Summary: Two Maryland parents sue their daughter’s school because she was allegedly forced to learn about Islam during a world history class.
Did a world history teacher really seek to turn students into Muslims, or was the teacher just trying to educate young minds about world cultures?
That’s the debate spurned by a recent federal lawsuit filed in Maryland. Parents John and Melissa Wood are suing La Plata High School. They allege the school tried to force their 16-year-old daughter into learning Islam while she was in a world history course.
The Daily Mail reports that the couple say that their daughter was taught one day of Christianity followed by weeks of Islamic immersion. They claimed that their daughter had to say, “There is no god but Allah and Muhammed is the messenger of God.”
The parents are being represented by Richard Thompson of the Thomas More Law Center, which is an Ann Arbor-based law firm that fights for Christian and conservative issues around the country. Thompson was a former prosecutor who most famously worked on a case against euthanasia doctor, Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
Other defendants listed in the suit include Charles County schools, its board, and the principal and vice principal of La Plata High School.
Thompson claims that the school failed to inform families that their children would study Islam as part of a world history curriculum. He also says that memorizing or reciting certain Muslim text is equivalent to converting to Islam.
Thompson claims that the student, only referred to as C.W. in the court documents, was told she would fail the course if she was pulled from it. Her father complained, and the suit said he was subsequently barred from campus.
The lawsuit seeks a declaratory and injunctive relief that bars the school from promoting Islam over other religions. It also wants the school ban on John Woods to be lifted.
“Parents must be ever vigilant to the Islamic indoctrination of their children under the guise of teaching history and multiculturalism,” Thompson said. “’This is happening in public schools across the country. And they must take action to stop it.”
While the school did not comment on the lawsuit, they sent a statement to local news WTOP, clarifying what was being taught in the classroom.
“The particular unit in question is on the formation of Middle Eastern empires in which students learned the basic concepts of the Islamic faith and how it, along with politics, culture, economics and geography, contributed to the development of the Middle East,’ the statement said. “Other religions are introduced when they influence or impact a particular historical era or geographic region. For example, when reviewing the Renaissance and Reformation, students study the concepts and role of Christianity.”
Source: The Daily Mail