Parents of seventh graders at the Highland Hills Middle School in Indiana are blasting and protesting the Sharia law assignment that their children recently worked on. They complain that the worksheets described the law in a positive light that it almost seemed like a propaganda material.
The Sharia law assignment featured the story of a fictional 20-year-old Saudi Arabian woman, Ahlima, who wrote about how fortunate she is as a follower of the Islamic code. Ahlima discussed her feelings of becoming someone's second wife. She also talked about the required clothing for women and compared this to "immodest" Western fashion.
"[The assignment was] like describing how effective Hitler was at nationalizing Germany and creating patriotism but leaving out that he slaughtered 6 million Jews," parent Dean Hohl said, according to the Courier-Journal. He expressed discomfort over the fact that the worksheets send a message to his daughter that the Sharia law is OK.
The ethical code, which has existed for centuries, implores its followers to strictly obey religious and moral standards. The Taliban and Syrian extremists fully support these codes. The rest of the world, however, views the law as oppressive to women and in violation of human rights.
According to BBC, some of the tough punishments for criminals that the law upholds include amputation, stoning, torture and death penalty. Women are not seen as equals nor do they enjoy freedom and liberty under the Sharia law.
It supports husbands beating wives if they are not being submissive. The law also provides husbands different divorce privileges compared to the wives, Counter Jihad cites.
Sharon Coletti of InspirEd Educators developed the Sharia law assignment for over 20 years. As an active Christian, she said that she wanted to shape the children's critical thinking via the worksheets.
Coletti was hoping the assignment would help the children become "problem-solvers" against stereotypes but also open their eyes to the privileges that women in other parts of the world enjoy. Due to the complaints, however, Coletti has agreed to pull out the assignment
This isn't the first time that Coletti's worksheets have evoked controversy. A similar assignment was given in 2011 to students in Georgia and the parents also protested and accused the educator of indoctrinating the kids.
