A New Jersey school district apologized this week after a middle school teacher angered Islamic activist groups by naming the Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) as a terrorist group in a class quiz question.
The Wayne Township Public Schools superintendent’s office sent a statement to the district expressing regret over an “inappropriate” question that was asked during a quiz at Schuyler Colfax Middle School earlier this week.
“The question is offensive and runs counter to our values of respect, inclusivity and cultural sensitivity,” the office said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
The superintendent’s letter was in response to recent complaints made on social media by activist group Teaching While Muslim (TWM).
This group: Explains itself A representative for the group, which describes itself on its website as a network of Muslim educators fighting “discrimination, implicit bias and institutional racism” against Muslims in public schools, shared an Instagram post condemning a teacher for quiz-posing questions about the Islamic State to seventh-graders.
The group shared a screenshot of the question, which read, “It is a terrorist organization that commits acts of violence, destroys cultural heritage and promotes the loss of human life to achieve its goal of global domination under strict Islamic Sharia law.”
Students were asked to write books such as “Shining Path,” “Al Qaeda” and “Islamic Stateand the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The image had “Islamic State” circled over it, which was the correct answer. TWM condemned the question in the caption of the post, saying, “We have seen anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian sentiment, teachers and content too many times in our schools, but we cannot allow this to continue. Please call and email everyone you can.”
“This is unacceptable in a million ways. Stop it. And yes, this is real,” the post added, which also included a screenshot of the principal’s purported apology for the question, as conservatives pointed out. Journalist Andy Ngo talks about X.
Recent Congress Research Documents It defines the Islamic State as “a transnational Sunni Islamist insurgency and terrorist organization that, at its height in 2015, controlled large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria from which it launched attacks both within and beyond the region.”
The document further notes that “the U.S. Intelligence Community’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment (ATA) assesses that ‘ISIS will remain a centralized global organization, although it will be forced to rely on regional affiliates.'” [and will attempt] “To wage and incite a global attack against the West and Western interests.”
When asked to confirm the details of TWM’s report into Schuyler-Colfax Middle School, the superintendent’s office released a statement apologizing for the incident.
It said, “First, I would like to offer my sincere apologies on behalf of the school district. An incident like this is unacceptable and does not reflect the standards of our education community. We understand that this incident has caused deep concern and disappointment to students, parents and the broader community. It is also important to recognize that one question does not define our entire school community.”
The statement went on to say that an “investigation” had been launched into the matter, which found that “the test questions were derived in part from software used as a resource for this course.”
“It is important to emphasize that our school is committed to fostering a safe and respectful environment for all students, regardless of background, belief, race or religion. We have a process in place to review curriculum materials and have already begun reviewing this software,” it added, also saying the school will “continue to provide cultural sensitivity training to all teachers and staff.”
