7th Grade Students Taught “There is no God but Allah” In Tennessee School

According to a report published by the Columbia Daily Herald, 7^th grade students in Maury County, Tennessee are being taught that there is no God but Allah.

The schools district stated that they are only teaching the history and geography of Islam; however, parents recently discovered that the children were being taught the 5 pillars of Islam and were also being made to write: “There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

Outraged at this discovery, many of the parents have since spoken out against the schools teachings.  Joy Ellis, a mother of a 7th grader said, “To me, a Christian child should not be made to write that.  I honestly don’t want my child learning about Islam at all, but if they’ve got to learn about it, I would like for them to learn about the historical aspects of it and definitely nothing about the religion.  I don’t want her writing ‘Allah is the only god.’” Ellis believes religion should not be included within the schools syllabus.

In response to the parents’ concern, Dr. Jan Hanvey, Maury County Public Schools middle school supervisor, explained the County’s reasoning for teaching Islam.  “It’s part of history.  If you don’t talk about it, then you are leaving out the ‘why’.  Children need to know the ‘why’, and they need to be able to learn and know where to find the facts, instead of going by what they hear or what they see on the internet.”

According to Dr. Jan Hanvey, the curriculum and topics have been covered for at least 31 years. She further explained that teachers do not specifically talk about Islam, but rather the geography, culture, economic and government surrounding the religion. Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions are also taught to the 7^th graders, she said.

“It’s hard to separate religion from history,” Hanvey said. “It’s teaching about religion. We are not trying to convert.”

Since the schools teachings were revealed, many have expressed that the lack of Christianity teaching is a cause for concern. However, Hanvey has said that the chapter on Christianity was not skipped over, but was in fact put off until a later date.

According to the states pacing guide, seventh grade social studies begins with the Islamic world, then moves on to studies in ancient Africa. At the end of the year, students are taught “Age of Exploration,” a topic which is continued in eighth grade.

As religious persecution is one of the things that prompted the pilgrims to leave in search of a new world, Christianity is studied during the Age of Exploration section, Hanvey said.

While some parents are not comfortable with schools teaching their children about any religion, many have expressed that if religion is to be taught in schools, than school districts should ensure that each religion is taught in an objective fashion so children can better understand varied cultures, beliefs and the world we live in as a whole.

Shansa Sparrow, Spring Hill Middle School Principal has since acknowledged that the school did “not do the best job” highlighting topics that could potentially be seen as controversial, such as sensitive topics like religion.

“We have responded to parents who’ve contacted us about the Islam unit of world history. In addition to that, we want all parents to know about the content of social studies (and) world history and continue an open dialogue about that,” Sparrow said. “An open dialogue with our parents is essential for us to maintain good parent relationships, and I’ve appreciated parents’ willingness to bring to me — and to the school district — classroom issues they have concerns about.”

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