A high school in the hamlet of Pine Bush, New York had to apologize this week after parents complained about a student reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic, an act they reportedly deemed "un-American."
The apparently offending pledge in question was read during Pine Bush High School's morning announcements on Wednesday, as part of the school's National Foreign Language Week programming. A teacher reportedly asked an Arabic-speaking student to recite the pledge aloud, and planned to showcase the pledge in Japanese, French, and Spanish later on in the week in order to "promote the fact that those who speak a language other than English still pledge to salute this great country," according to a statement from the school district.
But this lesson in language diversity didn't go over so well with parents, who complained that reading the pledge in Arabic was "disrespectful." They argued it offended Jewish residents and those who had lost family members in Afghanistan, which is not actually a nation in which Arabic is spoken. "Judging (from) what the country is dealing with now with extreme Muslims and all the war and stuff over there, I wouldn’t have started off with Arabic," one resident told CBS News, with another resident telling the station that the pledge "should be spoken in English. This is America."
So, the school apologized. "We sincerely apologize to any students, staff or community members who found this activity offensive," the district said in a statement. "In our school District the Pledge of Allegiance will only be recited in English as recommended by the Commissioner of Education."
According to a 2014 Pew Center study, over 1 million Americans speak Arabic at home, making it the seventh most spoken foreign language in the country.
