Virginia officials shut down an entire school district on Friday after a homework assignment on Arabic calligraphy led to threats and a firestorm of backlash from angry parents.

The incident leading to the backlash began after a world geography teacher at Riverheads High School in Staunton assigned her students to study the artistic complexity of calligraphy by writing a Muslim statement of faith in Arabic, reports Reuters. The illustrative classical Arabic phrase translated to: "There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is the messenger of Allah."

The homework assignment, however, incited fury among parents who accused the teacher of indoctrinating their children with Islam. School officials were also flooded with complaints from concerned and outraged parents, some of who demanded that the teacher be terminated.

"I do not trust her to teach my son and regardless of the outcome he will not sit in her classroom," mother Kimberly Herndon said in a Facebook post that was shared hundreds of times, according to CNN.

In addition, the school received threats, which prompted district officials to cancel classes for about 10,000 students on Friday as a safety. Extracurricular activities were also cancelled starting from Thursday and through the weekend.

"While there has been no specific threat of harm to students, schools and school offices will be closed Friday, December 18, 2015," Augusta County Schools said in a statement.

"We regret having to take this action, but we are doing so based on the recommendations of law enforcement and the Augusta County School Board out of an abundance of caution," reads statement said.

"No lesson was designed to promote a religious viewpoint or change any student's religious belief," the statement said.

The statement added that students would continue to learn about world religions, which is required by state law, with a non-religious sample of Arabic writing moving forward.