Alright, this one has been simmering for weeks now, and it just keeps getting hotter.
You’ve got a North Carolina school board member, Tod Kinlaw, right in the middle of a firestorm after posting something on Facebook that a lot of people in his community saw as way over the line.
The post—now deleted, but very much not forgotten—called Islam a “satanic death cult” and included language attacking core figures of the religion. Screenshots spread fast, and once that happened, there was no putting it back in the box.
So what happens next? Packed meetings, protests, and a community that shows up in force. At the latest school board meeting, every single seat—about 100 of them—was gone within five minutes. That tells you something right there.
People weren’t just mildly upset; they were ready to be heard. And they were. Speaker after speaker stepped up, some saying flat-out that Kinlaw has no place in public education if he can’t respect the full student body, others calling his comments outright religious bigotry.
Now, here’s where it gets more complicated. Kinlaw isn’t backing down. In a video interview, he pushed back hard on the idea that he was attacking individuals. He framed it as criticism of a belief system, not people, and pointed to his own experiences sharing his Christian faith with Muslims.
He also brought up Sharia law and LGBTQ issues, suggesting his critics were ignoring parts of the conversation. That defense hasn’t cooled things off—in fact, for many, it’s had the opposite effect.
Meanwhile, the school board itself is trying to walk a very narrow line. Chairman Josh Crisp put out a statement making it clear the board does not agree with Kinlaw’s comments.
But—and this is key—they also say they don’t have the authority to remove him. He’s an elected official. That means unless he chooses to resign, or voters decide otherwise, he stays put.
And that’s where this heads next. Local groups like the Gaston County NAACP and Indivisible Gaston have already called for his resignation, and with reelection coming up, this isn’t going away quietly. What started as a single social media post has turned into a full-blown political and community battle, and right now, nobody’s backing off.
