A North Carolina mom is upset this week after discovering what she says is questionable religious content in her son's homework.
The parent, who asked not to be identified, showed her local news station a worksheet that was assigned as homework at her son's Union County public school.
"Most Muslims faith is stronger than the average Christian," the worksheet stated as one of the questions. That's the part that the high school freshman's mother had the most issue with, asserting that this type of reigious opinion is not appropriate for a public school to teach.
Other fill-in-the-blank questions on the Porter Ridge High School assigment include, "Islam, at heart is a peaceful religion," and "Jihad: A holy war waged on behalf of Islam a a religious duty; a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline."
The area's Fox News affiliate, My Fox Carolina, contacted the State Board of Education for answers on the curriculum and were sent a statement dodging the issue. "The SBE does not dictate what curriculum and/or instructional materials should be used to teach the standards," the statement read. "Those are local school district decisions."
"If you are going to do it, let's do it right," the mother told North Carolina's WJYZ-TV. "I really feel there is a spin on this."
When the parent contacted the school, she said she asked whether they intended to teach Christianity in the same way. Her son indicated that the teacher only briefly touched on Christianity while focusing mostly on Islam. But a spokesperson for the county school system told My Fox Carolina that it intended to teach Christianity in greater depth in the coming weeks.
The spokesperson also pointed out that this particular assignment had fill-in-the-blank answers, and that the filled-in words were from this student and not necessarily right or wrong. But on the sidebar of the paper is a static graphic with the words "Islam is Peace." This part of the worksheet was not filled-in by students.
My Fox Carolina has reached out to the school for a full copy of the worksheet with "correct" answers, but has not yet received an answer. You can view both pages of the assignment here and here.
