Outrage as high school recites Pledge in Arabic saying 'One Nation Under Allah'

[EveningStar]

The Daily Mail:

James Nye

January 30, 2013

 

Fury is brewing at Rocky Mountain High School, in Colorado, after a multicultural student group were encouraged to recite the Pledge of Allegiance over the loudspeaker in Arabic - replacing 'one nation under God' with 'one nation under Allah'.

 

Following Monday's pledge, Principal Tom Lopez has been inundated with complaints from outraged parents concerned that saying the Pledge in any language other than English is unpatriotic .

At the school, the Pledge of Allegiance is recited once a week and on Monday, a member of the Cultural Arms Club at Rocky Mountain High School read out an Arabic version.

 

The pupils sought the permission of Principal Lopez, who previously had allowed the Pledge to be read out in French and Spanish.

 

'Obviously in Arabic, you would use the word Allah, but Christian Arabs would use the word Allah,' said Ibrahim Hooper, of the Council on American Islamic Relations.

 

'It’s not necessarily specific to Islam and Muslims.'

 

From Wikipedia:

 

Allah is the Arabic word for God (literally "the God", as the initial "Al-" is the definite article). It is used mainly by Muslims, Arab Christians, and often, albeit not exclusively, by Bahá'ís, Arabic-speakers, Indonesian, Malaysian and Maltese Christians, and Mizrahi Jews.

 

I see no harm in this. I think people are overreacting. It's quite obvious that the kids can recite the Pledge in English. They just think it's fun to recite it in another language like French, Spanish, Arabic, or whatever. I'm always on the lookout for slippery slopes but I don't see one here. This is not the vanguard of a radical Islamic takeover of the USA.

 

However, the principal was dumb to allow it this time. He should have foreseen the overreaction.