GREENVILLE, Va. – As a part of a world geography class, Virginia high schoolers practiced writing out the shahada, or Muslim statement of faith–and it was done under the guise of learning the complexity of the script.

The Shilling Show reports:

Parents of students at Greenville, Virginia’s Riverheads High School were shocked by a recent assignment given in World Geography class.

Classroom teacher, Cheri Laporte, asked students to practice “calligraphy” by copying the Muslim statement of faith, also known as the shahada, which translates as:

“There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.”

Recitation of the shahada is a fundamental step in conversion to Islam.

According to parents, students were not informed of the translation or of the specific meaning of the Arabic text the students were being asked to copy. In addition, parents confirm that female students were invited to don Muslim apparel and subsequently were photographed in costume by the teacher.

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According to Rob Shilling, an administrator has subsequently deleted the photos.

“Neither these lessons, nor any other lesson in the world geography course, are an attempt at indoctrination to Islam or any other religion, or a request for students to renounce their own faith or profess any belief,” the Augusta County Public Schools district said in a statement to Fox News.

School administrators defended the assignment, claiming it was more about the writing style, as opposed to what the students were actually writing.

“The statement presented as an example of the calligraphy was not translated for students, nor were students asked to translate it, recite it or otherwise adopt or pronounce it as a personal belief,” the district told Fox News.

“They were simply asked to attempt to artistically render written Arabic in order to understand its artistic complexity.”

But parents weren’t buying the school district’s excuses.

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A parent tells Rob Shilling students were shown a Koran during the lesson, but not the Bible, because, according to the teacher, “all of the students already have read or seen a Bible.”

“I do not trust her to teach my son and regardless of the outcome he will not sit in her classroom. I am in the process of forgiving her but I do not trust her,” a parent told Shilling.