USA: Ohio Middle School Allows Students To Opt Out Of Lesson On Islam

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The Wapakoneta Middle School gives parents the option of pulling their children from an Islamic studies lesson.

Ahmadiyya Times | News Watch | US Desk
Source/Credit: BuzzFeed News
By Tasneem Nashrulla | December 10, 2015

A middle school in Ohio has given parents the option to pull their children from a lesson on Islamic studies, the school’s superintendent told BuzzFeed News on Thursday.

The decision at Wapakoneta Middle School comes in the wake of a growing number of anti-Muslim incidents reported in the U.S. after the Paris attacks.

Keith Horner, the school’s superintendent, defended the decision, saying that “some curriculum topics are sensitive.” The Islamic religion lesson for seventh graders was not a class, but a “small part” of the state social studies curriculum, he said.

The Ohio Social Studies curriculum for the seventh grade teaches students about the “achievements in medicine, science, mathematics and geography by the Islamic civilization that dominated most of the Mediterranean after the decline of the Roman Empire.” The curriculum also teaches students how these Islamic achievements were introduced into Western Europe and influenced the European Renaissance.

“The Wapakoneta City Schools are supportive of the very minimal standards that are expected to be taught with respect to the Islamic religion,” Horner said in his statement. “We do not recommend that students opt out. We do, however, recognize that some curriculum topics are sensitive and we work with our parents to work through these respective issues.”

News of the decision was first reported by Your News Now. The school board and staff members did not respond to attempts by BuzzFeed News to identify the teacher or comment on the decision.

Todd Crowe, one of the seventh grade social studies teachers, told BuzzFeed News, “It is not my class opting out of learning about Islam.”

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