What do you call it when a school district cancels classes because of angry calls and emails involving Islam? Apparently not terrorism, as long as the calls and emails are angry that students were exposed to Islam in a non-hateful way. That’s the conclusion we can draw from Augusta County, Virginia, where the inclusion in a world geography class of an Islamic statement of faith—used to discuss the artistic aspects of Arabic calligraphy and not translated into English—led to a forum describing the teaching as “indoctrination” into Islam, and:
Since then, the school system has received so many calls and emails that Sheriff Randall Fisher advised schools to close, the statement from the district said.
"The communications have significantly increased in volume [Thursday], and based on concerns regarding the tone and content of those communications, Sheriff Fisher and Dr. Bond mutually decided schools and school offices will be closed," the district said.
Oh, but hey, there were no specific threats, just … a general aura of “it would probably be good to close the schools just in case,” or something? Phew, I sure am glad it wasn’t terrorist threats closing a school district. That would be bad.
Virginia state standards call for students to learn about world religions, but when it comes to Islam, it seems that even learning about the artistic aspects and not having the religious content of calligraphy translated into English is off limits.