A superintendent of a high school in Illinois has admitted that the school is teaching its young students that the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States was motivated not by religion but by "bad men."
Parents of these students believe that this is part of the Islamic indoctrination of their children studying at the High Mount School in Swansea village, one of the schools in the United States that have drawn controversy over their Islamic lessons, Charisma News reported.
Parent Rachel Seger told the Belleville News-Democrat that she didn't like her 12-year-old daughter's assignment on vocabulary words that included jihad, Islam, Muslim, Arabia, Muhammad, Allah, hegira, mosque, Quran and Baghdad.
"Some of these words, I don't even know what they are: Ayatollah, caliph," said Seger who believed that the school was teaching religion.
"I don't want her learning other faiths from school. If it would have just stopped at 'this is their culture, this is where they go to church,' fine. But when you get into the actual aspect of it, that's where I'm drawing the line. That's just going a little too far," she said.
School Superintendent Mark Halwachs said the school is teaching the difference between a large group and a fanatical faction.
"We have to present, with 9/11 or anything, it wasn't a religion that did that. It was bad men that did that. I think you have to take moments like that and use them as teachable moments. You have to look at the age group and your students, and to me you can talk about different things in the world and teach about tolerance," he said.
The matter about the vocabulary words has been resolved but Seger said her daughter is too young for some discussions.
"It's just hard to explain this to her. That age group, 12-year-old girls, they're a lot more sensitive than people give them credit for," she said.
She added, "When it comes to that, some of those terms should have been left off of there, or left to parents, or wait until they're older. Wait until 16 or 17 and old enough to wrap her head around it. If they're going to teach it, they're going to teach all of it, not just the happy, good side of it ... and she's not prepared to hear the whole truth."
Groups in the US have sounded the alarm on what they call as Islamic indoctrination in public schools such as in Tennessee.
"You can teach about religion, you just can't ... endorse or support a religion over another," Halwachs said. "You can't say (Jesus) is the one and only, or he's the best; you can explain about and teach about the religions of the world."
Seger said, "I just don't think that it should be the teacher's job to be telling my child that."
