I
don't know if we can afford to give an inch on this. I'm for vouchers
and the belief that parents should be able to send their kids to what
ever school they want. But can we allow a school to try and defeat us
at home. I guess the Dem's do in Congress every day. I guess we'll
have to live with it. We need to monitor it closely.
Controversial Arab School to Open Next Week
By Fred Lucas
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
August 29, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - Despite controversies, protests, and the
principal's ouster, the Kahlil Gibran International Academy, an Arab
language and culture school, is set to open in Brooklyn next week for
about 60 sixth-grade students.
Yet opponents of the school, who fear it will promote Islam, are still fighting to keep the academy from opening.
And
now a leading Christian legal group, the Thomas More Law Center, is
lending a hand to the Stop the Madrassa citizens group in New York
City. A madrassa is the name given to a Muslim school - New York City
school officials say the Kahlil Gibran International Academy does not
fit that category.
But the Academy, a public school, will be an
incubator for Islamic radicalization, said Richard Thompson, president
of the Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich. He cited a New York
Police Department intelligence report that warned against isolation of
the Arab population, because it can lead to terrorism.
"Rather
than use the public school system to assimilate Muslims and other
immigrants into American culture, New York City is doing everything it
can to keep them isolated - a target-rich environment for recruiting
potential new homegrown terrorists and a recipe for a future 9/11
disaster, according to my read of the NYPD report," said Thompson.
New
York City Schools Chancellor Joe Klein said the school is not a
religious school and will be shut down should it try to become one. He
and others insist the school - similar to other schools with a culture
theme, such as Greek, Russian and Chinese - can keep the teachings of
Arab culture separate from the Islamic religion.
However, the
school's advisory board is made up of three imams (Islamic leaders), as
well as Christian and Jewish clergy. New York City schools spokeswoman
Melody Meyer told
Cybercast News Service this was not a step to push religion but an
opportunity because of board members who were able to successfully
reach out to the Brooklyn community. Meyer could not be reached for
comment Tuesday.
One of the imams named to the board was Talib
Abdul-Rashid, who preaches at the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in
Harlem. The mosque's Web site proclaims, "Allah is our goal. The prophet Muhammad is our leader. The Quran is our constitution. Jihad is our way. And death in the way of Allah is our promised end."
Abdul-Rashid
had defended the ousted principle Debbie Almontaser, who helped found
the school. Almontaser was controversial from the time the school was
announced because of radical, left-wing comments she made regarding U.S. foreign policy.
She
resigned this month after it was discovered she shared office space
with an Islamist group that sells T-shirts encouraging New York Muslims
to join an "intifada."
The intifada refers to the attacks on
Israeli Jews by Islamic radicals between 1987 and 1993, in some of the
territories gained by the Israelis after the Six Day War in 1967.
The
New York chapter of the Council of Islamic Relations (CAIR) released a
statement earlier this month expressing "regret" that Almontaser "was
unfairly pressured to resign from her position as principal due to
attacks."
The CAIR statement said the academy has "sustained
hateful and false attacks by anti-Arab media and extremists. In the
post-9/11 world, a school educating our children about Arab history,
culture, and language is not only crucial for the next generation to
become informed leaders for positive change in our communities; it is
also an extraordinary place of hope for people, understanding, and
justice for our embattled world."
It was in March, this year,
when New York City Department of Education officials announced the
establishment of the academy, named for Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese
Christian poet.
The school will host grades 6-12, but it will
include only a sixth grade class the first year and then expand each
year as students are promoted. The academy will enroll 60 students at a
cost of more than $12,000 per pupil and have five faculty members - all
certified teachers, Meyer said.
The executive summary
of the school describes a day in the life of a student as passing
through the hallway adorned with portraits of Arab philosophers,
inventors and poets. In the cafeteria, a retired, Arab-speaking
community member will come daily to converse with students to
strengthen their Arab fluency, according to the summary.
Among
those cafeteria speakers will be attorneys from the American Muslim
Association of Lawyers, said Sara Springer, a member of Stop the
Madrassa. The Muslim lawyers group is the organization representing the
six imams who are suing passengers of a U.S. Air flight for allegedly
discriminating against them after the passengers reported suspicious
behavior by the imams.
"They have a specific ideology," Springer told Cybercast News Service
. "A public school is not a venue for that. If we raise a generation of
indoctrinated children, it's scary to think about the future in this
country."
Springer said she isn't comforted by Almontaser's departure, because the faculty was hired by Almontaser.
"Even though the principal is gone, she created it," said Springer. "It's her vision."
New
York school officials said every school has a rigid monitoring process.
Still, Brian J. Rooney, an attorney with the Thomas More Law Center,
told Cybercast News Service the group will monitor the school
with help from the Stop the Madrassa coalition. If they find a
religious violation, Rooney said they will bring a federal lawsuit
against the school.
Monitoring by the city's department of education could create a constitutional issue in itself, Rooney said.
"The
problem with the Department of Education coming in to determine if
there are religious violations is that CAIR could view that as
discriminatory on it's face," Rooney said. "CAIR will threaten
litigation, and Klein will be hamstrung. We'll be in a much better
position to monitor."
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