Top Ten Reasons why the first New York Arabic public school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, must be stopped.
1) KGIA principal designate Debbie aka Dhabah Almontaser is a documented Islamist who does da’wa (Islamist proseltysing) in the guise of a “multicultural educator”. She was honored for her infiltration of the NY educational system at a Muslim Unity event organized by the Islamic Internet University/ Study Islam.com where she shared the stage with 65 of the most radical Islamist leaders in North America. The opening of KGIA will be hailed as a victory for da’wa in the the United States (Note that the pages on the internet about the Muslim Unity event appear to have been recently removed.) Militant Monitor
2) Almontaser uses her position as a “multicultural educator” and classroom teacher in the NYC DOE to indoctrinate students. In 2002 she told a 6th grade class that “"I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims," … "Those people who did it have stolen my identity as an Arab and have stolen my religion." Almontaser wrote an article lauding the attacks as a “teachable moment” and manipulated her students into thinking that”it was not a proven fact” that “those who are involved in the attacks are terrorists who may be of Arab descent” and manipulated them to conclude that “We have reason to believe that those who are involved in the attacks are terrorists”. More here.
3) Dhabah Almontaser will promote Islamic fundamentalism and will hinder intergration which is supposed to be the aim of public school education. She wrote that she wears her traditional Islamic garb because she sees herself as “a role model for girls across the city” and that she “would rather die then take off my hijab”. She also boasts that her daughter has worn a head covering since age 9. More at Militant monitor.
4) The main partnering organization for KGIA is the Arab American Family Support Center [AAFSC] is headed by Saudi educated Lena Al Husseini, who has ties to radical Islamists. She was pictured at a conference together with Sayyid Syeed the former head of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA has been named asa an unindicted co conspirator in a Hamas funding case and the biggest Wahhabist da’wa groups in North America) and Johari Abdul-Malik the outreach director of Dar Al Hijrah mosque who raised money for the defense of two convicted terrorists –Ali Al Tamimi and Omar Abu Ali. One of the links on the AAFSC website is to the Counci for Islamic Education (CIE) which offers aa curriculum titled “Hirabah not Jihad." More here at Militant Monitor.
4) Several AAFSC board members are active in the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committee [ADC] a group funded by Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal who has supported the families of suicide bombers and whose donation to a 9/11 victim fund was rejected by then Mayor Giuliani after he blamed the attacks on US policy in the Middle East. John Abi Habib the CEO of MCI Net software company (which has contracts with the DOE) has attended events honoring the Saudi billionaire together with his brother Roger MCI is listed as a KGIA partner. Abi Habib also heads the Salaam Club antoiher KGIA affiliate.
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Prince Alwaleed Receives ABANA Lifetime Achievement Award File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML His Royal Highness Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin AbdulAziz Alsaud is a private entre- .... Roger Abi-Habib, John Abi-Habib, George Jalinos. and John Hoey ... More here at Arab Bankers
5) Twelve members of the KGIA advisory board are clerics – an hitherto unprecedented religious affiliation for a public school. Their involvement raises issues about separation of church and state. DOE Chancellor Joel Klein and spokespeople have said they will close KGIA if it becomes a “religious” or “political” school. Pipeline News
6) Three of the Islamic clerics on the KGIA advisory board are documented supporters of jihad and Islamisation. Arab Christian cleric Khader Al Yateem was the subject of a demand for the removal of his segment on a PBS documentary about Arabs in America due which ADL head Abe Foxman cited as a virulently anti Israel diabtribe . Ironically the head of the ADL’s office in NY Joel Levy has written a letter in support of KGIA and Almontaser. Arab groups have attacked the ADL’s support for the school as “Zionist” interference. More at Pipeline News.
KGIA advisory board member Imam Shamsi Ali runs a madrassah in Queens which is in possible violence of DOE truancy laws since school age students spend all day memorizing the Koran and have no secular curriculum. New York Times
Imam Abdul Latif the Imam at NYU threatened the university with violence during the Danish cartoon controversy.Militant Monitor
Al Hajj Abdur Talib Rashid heads a committee to free convicted cop killer Jamil Amin aka H.Rap Brown. Daniel Pipes
7) There is overwhelming evidence that KGIA is promoting both a political and religious agenda. Joel Klein is obligated to keep his word to shut down KGIA for this reason. A precedent for this was set in 2005 he removed Columbia professor Rashid Khalidi from a position in a DOE teacher training program on the Middle East within hours of a NY Sun piece which reported that;.Campus Watch
“A Columbia University professor who has called Israel a "racist" state with an "apartheid system," and who has supported attacks by Palestinian-Arabs on Israelis, is scheduled to lecture a group of New York City public school teachers on how to teach Mideast politics to schoolchildren.”…” The course on The Middle East will be about that region's cultural patterns and complex history”… "It will be given in conjunction with and under the sponsorship of The Middle East Institute of Columbia University." New York Sun
Why is Dhabah Almontaser (who also works with Khalidi and the Columbia University Middle East Institute he heads and has helped write a curriculum for teachers with the MEI and is also on the board of groups tied to Hamas and Al Qaeda not being deemed unfit for a position in the public school system on the same grounds as her colleague Khalidi?
8) Dhabah Almontaser is on the board of the Muslim Consultative Network headed by Adem Carroll who spokesman and relief program coordinator for ICNA in New York. ICNA has direct ties to Al Qaeda and Jamaat Al Islamiya. The former head of ICNA Queens was Asharafuzzman Khan a death squad leader who was accused of shooting 8 teachers to death in Dhaka in 1971. Almontaser appeared on the podium with Khan at a Muslim Unity Rally held in Madison Square Garden by the Islamic Internet University in 2003. Another MCN member is KGIA board member Imam Al Hajj Talib Abdur Rashid. He is the chairman of the Justice Committee of the Majlis Ash-Shura (Islamic Leadership Council) of New York.
The Majlis Ash Shura councils draws up rules governing every aspect of the life of a Muslim according to Islamic law. A description of what the Majlis Ash Shura Council does can be found on the official Saudi website whcich says “Governance shall be based on “Shura (consultation), and equity in accordance with Islamic Shari’ah). Wikipedia also has a definition.
When questioned if her agenda for KGIA included shar’ia .Almontaser prevaricated with the claim “I don’t know what shari’a is”. Given that KGIA advisory board member Al Haj Talib Abdur Rashid is on the Majlis Ash Shura council of New York( and the MCN board of which Almontaser is also a member) the influence of Islamic law on KGIA is a given. The list of members of MCN is also extremely troubling and the presence of the Majlis Ash Shura of New York shows it has a strong religious component.
The Council of American Islamic Relations, New York chapter of the pre-eminent Muslim civil liberties advocacy organization; Muslims Women’s Institute for Research and Development, active in interfaith and member of Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD); Islamic Circle of North America, active in providing local social services, 9/11 response and disaster relief and member of VOAD; the Social Justice Committee of the Islamic Leadership Council, or Majlis Ash Shura, the largest network of local imams, as well as a range of active and well-connected community advocates, educators, student leaders and lawyers. www.mcnny.org
9 )KGIA principal designate Dhabah Almontaser is on the board of the Dialogue Project together with Linda Sarsour who heads the Arab American Association of New York (AAANY) .
Many of the partnering organizations of of AAANY are involved with KGIA as well.
In 2005 Almontaser and Sarsour organized the Arab Heritage Festival week together. Sarsour has a brother –in law, cousin, and “family friend” who are serving lengthy prison terms in Israel for Hamas activities. Her husband (identified in an article as Maher Judt) was facing deportation in 2004 after having lived for 7 years in the United States, possibly for reasons related to his Hamas member brother. Militant Monitor
10) It has irrefutably documented that the Khalil Gibran International Academy and Dhabah Almontaser will be a religious and politically oriented school i.e. a publicly funded madrassa. The partnering institutions and individuals are all known to be promoting an anti Western and anti democratic agenda which negates everything the public school system is supposed to promote. The KGIA runs counter to the public interest and also poses a security threat. Chancellor Joel Klein of the DOE and Mayor Bloomberg should be held to account and the public should demand the KGIA opening be cancelled.
Related: Khalil Gibran International Academy
