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High School Assignment That Instructed Students to Read about Islam Angers Parents

  • Amanda Casanova

    Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and…

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  • Updated Dec 22, 2014

Parents of children attending a North Carolina school are demanding to know why their children were given a vocabulary assignment that included the Prophet Muhammad and the Islamic faith.

"It really caught me off guard," a Farmville, North Carolina High School student said. "If we are not allowed to talk about any other religions in school, how is this appropriate?"

Students were given a worksheet that read, "In the following exercises, you will have the opportunity to expand your vocabulary by reading about Muhammad and the Islamic word."

The assignment included the words "astute," "conducive," "mosque," and "zenith."

"I was reading it and it caught me off guard," the unnamed student said. "I just looked at it and I knew something was not right, so I emailed the pages to my mom."

A parent called the assignment Islamic propaganda.

"It's very shocking," she said. "I just told my daughter to read it as fiction. It's no different than another fictional book you've read."

A school district spokesman said the lesson adhered to the Common Core standards for English Language Arts.

"The course is designed to accompany the world literature text, which emphasizes culture in literature," a statement from the district said.

Publication date: December 22, 2014