Hundreds of parents outraged by Islamic lessons being taught in Georgia schools
Public schools in Georgia have been teaching young children about the basic beliefs of Islam, and their parents are furious about it.
Hundreds of parents plan to confront the Board of Education of the Walton County school district on Oct. 10 about social science lessons for middle schoolers, which they believe are biased toward Islam while supposedly ignoring Christian teachings.
Ryan Breece, father of a sixth-grade schoolgirl being taught Islamic lessons, even started a local Facebook group seeking to draw his fellow parents' attention to the Muslim teachings being offered in schools.
Breece's Facebook group, which now has 1,500 members, wants to urge local school officials to inform parents about upcoming lessons on religions and other sensitive topics, so that they can have the option of pulling the kids out of the lessons.
"We need to see the assignments and we need to be able to opt out without any grade negativity on our children," he told WSB Radio.
Breece also lamented how his daughter's grades were affected when he decided not to let her attend lessons on Islam.
Michelle King, another parent, meanwhile observed that students are learning more about Islam, while taking lessons on Christianity for granted.
"My daughter had to learn the Shiad, and the five pillars of Islam, which is what you learn to convert, but they never once learned anything about the Ten Commandments or anything about God," King said.
"What they are learning goes against my religion completely," she added.
Steven Alsup, father of another student, particularly took offence at how his kid is being taught that "Allah is the same God worshipped by Jews and Christians."
"It seemed like half the truth to me. They didn't talk about the extreme Islamics," Alsup said.
Matt Cordoza, spokesman of the Georgia Department of Education, however, explained that the lessons on the Islamic faith is part of the effort to make children understand religions around the world. He also said that the lessons are not biased towards any particular religion.
