Via Daily Caller:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is calling on people in Tennessee to oppose a bill that would prevent public schools from teaching the principles of Islam and every other religion until students reach the 10th grade.
Tennessee state legislator Sheila Butt, a Republican, proposed the bill late last week in response to a grassroots campaign across the state by parents — primarily evangelical parents — against what they perceive as an inappropriate focus on Islam in history and social studies courses in taxpayer-funded middle schools.
House Bill 1418, if it becomes law, would prevent the teaching of all “religious doctrine” until students reach the last three years of high school.
CAIR labeled Rep. Butt’s bill “an anti-Islam bill” which is “tied to Islamophobic claims” in a statement sent to The Daily Caller.
Complaining parents from across Tennessee have expressed alarm in recent weeks because their children in a public middle school are learning about the Five Pillars of Islam in a world history class. (The first and most important pillar is roughly translated as: “There is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God.” At the same time, the parents say, the course material pointedly ignores Christianity.