[DAILYCALLER] A group of parents in Southern Indiana has expressed alarm because their children in the local taxpayer-funded middle school are learning that Sharia law is a delightful concept beloved by women forced to live under its yoke.
The Sharia-related assignment at issue is for seventh-grade students at Highland Hills Middle School, just north of Louisville, reports The Courier-Journal, the main regional newspaper.
The assignment provides a reading passage ostensibly written by a 20-year-old woman named Ahlima who resides in Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face...
Ahlima says she feels "very fortunate" to be governed by Sharia law -- the notorious Islamic penal code which, in countries such as Saudi Arabia, includes the practice of cutting off the hands of criminals who steal. She observes that she is about to become some guy’s second wife. She supports the repressive clothes women in Saudi Arabia must wear. "I understand that some foreigners see our dress as a way of keeping women from being equal," Ahlima writes. "I find Western women’s clothing to be horribly immodest."
| From the referenced The Courier-Journal article, it's all in the teaching: |
Coletti said she developed the original lesson nearly 20 years ago to fulfill state social studies standards requiring middle school students to learn about culture in the Middle East. Ahlima, the character in the lesson, is based on an interview she saw on an interview in a news program with a woman who held many of the same ideas about Sharia law, she said.
Initially, the curriculum was two consecutive activities – one focusing on Ahlima and one focusing on an Israeli woman of a similar age who served in the army and wanted to attend college. Coletti said she later combined the two lessons for clarity.
She said that despite the change, the goal of the assignment was the same: to help students think for themselves and arrive at the conclusion that the Israeli has more rights and freedoms than the Saudi woman of the same age. If they don’t arrive at that conclusion, she said, the teacher is expected to help the student understand. |