Group protests ‘Islamic indoctrination’

A Christian group in California is protesting what it calls the “Islamic indoctrination” of impressionable students in the state’s public schools.

In November, a world history teacher at Royal Oak Intermediate School in Covina encouraged students to take part in an extra credit assignment that involved fasting during the month of Ramadan and exploring other tenets of Islam in order to promote greater understanding of and empathy towards the Muslim religion.

Steve Klein is a spokesman for the American Middle East Christian Association (AMECA), a large group of Coptic Christians who fled the Middle East after their family members were murdered, raped, or had their houses burned down by Muslims. Klein says members of his group were appalled when they got hold of information about the assignment, because the teaching materials put Islam into such a positive light. He believes the teacher who initiated the school activity, while well-intentioned, has “bought into the lie that Islam is a peaceful religion.”

The Coptic church leader says it is an outrage that Christians and Jews are not allowed to practice their faiths in public schools because of the so-called “separation of church and state,” yet Muslims are allowed not only to practice Islam in schools but to push their religion on other students. — E.P. News