If Fox News is allowed to write clickbait headlines with no substance, then I can too. When anyone doubts our journalistic credibility, we’ll refer to ourselves as merely entertainment! Just ignore that little word “News” in their title. But I digress…

When learning about a religion, you typically have to LEARN. ABOUT. IT. Their tenets of faith are part of that learning process, so requiring children to write the Five Pillars of Islam would include the words: “Allah is the only god”. Oh no! I was just tricked into doing just that! Oh shit, does this make me a Muslim now? I have this irresistible urge to run off and join ISIS! HELP, FOX NEWS! WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Oh wait, I’m a freethinking adult with half a brain. What the hell am I even doing watching Fox “News” in the first place?

A world history class needs to learn about the world -- regardless of the Fox “News” approach, the course title does denote the subject at hand. Considering that nearly a quarter (23.2%) of the entire population is Muslim and their course was on the Islamic World, American middle schoolers should have a basic working knowledge of what those people believe in.

The parents are also pissed that there isn’t a similar section on Christianity. Taking into account the level of outraged these Tennesseans are, we can safely assume that they already know a thing or two about Jesus and his bible. Since they’re arguing that the school was attempting to indoctrinate their children, I’m sure these parental units aren’t open-minded agnostics, who are merely wanting to steer their children on the right path. They don’t want Muhammad in the same county as good Christian folk. We already got a god ‘round these parts, and he ain’t no Muslim!

This is the same faulty logic with abstinence-based sex education -- If my kids don’t know about it, they won’t do it! Or with preventing homosexuals to teach/care for/be near children -- If they ain’t been around a gay, they can’t become one! Science and sociology have proved both of these crude, reductive rationales as nothing but hogwash, yet somehow they keep leaking into our schools like a noxious gas.

We need to NOT be afraid of “The Other” and try to instead understand or even (maybe, JUST MAYBE) find common ground with them. At least we could take to heart the old Sun Tzu adage:

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss.” -- The Art of War

If Islam has to be your enemy, you might as well know it, because you’ll stand a fighting chance to stop it from making your child become Muslim. Or you could just talk to your fucking kid and stop getting the government to legislate your job for you.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC its affiliates, or its employees.

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