Ireland: April 21, 2016. A Syrian Christian father in Ireland is objecting to his daughter having to learn the Koran and answer questions on it for a high school matriculation exam. All students who take the Arabic language exam must answer question about the Koran, Arabic verse and modern prose. Students are able to choose from a variety of examples of prose and verse; however, eight separate sections of the Koran are mandatory in the exam which tests the proficiency of a student’s command of the language. “I am very distressed that having arrived in Ireland and having been granted refugee status on the basis of the threat to us as Christians we should now be discriminated against in this way,” said the girl’s father, Marwan, who asked that his surname not be used. Irish authorities who design the tests stated that the Koran was chosen on the basis of its linguistic and literary value and not due to its religious significance. However, since the complaint was lodged, the exam will be reviewed by educational authorities. Case for exclusion of Quran in Exam There is no need to include the Quran in the millions of texts available to learn the Arabic language, and indeed, this can be looked upon as a form of religious coercion. Certainly those who are interested in learning world history and culture cannot understand these topics without understanding world religions. However, this exam covers a student’s proficiency in the Arabic language and is not an exam on history or religion. Moreover, teaching religious texts with no context or learning them from questionably-qualified teachers are both educational conditions fraught with danger — especially on a high school level when a student’s critical reasoning abilities are not fully developed. To force minors to learn the Koran to ascertain their proficiency in Arabic, while offering no option to opt out, is a form of religious coercion and explicitly against the law in Ireland. Case for Inclusion of Quran in Exam It is impossible to divorce language from its cultural context. Though teaching the Arabic without reading the Quran would be possible linguistically, to do so would limit students understanding, since the Quran is easily the most important book ever written in Arabic. In the context of a language course, the study of the Quran is not a study of the Islamic religion, but rather the study of a historical and cultural work in its original language. Mandating its inclusion in an Arabic language course is as commendable from an academic standpoint, just as the inclusion of Shakespeare in an English language course would be. It is no more coercing children to become Muslims than reading the Iliad coerces children to believe in the Greek god Apollo.