Colorado Student Quits High School Choir Over Islamic Song Praising 'Allah'

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[Iam1ru1-2]

A Colorado high school student says he quit the school choir after an Islamic song containing the lyric "there is no truth except Allah" made it into the repertoire.

James Harper, a senior at Grand Junction High School in Grand Junction, put his objection to singing "Zikr," a song written by Indian composer A.R. Rahman, in an email to Mesa County School District 51 officials. When the school stood by choir director Marcia Wieland's selection, Harper said, he quit.

"I don’t want to come across as a bigot or a racist, but I really don’t feel it is appropriate for students in a public high school to be singing an Islamic worship song,” Harper told KREX-TV. "This is worshipping another God, and even worshipping another prophet ... I think there would be a lot of outrage if we made a Muslim choir say Jesus Christ is the only truth."

The Colorado high school where a student quit the school choir over Islamic song lyrics is seen in this undated photo.

But district spokesman Jeff Kirtland defended the decision to include the song.

"Choral music is often devoted to religious themes. ... This is not a case where the school is endorsing or promoting any particular religion or other non-educational agenda. The song was chosen because its rhythms and other qualities would provide an opportunity to exhibit the musical talent and skills of the group in competition, not because of its religious message or lyrics," Kirtland told FoxNews.com in an email while noting that the choir "is a voluntary, after-school activity."

"Students are not required to participate, and receive no academic credit for doing so," he said.

[Da Coyote]

Are they gonna do the song “You can take your Mohammed and shove it?”

[yldstrk]

Good for him. Proud there is someone like him left. What next, songs praising satan

[Jonty30]

Whom else could Allah be?

[GeronL]

He apparently got death threats and had to quit school altogether

[yldstrk]

I totally agree

Next will be songs praising atheists

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, either the choir director is an idiot, or he's lying.

The choral piece in question: Zikir

It is a very repetitive, rather dull piece with a limited range, featuring alternating baritone solos in a Middle Eastern scale and a refrain that sounds like a bagpipe drone. It doesn't show off much of anything, certainly not vocal ability of the choir (although I guess they have to be able to count).

What's really going on is the choir director thought he'd score some points by being ethnically diverse and politically correct and include some Middle Eastern music. It never occurred to him to think about the religious implications.

For something that actually has MERIT that uses a similar scale and has a Middle Eastern sound, James MacMillan has written a setting of "Iesum tradidit" that fits the bill.

Then there's this surprising and beautiful piece, that veers back and forth between crunchy dissonance and an absolutely lovely resolution into E minor: Tavener: The Lamb. If you wanted to show off a high school choir, you'd sing something like that.

[Truth is a Weapon]

Good for him. But if he simply stood up in class and sang a song praising Jesus he would have been kicked out of choir and school too.

[StonyBurk]

SIN—the pagan Arabic moon god represented by the crescent moon and reflected in regional names like Sinai.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Iam1ru1-2.