[ileus]

33. Isn't this how you keep from getting your head chopped off when ISIS comes to town.

If we're going to keep sending our kids to free fire zones without real security shouldn't they learn to defend themselves with a simple prayer?



Imagine the poutrage if they'd been teaching about Christianity.

I'm pretty sure there was at least one other islamic statement that could have been presented. This was done to gouge a stick in the locals eye and it got the reaction they were looking for.


In other news...who gives a shit.

[RobinA]

36. But Why Not

tell the teacher, "Hey, use something else for this lesson." Why close schools? I'd like to know where this happened in Va.

On Edit: OK, so I looked it up. Central Va. I'm thinking that if the kids were asked to write "Jesus is the Lord" there would not have been a peep. My guess, this is about Islam, not religious content.

[Ms. Yertle]

59. Of COURSE there would have been a peep

Just from the other side.

[RobinA]

63. I'm Not Sure

how much "other side" there would be in central Va.

[Ms. Yertle]

64. In the age of the Internet

it only takes one person posting something on Facebook. I'm thinking that not all the e-mails/messages/threats that flooded this school district originated locally . . .

[BlueCollar]

39. There has been a backlash against the bigotry

Former students etc. coming out in support of the teacher. Bigots facebook page has come down etc...

[adigal]

43. We constantly teach Christian material in public schools...constantly

In literature class, I teach Paradise Lost, and almost every single piece of literature is peopled with Christians, many who talk about and practice their faith.

[Ms. Yertle]

60. The difference is

that I am willing to bet that you don't assign your students to copy a statement of Christian faith, do you?

Learning about other cultures, including their religions, is essential, but forcing them to make a declarative statement of faith is a whole different ball of wax.

[rollin74]

44. a religous "statement of faith" has no place in public schools

[roody]

48. Youll have to throw out a lot of literature!

[NurseJackie]

45. NO MORE ARABIC NUMERALS!! WE MUST RETURN TO ROMAN NUMERALS!

I loved my MCMLXXVIII Camaro!

This MMXVI election is going to be better than the MMVIII election.

[EL34x4]

62. Arabs don't use Arabic numerals.

Crazy, I know. The numeric symbols they use originate in India.

[img][/img]

[NurseJackie]

66. Cool!

[ashling]

46. "Why do we have to learn about Mohammed"

Some years ago (1993 as I recall) I was substituting in high school world history class
in Mississippi.

The text book had about 3/4 of a page about the rise of Islam.

I had to handle the above question from a preachy little cheerleader.

I don't really remember how I handled it, just the stupid question.

[ashling]

55. Then there's this

https://www.facebook.com/coffeeparty/photos/a.313395813326.193473.304981108326/10153593536803327/?type=3&theater