Virginia County Closes Down Schools after Teacher Assigns Homework about Islam

Authorities decided to close down all schools in Shenandoah Valley County, Virginia Friday after people became furious over a homework assignment that included Islam. Weekend athletic and musical events have also been canceled.

School officials have clarified that they did not receive any threats but were shocked by the amount of complaints that were being called in. Some of the complaints were from people who were not even in the state. Due to the volume as well as the tone of the callers, the officials thought that it would be safer to close schools and cancel events.

The school officials' statement read:

"We regret having to take this action, but we are doing so based on the recommendations of law enforcement and the Augusta County School Board, out of an abundance of caution."

The whole situation was started when a teacher at Riverheads High School assigned calligraphy homework to her world geography students a week ago. The instructions for the homework read:

"Here is the shahada, the Islamic statement of faith, written in Arabic. In the space below, try copying it by hand. This should give you an idea of the artistic complexity of calligraphy."

The sentence that the children had to copy translated to: "There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah."

Parents were upset at the fact that the sentence promoted a religion and wanted the teacher to be fired. The teacher, Cheryl LaPorte, however, did not create the assignment. Instead, she had taken it from a standard workbook that included world religions, The News Leader, a local newspaper, reported.

"Neither of these lessons, nor any other lessons in the world geography course, are an attempt at indoctrination to Islam or any other religion or a request for students to renounce their own faith or profess any belief," Augusta County Schools official Eric Bond said to CNN affiliate WHSV.

The school defended the assignment by stating that the aim of the homework was to illustrate the Arabic language. The officials did, however, decide on using a different Arabic sentence in the future.

Doug Shifflett, the assistant superintendent for administration in the county, said in a statement reported by The Washington Post:

"Although students will continue to learn about world religions as required by the state Board of Education and the Commonwealth's Standards of Learning, a different, non-religious sample of Arabic calligraphy will be used in the future."

The homework assignment has since been repeatedly debated about on social media.