Should There Be Upheaval Over the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic?

Saying The Pledge Of Allegiance in Schools
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Saying The Pledge Of Allegiance in SchoolsPine Bush High School in Pine Bush, New York made headlines recently for their celebration of National Foreign Language week. Inaugurated in 1957 by the Alpha Mu Gammar Honor Society to help make students aware of how vital foreign language study is, schools are free to choose various activities which expose students to foreign languages.

Though Spanish and French are usually the main languages explored, Italian and German are sometimes included as well. However, as the U. S. melting pot expands its horizons, exposure to more languages seems appropriate.

In that light, Pine Bush decided to celebrate National Foreign Language Week by having the pledge read in a different language each day over the intercom system. All went well until Arabic day lead to the pledge being read by the student body president as, “One nation under Allah”. Students started shouting and many sat down in protest.

Various complaints came pouring in, mostly from Jewish parents and families who had lost members fighting the war on terror. School Superintendent Joan Carbone noted that the Arabic pledge “divided the school in half”.

The outrage was so strong that the school cancelled the pledge being read in Japanese, Italian, French and Spanish as planned and made a public statement: “We sincerely apologize for having the Pledge of Allegiance recited this morning in the high school in a language other than English. The intention was to promote the fact that those who speak a language other than English still pledge to salute this great country. We sincerely apologize to any students, staff or community members who found this activity disrespectful. In our school district, the Pledge of Allegiance will only be recited in English as recommended by the Commissioner of Education.”

It is interesting to note that state regulations do not mandate recital of the pledge in a particular language. Only specific wording is recommended.

Emotions ran so high that some students called the student body president “a terrorist who should go back to the Middle East”. Others stated that English is America’s only language and cars in the Pine Bush parking lot started flying American flags from their roof tops.

Although the school division on the matter was about 50/50, the voice of opposition took a more public stand. People wrote into newspapers stating that the cultural divide in America is widening. Some felt English should be the only recognized language in the U.S. before it becomes a “foreign language”. Others shared that speaking a different language does not take away from ones Americanism.

An American of Arab Christian ancestry stated that he, too, was offended by what happened at Pine Bush noting, “The Pledge of Allegiance isn’t a ‘salute’ to America. It’s a promise to be loyal to it. Part of that loyalty should be to learn English and integrate into our culture.”

Marc J. Randazza, a Las Vegas-based First Amendment attorney and managing partner of the Randazza Legal Group felt that the strong reactions to this incident highlight the lack of proper education in America. He wrote that the districts apology was, “a surrender to ignorance. Instead of the Pine Bush students learning about other languages and cultures, they learned that the ‘heckler’s veto’ and phony tales of ‘offense’ trump open mindedness and the quest for knowledge.”

What are your thoughts on reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools, of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic and other languages? We’d like to hear from you.

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