A Texas lawmaker is launching an investigation after a high school teacher reportedly invited her female students to dress in burqas and refer to Muslim terrorists as "freedom fighters."
State Sen. Dan Patrick told Fox News he is very disturbed by a Facebook photograph posted by one of the students in a world geography class at Lumberton High School, which showed them in Islamic garb. He also is investigating reports that the students were forced to write an essay based on an article in The Washington Post that blamed Egypt's turmoil on democracy rather than the Muslim Brotherhood.
"Parents are very sensitive to any issue that seems to be anti-American — that blames democracy for some sort of trouble in the world," he told Fox.
"I felt like the line had been crossed," a parent of the daughter who posted the Facebook photo told Fox. "Christian kids who want to pray have to do it outside of school hours — yet Islam is being taught to our kids during school hours."
The girl's father is confused why a geography class is teaching religion at all.
"She went from learning about Mexico to learning about Russia to learning about Islam," he told Fox. "Islam is not a country. Islam is not a continent."
The school district released a statement to Fox News defending the class: "The lesson that was offered focused on exposing students to world cultures, religions, customs and belief systems. The lesson is not teaching a specific religion, and the students volunteered to wear the clothing."
The parents contacted the principal, who defended the program required under CSCOPE, a controversial electronic curriculum system that provides online lesson plans for teachers, Fox News reports.
"This is the normal answer from every school using CSCOPE," said Janice VanCleave, the founder of Texas CSCOPE Review, which monitors what is being taught in the state's schools. "They are definitely promoting the Islamic religion."
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Jessica Chasmar is a continuous news writer for The Washington Times. Previously, she was part of the start-up team for The Washington Times’ digital aggregation product, Times247. She can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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