Recently, Pine Bush High School sparked controversy after the Pledge of Allegiance was recited in Arabic at a school assembly during National Foreign Language Week. Students quickly became divided as they posted angry Tweets about the incident. When the news broke, it sparked further furor. Chief among the criticisms seems to be that the reading is conceived as an insidious piece of Muslim propaganda. Amidst the storm, the school issued an apology.

The high school was celebrating National Foreign Language Week and was reading the morning announcements in different languages throughout the week. The student body president Andrew Zink is the one who allowed another student to read the Pledge in Arabic. Afterward, he received criticism, and the administration banned him from reading announcements for the rest of the year. The rest of National Foreign Language Week has been canceled. The girl who read the Pledge is reportedly Muslim and faced bullying after the incident. Now, the student body and community members are divided over the issue, and opinions seem to be divided almost 50/50. Zink is quoted in the New York Daily News as saying, “The point of reading it in another language is that it doesn’t matter what language you speak. America is defined by what you believe, not what you speak or how you look.”

Let’s get something straight: reciting the pledge in a language other than English is not promoting an ideology. A language is not a belief. A language is not a religion. It is, very simply, a language. And one of the things that has made this country great is that people of many different cultures have come here, contributing to our society with their traditions, including their languages.

Nor is there anything intrinsically wrong with Arabic. It is a language spoken by many countries around the world. People who speak Arabic come from many backgrounds, religions and beliefs, just as people who speak English come from many backgrounds, religions and beliefs. A language is not inherently evil. Yes, the argument could be made that it was not particularly good timing, but this does not mean that all people who speak Arabic are terrorists.

The apology that the school issued stated, in part, “To honor National Foreign Language Week and in an effort to celebrate the many races, cultures and religions that make up this great country and our school district, the foreign language department planned to read the Pledge of Allegiance and morning announcements in different languages this week. The intention was to promote the fact that those who speak a language other than English still pledge to salute this great country.” The school’s thinking was exactly right. No matter what language it is said in, the Pledge is still saluting and honoring America. Conversely, reciting it in a language other than English is not dishonoring America. We should be proud that we as Americans have the freedom to speak another language. The Pledge says “liberty and justice for all.” This means all people and all languages they speak.

The United States has always been a melting pot of cultures, and we are all immigrants and should be accepting of people who want to live here. To be sure, it can be argued that it is essential for the people of a nation to share one language, and in this country, common sense dictates that the language should be English. But that is far from the same as demonizing other languages, or saying that they should not be spoken as well, or arguing that there are certain words, like the Pledge of Allegiance, that should never be said in those languages.

It has also been reported that the district superintendent, Joan Carbone, said the Department of Education says the Pledge should be read in English. Our own research found no such precedent. According to Wikipedia, “The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy, who was a Baptist minister and a Christian socialist…. The original Pledge of Allegiance was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children’s magazine The Youth’s Companion…. The event was conceived and promoted by James B. Upham, a marketer for the magazine, as a campaign to instill the idea of American nationalism in students and sell flags to public schools.”

The idea that the school had to apologize for this is absurd, and even more absurd is the vitriol spewed by people commenting on the story saying that the school is promoting a Muslim extremist agenda and the hate shown toward people who speak Arabic. Americans need to keep an open mind and not jump to conclusions about anything that is different from their own way of thinking, and speaking.