[lg policy] Fwd: US Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic leads school to apologise

[Harold Schiffman]

Forwarded From: Fierman, William <wfierman at indiana.edu>
Date: Fri, Mar 20, 2015 at 11:29 PM

 US Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic leads school to apologise



 *US Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic leads school to apologise*

[image: Students pledging allegiance to the US flag]The 31-word pledge is
recited at many US schools each morning

A school in New York state has apologised after receiving complaints
because a student recited the US Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic.

The school's foreign language department arranged for the pledge to be read
in a different language each day for a week.

Complaints were received from people who lost family in Afghanistan and
from Jewish parents, an official said.

Neither the US nor New York state has an official language.

The school district superintendant, Joan Carbone, told the Times
Herald-Record newspaper
<http://www.recordonline.com/article/20150318/NEWS/150319327> that the
Arabic pledge had "divided the school in half" and that she had received
numerous complaints.

A statement from the district apologised "to any students, staff or
community members who found this activity disrespectful" and said the
reading was intended to "promote the fact that those who speak a language
other than English still pledge to salute this great country".

An Arabic-speaking student read the pledge during morning announcements at
Pine Bush High School in Pine Bush, New York, on Wednesday.

Officials said the school's foreign language department organised for
different pledge translations to be read in celebration of National Foreign
Language Week.

English only from now on

Many students reportedly shouted their disapproval during the recitation,
and later complained on social media.

Later in the afternoon, the school's principal made a school-wide
announcement to explain why the pledge was read in Arabic and to apologise
for those who took offence.

Ms Carbone said the pledge would only be read in English in the future.

The school's student leader, Andrew Zink, who is in charge of the morning
announcements, told the local newspapers that he knew the reading would
attract controversy.

He permitted it to go forward, because he believed it was "the right thing
to do".

"All Americans who value our nation's history of religious and ethnic
diversity should be concerned" by the reaction and subsequent apology, said
Sadyia Khalique, a spokeswoman for the New York chapter of the Council of
American-Islamic Relations.





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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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