Shaykh El Hadji Sall, a parent from Montgomery County, stated that the material is ‘absolutely against’ his religion.
Parents of all faiths united in opposition to gender ideology instruction in a Maryland school district, declaring that they will not be silenced.
Shaykh El Hadji Sall, an African Muslim immigrant, joined the protest and spoke out against Montgomery County Public Schools’ decision to no longer permit students to opt-out of gender identity and sexual orientation instruction. Sall explained in an opinion piece for Fox News that the instruction conflicts with his religious beliefs.
“Our simple request to restore the most basic of our rights — the right to opt out — received a surprising backlash. The opposing side lacks an argument as to why they should deny us our basic freedoms and parental rights, and so they have smeared us as bigots,” he wrote. “Yet none of these smears are going to silence me or other parents in Montgomery County from the Muslim and other faith communities. The stakes are too high, and our children are paramount.”
Last year, MCPS announced plans to include an LGBTQ-inclusive reading list into its English language arts curriculum for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Sall told “Fox & Friends” on Friday that parents have the freedom not to follow the curriculum since it is “completely against” their fundamental views.
He claims that the school is attempting to convert his children’s values to something that is “sinful” in his religion.
“We are just not being treated properly because these are a small group of liberals in the Board of Education [who] just want to do what they want to do against all of us, which is not right,” he told host Brian Kilmeade.
Ismail Royer, a member of the Coalition of Virtue, represents the concerned parents. He stated that parents do not want to be forced to choose between indoctrinating their children or having them punished by the school district.
“People of faith and people who share a moral consensus have to get together and pay attention to who’s getting elected to these school boards,” Royer explained.
“Voting has to be done by a case-by-case basis, but in this situation it would be suicidal for Muslims to vote for a Democrat unfortunately, just the way that Democrats line up on this issue.”
Following the parental outcry, Montgomery County Public Schools issued a statement saying: “Maryland law permits students and families to opt out of ‘Family Life and Human Sexuality Unit of Instruction’ but not other curriculum such as the English language arts curriculum.”
Sall, on the other hand, is dissatisfied with the school district’s statement. He claimed that the push for gender ideology and sexual orientation in schools is an effort to undermine his culture and religious heritage.
“We’re not going to accept it,” he said. “We just want to opt out completely to this curriculum they want to impose to our children to indoctrinate them.”
He predicted that this issue in education will have a significant impact on the upcoming election.
“Our God teaches to obey him, to obey the prophet, but also to obey the authority among us, meaning to be a good citizen,” he said. “And to be a good citizen is definitely to vote and to vote properly.”
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