Atlas Shrugs

MUSLIM KIDS BEATEN, ABUSED REGULARLY IN ISLAMIC SCHOOLS

Child abuse. The religion of peace destroys the souls of its young. Is it any wonder they are barbarians when they grow up. I mean, really.

UK: Newspaper investigates child abuse at madrassashat tip Terri

Muslim children are being beaten and abused regularly by teachers at some British madrassas - Islamic evening classes - an investigation by The Times has found.

Students have been slapped, punched and had their ears twisted, according to an unpublished report by an imam based on interviews with victims in the north of England. One was "picked up by one leg and spun around" while another said a madrassa teacher was "kicking in my head - like a football", says the report which was compiled by Irfan Chishti, a former government adviser on Islamic affairs.

Almost 1,600 madrassas operate in Britain, teaching Arabic and the Koran on weekday evenings to about 200,000 children aged from four to their mid-teens.

NY Public School Madrassah Ex-Principal Sued for Defamation

What a wonderful development this is. Turning the tables on the litigation jihad. Perhaps she will consult with the Islamists' rabbi.

STOP THE MADRASSA: A COMMUNITY  COALITION SERVES  DHABAH (aka Debbie) ALMONTASER WITH  DEFAMATION LAWSUIT

Stop the Madrassa has filed a lawsuit for defamation per se in Kings County Supreme Court against Dhabah (aka Debbie) Almontaser based upon her statements to the press. (See New YorkTimes web log here)

Stop The Madrassa's lawyer demanded on more than one occasion, the first time five months ago, that Almontaser "cease and desist" her defaming the members of Stop The Madrassa by accusing them of stalking her and of verbally accosting her with anti-Muslim hate speech, serious crimes in the State of New York.

With the recent release of a New York Times article "Principal of Arabic School Says She Was Forced Out," these defamatory remarks by Almontaser take on even greater visibility in that they are being re-published every day at the New York Times web-log and other Internet sites. Almontaser has left Stop The Madrassa members nowhere to turn but to New York Supreme Court in its attempt to undo the enormous damage her false charges of criminal behavior have caused.

Sara Springer, President of Stop The Madrassa Coalition, made it clear that “neither Stop The Madrassa nor any of its members have ever stalked Almontaser or even attempted to track her whereabouts.”

Ms. Springer added, “Stop The Madarassa’s interest was in getting basic information about the Khalil Gibran International Academy – information that the Department of Education was required by law to provide but refused. Any mention of Almontaser was based upon the fact that she was the one who planned and organized the school, created a religious advisory board of radical Imams and called for Shariah-compliant Halal food.”

Stop The Madrassa Coalition members, Sara Springer, Irene Alter and Pamela Hall, have also explained they “have lived in abject fear that these allegations of criminal behavior could result in some prosecutor deciding to pursue the matter criminally.”

The Stop The Madrassa complaint emphasizes that Almontaser has pursued these defamatory lies even in federal court by repeating them in the lawsuit she filed in the Southern District of New York against the Department of Education alleging she was illegally fired.

The Stop The Madrassa defamation lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages plus legal fees and costs.

Turning the tables on lawfare. Love it.

In a related matter, Stop The Madrassa Coalition’s FOIL lawsuit against the Department of Education concluded with the court issuing an order demanding the Department of Education provide all the documents requested by the Coalition. The court's decision on the award of attorneys' fees and costs is pending.

According to Stop The Madrassa, even with the court order, the Department of Education has failed to turn over essential documents as required by statute.

THE BEST OPED PIECE ON KGIA NYC PUBLIC SCHOOL MARDASSA

Adam Brodsky cuts through all the deception and lies surrounding the public Arabic school, KGIA, and restates the obvious. Adam Brodsky has explained exactly why caution should have prevailed regarding the opening of the Khal Gibran International Academy. He eviscerates the New York Times taqqiya tripe pushing for public funded hotbeds of Islamic inculcation. It's hardly surprising considering The New York Times recently ran a style oriented piece in their Sunday magazine glamorizing clitorectomies (is it our fault that their writers are frigid?).

Please write letters  in support of the points made in The New York Post piece commending them for  their courage and common sense. Bucking the leftist/Islamic alliance is an act of bravery. Foe shizzle.

WHO NEEDS VIGILANCE?

THE NY TIMES & 'INTIFADA HIGH'

Almontaser: Ties to dubious groups.

May 2, 2008 -- SOMEONE should tell The New York Times what happened on 9/11 - it ap parently has no clue. If it did, it never would've run that 4,500-word, front-page tearjerker Monday on Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran International Academy and its ex-principal, Debbie Almontaser.

What happened back then (as everyone but, it seems, the Times knows) is that Arab Islamists, disguised as harmless civilians, murdered 3,000 people and leveled the World Trade Center. In so doing, they awoke America to their war, which relies heavily on deception and targets unsuspecting, open-minded, tolerant Westerners. Gullible fools, that is.

Since then, Americans got wise. One response to the sneak attack: vigilance. If you see something, say something. Be careful whom you trust.

The Times sees no need for vigilance, as if 9/11 never happened. But caution underlies resistance to the city's first Arab-themed public school.

No, no one feared the school would train kid bombers. But would kids come away less committed to US values and traditions than their peers? How would the school present 9/11, Islam, Israel, the Mideast - America?

Surely, if Americans had flattened the Riyadh Tower (Saudi Arabia's tallest building), the idea of opening a public school in the Kingdom to promote US-Arab understanding would occur to no one. No wonder jaws dropped over plans for a taxpayer-funded, Arabic-themed school in the city, in response to attacks here by Arab terrorists.

Yes, in theory, such a school can be useful. More Americans need to speak Arabic - not just to bridge cultural gaps, but to spy on the enemy and expose his plots. We need to know how Islamists think and act - not to understand their "grievances," but to help predict and foil their next attack.

When the consequences are great, as when creating a school, officials must act with an over-abundance of prudence. They must have unassailable faith in school leaders.

But why even open a school? Why not offer Arabic as an elective in the regular public school curriculum like Spanish, french, Russian etc?

Once a school opens, it's hard to reverse decisions. Almontaser's lawsuit against Mayor Mike and the city - she cites her First Amendment rights in claiming she was wrongly forced to quit - shows that.

Folks can debate if Almontaser, a Yemeni-American, is a well-meaning Muslim moderate railroaded out of her dream to create "ambassadors of peace and hope" - as she, and the Times, insist.

They can weigh the paper's suggestion that she was fired in large part because of a Post story, which a judge said "misleadingly" reported her comments on the term "intifada."

Or they may decide that anti-Islamist experts like Daniel Pipes, who labeled her an "extremist," had her pegged better. And that the Gibran school really is "the kind of radicalizing effort it was said to be," as Stephen Schwartz put it.

That debate might answer questions like: Why did Almontaser feel compelled to defend teen girls whose group sported t-shirts with the incendiary words "Intifada NYC"? What's with her ties to groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land terror-funding case with links to Hamas?

Certainly, there was enough to raise real concerns, in an era of necessarily heightened distrust. And that should have been sufficient to disqualify her, if not to kill the school entirely - however qualified and well-meaning she may be.

As they respond to terror with vigilance, Americans will no doubt sometimes go overboard. But you can be sure mistakes will be fewer here than they'd be anywhere else.

Meanwhile, too much caution is surely better than too little.

abrodsky@nypost.com

KGIA:NY TIMES BLATANT DECEIT AND LIES

UPDATED 11:40am: HEADS UP!

Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein: Shut down KGIA now!

Help us get the word out that American won't stay silent in the face of  radical Islamism imposed by stealth in our schools.  Join the debate about the Khalil Gibrain International Academy (KGIA) controversy. Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, who was quoted in yesterday's New York Times article about KGIA, will be interviewed at 4:30pm Eastern today on the Steve Malzberg Show, WOR Radio 710. Call in to the program from anywhere in the country: 1-800-321-8828.  There is live streaming of the show: go here.

 

To find out where you can hear the program in other parts of the country and for further information about the Steve Malzberg Show, go here. 

WOR Radio 710 HD - Steve Malzberg

Sara Springer of the Stop the Madrassa Coalition sets the record straight on yesterday's article pushing the nightmare of a public school madrassa agenda.

In general we are being accused of the school's failure given Almontaser resigned due to her statements about the NYC Intifada t-shirts. By the time Almontaser resigned mid-August the curriculum had been chosen, the teachers hired, and she had completed her personal recruitment of students for the school.  She worked with a Design Team for a year prior to KGIA's opening.  Ostensibly the school should have been ready to go.  Whether or not she was there should not matter.  A public school should be able to function well with any Principal.

Evidently the school's students are experiencing behavioral problems.  Almontaser recruited them personally and elementary schools forward the student's records so she had to know her student body.  If provisions were not made then the responsibility rests with her.

Following are quotes from the NY Times article with my response-

 

"NY TIMES: But Ms. Almontaser's downfall was not merely the result of a spontaneous outcry by concerned parents and neighborhood activists.  It was also the work of a growing and organized movement to stop Muslim citizens who are seeking an expanded role in American public life."

SPRINGER RESPONDS: Outrageous assertion. We have been extraordinarily careful in documenting every statement linking Almontaser to radical Islamist groups such as CAIR, American Muslim Lawyers Association (AMLA), Muslim Consultive Network, Muslim American Society, Adalah, and Al Awda.  This statement is prejudicial to the extent that it infers we are opposed to Muslims participating in American life.  We have absolutely no issue with this.  Our concern is with the "soft jihad" that is infiltrating our schools with the intent of bringing Shari's law into our society by indoctrinating our children.  Ibrihim Hooper spokesman for CAIR told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in a 1993 interview "I wouldn't want to create the impression that I wouldn't like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future.  But I'm not going to do anything violent to promote that. I'm going to do it through education."

NY TIMES: "Muslim leaders, academics and others see the drive against the school as the latest in a series of discriminatory attacks intended to distort the truth and play on American's fear of terrorism. They say the campaign is also part of a wider effort to silence critics of Washington's policy on Israel and the Middle East."

  SPRINGER: Our concern is based on the people and organizations that Almontaser has hand-picked to work with the school and students.  Truth has not been distorted.  Again, we have carefully documented our statements and have pursued our right to legally seek  transparency from the Department of Education.

NY TIMES: "(The advisory council never met and has since been dismantled, and the school does not offer halal food, Education Department officials said)."   
 
  SPRINGER: According to KGIA's Executive summary the plan and intent was to offer Halal food in the school cafeteria. The school does not offer halal food because the DOE refused the request.  KGIA was supposed to officially disband the advisory board through a public statement but this was never done. 

NY TIMES: Although Ms. Almontaser said she never spoke to the reporter about the t-shirt, she defended the girls in the organization because she believed that the reporter was set on "vilifying innocent teenagers." 
 
SPRINGER: Mona Eldhary, a co-founder of AWAAM, the organization that designed, produced, and distributed the NYC Intifada t-shirts is an active member of Al Awda (she is listed as such on their website).  Al Awda (the Return in Arabic) is …..a political advocacy organization that calls not for a peaceful settlement with Israel, but “peace” through the replacement of Israel by an Arab dominated state called Palestine.” [go here for more].  Its website clearly states its mission, “Al-Awda supports the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.”

"NY TIMES: During the Post interview, Ms. Almontaser said, she told the reporter Chuck Bennett that the Arab women's organization was not connected to her or the school, and that she would never be affiliated with any group that condoned violence."
 
  SPRINGER: The NYC Intifada T-shirt was produced and distributed by AWAAM, a group closely affiliated with Almontaser.  They are the lead organization supporting her reinstatement.  

Almontaser’s connection to the AWAAM group is not tenuous; she is both a founder and board member of the Yemeni American Association (SABA - YAA), and the AWAAM website (before it was quickly revised after the t-shirt exposé) directed “Contact Us” information to the YAA. The AAFSC, primary sponsors of KGIA, also sponsored the event where the t-shirts were sold.

"NY TIMES: A department spokeswoman said that a list of textbooks selected for the school was sent to the lawyer last fall."  
 
  SPRINGER: The documents given to the Stop the Madrassa Coalition pursuant to an Article 78 demanding the information since 4 FOIL's were not adequately responded to did not contain textbooks, lesson plans, or worksheets regarding the teaching of Arabic language and culture.

Donna Nevel in her interview liked to the article said that the opponents of the school don't like Arabic language dual education.  We at the Stop the Madrassa Coalition have always maintained that many languages including Arabic should be taught as an elective in schools across the city.

NY TIMES: "Ms. Almontaser never considered herself unenthusiastic about America, she said."

· Almontaser has called America a racist country.

· She has said that the U.S. brought the 9/11 attack upon itself.

· She opposes the War on Terror

· She supports numerous radical organizations, including the Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Trial for terrorist financing, where CAIR’s relationship to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization, has been repeatedly argued by the prosecution 

· She accepted an annual award from CAIR in 2005.

· She is on the board of the Muslim Consultative Network, whose members include unindicted co-conspirator CAIR and the radical Islamic Circle of North America. The Muslim Consultative Network is a major sponsor of the Almontaser Reinstatement Effort.

· Has been a spokesperson for the Muslim American Society for a NYC 9/11 event.

· Refused to answer a NY Sun reporter as to whether or not Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorist organizations

· Refused to say that the Intifada was a Palestinian terror campaign against innocent Israeli civilians, children, women, and men.

· Dabah has appointed radical Imams to her schools Board of Advisors. 

 

 
Background on organizations partnering with KGIA

1. The American Muslim Association of Lawyers (AMAL) offers internships, and helps with a course in human rights (in 6th grade…) (P. 7, p. 18). The AMAL website appears to be inactive (http://www.theamal.org/index.shtml) but the group (or at least their website) was founded by Omar Mohammedi, President of the New York Chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and lawyer for the infamous “6 imams” who have threatened to sue airline personnel and passengers for “profiling.” CAIR is currently under investigation in the Holy Land Terror-financing trial, as an unindicted co-conspirator.

2. The American Mideast Leadership Network will participate with the school as an important partner (pages 16-18). According to the Executive Summary, the AMLN will provide trips to “ stabilized” Middle Eastern countries, create internships, provide an after-school leadership program and provide intensive language opportunities. According to our research, they may do all this while acting as Hezbollah apologists, if their leader’s statements are representative. On July 31, 2006 Rami Nuseir, the President of the AMLN, stated on CNN that:

“A lot of people look at Hezbollah as a social service agency that provides a lot of help for the Lebanese people. And that’s where the sympathy comes from.”

3A main partner listed in the Executive Summary, the Columbia University Teachers College Department of International and Transcultural Studies teacher training in fact teaches about one religion and one only - Islam. KGIA only recognizes the teaching of a single religion in this ostensibly public school (page 8):

4. Arab Culture will be taught, however no where is there mention of Sephardic Jews, Ba hai’s, Coptic Christians, Druze, Lebanese Christians, or any other Arab culture except Islamic culture.

5.  

6. The DOE website for the KGIA lists as its first  partner the Arab-American Ant-Discrimination Committee. Its founder and President is none other than the former Democratic Senator James Abourezk who recently appeared on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar Television. Al-Manar is banned in the U.S. because Hezbollah is designated by the government as a terrorist organization. Azbourezk stated that the Arabs involved in 9/11 co-operated with Zionists, the Israel Lobby controls the U.S. Congress, Hamas and Hezbollah are “resistance” fighters, not terrorist organizations! Lastly Abourezk said that all Americans are racist.

Note that the ADC website provides biased educational instruction and curricula for middle and high schools and is overtly Islamic in its ideology. Not only is the ADC the first name on KGIA’s DOE website as the main partnering organization, this name was the first on the petition to reinstate Dhabah Almontaser as Principal.

7. The Arabic-American Family Suport Center located in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn is another key partner working with KGIA. Their website links to the Council on Islamic Education’s lesson plans. Why are NYC public school students being taught the nuances of Jihad?

· Define Jihad in its literal and applied meanings, as a principal and as an institution.

·  Describe legitimate conduct of war according to Islamic Law.

· Differentiate between rebellion and terrorism according to Muslim jurists.

This is what middle school children will be learning in a public school. The Executive Summary specifically states that the school will teach Islam and there were teacher training retreats held this past summer so that all teachers would be on the same wavelength.

As for school performance? It''s an abject failure.

KGIA, enthusiastically supported by, among others, convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu Jamal, former Weather Underground leader and bombing justifier William Ayers, former SDS and Communist Party organizer Michael Klonsky, and Malik Zulu Shabazz of the New Black Panther Party (created by the late Nation of Islam racist Khalid Muhammed), and a local imam who proudly posted the Muslim Brotherhood slogan and symbol on his website, has been the focus of numerous media reports, including one published in today’s New York Times by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Andrea Elliott.

Ms. Elliott reports that shorly after KGIA’s opening day, “Chaos soon erupted inside. Students cut classes and got into fights with little consequence, said staff members, parents and students. At least 12 of the 60 students showed signs of behavioral problems or learning disabilities, said Leslie Kahn, a licensed social worker and counselor who was employed at the school until January. (Education Department officials, who denied repeated requests by The Times to visit the school, said there are currently six special-needs students there.)

“ ‘Something is flying through the air, every class, every day,’ Sean R. Grogan, a science teacher at the school, said in an interview. ‘Kids bang on the partitions, yell and scream, curse and swear. It’s out of control.’ The New York Times account continues, “Physical altercations are frequent, Mr. Grogan and others said, with Arab students and teachers the target of ethnic slurs. “I just don’t feel safe,” said an Arab-American student, 11, who will not return to the school next year.

Stop the Madrassa also is speaking out about the relationship between KGIA’s founding principal, Ms. Almontaser, and a deeply troubling “community statement” that was recently addressed to New York City Policy Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

According to journalist and author Stephen Suleiman Schwartz, who is executive director of the Center for Islamic Pluralism, on November 23, 2007, in response to the above-mentioned community statement, a statement was issued “in the name of the ‘Muslim community,’ ” protesting the New York Police Department’s (NYPD) release last year of its vital report on terrorism. Among other demands, the community statement called on the NYPD to stop distributing the report to other jurisdictions’ law enforcement agencies, and, as Schwartz put it, “arrogated to themselves the right to decide what the city’s police should do in response to the challenge of radical Islam. “

Schwartz, writing in The Weekly Standard, also reports that in a March 3, 2008 meeting in New York, CAIR officials Faiza Ali, Aliya Latif, and Omar Mohammadi “were joined by Islamist agitator Syed Z. Sayeed, religious adviser to the Saudi-backed Muslim Students Association at Columbia University . They noted that the NYPD had asked for a detailed reply to the report. The participants at the March 3 get-together also observed that while they would prepare such a response, CAIR itself has financed and is working on a more thorough text designated its ‘long-term analysis/alternative model of radicalization.’ “

Almontaser was also,as Schwartz reports, involved in CAIR’s counter-attack against the NYPD as evidenced by that fact that her “assignment in dealing with NYPD was to organize an online discussion group for input into the Community Statement.”

Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition notes Mr. Schwartz’s assessment that “…Almontaser should quit her masquerade as a moderate and her non-Muslim enablers should end their naïve defense of her alleged mainstream outlook. “ The coalition further points out that Ms. Almontaser has been a financial supporter of controversial Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and adds that the time is long overdue for a full city and state investigation into the creation of KGIA and the possible role of Islamist organizations in any aspect of the school’s establishment or operation.

Please read it all.

And there was this incredible admission  from a teacher made in the comment section of the article:

As a teacher at KGIA I have to say things have barely improved since Holly Reichert's appointment. This week alone we have 6 students out on Suspension, one for carrying a knife to school. We have a teacher on a medical leave of absence after a student threatened to beat her, this caused her blood pressure to spike to a very unhealthy level.

KGIA: NY TIMES WHORING FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSAS

One man's "dream",is another man's nightmare. Make that an Islamist's dream is the free man's nightmare.

Battle in Brooklyn | A Principal's Rise and Fall Critics Cost Muslim Educator Her Dream School NY Times Taqiya Bureau

Be warned, the Islamists are relentless (for centuries), ool Dabah Almontaser announced in October that she would sue to be reinstated as principal.

The best part of the NY Times propaganda piece basically advocating for public school madrassas (Islamic schools) is in the comment section, which has already been co-opted by the forces of evil. The leftist Islamic meme team is out in full force.  They are going to shove Islam down your throat (and your children's throat) whether you like it or not.

KEEP RELIGION OUT OF THE SCHOOLS. NO PUBLIC ISLAMIC SCHOOLS!

Loved this comment:

Permit me to extend my congratulations to Ms. Almontaser's protagonists for so quickly mobilizing to monopolize the comments section.  If one reads the article alone, without knowing anything else about the issue, one could not be blamed for being sympathetic to Ms. Almontaser, who is depicted as nothing short of a Muslim Mother Teresa.  Furthermore, it has become fashionable to portray Daniel Pipes as the embodiment of xenophobic hatred aimed at the poor defenseless Muslims.  In point of fact, this article cleverly skews the facts.  KGIA is an insulated environment in which those who are dedicated to Islamist doctrine can be free to inculcate our children with anti-Western ideology.  Stop the Madrassa is not opposed to teaching Arabic (as the ubiquitous Ms. Eldahry would have us believe).  Stop the Madrassa is in favor of teaching Arabic, but in an open, public environment, as an elective along with Spanish, Chinese, Russian, etc.  KGIA is too insulated to trust to anyone.  Look at its avowed supporters: cop-killer, Mumiya Abu Jamal, terrorist William Ayers, etc.  These are people who do not have a benign view of American civilization.  They want to destroy it.  KGIA is backed by CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case.  Despite the fact that CAIR presents itself as a benign group, dedicated to assimilation by Muslims into American life, their activities and those whom they support, belie this benign appearance.

To all those who have read this article, and have come away with a sense that Ms. Almontaser has been a victim of injustice, I caution you to look beyond this.  Look to the fact that, although the City of NY claims that they have conveyed to Stop the Madrassa a list of textbooks that are being used at KGIA to teach Arabic language and culture, this is a bold-faced lie.  Thus far, no such materials have been forthcoming.

Mayor Bloomberg, in his arrogance, refuses to admit that KGIA was and is a continuing mistake.  And Dabah Almontaser, if not a radical Islamist herself, is a tool of radical Islamists whose allegiance is to Islamic Shari'a law, not to the Constitution of the United States.  These are not people to whom we should entrust our children.  And we should certainly not be subsidizing them with public education funds.

Wake up!  You will end up as dhimmis (populations conquered by jihad) in an Islamist world if you don't.

Please read al previous Atlas coverage on this usurpation of our public school system here.

Watch Jeffrey Wiesenfeld video and Pipes as well over at the Times videeo page. ...

Obama's Terror Pal Ayers Backs Public School Madrassa

What a small world this is turning out to be. But it's not hard to know what side your on. And Obomba is on the wrong side ................every time. Obama's pal Willy Ayers signed the open letter to Bloomberg supporting the NYC public school madrassa - so did Ayers brother and quite a few other radicals (hat tip trk).

More on the New York Public Islamic school, KGIA,  here. And here at the Stop the Madrassa  webpage.

Obama’s Real Bill Ayers Problem
The ex-Weatherman is now a radical educator with influence.

Obama Pal Ayers Supports NYC Madrassa  Creeping Sharia

In “How Many Clicks from KGIA to Obama,” Boker tov blog recaps the KGIA muslim madrassa story and finds that Barack Obama pal, and Weather Underground terrorist, William Ayers signed a letter in support of the school. Ayers brother, the Huffington Post contributer, also signed the letter.

No surprise that an unrepentant, homegrown terrorist would support a school whose original principal defended the promotion of Intifada NYC t-shirts. Stop the Madrassa has more on Ayers.

posthumous luger has more on the other radical educators who signed the open letter to Mayor Bloomberg in Teachers For a Broader Definition of “Intifada.”

What are the chances all those who support the Brooklyn madrassa support Obama as well?

UPDATE: More on Obama's bad judgment:

Judgment and Character Are Paramount  by Stuart Taylor Jr. National Journal

Many who have been disposed to admire Obama, including me, see these matters as raising troublesome questions about his judgment and character.

“Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”

So said British statesman Edmund Burke in his famous 1774 speech to the electors of Bristol. Similarly, James Madison wrote in Federalist 57 that voters should choose the candidates “who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society.”

Wise counsel, albeit forlorn in today’s campaign world in which most people—especially primary voters—back the candidates who are most shameless in sacrificing their judgment to the voters’ opinions.

[...]

Many who have been disposed to admire Obama, including me, see these matters as raising troublesome questions about his judgment and character. Many of us have come to wonder whether the purportedly post-ideological Obama is so close to his party’s business-bashing, pacifistic left wing as to skew his judgment on matters ranging from the capital-gains tax to Iraq. Perhaps our suspicions are mistaken. But Obama has hardly laid them to rest.

Minn Madrassah Won't Raise American Flag

The imam will not  raise the flag. Back story here. His allegiance is to Allah. Bad dah bing, bad dah boom.

Minnesota Madrassa director "doesn't know how to work the flagpole." No, really, that's what he says!

State law requires the school to fly an American flag during school hours, however no flag flies outside of TIZA Academy. Zaman told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he didn¢t know how to work the flagpole.

Obama won't pledge allegiance either.

Muslim Prayer in Islamic Public School

This is unbelievable and sanctioned by the state. And it's not just Minnesota. This is happening all across America which is why I am so vocal about the public school madrassa in Brooklyn, The Khalil Gibran International Academy

The full Article can be read  here. BTW, Kersten is a national treasure.

Teacher breaks wall of silence at state's Muslim public school
KATHERINE KERSTEN, Star Tribune hat tip Clyde

Recently, I wrote about Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Charter schools are public schools and by law must not endorse or promote religion.

Evidence suggests, however, that TIZA is an Islamic school, funded by Minnesota taxpayers.

TIZA has many characteristics that suggest a religious school. It shares the headquarters building of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, whose mission is "establishing Islam in Minnesota." The building also houses a mosque. TIZA's executive director, Asad Zaman, is a Muslim imam, or religious leader, and its sponsor is an organization called Islamic Relief.

Students pray daily, the cafeteria serves halal food - permissible under Islamic law -- and "Islamic Studies" is offered at the end of the school day.

[...]

"teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day," was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man "was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered."

"The prayer I saw was not voluntary," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."

Islamic Studies was also incorporated into the school day. "When I arrived, I was told 'after school we have Islamic Studies,' and I might have to stay for hall duty," Getz said. "The teachers had written assignments on the blackboard for classes like math and social studies. Islamic Studies was the last one -- the board said the kids were studying the Qu'ran. The students were told to copy it into their planner, along with everything else. That gave me the impression that Islamic Studies was a subject like any other."

After school, Getz's fifth-graders stayed in their classroom and the man in white who had led prayer in the gym came in to teach Islamic Studies. TIZA has in effect extended the school day -- buses leave only after Islamic Studies is over. Getz did not see evidence of other extra-curricular activity, except for a group of small children playing outside. Significantly, 77 percent of TIZA parents say that their "main reason for choosing TIZA ... was because of after-school programs conducted by various non-profit organizations at the end of the school period in the school building," according to a TIZA report. TIZA may be the only school in Minnesota with this distinction.

Why does the Minnesota Department of Education allow this sort of religious activity at a public school? According to Zaman, the department inspects TIZA regularly -- and has done so "numerous times" -- to ensure that it is not a religious school.

 

TIZA's operation as a public, taxpayer-funded school is troubling on several fronts. TIZA is skirting the law by operating what is essentially an Islamic school at taxpayer expense. The Department of Education has failed to provide the oversight necessary to catch these illegalities, and appears to lack the tools to do so. In addition, there's a double standard at work here -- if TIZA were a Christian school, it would likely be gone in a heartbeat.

TIZA is now being held up as a national model for a new kind of charter school. If it passes legal muster, Minnesota taxpayers may soon find themselves footing the bill for a separate system of education for Muslims.

KGIA: PUBLIC SCHOOL ISLAMISATION GROWS IN BROOKLYN

Former SDS, Communist Party, and Weather Underground Extremists Defame Critics of Khalil Gibran Academy; They Join Prior Supporters, Such as Cop-Killer Mumia Abu-Jamal and Rabbi Michael Paley, in Support of Dhabah Almontaser & KGIA

I assure it is up to us to stop the islamification of our public schools. Here and now. Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition is calling for volunteers and supporters to help us in this fight.  Please be in touch with us at (212) 726-1124 for more information.

Have you seen this: An Islamic School to Learn Ignorance (hat tip Jane)

New York, New York April 4, 2008 --  Once again, radical Islamist groups and their enablers are attempting to silence American citizens through boycotts, name-calling, threats of lawsuits, defamatory accusations and other forms of intimidation.

This time, as the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) finds itself under new fire from angry parents in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn who feel KGIA is being imposed on their elementary school,  hard Leftist KGIA supporters are attempting to bolster the failing "multi-cultural" experiment by defaming their critics.  In a letter this week to Mayor Bloomberg, KGIA supporters label those who have questioned the creation, purpose, affiliates, management, and other issues regarding the Arabic school "a small group of fear-mongering bigots."

Among those who signed the letter to Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein were a number of well- known former leaders of extremist Leftist organizations.  For example, as reported by the open source Wikipedia, William Ayers, who is now at the University of Illinois at Chicago, reportedly was “a Weather Underground member.... he became radicalized at the University of Michigan. During his years there, he became involved in the New Left and the SDS. Ayers went underground with several comrades after their co-conspirators' bomb accidentally exploded on March 6, 1970, destroying a Greenwich Village townhouse and killing three members of the Weather Underground.... They avoided the police and FBI while bombing high-profile government buildings—including the United States Capitol (two bombs on March 1, 1970), The Pentagon (May 19, 1972), and the Harry S Truman Building which houses the United States Department of State (on January 29, 1975)—along with several banks, police department headquarters and precincts, state and federal courthouses, and state prison administrative offices. Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn raised two children, Zayd and Malik, underground before turning themselves in in 1981, when most charges were dropped because of prosecutorial misconduct during the long search for the fugitives.... Ayers published his memoirs in 2001 with the book Fugitive Days. His interview with the New York Times to promote his book was published on September 11, 200.... In this interview, he... was quoted as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough.".... In the fall of 2006, Ayers was asked not to attend a progressive educators' conference on the basis that the organizers did not want to risk an association of their movement with his violent past. "

Another of those defaming critics of KGIA is Michael Klonsky, of the Small Schools Workshop who, again according to the open source Wikipedia, "...helped organize the first chapter of Students for a Democratic Society in the area. He became active in national SDS early in 1967.... During his community organizing, Klonsky began developing a proto-Marxist ideology which emphasized community and worker organizing.... In late 1969, Klonsky founded the October League, a communist party which in 1977 became the Communist Party, Marxist-Leninist. He was elected the party's chairman.... Klonsky made several trips to China beginning in July 1977, where he was warmly received by government and Communist Party of China officials and treated to state dinners... "

 

Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition (STM) has filed Freedom of Information Law requests to obtain complete information concerning textbooks, lesson plans and design documents to be used at KGIA. Because the DOE did not comply STM was forced to file an Article 78 petition in Manhattan Supreme Court. Not surprisingly the documents turned over pursuant to the FOIL requests substantiated STM concerns.  To date the school does not have proper textbooks, curricla, or lesson plans for teaching middle and high school Arabic language and culture. What was discovered from FOIL requests is that KGIA was poorly designed and poorly thought-out.  In recent months STM has stepped up its calls for immediate closure of KGIA, and expanded its fight nationwide to halt the imposition of radical Islamist agendas in curricula, Arab language programs, history classes, textbooks, teacher training, and charter schools. STM does not oppose the teaching of Arabic language or Arabic culture in a balanced public school curriculum offering several languages and covering all cultures. 

We will not be silenced and we stand in solidarity with others who have been defamed or targeted for exposing the dangers of Islamo-fasxism and jihadism.

# # #

Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition is a grassroots organization working to help parents and teachers investigate, expose and eliminate Islamist and other ideological influence on textbooks, curricula and courses. . For more information please visit www.stopthemadrassa.wordpress.org..

###

Text of Open Letter from Educators in Support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy and Principal Debbie Almontaser to:

 

Michael Bloomberg  Joel Klein

Mayor of New York City Chancellor of New York City Department of Education

 

Dear Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein,

In 2007 the New York City Public Schools approved the establishment of the first-ever NY public school focusing on Arabic language and culture. This new small dual-language school, Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), addressed a need and dream of many in New York's Arab communities. Leading the campaign for this specialty academy was Debbie Almontaser, a respected educator and community leader, who was selected to become the school's founding principal.

Before the school ever opened its doors, Almontaser was forced to resign. When Debbie Almontaser was forced out as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, a blow was struck against the rights and academic freedom of educators everywhere.  Principal Almontaser was the guiding light and the pioneer behind the founding of the new school, which was envisioned as part of a vibrant small-schools movement fostering personalization, autonomy, and the empowerment of teachers.

A campaign of lies, racial fear, and anti-Arab prejudice, emanating from a conservative media group including the New York Post and supported by Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein, forced Almontaser from her post. Prior to and during the first semester of the school's existence, Almontaser was replaced by two principals, neither of whom possesses her exceptional academic qualifications, her leadership capabilities, her relationship with the school community, nor her knowledge of Arabic language and culture.

KGIA was attacked by a small group of fear-mongering bigots. It was labeled a "terrorist school" and a "madrassa." But this campaign of slander has been met by a broad coalition supporting the school and its intended principal, including leading organizations spanning the many diverse communities in New York. This coalition is pursuing every channel to restore Almontaser to her rightful position and to clear her name and her reputation.

Debbie Almontaser did nothing wrong. She committed no crime. She violated no rules nor any terms of her contract. She was forced to resign after doing nothing more than answering a reporter's question about the root meaning of the word “intifada.”

For those of us working in the field of education, the treatment of Debbie Almontaser represents a threat not only to our rights as educators and citizens in a democratic society; it is also an attack on the small-schools movement and on the push for diversity and equity within our system of public education. Will bigotry be allowed to decide which public schools can exist and who can lead them?

We the undersigned insist that Debbie Almontaser be returned to her post as founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy.

Bernadette Anand, Bank Street Graduate School of Education

Gary Anderson, Steinhardt School of Education, N.Y.U.

Rick Ayers, UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education

William Ayers, University of Illinois at Chicago

Carmen Colon, Association of NYC’s Educated Communities

Kathleen Cushman, Education Writer

Lisa Delpit, Center for Urban Education and Innovation, F.I.U.

Michelle Fine, The Graduate Center – City University of New York

Ofelia Garcia, Teachers College, Columbia University

Maxine Greene, Teachers College, Columbia University

Kris D. Gutierrez, Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, UCLA

Paula Hajar, Bronx Charter School for Better Learning

Annette Henry, Education Program, University of Washington, Tacoma

Jay P. Heubert, Teachers College, Columbia University

Mike Klonsky, Small Schools Workshop

Susan Klonsky, Small Schools Workshop

Kevin Kumashiro, University of Illinois at Chicago

Gloria Ladson-Billings, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Carol Lee, Northwestern University

Sally Lee, Teachers Unite

Linda Levine, Bank Street Graduate School of Education

Tara Mack, Education for Liberation Network

Edwin Mayorga, New York Collective of Radical Educators

Deborah W. Meier, Steinhardt School of Education, N.Y.U.

Jon Moscow, The Brotherhood/Sister Sol

Arwa Nasser, United Nations International School

Donna Nevel, Center for Immigrant Families

Pedro A. Noguera, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, N.Y.U.

Gary Orfield, Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, UCLA

Granville Leo Stevens, Independent Parents Organizations

 

*affiliations listed for identification purposes

KGIA: NY PUBLIC SCHOOL Madrassah is Moved for 3RD Time

Like pitbulls seized on an unwitting victim the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), New York's Public Arabic school, is refusing torelease an innocent parent student body from its chokehold. The currently failing school is moving to a top performing school in the Fort Green section. And the parents are not happy about it.

Mark Steyn understands the implications. Mark Steyn said this  of the Arabic public school opening in NY on my show a few months back;

" it shows how we mischaracterized, we willfully misunderstand Islam. Yes, on the face of it yes Arabic is a language in a sense there is would be no difference between opening a foreign language school - a Spanish language school or a french language school - but in fact Arabic is more than a language. It is explicated the language of Islam so in that sense it is part of the Islamic religious imperial project. Radical Islam advances through the Arabic language. And you go all kinds of places that aren't in the Arab world now like Pakistan, Indonesia, Central Asia, the Balk ins, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada and the United States and you will here those Imams preaching in Arabic. Arabic is not just another language like French or Italian, it is the spearhead of an idea logical project that is deeply opposed to the United States

We need a specific amendment declaring seperation of Mosque and state becuase whatever we got now ain't working.

“It’s Official: Khalil Gibran Academy To Move To Fort Greene School” : Brooklyn Daily Eagle

But Some Parents at P.S. 287 Object To Sharing Space

by Mary Frost

FORT GREENE — The Department of Education has confirmed that the Arabic-themed Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) will be moving from Boerum Hill to a building occupied by P.S. 287, at 50 Navy St., near the Brooklyn Queens Expressway.

Parents also say that there are space issues at the school.

But parents at P.S. 287, who were told about the move at an “emergency” meeting Wednesday evening, say they are outraged.

“They ambushed us,” said Matrice Sherman, mother of two students at P.S. 287. “Garth Harries [DOE’s Chief Portfolio Officer], when he met with us last time, said there would be a dialog, and that they would hear our concerns.

“Who did he speak to? Not to the people at this school.”  Read more…

Secretive World of Muslim Public Schools

Now you know why I am fighting the Khalil Gibran International Academy.

Are taxpayers footing bill for Islamic school in Minnesota? Katherine Kersten, Minn Star Tribune hat tip agron

Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy (TIZA) -- named for the Muslim general who conquered medieval Spain -- is a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. Its approximately 300 students are mostly the children of low-income Muslim immigrant families, many of them Somalis.

The school is in huge demand, with a waiting list of 1,500. Last fall, it opened a second campus in Blaine.

TIZA uses the language of culture rather than religion to describe its program in public documents. According to its mission statement, the school "recognizes and appreciates the traditions, histories, civilizations and accomplishments of the eastern world (Africa, Asia and Middle East)."

But the line between religion and culture is often blurry. There are strong indications that religion plays a central role at TIZA, which is a public school financed by Minnesota taxpayers. Under the U.S. and state constitutions, a public school can accommodate students' religious beliefs but cannot encourage or endorse religion.

TIZA raises troubling issues about taxpayer funding of schools that cross that line.

Asad Zaman, TIZA's principal, declined to allow me to visit the school or grant me an interview. He did not respond to e-mails seeking written replies.

TIZA's strong religious connections date from its founding in 2003. Its co-founders, Zaman and Hesham Hussein, were both imams, or Muslim religious leaders, as well as leaders of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota (MAS-MN).

Since then, they have played dual roles: Zaman as TIZA's principal and the current vice-president of MAS-MN, and Hussein as TIZA's school board chair and president of MAS-MN until his death in a car accident in Saudi Arabia in January.

TIZA shares MAS-MN's headquarters building, along with a mosque.

[...]

"A visitor might well mistake Tarek ibn Ziyad for an Islamic school," reported Minnesota Monthly in 2007. "Head scarves are voluntary, but virtually all the girls wear them." The school has a central carpeted prayer space, and "vaguely religious-sounding language" is used.

According to the Pioneer Press, TIZA's student body prays daily and the school's cafeteria serves halal food (permissible under Islamic law). During Ramadan, all students fast from dawn to dusk, according to a parent quoted in the article.

Read it all.

The Real Threat to America

David sent this speech by Colorado Gov (I have a plan to destroy America) comes right out of the KGIA play book. In truth, this is the real threat of KGIA. Malkin has the whole thing here;

I have a plan to destroy America
by Richard D. Lamm

I have a secret plan to destroy America. If you believe, as many do, that America is too smug, too white bread, too self-satisfied, too rich, let’s destroy America. It is not that hard to do. History shows that nations are more fragile than their citizens think. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and they all fall, and that “an autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.” Here is my plan:

Go, read it all here.

 

ISLAMISTS HIJACK KGIA PRESS CONFERENCE

The Stop the Madrassa Coalition held a press conference yesterday to call for the closing of the failing Arabic school in Brooklyn. Frankly I am not surprised the school is failing to deliver a quality education to our students. Bottom line? Teach reading, writing, math and history. Keep religion and "culture" out of the public school system. Pretty simple.

"CHAOTIC” ARABIC PUBLIC SCHOOL MUST BE CLOSED NOW

  Laws Possibly Violated as Special Needs Pupils Neglected; Chancellor Klein, Dept of Ed Get An "F" for Accountability

PRESS CONFERENCETHURSDAY, JAN 31st, 11am, CITY HALL STEPS

The Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition will hold a press conference this morning at 11am at City Hall to call on city and state education officials to close down and began an immediate and thorough investigation into the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA).This week, new allegations of incompetence, confusion and neglect -- from insiders -- were leveled at the Brooklyn-based Arabic school, which has been under fire since its inception, and which now has its third principal in six months.In recent weeks, teachers, staff, and students have complained of a “chaotic” learning environment, including inability to provide properly, as is mandated by law, for special needs students who are enrolled at the school.Stop the Madrassa filed an Article 78 Proceeding in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Mayor Bloomberg’s Department of Education following an insufficient response to requests under the Freedom of Information Law for complete information concerning textbooks, lesson plans and design documents being used at the  Khalil Gibran International Academy.  Perhaps if Chancellor Klein and the Department of Education had responded fully and in a timely fashion to Stop the Madrassa's FOIL request before the school opened,  the public might have known just how disorganized, unstable and chaotic this school would be.

Here's what happened from Pamela;

Our press conference was definately hijacked. That's a first  for me.

At the beginning of the press conference, I introduced Jeffrey who then passed the microphone to Irene and then to  Stuart. After their statements, I encouraged the press to ask questions of them.

Stuart Kaufman, Irene Alter, and Jeff of the Stop the Madrassa Coalition.

I was talking film and pictures, so I did not see the hijack happen, I simply became aware the press was splitting up and the only people they seemed to be interviewing were KGIA people.

That's when I headed over to Feinberg and Bklyn 12. He became very agitated.

After that...no matter where I was he kept yelling at me, putting his hand up in front of my camera and then, when I followed him accosting Jeffrey, he actually turned and tried to chase me away.

He was feeling his oats, I guess, because he was shamelessly aggressive.

Once they started snapping at us and being so confrontational all I could hope to do was use that as an opportunity to counter their lies and slander right as it was happening. I kept filming but trying to catch reporters. I spoke in particular to Heather Abraham from Bklyn 12 and Elizabeth Green...oh...and Yoav Gonen from the Post . Guess we can't count on the press to see and report on what is actually happening.

At least not Elizabeth Green.

Talking to Brooklyn 12 reporter is  "rabbi" Feingold who accosted Pamela, has accosted Joe Kaufman at the Islamists day parade (video here), and threatened me at the Anti CAIR rally. He is an Islamist operative. The woman standing beside  "rabbi" F isThe woman in this first photo said her name is Donna (don't know her last name) We've gotten three different names for this woman. She must say whatever she feels like. She has been very confrontational member so the coaliton  before. One of these was at Columbia recently. She and Feinberg were there...an adalah. palestine event (of course),.  She introduced herself to someone and said she was from Center for Homeless Families.  She seemed to be an organizer for the event.

Belligerent "rabbi's"  hand attacking our cameras.

The focus was on the Muslim women particularly from Elizabeth Green of the NY Sun and Yoav Gonen from the Post.


One reporter talking to Stuart Kaufman of the Stop the Madrassa coalition. Elizabeth Green of The NY Sun glued to the Muslims.

You see in the  stills that Elizabeth Green of the New York Sun spent quite alot of time with the muslim women. Green's reporting for The Sun on this issue has been very submissive and dhimmified. I know, it's "balanced" - but balance in a war? Sorry, you gotta take sides.


WATCH THE VIDEOS!

First statement from Jeffrey Weisenfeld Most of Stuart Kaufman's statement Stuart Kaufman answering questions Rabbie Feinberg's lies and slanderous statements against STM I asked Feinberg to repeat some of his verbal assault on camera Good one. Lots of slander against STM. Stuart defends STM. Feinberg is steaming Mona and friend defend Almontaser. Slander STM,Daniel Pipes. Feinberg goes after Jeffrey.assaults me.hear, see him hit camera

Here is part of Green's account in the NY Sun. Why doesn't Green do some investigative journalist and look into the academic failings of the school?

Yesterday, opponents of Khalil Gibran said the school is "in chaos" and that it is at risk of becoming a mouthpiece for violent radical Islamic ideology. They said they are going to court to force the Department of Education to turn over documents proving the school's curriculum is safe and reasonable, as the city has been arguing.

The press conference turned into a commotion of shouting matches when supporters of the school, who came with cameras and a press release of their own, began firing back and accusing the school's opponents of bigotry.

"Did we invite you here?" a leader of the group opposing the school, Stuart Kaufman, asked supporters.

Moments later, a co-founder of the Center for Immigrant Families, Donna Nevel, a supporter of the school, ran after a member of the Stop the Madrassa Coalition, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, as he left the press conference.

"As a Jew to another Jew, you should be ashamed of yourself," Ms. Nevel said to Mr. Wiesenfeld, a trustee of the City University of New York.

Mr. Wiesenfeld had said that Khalil Gibran represents a disturbing national trend of Arab-Americans failing to assimilate into American culture.

"It's no different from cab drivers in Minnesota who refuse to pick up passengers bearing liquor. It's no different from the special provision of Islamic footbaths in universities," he said.

Supporters of Khalil Gibran acknowledged that the school is struggling, but they said they are pleased it exists for the sake of Arab immigrants and other students who want to learn about Arabic culture.

And this from the NY Post (you'd never think it was their heads we were trying to spare, eh?)

ARAB SCHOOL FIGHTIN' WORDS

By YOAV GONEN

February 1, 2008 -- Angry opponents of an Arab-themed public school in Brooklyn got into a shouting match yesterday with supporters. Stop the Madrassa Coalition held a City Hall press conference calling for Khalil Gibran school to be shut down. A school supporter called the protesters "anti-Arab and anti-Muslim." A coalition member told two women wearing head scarves they were "in the Stone Age."

 

UPDATE: Remarks of Stuart Kaufman

Stop the Madrassa

January 31,2007

KGIA has become a parody of itself.

It started out as a political statement: multi-culturalism run amok, and it is now a full-fledged travesty.

Stop the Madrassa had filed a Freedom of Information request, and we are now in Court in order to enforce that request.  The Court has expressed deep frustration with the Department of Education - that we are still at this 7 months after the original request.  At the last hearing, the DOE actually affirmed that all documents had been provided, but our counsel was able to show from the documents that were actually produced that this was false.  The Court said that it would enter an order demanding that DOE produce ALL the documents by Feb 14.  If the DOE fails to meet a deadline for the 6th time, we will move the court for an order of contempt.

I can just picture the bureaucrats at the DOE, who are right now sitting in their cubicles, with their heads in their hands, wondering what to do about this problem that they created.

We will tell them what to do. Right now.

The Students put their faith in KGIA and it failed them.

Their parents put their faith in KGIA and it failed them.

Their teachers put their faith in KGIA and it failed them.

It’s time to stop the chain of failure and free these students to get a good New York City public school education in a functional educational environment.

Enough already.  Shut down KGIA and be done with it!   

KGIA ABYSMAL FAILURE:STOP THE PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA!

While everyone sings the praises of the intifiada and the religious board teemed with imams, the Khalil Gibran International is failing its students miserably. CLOSE THIS MADRASSA AND GET BACK TO TEACHING READING, WRITING, AND RITHMATIC! Basta!

SPECIAL NEEDS AT 'CHAOTIC' ARAB MIDDLE SCHOOL

one teacher’s words Feels her daughter should not be in this environment. 

And another teacher’s words:.. she wants her (her sister, who is a student ) to go back to the original school they planned on because the child is not getting an education.  She deserves the best as she’s brilliant.

THE WOES OF KHALIL GIBRAN

January 30, 2008 -- This week's not-so-surprising news: The Khalil Gibran International Academy, the controversial Brooklyn middle school, is having difficulty providing for its special-education students.

Khalil Gibran's curriculum is focused on Arab culture and language.  

Arabic culture? Is there a course in clitorectomies, honor killings, mandated spousal abuse, and subjugation?

Given the realities of modern America and New York, such an institution was guaranteed woes unless designed and managed perfectly right from the start.

Which it wasn't, to put it mildly.

Its first principal, Debbie Almontaser, refused to denounce the selling of "Intifida NYC" shirts by a women's group with which she was loosely associated.

Almontaser dismissed "intifada" as an innocent phrase of empowerment for Arab women - knowing full well that most New Yorkers associate the phrase with Palestinian uprisings that have killed hundreds in recent decades.

Almontaser's indifference hardly calmed the concerns of early critics, who feared that the school was a disguised "madrassa" for Islamic fundamentalist instruction. She eventually resigned - and then turned around and sued the Department of Education in a still-pending case.

Two weeks ago, Holly Anne Reichert became the school's third principal in six months.

And now it comes to light that the school has been unable to fulfill its obligation to special-ed students.

Yes, "special education" is a costly and complex enterprise. But the law is the law - and Khalil Gibran has evidently been violating special-ed mandates for at least five months.

Plus, parents complain of a "chaotic" learning environment for all students.

Isn't enough really enough?

Such a situation is unfair for all concerned - and is a waste of money.

Isn't it time to shut the door on the Khalil Gibran International Academy - permanently?

 

KGIA: Dhabah's Deceit

The Islamist principal of the NY public school madrassa will not give it up. More Islamic lies and deceit. We ought to sue for slander.

Dhabah Almontaser's Campaign Of Deceit By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz

December 18, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On Sunday December 16, Dhabah Almontaser, the recently ousted principal of Brooklyn's embattled Arab language school Khalil Gibran International Academy, spoke as part of a series called the "Masked Talkback Series," held at the Daryl Roth 2 theater. The "talkback series" being organized around the controversial, pro-Intifada off-Broadway play, "Masked." Written by Israeli Ami Dayan, the plot revolves around the killing of a 7 year old Palestinian youth and the tension experienced within a Palestinian family, involved in the Intifada, who suspect that one of the family's three brothers is an Israeli informant, see "Masked" website, http://www.maskedtheplay.com/index_enter.html.

Almontaser's presence at the event [listen to audio file here, Almontaser Masked] brings her full circle back to the subject which was the tipping point, turning the tide against her effort to remain the head of KGIA.

Almontaser's remarks at the event betray a level of deception that might be shocking to those who fail to understand that misrepresentations and outright lies are stock-in-trade among Islamists - pushed with much histrionics by groups like CAIR - who have made the strategic calculation that in a world where multiculturalism and moral equivalency are in ascendance, legitimate critics of radical Islam can be muzzled, dismissed as bigoted Islamophobes.

Towards that end Almontaser's remarks spun a conspiratorial tale in which she was intentionally set up and "smeared" by a coalition led by certain New York and alternative media sources and shepherded back-stage along the way by the omnipresent bogeyman, the noted Middle East historian Dr. Daniel Pipes.

Even a partial transcript [13:50 - 24:12] is damning:

"The school was announced on February 12…a couple of days later the bloggers began to blog, so the notorious Daniel Pipes started blogging about the school as being a school that would be developing home grown terrorists, suicide bomber…"

Anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can access Pipes' blogs on KGIA; they are collected here.

On March 7 of this year he wrote:

"My take on the school: In principle it is a great idea – the United States needs more Arabic-speakers."

Thus during the time frame to which Almontaser refers, not only absent from Pipes' entries are any references to "home grown terrorists" or "suicide bombers," but rather, verbiage clearly supportive of KGIA conceptually. His reservations regarding implementation of such a program, "...In practice, however, Arabic instruction is heavy with Islamist and Arabist overtones and demands." - are scholarly, reserved and stripped entirely of invective.

On this charge if Almontaser is not simply lying, she is delusional, neither desirable traits for someone who is still employed by the New York DOE.

Almontaser continues:

"…the second phase of the smear was actually on me, where they started calling me an Islamic jihadist…behind those closed doors I was going to be developing terrorists…"

PipeLineNews.org has actively covered KGIA and Ms. Almontaser. We, not Dr. Pipes [who has never been one of our writers and has no connection to our organization] produced the short video mentioned in the court filing in Almontaser's lawsuit against the NY DOE for wrongful termination. We believe that our statements in that work are characteristic of what the overwhelming majority of critics of that school and her inept stewardship of it have said.

The piece is here. There is so much more GO!

Atlas again in New Media Journal

Atlaas hits it, again. Yeah baby. I hope this article gets as much as exposure as possible.

KGIA: ALmontaser tasered

Round one: The West 1, Islamists 0

Ex-principal of Arabic Khalil Gibran school loses round in court NY Daily News

A federal judge Wednesday shot down a last-minute attempt by the former principal of a Brooklyn Arabic-language school to keep the city from selecting her successor.

Debbie Almontaser, the short-lived head of the new Khalil Gibran International Academy, wanted the judge to delay the selection and order someone other than Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to oversee the process.

The nerve! Read that again.

Almontaser, who was forced to resign after a published report tried to link her to a militant Islamic group, re-applied for the job in October, but was not among the four finalists.

In August, a story in the New York Post suggested Almontaser sided with a Muslim girls' group distributing T-shirts that read "Intifada NYC."

In tearful testimony this week, Almontaser said she was trying to make a teaching point about the meaning of intifadeh when she explained to the reporter that its root translation was "shaking off oppression."

"She didn't talk about T-shirts," said Almontaser's lawyer, Alan Levine.

"She was asked the definition of intifadeh."

Almontaser's lawyers will ask a federal appeals court to overturn Judge Sidney Stein's decision.

The city said it will not resume the selection process until at least tomorrow, to give the appeals court time to hear the matter.

Sniveling KGIA Principal Dabah Bawls ... Boofreakinhoo

Oh brother. This is teaching our kids. She has no problem with bloodthristy terrorists, flying limbs, Jew hatred and Islamic terror most foul. But challenge her on her taqiya (intifada means "shaking off", sanctioning NYC intifada tee shirts) and she weeps crocodile tears. Someone pass the motion sickness bag ............ must hurl.

Tip of the old hat to The New York Post. They have been all over this story. They made things happen. We owe them an enormous debt of gratitude

The 'CRY SCHOOL" Principal NY Post hat tip Helen

December 1, 2007 -- The ousted principal of a controversial Arabic public school in Brooklyn bawled on the witness stand yesterday as she described how the Bloomberg administration pushed her out of her job after she publicly defended the use of the slogan "Intifada NYC" on a T-shirt.

A weepy Debbie Almontaser, founder and former acting principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, accused the city of rushing to judgment based on media pressure and claimed she agreed to an abrupt resignation in a bid to save the fledgling school.

"I was absolutely devastated," Almontaser said, recounting a fateful meeting with Deputy Mayor Dennis Wolcott on Aug. 9. It was just days after she was quoted defining the word "intifada," commonly associated with Palestinian terror, as "shaking off oppression."

Hey lady, we were devastated that you would principal a NY public school madrassa.

"At that point I realized there was nothing I could say or do," Almontaser testified through tears. "I thought of the 44 students . . . I did what I did [in resigning] to ensure the safety and security of the children."

Finally a true word was spoken. She threatened their security. That school threatens national security.

Almontaser took the witness stand in Manhattan federal court in a bid to stop the city from appointing a new principal at the academy, a selection process that is set to wrap up next week, and to force the Department of Education to consider her for the position.

[...]

"What upset me, I knew Mayor Bloomberg . . . I couldn't believe he was taking the word of The Post over my word," Almontaser testified.

heh

KGIA: Relentless Islamists Sue

So Dabah Almontaser, the filed her lawsuit last night against the NY dhimmi mayor.You would have thought Mike would have learned long ago, when you step in s**t, you can't get the stink off. Good luck with that mayor.

Atlas Shrugs: Top 10 Reasons NY Public School Madrassa must be stopped

PRINCIPAL MAKES FEDERAL CASE AGAINST MIKE

By YOAV GONEN Education Reporter

The ousted principal of a controversial Arabic public school in Brooklyn filed a federal lawsuit against the city yesterday, claiming the Bloomberg administration violated her rights to free speech and due process.

In a complaint she submitted in Manhattan federal court, Debbie Almontaser, the founder and former principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, claims top city officials violated her 1st and 14th Amendment rights.

The suit names both Mayor Bloomberg and Deputy Mayor Dennis Walcott, claiming they pressured her to resign as principal because she hadn't properly condemned "Intifada NYC" T-shirts during an exclusive August interview with The Post.

Her words led to public admonitions against her and the academy in ensuing days.

The filing says that later that week, Walcott offered her a spot elsewhere as assistant principal in exchange for her resignation "by 8 a.m. the next morning so that [Bloomberg] could announce it on his radio show." She succumbed to the pressure and faxed her resignation the following morning, according to the filing.

The complaint also says Almontaser reapplied for her post, but was rejected outright by Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and District Superintendent Rosemary Stuart, who also are named in the suit.

She claims she was denied because of the negative publicity surrounding her comments about the T-shirts rather than because of her qualifications.

The suit seeks unspecified "compensatory and punitive damages."

Department of Education officials declined comment.

Pam went to the pathetic news conference. Check out the video.

• As Almontaser's people lined up...cops pushing press behind a barrier
• Familiar faces as they press conf begins and Almontaser is in attendance
• Debbie with her starbucks as the emcee begins
• Poor Deb...AWAAM rep and the saga of the t-shirts
• She continues their complaints...no freedom of speech for arab speakers
• The usual....all arabs are labeled terrorists
• end of AWAAM statement: reinstate DEBBIE now
• Her last name is Fine...a psychiatrist and she's Jewish...
• Bad city ...helping racist blogs and newspapers to bring Almontaser down
• Claims Debbie has a LARGE support base of students and teachers...

Update Batch 2:

• She read a legal letter of some sort
• chants of "Bring Debbie Back" and a crowd shot of reporters behind me...
• I think he's an attormey (expressing support)
• This supporter is a familar Leftie...
• This is xenophobia! Disrespectful! He's mad they won't even consider her for the job.
• CAIR-NY is supporting Debbie...
• A disgrace! This is no way to treat an arab...racism...world community...
• as Chair of the Education Committee...this guy says Debbie's not going to hide anymore
• Loud and clear: he advocates she "sue the pants " off the city!
• "peace, reconciliation and education" was his mantra...I think he's a teacher
• She announced attorneys delayed inside trying to file the papers...
• The 'attack" of the "Old Biddies"...and Feinberg 'the humanitarian"...

 

KGIA INTIFADA PRINCIPAL SUES CITY

Bloomberg is such a SCHMUCK! Then you remember it's your taxpayer dollars that will pay off the suit, it's your taxypayer dollars building public school madrassas so you look in the mirror and yell, SCHMUCK! He has relentlessly pursued the opening of the KGIA public school madrassa and he will reap what has has sown.

This is a nightmare which we will not wake up from until we get some balls. NO RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS IN THE PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM.  Period. Separation of chruch and state. Period.

Our kids can barely read and write. Let's just stick to the damn basics.

EX-ARABIC PRINCIPAL SUING CITY NY Post

November 17, 2007 -- The ousted principal of an Arabic academy in Brooklyn will file a federal lawsuit against the city Monday, her supporters said yesterday.

Debbie Almontaser has said her right to free speech was violated when she was forced to resign in August as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy for failing to condemn "Intifada NYC" T-shirts sold by a group with links to her.

Less than a week after defining "Intifada" as a "shaking off" of oppression - which led to public admonitions from the head of the teachers' union and other groups - she resigned.

Almontaser is naming Mayor Bloomberg, Schools Chancellor Joel Klein and the city's Department of Education in the First Amendment lawsuit.

Her lawyer, Alan Levine, declined to provide specifics on the suit.

Last month, Almontaser, a Muslim and a fluent Arabic speaker, announced that she was reapplying to serve as principal of the academy.

Since her departure, Danielle Salzberg, a Hebrew speaker with no Arabic skills, has been serving as interim principal.

The search for a permanent principal is down to fewer than five candidates from an initial group of 25, a Department of Education spokesperson said. Almontaser is not among the remaining candidates, according to her lawyer.

The Individual will Save America

I tell ya, it's the individual that will save the day. My new hero Korina

Negligent and intolerable’ Parents bring textbook concerns to Lodi Unified Lodi News

Still not satisfied with the treatment of religions in her son's seventh-grade textbook, Korina Self aired her concerns Tuesday night at Lodi Unified's board meeting.

Backed by nearly a dozen family members and friends, Self delivered a prepared statement asking the board to remove the book "History Alive!: The Medieval World and Beyond" from classrooms.

"To know that a textbook was selected and put into use by our district that is blatantly one-sided, whitewashed, and that our children are being spoon-fed this information with sugar on top ... I feel is negligent and intolerable," Self said.

Self stopped to gather herself several times during her statement, in which she said the book's description of the Crusades and its definition of several Islamic terms, including "Jihad" and "Shari'ah" are incorrect.

Korina Self and her husband Jim decided to review their 12-year-old son's textbook late last month after hearing that he was learning about the Prophet Muhammad.

After reading the book, which was published by the Teachers' Curriculum Institute, the Selfs took issue with what they feel is an undue amount of attention to the teachings of Islam, historical inaccuracies and a lack of information on other religions.

CLOSE MADRASSAS! MONITOR MOSQUES!

We should have done this long ago. And public school madrassas?  Must be stopped. Fight the implacable foe. The elites in this country see no Islamic evil, hear no Islamic evil, speak no Islamic evil. Hardwired for delusion.

Close The D.C. Madrassa hat tip Andrew Bostom

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Islamofascism: A federal panel wants a Saudi school inside the Beltway shut for promoting hate, something we've urged for years. But remarkably, this madrassa still has powerful backers. READ MORE

Not incredible when you consider access like this.

A Soft Jihad Grows in Brooklyn

The inculcation of our youth is  the most damaging front of the jihad in America. It's nefarious effect is on display on college campuses nationwide. This is the poison fruit of the hijacking our education system.

And of course, the "Arabic" school is stonewalling the Citizen's group.

Almontaser stated that "I have realized that U.S. foreign policy is racist; in the `war against terror' people of color are the target."

A Soft Jihad Grows in Brooklyn by Aryeh Spero, Human Events

In Brooklyn, New York, a public school named the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) has opened. Its primary purpose -- demonstrated by its advisory board, its apparent curriculum and the lining of school walls with pictures of Arab figures and heroes, is to teach Arabic and Muslim language and culture and to inculcate the children with radical Islamic ideology.

One of the school's more notorious pubic supporters is convicted cop- killer and former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal. The school's advisory board includes several imams, one of whom has displayed the Muslim Brotherhood slogan on his mosque's website: "Jihad is our way, and death in the way of Allah is our promised end."

A spokesperson for the school speaks not of the duties of American citizenship but the aspiration towards "global" citizenship. Perhaps that is why this public school, unlike P.S. 132, calls itself an "international academy."

Many New Yorkers are appalled that taxpayer money is being used to finance a public school whose purpose will likely advance the Islamic religion and Islamist ethnic identity. Three local parents, two of whom are teachers, started a grassroots effort called Stop the Madrassa to question this inchoate madrassa disguised as a neutral public school.

[...]

Immediately a request was made of the Department of Education, under the Freedom of Information Act, as to the curriculum, teachers, lesson plans and textbooks of the school. This is not unusual given that schools --- for reasons of transparency and accreditation – must pre-publicize educational content prior to the school year. Indeed, many are wondering about the use of public money for an institution, such as this, with religious overtones. The response to these legitimate concerns is that those that are asking these questions must be "racists."

For example, Mumia Abu-Jamal asserts: "Racist and right-wing groups and media outlets have demonized the school…" Councilmember Leticia James talks of "anti-Arab racism …" The New York Collective of Radical Educators, in its statement supporting KGIA, called on "New York City to continue to be a voice in the struggle against anti- Arab/anti-Islamic prejudice…" Even Brooklyn's Borough President, Democrat Marty Markowitz, labeled inquiry into the school "disgraceful, xenophobic, and racist."

The intent of calling "racist" those who question the school's goals and legitimacy is, no doubt, to silence critics of the school's agenda. This attempt to silence Americans is very similar to CAIR's lawsuit that was brought by Muslim organizations against citizens on an airplane who alerted flight attendants of the fear they felt witnessing highly erratic conduct by six belligerent and provocative imams on a plane. What should be every American's right to self-defense, or the right to inform appropriate authorities of possible harm or danger, has now been characterized by a number of Muslim organizations as "criminal" and, somehow, a "violation of civil rights" worthy of civil suit. Fortunately, House Republican Steve Pearce introduced the Protecting Americans Fighting Terrorism Act of 2007, protecting citizens from lawsuits when simply informing authorities of possible danger.

It appears that yet another strategy for silencing critics of radical Islam is emerging. It is alleging that critics of suspicious Muslim activities are guilty of "stalking," "harassing," or "assaulting." This new mode of attack is, it seems, being hatched here in Brooklyn. Dhabah Almontaser, the school's former principal, recently claimed that those non-Muslim community members who were critical of her stewardship at the school "stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments."

[...]

In an interview with Amnesty International in Europe in January 2002, Almontaser stated that "I have realized that U.S. foreign policy is racist; in the `war against terror' people of color are the target." Such attitudes about our country raise legitimate concerns as to whether such a person should be a school principal of children for which the tax system is paying.

Most Americans, except for die-hard liberals and leftists, are prepared to fight the terrorism that we call the "hard jihad." The left, though, seems unwilling to fight the "soft jihad" assaulting our culture and way of life. Many Americans who in the past were proud of that unique American penchant for being outspoken and truthful are now being cowed into silence by being called a racist when they are trying to protect themselves and the institutions they admire and love from deliberate damage and obliteration.

Those New Yorkers opposed to this school and those alarmed that such schools may spread across the country are not backing down and apparently will not be intimidated by legal threats. Citizens for American Values president Stuart Kaufman states, "We will not be silenced through threats of lawsuits or being falsely called names such as `racists' and `haters' and `bigots' or other efforts to silence American citizens exercising their right to freedom of speech."

In addition to the cop-killer, radical imams, and anti-Americans associated with the school, Stop the Madrassa is also up against the usual multiculturalists who are pushing Islamic schools -- though they themselves are not Muslims -- as a further means to radically transform our culture and diminish the concept of Americanism historically taught in our public schools. The liberal left is a witting collaborator in the soft jihad that has already arrived on our shores and is moving westward, one that wishes to incrementally carve out Islamic principalities, and brazen influence, in our midst.

Yeah, read it all.

Islamic Public Schools Teaching Supremist Ideology

Miss Kelly confirms our worst fears here. These Islamic public schools must be stopped (all madrassa ought to be monitored for that matter.)

Check out the of the first Islamic public school accredited in Massachusetts. hat tip Andrew Bostom

FYI, I did some digging on Al-Hamra Academy, the first Islamic school accredited by MA, written up in yesterday's Globe.  Not surprisingly, there's evidence of Islamic supremacist ideology there, and the usual ties to ISB, MAS and ISNA.  There's a PowerPoint presentation on the website that has to be seen to be believed.  Muslims-were-here-before-Columbus sort of stuff. 

GO HERE NOW. That situation is crying out for - at the very least - the local and state school boards to examine Al-Hamra's Arabic language textbooks. Anybody want to work on a campaign about this?

I also wrote recently about MAS's Suhaib Webb coming to Boston for an Eid lecture at the ISB and two Boston colleges, MIT and Harvard.  That one brought out quite a few Islamists in the area.  Read the comments.  They got more and more strident and funnier too, as they went along.  Even more here.

Islamist Ex-Principal Sues NY PUblic School Madrassa

She's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

One thing you have to give the Islamists, they never give up. Ever. You've gotta hand it to them.No matter how stunning the loss the pick themselves up and with sharia as their inspiration fight for jihad. They learned Churchill's lesson weel, never give up, never give in. And they don't. They just keep on coming. Going after that brass ring, the jewel of jewels - America.

Miss Intifada NYC is suing to get reinstated as principal of the NY public school madrassa, the Khalil Gibran International Academy. They really think we are weak knee-ed schmucks, don't they?

Madrassa Principal Almontaser to Sue City Wants Her Job Back YidwithLid

The lady with the intifada Shirts is back. Dhaba Almontaser the first principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn is suing the Board of Education to get her job back. If you remember Ms Almontaser got in trouble for selling Intifada NYC shirts to her school kids, and when confronted with that fact by the NY Post she answered that there is nothing wrong with the word Intifada. Eventually she reigned for the good of the school ---but now she wants back.

Almontaser To Sue City Over Arab School Flap

BY ELIZABETH GREEN - Staff Reporter of the Sun

October 16, 2007

The founding principal of the city's Arabic-language school is fighting to get her job back.

Dhaba Almontaser said today she would file a lawsuit against the Department of Education, and possibly Mayor Bloomberg, accusing them of violating her First Amendment rights by forcing her out of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn.

"There are resignations and then there are resignations," a lawyer for Ms. Almontaser, Alan Levine, said. "This was a resignation that was in effect a termination."

Get your teeth out of our neck.

He added: "She was in effect terminated because her public views were not acceptable to the Department of Education and to the mayor."

Principal of Arabic School Says She Was Forced Out

Debbie Almontaser said city officials told her they would close the new Arabic-themed school if she did not resign as its principal.

Every speaker spoke of the opposition (us) as neo-cons, right-wingers, racists, hate-mongers, Islamophobes.  They are playing it for all it's worth.  They pushed the envelope.

Almontaser spoke. She said the Stop the Madrassa coalition harassed and stalked her. One of the members of the coaltion who was there  couldn't believe she said that. They always play that card. Notice? ISLAMOPHOBIC! RACIST!
The New York Times, the official paper of the American Jihad, ran her complete remarks;

Good evening. My name is Debbie Almontaser. I am the founding principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is known as KGIA. Over a two-year period beginning in 2005, I devoted my life to establishing a school that reflected not only my vision, but the ideas of a design team that included other educators, prospective parents, community members, and the Arab American Family Support Center.

Hey teacher, how about you devote your life to establishing a school that reflects America. American greatness. American values. How bout that?

In early August of this year, under pressure from The New York Post, The New York Sun, and right-wing bloggers, representatives of the mayor, the chancellor, and New Visions demanded that I resign as KGIA’s principal. They threatened to close down KGIA if I refused. The next day, I submitted my letter of resignation. Because I believe that I am the person to carry forward the mission of KGIA, I have today submitted my application to become the principal of KGIA. I have also asked my lawyer to begin preparing a lawsuit against the D.O.E. for violation of my constitutional rights.

When I first discussed with New Visions for Public Schools the creation of an Arabic dual-language public school in New York City, controversy was far from my mind. I was thrilled to create a unique school that would provide a rigorous regents-based curriculum with Arabic language and cultural studies, and that would equip students for work in such areas as international affairs diplomacy and cross-cultural understanding. As with the more than 60 other dual language programs in the city, KGIA was created to foster multilingual and multicultural education. It was also joining many New York City public schools that use theme-based approaches to inform and enrich curriculum across subject areas. As an Arab-American Muslim, born in Yemen and raised in the U.S., establishing KGIA was my American dream. It turned into an American nightmare.

On Feb. 12, 2007, the Department of Education announced the establishment of KGIA. In the days following, right-wing blogs began spinning KGIA as an Islamist school with a radical extremist jihad principal. And local New York City papers fanned the flames with headlines like: “Holy war! Slope Parents Protest Arabic School Plan,” “A Madrassa Grows in Brooklyn,” and “Arabic School Idea Is a Monstrosity.” From the day the school was approved to the day I was forced to resign, The New York Sun plastered my picture on its website with a link to negative articles about KGIA.

Leading the attack was the “Stop the Madrassa Coalition” run by Daniel Pipes, who has made his career fostering hatred of Arabs and Muslims. The coalition conducted a smear campaign against me and the school that was ferocious. Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments. They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA, even though the school is rigorously secular, and its namesake, Khalil Gibran, was a Lebanese Christian. To stir up anti-Arab prejudice, they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist.

Then in early August, The New York Post and the Stop the Madrassa Coalition tried to connect me to T-shirts made by a youth organization called Arab Women in the Arts and Media. The T-shirts said, “Intifada NYC.” Post reporters aggressively sought my comment. Because the T-shirts had nothing to do with me or KGIA, I saw no reason to discuss the issue with the media. I agreed to an interview with a reporter from The Post at the D.O.E.’s insistence. During the interview, the reporter asked about the Arabic origin of the word “intifada.” I told him that the root word from which the word intifada originates means “shake off” and that the word intifada has different meanings for different people, but certainly for many, given its association with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, it implied violence. I reiterated that I would never affiliate myself with an individual or organization that would condone violence in any shape, way, or form. In response to a further question, I expressed the belief that the teenage girls of AWAAM did not mean to promote a “Gaza-style uprising” in New York City.

Although The Post story distorted my words, it accurately reflected my view that I do not condone violence. That should have been the end of the matter. D.O.E. officials should simply have said that it was clear that neither I nor KGIA had any connection to the T-shirts. They should have pointed out that I had devoted my entire adult life to the peaceful resolution of conflict and to building bridges between ethnic and religious communities. In other words, they should have said that the attacks upon me were utterly baseless. Instead, they forced me to issue an apology for what I said. And when the storm of hate continued, they forced me to resign.

In closing, permit me to explain why I am speaking out at this time. While I have been the victim of a serious injustice, the far larger offense has been to the Arab and Muslim communities of New York City. In the years since 9/11, our communities have been the object of the most vile and hateful attacks.

None more vile and hateful than 9/11 Dabah.

The attacks on me are part of a larger campaign to intimidate and silence marginalized communities. Among other strategies, the right-wing is trying to get people from other communities to view Arabs and Muslims as threats to their safety and security. As a result, well-meaning people sometimes act out of fear—not just a knee-jerk anti-Arab, anti-Muslim response, but the fear that, if they do not succumb to right-wing pressure, they too will become targets.

Those seeking to harm our communities would like nothing more than for me to remain silent in response to their hate. For the sake of the Arab and Muslim communities and for all marginalized communities, for the sake of the families of KGIA, and for the sake of all of us committed to creating a society that we can be proud to leave to future generations, I stand here today to say that they will not prevail. I will continue to stand against division, intimidation and hatred; I will stand for a society based on mutual respect and understanding and dignity for all our communities. These are values to which I have devoted my entire adult life and career.

I am applying to be the principal of KGIA because, as its founding principal and the person who envisioned the school, I believe I am the person most qualified to be its educational leader. Throughout the planning process, I worked with a wonderful and devoted design team comprised of educators, parents, students, and community members. I would like to continue that work and to build KGIA into a model dual language school that, to quote KGIA’s mission statement, “helps students of all backgrounds learn about the world” and fosters in them “an understanding of different cultures, a love of learning, and desire for excellence in all of its students.”

Ms. Almontaser’s resignation came amid the treacherous ethnic and ideological currents of New York City politics. Some protesters have rallied in her defense and demanded that she be reinstated.

David Cantor, a spokesman for the Department of Education, responded to Ms. Almontaser’s account with the following statement:

In August, Ms. Almontaser said she resigned as principal from Khalil Gibran International Academy to protect the stability of the school and give it “the full opportunity to flourish.” The Chancellor agreed with her decision, accepted her resignation, and now considers the matter closed.

She would not take questions. The comments on that article from clueless New Yorkers defy all logic and reason. These folks are dying to hand the reins of liberal democracy over to neanderthals and death cultists.

Z adds, “the most qualified educator” openly blackmails City: “Mr. Levine said he might revoke the lawsuit,… if the DOE allows Ms. Almontaser to be reinstated as principal”.

KGIA: Radical Imam Lording Over NY Public School Madrassa

More radically bad news from the Stop the Madrassa coaltion. Please read it all here.

Mayor Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Klein:
Shut Down KGIA Now!

Citizens for American Values in Public Education and Stop the Madrassa are again demanding answers from Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein about the presence of a radical imam on the Khalil Gibran International Academy’s Advisory Board. First, we are asking why the KGIA even has an Advisory Board – what other public school do you know of that has one – a PTA, yes, but an Advisory Board? Second, we want to know why one Imam Talib Abdur-Rashid is sitting on that board. Imam Abdur-Rashid became Imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem in 1989. The mosque’s website displays the slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood terrorist organization: “Allah is our goal, The Prophet Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah is our leader, The Qu’ran is our constitution, Jihad is our way, And death in the way of Allah is our promised end.” FBI PDF FILE

Imam Abdur-Rashid is also a prison chaplain to Muslims incarcerated in New York City and New York State prisons. Maybe that’s fine, but someone had better look into it because FBI and Bureau of Prisons analysis shows that “radicalization and recruitment in U.S. prisons is still an ongoing concern. Prison radicalization primarily occurs through anti-U.S. sermons provided by contract, volunteer, or staff imams, radicalized inmates who gain religious influence, and extremist media.”

Another interesting tidbit about KGIA’s Advisory Board Imam:
Prior to joining the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Abdul-Rashid created a Muslim Boy Scout Troop affiliated with the mosque. More here FBI.gov

Read it all and send

Stop the NY Public School Madrassa Press Conference

The stop the madrassa coalition held a press conference to raise serious questions regarding the propriety of opening Khalil Gibran International Academy

Desiree Bernstein, representing the families of 9/11, was erudite, well spoken, and committed. Big time.  She came out strong against the NY public school madrassa. Video is MIA.

The Warriors (Beth Galinsky address the press.) I got there late and missed speaking. Hey it was the first day of school - orientation.

Eblan Farris  one of the Founders of The Friends of Gibran Council, and is also a founding member of the United States Chapter of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution which has as its main goal the freedom, democracy and independence of Lebanon states emphatically that the Khahil Gibran name not be used for the madrassa.

Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy: Frank Gaffney is the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C. and Brian Rooney, Thomas More Law Center, an attorney, and  a Marine Captain who  spent two years recently in Iraq.

Frank Gaffney, Atlas (Pamela Geller), Eblan Farris, an American of Lebanese descent, is one of the Founders of The Friends of Gibran Council, and is also a founding member of the United States Chapter of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution which has as its main goal the freedom, democracy and independence of Lebanon.

The Q & aAwas a joke. The reporters yelling "why are you calling it a madrassa?" "How do you know what they will teach?" "Why are you against an Arabic school? "Isn't this tied to the Israel/Palestinian conflict?"

The coalition said, we are just asking questions. Unanswered questions. Do you think for a moment that the press asks the imams on KGIA's religious board the same questions? Or asks anyone at KGIA any tough questions?

Frank Gaffney was the most hard hitting of the speakers particularly when he turned the tables on the press/reporters that were acting like handmaidens for Islamism. Gaffney shouted back, why aren't you asking these questions? Why aren't you dong your jobs? Why are you leaving it concerned parents and community members.

Why aren't they investigating the ties to terror on the "religious board of KGIA leaving it instead to  passionate citizens like Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer.

Some random video clips. I was moving my baggage last night and my camera fell out of my bag  and broke so I lost my best piece of equipment. A real drag. The hopeless replacement was difficult to operate made painfully obvious by the video I didn't get. Anyone who took video for my interviews either neglacted to push the button or pushed it too many times. Needless to say some of the best video moments are not here. Hopefully I will find them online.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue

Stop the insanity.

The unfamous lunatic "rabbi" Feingold lurking in the crowd: Does KGIA Supporter Michael Feinberg Also Support Hamas?

Followed by a lovely lunch with members of the coalition. Frank, Stuart, Irene, Gathering of Eagle supporters, wonderful fighters. Thanks to all.

UPDATE: Urban Infidel was there and grabbed some great pics. Excellent edit as well. Go now.

The new organization, Citizens for American Values in Public Education, will expand the fight nationwide to stop the imposition of radical Islamist agendas in curricula, Arabic language programs, history classes, textbooks, teacher training, and charter schools. The organization is distributing a new publication nationwide in October: "Stop the Madrassa: A Citizens Guide to Islamist Curricula In Public Schools."  An early draft of the publication will be released at the press conference.

Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld is a former aide to Governor Pataki Senator D'Amato, Mayor Ed Koch and other public officials and a current trustee of the City University of New Yorkand other educational institutions and non-profits.

Catholic League to Fight NY Public School Madrassah, KGIA

UPDATED: Larwyn reports, "Segment just ended at 38 after the hour - only caught the very end but this Garth Harris actually said when asked "how do you teach Arab culture without teaching Islam"  He said "NOT ALL ARAB COUNTRIES ARE ISLAMIC!!" as if it was rather a toss up when you named an Arab country .....let's find the Christian Arab country, Ok how about the Jewish Arab country, try Buddist Arab country.....

Guess he's counting Lebanon and Turkey - it's worked out so well for the Christians and Jews in those countries..."

City Hall today. Be there. Stop the Madrassa: Citizen’s Guide to Islamic Curricula In Public Schools

Press Release from the Catholic League President Bill Donohue

August 31, 2007 Press Conference
Purpose:  To raise serious questions regarding the propriety of opening Khalil Gibran International Academy

Participants: Coalition of New Yorkers across faith communities

When:  12:15 p.m., September 4, 2007
Where:  Steps of New York City Hall

Catholic League president Bill Donohue explains why he is joining the rally:

“There are several reasons why the Catholic League is concerned about the founding of Khalil Gibran International Academy. They include:

· The pedagogical necessity of establishing this school.

· The stonewalling by the New York City Department of Education whenever we have sought information about the curriculum, textbooks, school’s advisors, etc.

· The paucity of information about the Association of Muslim American Lawyers, a group that is slated to play an integral role.

· The incredible disparity in the way the New York City Department of Education treats Muslims and Catholics: Arab Muslims not only have a taxpayer-funded school, but the Islamic religious symbol, namely the crescent and star, is permitted in all New York City public schools. However, the Department of Education bars the display of nativity scenes.

· The entire pro-terrorist T-shirt controversy and the initial selection of Debbie Almontaser as the school’s principal.

“The Catholic League is not making accusations, but it is raising serious questions. We will continue to do so until our concerns have been alleviated.”

Speakers at September 4, 2007 Press Conference, City Hall, Manhattan (Additional speakers may be added to this list)

Irene Alter is a retired teacher of Foreign Language who taught in the NYC Public High Schools for thirty years and a co-founder of Stop The Madrassa.

Dr. William Donohue, a former professor, is president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

Barry Farber is the New York radio talk show legend.

Eblan Farris, an American of Lebanese descent, is one of the Founders of The Friends of Gibran Council, and is also a founding member of the United States Chapter of the World Council of the Cedars Revolution which has as its main goal the freedom, democracy and independence of Lebanon.

Frank Gaffney, Center for Security Policy: Frank Gaffney is the Founder and President of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C.

Pamela Geller is a New York resident, parent and community activist, and the founder of the popular website AtlasShrugs.com.

Beth Gilinsky, a media and political strategist, is a civil and human rights leader known for her bold activism on international, national and local issues.

Rabbi Jacob Goldstein is based in New York City.

Pamela Hall is a New York City resident and parent, is also a spokesperson for Stop The Madrassa Community Coalitions, and NYC chapter coordinator for the United American Committee.

Rafique Iscandar, born and raised in Egypt, is president of the American Coptic Union.

Stuart Kaufman has over 38 years of legal and business experience. In 2002, Mr. Kaufman was one of the founders of Fortress Global Investigations (www.fortressglobal.com), an international investigations and security consulting firm.

Bridget Kearney is spokeswoman for the Queens Ladies of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.

Brian Rooney, Thomas More Law Center, is an attorney, and as a Marine Captain spent two years recently in Iraq.

Rabbi Aryeh Spero is president of Caucus For America and is a columnist for Human Events.

Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld is a former aide to Governor Pataki, Senator D'Amato, Mayor Ed Koch and other public officials and a current trustee of the City University of New York and other educational institutions and non-profits.

KGIA, NY PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA: FoGC SAYS, "STOP USING GIBRAN'S NAME"

Now this is rich. Don't this beat all? THE SCHOOL MUST NOT OPEN. Why won't we fight for what we believe? Islam wins by default.

The use of Lebanese-American author poet Khalil Gibran is taqiya (Koranic instruction to deceive  in order to advance Islam) in its most perfect and vile form.

The Friends of Gibran Council Asks the New York City Department of Education To Cease Using Kahlil Gibran’s name for the Khalil Gibran International Academy

New York, NY - The Friends of Gibran Council (FoGC), concerned with the misuse of the great legacy of Lebanese-American author and poet Khalil Gibran, issues the following release.

The proposed Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), based on information received to date by the FoGC, would not honor the legacy of a great poet, an artist who achieved greatness in the US as an emigrant fleeing Lebanon where his community has been suffering persecution in their ancestral home in Lebanon at the hands of religious powers.

Gibran’s ancestry was Lebanese, Christian and Maronite (Aramaic-Syriac). He has authored works in English and Arabic. Therefore, the claims of teaching Arabic under the name of Gibran ring hollow as he is not ethnically Arab although there are many great Arab poets. Gibran, although a great artist and poet and fluent in Arabic was not an Arab poet or painter. To analogize in a very basic manner, Americans speak English but are not English.

The founders of the KGIA could easily change the name of the school to honor a great Arabic writer or poet, of which there are many, if that is their true intent.

Gibran was a believer in the universality of human rights and the dignity of the individual. Therefore, the board of trustees of the KGIA should reflect Gibran’s values and ideals. Appointing radicals and Imams who have been associated with extremist and Jihadist groups is an affront to these ideals.

The teaching of Arabic in public schools is a laudable goal; many more American students should be proficient in this largely spoken language. However, in no way should the Arabic language and Islamism be mixed.

The great name of Kahlil Gibran is not owned by anyone. Until recently, no group or individual has taken advantage of this situation. To allow the KGIA to use his name now under clearly false pretenses would, in effect, rewrite history and would do grave harm to the students of NYC.

Read it all.

UPDATE:Gibran's Legacy - August 29, 2007 - The New York Sun

CAIR IN THE CLASSROOM

Islam must be exorsized from the public school inodoctrination system. When we stopped educating young America, when we stopped teaching history and geography and dumbed down the curriculum, when we stopped teaching the greatness of our founding fathers and the enormous personal risks they took for an "idea" - a form of government based on the individual and self reliance instead teaching about fat greedy white men and how cruel we were to the Indians (savages), when we abandoned our basic fundamental principles,  we lost our way. We lost the core of American greatness. We abandoned reason  and abandoned education for pablum multicultural diversity horseshit which rendered us easy prey for Islam.

This is why the Islamists are so confident in the establishment of Arabic public schools.

Stand up! Get up! Stand for your life and the lives of our children, and our children's children.

CAIR GOES BACK TO SCHOOL Front Page mag

These children will be attending two publicly-funded K-8 charter schools, International Academy of Columbus and Westside Academy, schools are sponsored under an Ohio Department of Education contract with the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation and operated by a politically-connected group of Islamic extremists associated with both the national and Ohio chapters of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

At least one of the taxpayer-financed schools has been used during the last school year to play host to an anti-Israel CAIR_OH teach in.

Even though many of the new students are learning English as a new language, an essential tool for helping them integrate into their new community, the schools instead focuses on Arabic as part of their core curriculum. As a result, standardized test scores for the schools are well below state standards; and yet Ohio educrats continue to give the project new life, pumping millions of taxpayer dollars into each school every year to keep the schools open and renewing their contracts. One board member for both schools has even co-authored an article advocating an educational policy of “selected acculturation” and “accommodation without assimilation” to “encourage Somali youth to develop an adversarial identity that will put them at odds with mainstream society” – thus trapping the students in a cycle of perpetual cultural alienation and isolation.

Read it all.

UPDATE: Multiculturalism's War on Education (Op-Ed from the Ayn Rand Institute)

By Elan Journo

[...]

Leaf through a school textbook and you'll find that there is a definite pattern behind multiculturalism's reshaping of the curriculum. What multiculturalists seek is not the goal they advertise, but something else entirely. Consider, for instance, the teaching of history.

One text acclaims the inhabitants of West Africa in pre-Columbian times for having prosperous economies and for establishing a university in Timbuktu; but it ignores their brutal trade in slaves and the proliferation of far more consequential institutions of learning in Paris, Oxford and elsewhere in Europe. Some books routinely lionize the architecture of the Aztecs, but purposely overlook or underplay the fact that they practiced human sacrifices. A few textbooks seek to portray Islam as peaceful in part by presenting the concept of "jihad" ("sacred war") to mean an internal struggle to surmount temptation and evil, while playing down Islam's actual wars of religious conquest

CAIR RALLY FOR NY PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA

CAIR-NY URGES SUPPORT FOR NY PUBLIC ARABIC LANGUAGE SCHOOL - (NEW YORK, NY, 8/19/07) –
The New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-NY) today called upon Muslim New Yorkers and other people of conscience to participate in a peaceful demonstration in support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA), an Arabic language school scheduled to open this fall in Brooklyn.

CAIR took time out of its very busy day fighting terror  ties to Hamas and unindicted co-conspirator status to stage a  pro-madrassa rally last night at NYC Department of Education headquarters downtown at (Boss) Tweed Hall attended by the usual suspects and leftarded Jewicidals.

The Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 49b) states that Jewish ignoramuses are greater anti-Semites than gentiles.  The Zohar (Exodus 7b) declares that in the “end of days,” certain wicked Jews will become the allies of Israel’s enemies. (Prof Eidelberg)

Oh yeah, how they love to trot out that loon Rabbi  Feinberg (he is the one screaming at me in this video at a NY anti-CAIR fundraiser  back in May.)

CAIR’s Reputation and Incredibly Fluctuating Membership Roll via LGF

Urban Infidel was there. Have a look.

In response to this, Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) said the school's children could be "indoctrinated" and warned in a statement that "establishment of an Arab school is a misguided and dangerous idea." He wrote a letter to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein to protest the school's opening.

He released the following statement:

 

"[Almontaser] said that 'intifada' means to 'shake off.' We know that 'intifada' means the killing of innocent men, women and children. And now, the sponsors and organizational endorsers of the school advance a boycott of Israel and divestment. Is this what we want taught in our public schools? Is this how we want New York children to be indoctrinated?

"Instead of enriching our students' grasp of diverse cultures, will this school become a morass of polarization and justification of terror tactics? Establishment of an Arab school is a misguided and dangerous idea. I am calling on you, as Chancellor, to abolish this school before it becomes firmly entrenched. At first I embraced the idea (of a school which teaches the Arabic language) albeit, somewhat less than enthusiastically, but nevertheless, I felt the country needed skilled students steeped in Arab language and culture.

"All signs point to this concept as being a precarious mistake, especially with its radical endorsements. Do we want a school to teach its students that Hamas militants are freedom fighters, and that Israel is an apartheid state? This school is ill-advised. It will not, as suggested, be a hope for peace; it is a blueprint for anti-Israel and anti-U.S. extremism. As per their website mideastjustice.org, Adalah-NY 'supports boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.' The school should not be opened for the September term."

Help fight the Islamization of this nation's public schools with these three initiatives.

UPDATE: I discussed it at length with Robert Spencer on my radio show today. Needless to say he thinks it's a very bad idea. Listen here.

UPDATE:  View videos from community event in support of KGIA (in order of appearance) via Arab Women Active in Arts and Media (awaam)

Rabbi Michael Feinberg, Executive Director, Greater New York Labor Religion Coalition

Mona Eldahry, Founding Director, AWAAM

Deborah Howard, Member, KGIA Planning Team

Priscilla Gonzalez, Center for Immigrant Families AWAAM

Sara Said, KGIA Student Family Member

Reverend Clinton Miller, Brown Memorial Babtist Church

NY PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA IMAM: “Jihad is our way, And death in the way of Allah is our promised end”

Their agenda is so clear, they are so bold:

Allah is our goal
The Prophet Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah is our leader
The Qu’ran is our constitution
Jihad is our way
And death in the way of Allah is our promised end.

Pipes writes;

Beila Rabinowitz alerts me to another Islamist feature of the KGIA’s advisory board: Imam Talib Abdul-Rashid, about whom I have previously written (noting that he “belongs to the ‘National Committee to Free Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin’,” a convicted cop-killer), turns out to be the “resident imam” of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Harlem. The MIB’s logo shows a sword with the words “There is no deity but God and Muhammad is his prophet.” Yet more alarming, however, is the Muslim Brethren slogan, devised by Hasan al-Banna himself, printed right on the “About us” page is :

Allah is our goal
The Prophet Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah is our leader
The Qu’ran is our constitution
Jihad is our way
And death in the way of Allah is our promised end.

Go  here to Stop the Madrassa

Abdul-Rashid’s bio also lists that he is a member of the “N.Y.C. Dept. of Education Chancellor’s Interfaith Advisory Committee to the NYC Dept. of Education,” pointing to the deeper state of rot in the whole of the DOE when it comes to Islam. That this man is on the KGIA board offers further confirmation of the school’s Islamist quality.

Here is the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood’s Logo:

Read it all here.

PLEASE HELP THE FIGHT! You can make a tax-deductible donation to the CSP-Stop The Madrassa Coalition Legal Research Fund at http://www.stopthemadrassa.org .  The funds will support their legal research for the appeal of the New York City Department of Education's noncompliance with our Freedom of Information Law Requests.

NY PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRSSA: "MUSLIMS DISCOVERED AMERICA"

Yes the principal was an Islamist, yes Almontaser had not the qualifications or background to be a NYC public school principal but Almontaser is symptomatic of the problem. She is not the problem. An islamic public shcool is the problem.  An inaccurative Arab narrative is the problem. Indoctrinating young American minds with propaganda is the problem. The problem is a NY public school madrassa. Want a window into the curriculum which the DOE refuses to share with the public and parents (even though it is scheduled to open in just 16 days - what's to hide?) Listen to my show last week with Pamela Hall of the Stop the Madrassa coalition here and go to STOP THE MADRASSA  here;

"MUSLIMS DISCOVERED AMERICA"

16 Days until KGIA opens.  Time to get into that back-to-school spirit, so we’ll be posting new KGIA “Likely Lesons” . Today’s history lesson, from KGIA Board of advisors member Imām Al-Hājj Tālib ‘Abdur-Rashīd: Muslims discovered America!
[...]
You can also view this webpage as a pdf (Imām Al-Hājj Tālib ‘Abdur-Rashīd History Lesson), and also screenshots saved as a pdf file on August 18, 2007 (Imām Al-Hājj Tālib ‘Abdur-Rashīd History Lesson Screenshots).    Excerpts below…the emphasis is ours.

“The Pre-Columbian Presence of Muslim-Africans in America is No Myth!”

[Below are excerpts - the original article is long, but we urge you to read it in entirety.]

“The misguided activist obviously thinks more of his own unlearned opinion than he does of the oral traditions, scholarly writings, and academic research of experts ranging from centuries ago in the ancient world, to the present. The truth is that there is such a constantly growing, extensive body of cultural, archaeological, anthropological, and linguistic evidence of Western and Northern African Muslim pre-Columbian American (and Caribbean) presence, that those who study the evidence and continue to deny the obvious, reveal themselves to be rooted in old, racist, European renditions of American history.

It is one thing to read about towering figures in the ancient Muslim world like Al-Idrisi, Al-Biruni, Al-Mas’udi and many, many others whose contributions laid the foundations of the modern sciences of history, geography, cartography, and sea navigation. It is another to actually study their work. Both Idrisi and Mas’udi wrote of Muslim African trans-Atlantic excursions to the Western world. Al-Idrisi did so around 956 C.E. Al-Mas’udi wrote in the 12th century. These accounts were written centuries before Columbus’ voyages!”

…..

“These references and more all point to what the non-expert activist dismissed as “wish-fulfillment”. On the contrary, ancient Arabic language maps, Native American tribes with African names and words clearly embedded in their languages, statues, diaries, artifacts, etc. destroy European imperialistic notions of history rooted in White Supremacy. One such notion is that African peoples’ history in America begins with slavery. ..These works compliment references in the writings of Christopher Columbus, Balboa, and other European explorers, to those very same Muslim African explorers (specifically The Mandinka -the people of Kunta Kinte, ancestor of Alex Haley, author of Roots, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X) who were already present in the Carribean and North America, before the bearers of the Cross arrived (e.g. Narrative of the Third Voyage, The Voyages of Christopher Columbus, Lionel Cecil Jane).

Islamic Bullying, Threats and Thuggery on NY Public School Madrassa

This is the modus operandi of Islamists. Threaten,bully and use freedom of speech to kill freedom of speech. Listen to my show last night here with Pamela Hall of the Stop the Madrassa coalition

Discussions on Khalil Gibran International Academy  ARABISTO

Include Boycott of The New York Post and Creation of Media Watchdog Group

Even though it was closed off to the news media, one reliable source I spoke to earlier today, who had attended the meeting, mentioned that some had infiltrated, one including, The New York Post.  As I had mentioned in my earlier Arabisto piece, discussions involved a city-wide boycott of this newspaper as well as on how the situation had been managed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York Department of Education.

EVERYONE BUY THE POST They are fighting the great fight.

While many felt the focus of the meeting should be on the future success of the school, some felt it should be on defending Debbie Almontaser and others felt it should be on the implementation of a long-term boycott of The New York Post.

They ultimately decided on creating a media watchdog group that would analyze and critique the mainstream media’s coverage of Arab-American news.  The other idea was to start a communications plan for a long-term boycott of the New York Post discussed in the aforementioned paragraph, which is already in place, according to one reliable source I spoke to tonight.  Pressure, they think, will force not only The New York Post, but other similar media news media to make changes on how they report on the Arab-American community.

I suspect the Post's circulation to soar.

Danielle Salzberg, senior program officer at the nonprofit group New Visions for Public Schools, is the new Khalil Gibran International Academy interim principal who will substitute Debbie Almontaser.

Daniel Pipes on why the madrassa must be stopped.

NY PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA: Jew Ruse

UPDATE: My radio show tonight will be Pamela Hall from the Stop the Madrassa Coaliton - call in (347) 996-3944

SHEIK-UP: Danielle Salzberg replaces ousted Khalil Gibran head Debbie Almontaser.

In the latest desperate attempt to pull the wool over our eyes and get this NY public school madrassa opened and unstoppable, they've hired a "Jewish woman" as interim principal. I, for one, am unmoved.

What? They hire a Jew (and clearly it's a left wing upper West Side liberal - the worst) and they think we'll say "never mind." How insulting and wrong. As if.Considering the leftist/Islamic alliance, the liberal Jew would be the nest best thing to an Islamist. BTW, she doesn't even speak Arabic.

It is not about the principal. It is about a public school madrassa. In their feeble attemnpt to deflect scrutiny, they are making it all about Almontaser. It should not open, here's why.

And interim means what? Who will eventually be imam?

Jewish Woman Taking Over at Arabic-Language School NY SUN

New York City's education department is turning to a Jewish woman who belongs to an Upper West Side synagogue to lead an Arabic-language public school that critics have portrayed as a terrorist-friendly "madrassa" in the making.

Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is scheduled to open to a few dozen students for the first time next month, had its founding principal, Dhaba "Debbie" Almontaser, resign on Friday after a flap over her response to a T-shirt promoting an "intifada," or uprising, in New York. Ms. Almontaser's replacement will be Danielle Salzberg, who does not speak Arabic, but grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household and belongs to a Manhattan synagogue, her father, Michael Salzberg, told The New York Sun yesterday.

Ms. Salzberg will serve as Khalil Gibran's acting principal while the city wages an aggressive search to find a permanent replacement for Ms. Almontaser, who speaks fluent Arabic, and is a practicing Muslim.

In a resignation letter sent to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Ms. Almontaser said she was stepping down for the good of her school. "Unfortunately, a small group of highly misguided individuals has launched a relentless attack on me because of my religion," she wrote. "I have grown increasingly concerned that these few outsiders will disrupt the community of learning when the Academy opens its doors on September 4th."

[...]

The interim principal, Ms. Salzberg, seemed apprehensive when the Department of Education asked her to run Khalil Gibran temporarily, said her father, who said he spoke to her about the offer over the weekend. "It's a controversial thing, it's public," Mr. Salzberg said. "I'm not sure that exposure is good for anyone."

Her father? Why her father? She can't speak for herself? WTF?

But he said he is confident his daughter will deal well under pressure. For one thing, positive comments about intifada are unlikely, he said. "I don't think she'll get herself into that sort of bind," he said.

Mr. Salzberg added that his daughter's politics are far more liberal than his, noting that he was not surprised to learn that she had signed a petition written by the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance.

Oyish.

UPDATE: MUST READ: Stop the Madrassa Statement on Danielle Salzberg: Direct Responsibility

Danielle has had direct responsibility for supporting the Khalil Gibran planning team over the last six months.

In other words, Salzberg has had “direct responsibility” for the KGIA’s flawed design that explicitly preferences Islam and Muslim religion in the curricula, and Islamist and sharia ideologies in the teacher “partners” for the school. And that she continues to have that “direct responsibility.”

She has direct responsibility for appointing Almontaser as principal, even while Almontaser serves on the Muslim Consultancy Network with a host of extremist organization participants including the unindicted co-conspirators in terrorism financing, ISNA and CAIR, the second of which also awarded her efforts with a major award.

Salzberg has direct responsibility as senior program officer for choosing an entirely religious Advisory Board for a public school, in apparent contempt of constitutional separation of church and state. She has direct responsibility for  selecting these three imams:

Salzberg has direct responsibility for appointing Imam Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid to the board. He is also the Amir (leader) of the Harlem Shura, a coalition of seven Harlem mosques. He has been the chairman of the Justice Committee of the Majlis Ash-Shura (Islamic Leadership Council) of New York, and Deputy Amir of The Muslim Alliance in North America. In Early 2006 he was appointed Deputy Amir of the Majlis Ash Shura.

She could have found a secular Arabic speaker, Bahai Arabic speaker, a Christian Arabic speaker or a Sephardic Jew. But she chose an Islamist political activist committed to the imposition of sharia law.

Salzberg has direct responsibility for appointing Imam Shamsi Ali, director of the Jamaica Muslim Center in Queens, where he started a traditional Koranic Madrassa (yes, right word) several years ago where students memorize the Koran, with only two hours of instruction for all other subjects at the end of the day.

She could have found a Coptic Arabic-speaker, or a Maronite Christian Arabic-speaker. But she chose an Islamic religious activist who puts a low value on learning anything other than the Koran.
Salzberg has direct responsibility for appointing NYU Imam Khalid Latif, who “convinced” the NYU administration to censor students who tried to show the Muhammed cartoons (so much for being “inclusive,” “showing diverse views,” or that pesky non-Koranic document again, the Constitution and its First Amendment). A video describing his political organizing to block the cartoons is instructive.  In his NYU Imam capacity, he cuts to the chase and simply states that all Middle Eastern languages are “Islamic”: “Responsibilities of the Islamic Chaplain at NYU …Organizes and instructs religious classes in Islamic religion, ethics, and languages, i.e. Arabic, Urdu and Farsi.” (page 8 of 29).

She could have found a secular Muslim Arabic-speaker, or even a Muslim apostate (we have laws in this country to protect Muslim apostates from being killed, fined or imprisoned - there must be one or two in New York City). Instead, she chose an Islamic activist who asserts that Arabic is an “Islamic” language, and who given a choice between the Constitution and Free Speech - and the Koran - chose the Koran.

But wait.   Salzberg has direct responsibility for much more, found in the KGIA Executive Summary for the school here.

Salzberg made sure that Columbia University’s teacher training in fact teaches about one religion and one only - Islam. Oh, there’s “Israeli Culture” and a general nod to Middle East history, but she only recognizes the teaching of a single religion in this ostensibly public school (page 8):

UPDATE: Meanwhile the Draft Bloomberg for President web site has a creepy donation button with a human spine imposed over an American flag. Bloomberg, who according to the Post article, "Mayor Bloomberg yesterday said it was best for Almontaser to step down because "she was becoming an issue" but supported the school." hat tip jeremayakovka

UPDATE: And Ed Lasky writes me of another New York Crimes whitewash alal the leftist/ Islamic alliance;

knew Almontaser shared office space with the group printing the Intifada T-Shirts but the NY Sun writes that she advises the group. Certainly a bit different than the NYT version that did not mention that she shared office space with the group nor that she ADVISES the group.

Instead, the Times wrote she had "no direct connection" with the group. Critics of the school have raised concerns that Ms. Almontaser's public commitment to peace might be a front for a violent agenda. A group of over 70 community members, including some parents and at least one city teacher, formed a group, the Stop the Madrassa Coalition, to investigate the school's possible ties to terrorist organizations. It was pictures of the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts posted on their website that led The New York Post to ask Ms. Almontaser her thoughts about the shirts, which were created by an Arab American art group that shares office space with an organization Ms. Almontaser advises.

SALZBERG, Department of Education

Ms. Salzberg, whose daddy said she attended Columbia Teachers College after getting a bachelor's at New York University, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Columbia? Oh great

KGIA Almontaser's Lesson in Taqiya

Here's the file. Daniel Pipes has it all here;
Almontaser sent a pugnacious letter of resignation to Klein;

Unfortunately, a small group of highly misguided individuals has launched a relentless attack on me because of my religion. They have used my religion as the pretext to undermine the Academy and have taken my words out of context to distort my record and portray me as something that I am not. They have not succeeded, of course. The Academy will open as scheduled. They confused me for the larger movement in support of equity in education for all New Yorkers and they underestimated the Mayor's commitment.

With your unwavering support in the face of these unprecedented attacks, and the love of my family, they did not bother me. However, their intolerant and hateful tone has come to frighten some of the parents and incoming students. I have grown increasingly concerned that these few outsiders will disrupt the community of learning when the Academy opens its doors on September 4^th.

Seperation of church and state ain't hate. It's AMERICA.

Therefore, I have decided to step aside to give the Academy and its dedicated staff the full opportunity to flourish without these unwarranted attacks.

The small group of fear mongers who used hate and prejudice to try to derail the Academy are on the wrong side of history. New York is bigger than that; America is fairer than that.

"Fair" ..........now that's rich.

NY PUblic School Madrassa MUST GO

For the obvious reasons. As far teaching Arabic - offer it as an elective in nonedenominational public schools like Spanish, French, etc

Critics Of Arab School Up Pressure On Joel Klein To Scuttle Khalil Gibran Madrassah Pipeline News William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz

August 10, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - With the news of Dhabah Almontaser's abrupt resignation today from Brooklyn's proposed Arab school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, still reverberating, members of New York's educational community have increased their calls to permanently close the ill-conceived institution.  

Though Almontaser has resigned, KGIA's base of support in the radical Muslim community, including its main partnering organization - the Arab American Family Support Center [AAFSC] - remains, along with the school's fraudulent pedagogy of Arab social activism, assuring a continuation of Almontaser's Islamist agenda, even in her absence. [see Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran Madrassah Will Function As Jihad Recruitment Center  

Reached at his New York office to comment on the matter, City University of New York Trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld said that Almontaser's resignation is, "One step, let's hope Joel Klein come to his senses."  

Wiesenfeld's opposition to the school is fundamental: Read it all:

"There were a number of people, many of them very well meaning as well as a number of organizations who felt that she had not acquitted herself properly when she tried to obfuscate the meaning of Intifada. But that was not the issue and that is not the issue. This only highlights the fact that any of us who even considered allowing ourselves to get involved in this farce...now know that we should not get involved at all with this concept."

Larger issues loom said Mr. Wiesenfeld, about which Almontaser's role is only peripheral:  

"It points to the larger issue, the disingenuousness, sadly of so many Muslims who try to represent their cause in public...they would argue for different definitions of Intifada, different definitions of jihad, much in the same way that Arafat used to do. What we have to do as a society is we must adopt the methodology of the absolute clearest thinker on this subject, and that was the former Prime Minister of Australia, [John] Howard who said, and I'm paraphrasing here, 'if you want to live among us and enjoy our values we welcome you, if you want to live under Sharia in our country we invite you get out.'"

"If you want you have a madrassah, that's privately funded - I still think unfortunately the FBI will still have to expend man hours to watch over it - but it's a free country you can have a madrassah, you can have a yeshiva, if want you can have a Catholic school, but not in the pubic education rubric."

Asked what the Department of Education should do at this point, Wiesenfeld was clear,"The chancellor of the board of education of public schools should cut his losses and get out of it, it's a losing proposition."

Bloomberg:Islamist Principal at NY Public School Madrassa Forced to Resign

UPDATED 8/11: Bennet at The NY Post: INTIF-ADIOS TO SCHOOL CHIEF QUITS CITY'S ARAB HS OVER T-SHIRT TALK

BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES  DABAH "DEBBIE" ALMONTASER" HAS RESIGNED, SEE BREAKING NEWS WABC RADIO :  BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCED THE RESIGNATION DURING HIS DAILY RADIO  REPORT. John Gambling on WABC,  broke the story on his radio show.

That's one for the good guys!~I have been covering the  Khalil Gibran International Academy here for months.

This is a good first step.

Now that the folks are beginning to understand the real agenda they will begin to understand why we must stop the school. The school shares the same motives and objectives as Almontaser.

I am sure CAIR has a stable of able bodied replacements. Can a CAIR lawsuit be far behind?

Here are the 10 ten reasons this public school madrassa must be stopped.

Arab School Principal Says She Regrets Intifada Remarks

STOP The Khalil Gibran International Academy!

BLOOMBERG WILL CONTINUE TO SEEK A NEW PRINCIPAL FOR THE ARAB SCHOOL.  THE T-SHIRTS WERE THE BIG PROBLEM, HER REMARKS ABOUT THE T-SHIRTS WERE ILL ADVISED AND MEDIA WAS ALL OVER HER.

From the John Gambling show:

DIRECT QUOTES BY BLOOMBERG : Debbie Almontaser WAS NOT VERY MEDIA SAVVY OVER HER COMMENTS ON THE T-SHIRTS.  SHE WAS SOMEWHAT OVERWHELMED BY THE MEDIA. BLOOMBERG SAYS THEY ARE STILL LOOKING FOR A PRINCIPAL FOR THE SCHOOL.

She is an Islamist! Dhimmi Mayor of NY still searching for clues.

UPDATE: Here's the FOX Report: NYC Principal at Center of 'Intifada' T-Shirt Controversy Resigns  hat tip Bill

NEW YORK —  A New York City principal who came under fire for controversial comments about an "intifada" T-shirt that seemed to condone terrorism has resigned.

On Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg accepted the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, an English-Arabic school set to open next month in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Almontaser had come under fire for comments she made to the New York Post about an "Intifada NYC" T-shirt that is sold by an activist group that shares an office with the Yemeni-American association that Almontaser represents.

The day before she condemned the T-shirt message's connection to Palestinian terrorism, Almontaser told the Post that "intifada" means "shaking off" and the shirts represented women "shaking off" oppression.

The comments infuriated the city's United Federation of Teachers president, Randi Weingarten, who called the message "war-mongering."

“That’s something that ought to be denounced, not be explained away,” she told the paper.

Click here to read the Post's story.

The New York Post reported Friday that the school had attracted only a handful of Arabic-speaking students.

UPDATE: We are  filing a injunctive relief on Tuesday to keep the school from opening.

UPDATE: Expect a dumpload of this taqiya and the Brooklyn Eagle laps it up like subservient dogs;

Dhabah’s statement: “This morning I tendered my resignation to Chancellor Klein, which he accepted,” Ms. Almontaser said in a statement Thursday. “I became convinced yesterday that this week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized. I have spent the last two years of my nearly 15 years with the Department working to create the unique educational opportunities that the school will offer. I will not allow the recent outcry to undermine these possibilities for the children of our city.”

Klein’s statement: School’s Chancellor Klein issued a statement saying: “I accept the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, founder of Khalil Gibran International Academy. Debbie brought to the work of creating the school strong dedication and a commitment to the success of all of New York City’s children. She reflected that commitment by stepping aside as the school’s leader when controversy about her remarks threatened to destabilize the school. I continue to believe that an Arabic dual language program, much like our other successful dual language programs, offers unique preparation for the global marketplace, and I remain committed to the success of Khalil Gibran International Academy.”

Relentless surrender from a dhimmi Jew.

AWAAM’s Statement: A release put out by the members of AWAAM tries to explain their particular usage of the word “intifada”: “‘Intifada NYC’ is a call for empowerment, service, civic participation and critical thinking in our communities: a ‘shaking off’ of discrimination and prejudice and an embracing of our roles as producers rather than simply objects of the mass media and public discourse.”

They cling to the jihad. They will not let go.

The statement went on to say that AWAAM members were “shocked to find themselves at the receiving end of attacks by anti-Arab bloggers and press who are using a T-shirt to try to aggravate hysteria against Arab and Muslim communities.” The group said that in addition to being incorrectly labeled a "Muslim group" and "pro-violence,” the organization “has sustained an illegal attack by hackers on its web site.”

Ha! It's not anti-Arab is pro-America bloggers

UPDATE: Terror media aligns with terrorist force: The New York Times Whitewashes Another Islamic Extremist  Ed Lasky

NY PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA: "Internships with Muslim lawyers" ????????

WTF? Internships with Muslim lawyers? For what? To learn the finer points of the litigation jihad? Community activism? Just what we need - "for Islamic activism."

ARAB SCHOOL'S PEACE GOALS Chuck Bennett NY Post

August 8, 2007 -- Internships with Muslim lawyers, trips to the Middle East and community activism are the hallmarks of the city's Arab-themed school scheduled to open this fall.

The controversial Khalil Gibran International Academy's grant application for private funds says the school wants to produce "agents of change" and "ambassadors of peace" by focusing on the "complexity of Arab history and the diversity of Arab culture."

Principal "Dhabah Debbie" Almontaser - who backtracked this week from comments condoning the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts that are sold by activists with ties to her - insists political dogma will not be on the curriculum.

All students, no matter their ethnicity, or religion, will be welcome, she said.

Forty-four students have registered to begin the sixth grade and five teachers have been hired.

How do they know they know. The madrassah has released no info.

The grant application was obtained by "Stop the Madrassa," a group opposed to the school on grounds it violates the separation of church and state.

NY Public School Madrassa: "Jihad Recruitment"

Illustration hat tip YidwithLid

Either she is a fool or she thinks New Yorkers are morons. Regardless, she has no business running a public school.

Neither, she knows New Yorkers are not paying attention and want to be left alone.

Almontaser, as The Post's Chuck Bennett and Jana Winter reported yesterday, sits on the board of an organization that shares office space with a group called Arab Women Active in Art and Media, which has been selling T-shirts proudly proclaiming "Intifada NYC."

What does that mean, exactly?

Is it meant to support the Palestinian intifada, which has killed thousands of innocent people over the years?

Is it an incitement to such deadly violence here in New York City?

Neither, according to Almontaser.

"The word basically means 'shaking off,' " she tells The Post. "That is the root word, if you look it up in Arabic."

And while she says that intifada "is developing a negative connotation" because of its murderous anti-Israeli violence, Almontaser claims the shirts are merely "an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society . . . and shaking off oppression."

And the moon is made of green cheese. More here

Still wondering what they are going to teach at this Islamic school?

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. I have been banging the drum for months now on this taxpayer funded public school madrassa. Andrea Peyser gets it. This isn't creeping sharia, it is head on - the human (?) incarnation of  the blob.  It must be monitored 24/7/365. Expect the worst;

Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran Madrassah Will Function As Jihad Recruitment Center By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz hat tip Robert

August 7, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - It is now clear why the New York Department of Education has been dodging requests by concerned citizens who have been trying to determine what type of institution the proposed Khalil Gibran International Academy will be.

Charges leveled against KGIA by these writers - that it will in essence function as a madrassah, a center for indoctrination not education - are proven by the school's own executive summary [Access KGIA Executive Summary Here], a document recently released under threat of a lawsuit by the Stop The Madrassah Coalition.

The summary is actually a manual for creating an Islamist vocational school, one in which every activity is planned around creating social activists with an Arab supremacist mindset, in the mold of KGIA's activist/principal Dhabah Almontaser.

Despite the New York Dept. of Education Chancellor's assertions to the contrary, KGIA will even bow to shari'a in its cafeteria, where halal food will be served. This is a clear incursion of Islamic religious principles into the public sector, a reason recently cited by Mr. Klein as justification for shutting the institution down.

With a pedagogy wrapped around social activism, the student will be strongly urged to get involved with the surrounding Arab community, within which a radical Islamist sentiment figures prominently.

The executive summary is open about how KGIA will function as a prep school for social activists, outlining a mythical day at the institution where the, "goal is to share with the rest of the freshman class their own collaborative experiences and reflect upon the lessons they've learned from them utilizing the following quote."

 

"Genuine collaboration is a coming together of people to create something that would have been impossible to make alone. A dialogue, a communication, a connection that transforms the participants can occur. Deep collaboration compels us to see ourselves through others. Truly collaborative works are commitments in time and space, cause and effect at once, even a form of love." - Tom Rollins - social activist [source page 16-17 executive summary]

Actually the quote is from Tim not Tom Rollins [to whom Almontaser mistakenly made the attribution] he is indeed a social activist, he is also a public school teacher who operates a group call KOS [chaos] which preaches a radical, art based anti-American message.

 

"Tim Rollins wrote a few years ago that he used the profession of schoolteacher as a cover..." [source http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/Collab/KOS/Rollins.htm#background]

In that role Rollins' approach perfectly coincides with that of KGIA, which is also cover, a front operation.

UPDATE: MARK writes, "Pamela, was looking back at what Hillary said about vouchers and religious education (please see attached).  If she feels so strongly about using public funds for religious education, I wonder why she doesn't do anything about the Khalil Gibran International Academy?"

Read sHrillary's duplicious hypocrisy here: Download ny-ushill2246367.pdf

NY Public School Madrassa: "What's to hide?"

UPDATED: My colleague in the Stop the Madrassa coaliton, Pamela Hall,  will be on O'Reilly tonight at 8 pm Eastern. Short segment at approx 45 minutes in. BTW, Islamist Almontaser is retracting her defense on the Intifada T-shirt.

Creeping Sharia;

CITY PRINCIPAL IS REVOLTING NY Post

Read today’s New York Post article on the Khalil Gibran International Academy:”CITY PRINCIPAL IS ‘REVOLTING’ TIED TO ‘INTIFADA NYC’ SHIRTS.”

It features Dhabah Almontaser’s views on the “Intifada NYC” t-shirt from the AWAAM organization, which is housed with and sponsored by Almontaser’s Yemeni American Association.    Here is yet another example of that “Intifada NYC” t-shirt, sold to young girls at the July 2007 Arab Fair: Read it all here

We must demand constant monitoring of this "school" because they are going ahead with it whether we like it or not. And why the secrecy? Can we expect this?

NYC Officials Accused of Withholding Information on Arab School

(CNSNews.com) - New York City officials have not been open or candid, critics say, about a controversial public school set to open in Brooklyn next month that will teach Arab language and culture -- the Khalil Gibran International Academy.

A local group, Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition, fears the school will become a Muslim-oriented school that promotes a religious and political agenda to its incoming sixth-grade class.

Administrators have claimed otherwise, but the coalition has received few details about the school's curriculum, faculty, textbooks and students, so its questions are still unanswered.

The suspicions are fueled by comments made by the school's incoming principal, Debbie Almontaser, as well as by some of her allegedly radical Islamist associations.

She has said, for instance, that U.S. foreign policy is "racist" and that the U.S. "triggered" terrorism by not being a fair mediator in the Middle East.

Further, the advisory board for the school includes three imams (Islamic leaders), as well as Christian and Jewish clergy.

"What's to hide? We know what we see," said Pamela Hall, a New York resident and a spokeswoman for the Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition. (A madrassa is a Muslim school). "We see a religious advisory board and a principal with a track record in radical Islam," Hall said.

KGIA, NY Public School Madrassa Principal is an Islamist

STOP The Khalil Gibran International Academy!

Among a long list of problems that parents and members of the coalition have with the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the NY public school madrassa in Brooklyn include a religious board (for what?) and the Radical Islamic ties of many of the administration.

Dhabah Almontaser, the  principal of KGIA is an Islamist who is painfully unqualified for head of school.  How did she get the plum job of Principal?  Her experience is limited to teaching and "activism." A former Principal called the Malzberg show explaining that Almontaser was assigned to his school to conduct her sensitivity classes after 9/11.  He found her comments during teacher training to be political.  He asked her what her professional experience was.  The answer....2 yrs as an elementary school teacher.  He read about KGIA and was surprised that with such little teaching experience, then political activism following, she is now a Principal.

Principal Of Khalil Gibran International Academy, Dhabah Almontaser Slammed In Expose Pipeline News

July 30, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - A five minute video [Access Video Here] just released casts grave doubt as to the suitability of Dhabah Almontaser to serve as the principal at the embattled Khalil Gibran International Academy, a proposed Arab-centric public school scheduled to open in September.

The charges directed against Almontaser go to the heart of the debate over the school, which has parents, national security researchers, Middle East experts and advocates of church-state separation uniting in their opposition to the school's opening in Brooklyn.

Almontaser has served in the New York's Department of Education since 911 doing what is essentially dawa work, wearing a hijab so she can act as a "role model for young women throughout the city"- seemingly a clear case of the type of religious proselytizing which is expressly denied in the First Amendment's "establishment clause" - while denying in classroom settings that the September 11 attackers were either Muslim or Arab.

"I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims." - Dhabah Almontaser [source ]

Almontaser's public school work mandate to spread what is clearly Islamist revisionism has been granted by New York's multicultural educrats because of the undocumented canard - loudly spread by faux Muslim civil rights groups - that there has been huge increase in anti-Muslim hostility since the September attacks.

The proposal to create a public school pushing an Arabist agenda and carrying out much of its instruction in Arabic highlights the absurdity of rewarding a noisy minority group well versed in using the system against itself, in this case to cravenly recycle the 911 attacks, using them once again against the society which has already been forced to endure them.

This is a calculated logic of rejecting assimilation while imposing elements of Sharia incrementally. It is dialectic in which every instance of Islamic terror can then be used to assert charges of Islamophobia.

In a July 30 article published in USA Today dealing with the encroachment of Sharia - Islamic law - into the public school system, Dr. Daniel Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum stated:

"The goal of Islamists is the application of Islamic law."

Agreeing with Pipes in this piece was Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center who said:

"What (school officials) are doing...is to give Muslim students religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now." [source ]

The degree to which the Islamists are willing to bend reality in furtherance of their goals is demonstrated by Almontaser who has not only denied that the 911 attackers - 15 of whom were Saudis - were either Muslim or Arab, but has asserted that the United States was itself responsible for the September 11 attacks.

Read it all. There is so much more.

We immediately call on NYC Education Chancellor   Joel Klein to immediately remove Dhabah Almontaser as principal of KGIA. Her extremist views and deeply troubling associations make her unfit for such a position of leadership.

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle covered the response to Stop The Madrassa’s demands for curricula that came from Chancellor Klein’s office yesterday. Klein’s spokesperson blatantly evaded all the key questions about the curricula that are at the heart of the concerns about this school. We’ll analyze why below, but first an excerpt or two from the Eagle article: More here.

UPDATE: Please read Kurz's piece:  Saudi in the classroom

A fundamental front in the war:

Unless we counteract the influence of Saudi money on the education of the young, we’re going to find it very difficult to win the war on terror. I only wish I was referring to Saudi-funded madrassas in Pakistan. Unfortunately, I’m talking about K-12 education in the United States. Believe it or not, the Saudis have figured out how to make an end-run around America’s K-12 curriculum safeguards, thereby gaining control over much of what children in the United States learn about the Middle East. While we’ve had only limited success paring back education for Islamist fundamentalism abroad, the Saudis have taken a surprising degree of control over America’s Middle-East studies curriculum at home.

UPDATEL Almontaser's intifada:

KGIA principal Almontaser linked directly to “Intifada NYC” t-shirts Stop the Mmadrassa

Yes, those t-shirts for young girls say “Intifada NYC.” These were sold at the Arab Faire in Prospect Park on July 8.

Is this the kind of “middle eastern cultural enrichment” that Dhabah Almontaser, principal for Khalil Gibran International Academy, will bring to her students and teachers? Since Chancellor Klein’s office has approved her curricula, we assume he and Mr. Harries endorse these t-shirts. Mayor Bloomberg can purchase some for his next campaign. Read it all.

Pamela Hall of Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition on Glenn Beck tonight, Tuesday July 31 - at 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm ET on Headline Prime, CNN

VICTORY! San Diego Public School Madrassa STOPPED!

Victory for America folks! yeah baby. Charles over at LGF is reporting here;

San Diego School Stops Allotting Class Time for Muslim Prayers LGF hat tip Caroline

A San Diego school that set up a “madrassa” for Somali Muslim students, allowing prayer time during class hours and segregating males from females, has been forced to knock it off after a large public outcry: School Stops Scheduling Class Time For Muslim Prayer.

SAN DIEGO — A San Diego school that drew international attention for setting aside time for Muslim students to pray in the classroom will no longer do so, it was reported Friday.

Instead, Carver Elementary’s schedule will be reconfigured so students can say their required midday prayers during lunch. Courts have long upheld students’ rights to pray on their own during lunch or recess, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported. When the new school year begins, Carver will have two lunch periods, including one that will fall when Muslims typically say their midday prayer — between 1 and 2 p.m., the newspaper reported.

Next stop, New York!

Stop the NY Public School Madrassa on HANNITY TONIGHT

Xdhimmi rocks! Thank you!

TIVO Hannity tonight where Sara Springer  my fellow American, freedom lover and friend in the fight against the NY public school madrassa, - The Khalil Gibran International Academy, will be debating the fat bastard - 9pm.

STOP THE NY PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA

UPDATE: THE STOP THE MADRASSA COMMUNITY COALITION WILL BE ON HANNITY TONIGHT. MUST SEE TV! 9pm Eastern

The Stop The Madrassa Community Coalition now has a phone number for the group.  This is already on the contact info page and press release pdf at the stopthemadrassa.wordpress.com blog.  Fight the madrassa, the country you save will be your won. NO taxpayer funded public Arabic schools. The implications are staggering. Here is the information for all the Atlasites that asked (and for those that didn't :)

It is (347) 789-7818 , a local NYC area code.
Help stop the Khalil Gibran International Academy

Excerpt from our July 23 letter to Governor Eliot Spitzer, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the New York State Board of Regents, Dr. Richard P. Mills (New York State Education Commissioner), Chancellor Joel Klein, Garth Harries (Office of New Schools), and Records Access Officers:

Re: Khalil Gibran International Academy (”KGIA”); FOIL Requests

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

The undersigned represent a coalition of concerned parents and residents of New York City and the State of New York. Our client-group consists of concerned New Yorkers and because time is a critical factor we are writing this letter directly to you prior to taking any further administrative or legal actions. In addition to this letter’s obvious effort to elicit a serious and substantive response, it is also meant to operate as a formal FOIL request to the appropriate Records Access Officers of all of the relevant City of New York Department of Education and New York State Education Department agencies and subdivisions.

The background for this correspondence is straightforward, yet quite disconcerting….

Read the entire letter here, also listed on our Documents page:

Re: Khalil Gibran International Academy (”KGIA”); FOIL Requests

NY Public School Madrassa: War on the Homefront

"If we hope to defeat the Islamists' in the war of ideas they are waging against us, we had better deny them a beachhead in Brooklyn — and a precedent and model for publicly funded madrassas across America."

Frank Gaffney has a column over at The Washington Times on the proprosed public Arabic school in NY, Khalil Gibran International Academy.  Read it all. The repercussions of such a tax payer funded school is incalcuable.

War of ideas' homefront Frank Gaffney Jr.

It is generally accepted that the conflict we are in is as much a war of ideas as a military one. Sadly, the United States has largely failed to wage this ideological struggle against adversaries who both understand its vital importance to the outcome and who often, like most ideologues, are very skilled in its ways.

This is bad enough overseas, where adherents to one strain or another of the ideology best described as Islamofascism use various organizations, media and educational institutions to recruit and indoctrinate young people. The failure to recognize the danger such activities represent, let alone to counter them effectively, is among the most serious shortfalls in the Free World's response to our Islamist enemies.

Even more alarming is accumulating evidence we are also failing to appreciate the inroads being made by those promoting a similar agenda on this war's homefront — here in the United States. In fact, Islamists have been assiduously waging the war of ideas for decades, in American mosques and prisons, on military bases and college campuses across the country and, increasingly, in the public square. The infrastructure that has made possible such ideological inroads has largely been built by various Saudi institutions, charities, princes and businesses. The Islamofascists' success in these areas owes as much to our indifference, political correctness and cognitive dissonance as to their zeal.

A case in point is a new school that New York City seeks to initiate this autumn with public funding. The so-called Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) will start small — a single sixth-grade class lodged temporarily inside an existing public school in Brooklyn. According to Garth Harries, an official in the city's Department of Education, the KGIA's purpose will be to "offer a challenging multicultural curriculum ... [that] integrates intensive Arabic language instruction and the study of Middle Eastern history and historical figures to enliven learning across all subject areas."

There are a number of grounds for concern that what is billed as "multiculturalism" will actually be Islamist indoctrination — at taxpayer expense:

• For starters, the curriculum for classes supposed to start in little more than a month has not been made available to parents of prospective students or concerned citizens. Even assuming the best of intentions on the part of New York educators — notably, Public Schools Chancellor Joel Kline has promised to "shut [the school] down" if it assumes a religious, political or national character inconsistent with a public school — it is a serious error to rush into an educational experiment fraught with peril without the closest scrutiny by parents and independent experts.

That is especially so since the KGIA's principal-designate, Dabah (a k a "Debbie") Almontaser told a reporter in May: "What will be different [is that] we will be able to infuse historical information into math and science and literature.... With any foreign language you engage in, you need to learn the history, culture and customs of the people in order to navigate the language effectively and not offend anyone."

• If such a curriculum sounds like a vehicle for injecting the Islamists' slanted view of Middle East history and promoting the culture of victimhood that is a staple of much of their proselytizing and indoctrination, it probably is, given Ms. Almontaser's views and associations. In January 2002, she told an interviewer: "The American people believe that everything is all right and that the U.S.A. lives by its ideals of democracy, individual freedom and the American dream out there as well. So did I, until September 11, 2001.... Earlier you could be arrested for being black and driving a car, now it has become a crime to fly when you are brown. I believe a lot of Arab-Americans have realized that we are in the same boat as the black Americans; we must learn from their experiences and struggle against racism. I have realized that our foreign policy is racist; in the 'war against terror' people of color are the target."

Please read it all here. And the ten biggeest reasons the school must be stopped here.

Top 10 Reasons NY Public School Madrassa must be stopped

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.

[PDF]

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

Hamas Supporters tied to NY Public School Madrassa, Khalil Gibran International Academy

The whole idea of a taxpayer funded public Arabic school runs afoul of every basic tenet of the separation of church and state. A bad (and very dangerous) precedent.  Cogent reason against twisted, convoluted arguments fall on deaf ears. Mayor Bloomberg's willful ignorance in a city that at times feels more like a war zone is incomprehensible.

Under Mr. Bloomberg, the Department of Education has established two public schools — one Greek and one Arabic — that challenge the divide between church and state. For the past five years, the Bronx Household of Faith, has conducted Sunday morning services out of Public School 291, but now has been banned from doing so. A co-leader of the inner city congregational church, Robert Hall, has vowed to appeal the ruling. In an interview with the New York Daily News, Hall pointed to the Khalil Gibran International Academy as an example of how the DOE is inconsistent in its rulings on who may use its space. He said his church was being singled out and added, "You cannot separate Arabic culture from Islam. Here we are in the fall, ready to have a publicly-funded religious school." An education department spokeswoman denied this, but Mr. Hall promised to pursue the matter through the courts. More here at the NY Sun.

The  infiltration and c0-opting of America's educational  institutions  tend to have the nefarious. This is no different. The backgrounds of those behind the NY Arabic public school get uglier and uglier.

Hamas Sympathizers Tied To Khalil Gibran International Academy? Pipeline News

By Beila Rabinowitz and William Mayer

July 17, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In previous articles the writers have documented why Dhabah aka "Debbie" Almontaser, the Yemeni born principal designate of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, does not belong in the public school system.

She promotes an Islamist agenda, operates in an environment populated by radical Muslim organizations and individuals, holds extreme leftist political views and aims to use the KGIA as a tool of indoctrination. [see Khalil Gibran Jihad School - Indoctrination Not Education]

Almontaser has a close working relationship with Linda Sarsour, a radical Islamist activist with a power base in Brooklyn's Bay Ridge district. Sarsour is the director of the Arab American Association of New York, a provider of social services including immigration assistance and legal aid to Arab community. She along with Almontaser are board member of the AAA's Dialogue Project and Sarsour is the Co-Chair of the Dialogue Project's Interfaith Events program.

Sarsour's association with Almontaser provides an alarming insight into the forces that will drive KGIA if the school becomes a reality in September.

This relationship poses a serious challenge to those who blindly maintain that KGIA is just another New York City charter school, because Linda Sarsour is tied to the terrorist organization Hamas as well as other radical causes. Deepening the concern, the community from which Sarsour operates shares her views as well as her support for Islamism.

In a 2004 piece by Sarmad S. Ali, "Kerry Drew Disenchanted Arabs in Bay Ridge" published in the Columbia Journalism Review, Linda Sarsour matter-of-factly documents her family's ties to Hamas as depicted in the Arab language terrorist newspaper that she is reading while being interviewed: Read the whole thing here.

[...]

In 2005 Almontaser co-founded the Yemeni American Association [YAA] and imam Hisham from the Al Farooq mosque presided at the organization's opening. Almontaser's husband, Sa'ad Almontaser, serves as the vice president of the YAA.

In 2006 Shahawar Matin Siraj a Bay Ridge resident, was convicted and sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in a plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station in Manhattan.

The case was largely built on evidence gathered by Arabic speaking informants.

When New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly met with local Muslims to hear their "concerns about issues of public safety," as the New York Times reported, "Only after several questions did anyone mention the trial. Debbie Almontaser, a board member of a Muslim women's organization, told Mr. Kelly that she was saddened that the police had resorted to "F.B.I. tactics," and that she thought this was polarizing the Muslim community. Applause swept the room." [source NY Times]

As these writers noted in New York Jihad School Principal Almontaser Decried "FBI" Tactics Towards Convicted Terrorist, "Only in Almontaser's insular world, preventing a crime that could have killed hundreds is viewed as "polarizing."

A majority of Bay Ridges' Muslims believe that 9/11 was staged by the U.S. government.

 

"At the trial of subway bomber Matin Siraj his defense lawyers said their client's belief that 9/11 was staged by the United States was the common view held by the majority of Muslims in . April 2007 Siraj's defense maintained that his views that the United States government was involved in the 9-11 attacks were "community-based notions" held among many muslims."

"In fact, in that entire Muslim community...the thought that the American government was responsible for bringing down the towers on 9-11 was common," said one of Siraj's attorneys, Martin Stolar. [source http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/29/21/29_21guilty.html]

In a disturbing piece ["Zionist Organization Supports Gibran School Principal, ADL Support Could Affect School's Success!"] published in Aramica, an Arab newspaper headquartered in Bay Ridge, publisher Antoine Faisal essentially charges Dhabah Almontaser with collaborating with the "enemy."

 

"What could she [Almontaser] possibly have done to anger members of her own community? How about betray them by working with a Zionist organization?" [source http://www.viewda.com/webpaper/aramica]

That enemy, the "Zionists" here, takes the form of the Jewish organization, the Anti Defamation League which Faisal equates with the Ku Klux Klan.

 

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NYC To Open Arabic  Public School

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IT'S ALIVE! NY Public School Madrassa

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Islam Attacks! Madrassa in NY Public School System 

NY SUBMITS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL MADRASSA PARENTS LIKE SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER

The letter from Joel Klein Chancellor, NY Department of Education - open this file to read the whole disgusting submission to Islam. (click below the fold for pges 2&3)
Download Hale_Community_Letter_061907.pdf

An Atlas operative attended the MS447 PTA meeting which was held to update parents on the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the NY Arabic public school madrassa situation. Half the classes at the school will be taught in Arabic. Arabic is more than a language. It is explicated the language of Islam so in that sense it is part of the Islamic religious imperial project. Radical Islam advances through the Arabic language.

About 25 parents showed up.  No media.

Garth Harries, Jerry Taylor-Brown (a woman in his office), Bill DeBlasio, and Sam Colen (not sure of last name or who he is) attended from the Department of Education.

Tom Dolan (P.T.A. President) summarized the agreement.

The parent's concerns last night were:

1. Would all students have lockers as promised?

2. Dance Studio

3. Overcrowding in cafeteria, and because there are so many students, some are eating late and are hungry.

4.Last year there was a fire in the building.  High School students exited first, leaving Middle School students waiting in the building.  How would they manage in the future with more students?

5.  Would the D.O.E. keep promises since they haven't in the past.  Would they put everything in writing?

6.  Concern about sharing Science Labs with KGIA.

7.  What will be KGIA start and end time?

Atlas operative (AO) waited for a parent to bring up serious concerns.  This almost did not happen. Finally a concerned woman raised her hand and said;

 

".....everyone remembers when Dhabah Almontasser read an e-mail from an Iraqi GI praising her and how wonderful this Arabic School is."  (everyone nodded yes and smiled).

 

She had read an article that explained how this GI was found to be a fraud.  He wasn't on his base in Colorado as he said.  He was in the Bronx.  He immediately disconnected his phone.  This really surprised me. It scared me actually.  After all, why would Dhabah Almontasser do this?  What else could they be doing? She did some research and  googled her.

Did you know she [Almontasser] recently received an award from the Council on American Islamic Relations and they are an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Hamas terrorism case?"

Garth Harries became apoplectic.  His eyes narrowed and he stared so hard at that woman so hard you could feel his anger.

She continued that just read about a school in San Diego that tried this same experiment with an Arabic Cultural School and now they have Sharia law.  Boys and girls are separated, there is Muslim prayer during classes, and Halal food in the cafeteria.

Her concern was that they kept saying that there will be accountability and the school will be monitored, but who in the D.O.E. speaks Arabic and how will they have someone sitting in the classrooms to hear what they are teaching?  She could not  see how that's possible.  And also, she asked "where are the textbooks?  Don't you all think we should see them?" 

She wanted too get copies of all the textbooks used. Smart woman.

 

She thanked the P.T.A. for all of their hard work. 

She thanked them for begging for new equipment and improvements and asked if anyone knew that after two years KGIA is "moving into brand new state-of the-art building while they were  left in here."

Harries glossed over every point she brought up and never answered a question or concern.

Someone raised their hand (Harries knew she was on his side) and said, "We definitely need police security because there are people who don't like Arabs".

Another questioned was asked about lockers and Harries ended the meeting.

A gentleman then asked to make a comment.  He said that the whole affair was handled poorly and that he was distressed at Mayor Bloomberg's comment in the New York Times early on in the discussions.  He didn't appreciate Bloomberg saying that he did not care what the parents wanted and the school would open.  He hoped that in the future the parents would be consulted.

I caught an exchange between the female questioner and Harries. He accused her of being confrontational.   He was beyond furious that someone would  go along with the plan. The parents looked like lambs being led to the slaughter; happy, until right before they realize what's up.

Another woman asked if the D.O.E. would allow her a variance at this late date so she can place her son in another school. 

The problem with that is, they will probably offer schools she doesn't want in order to discourage students from leaving.

Another parent was concerned that the school would lose funding because of an enrollment drop.  Harries promised they would not do this.  Schools are given a certain amount of dollars per student.  It is highly irregular to fund students who don't exist.

Harries said enrollment for KGIA is at 100 students and they had to stop taking applications.  I don't believe this.

There are so many dangers involved.  One crucial issue is the indoctrination. 

The other issue is that Dhabah Almontasser and associates will be privy to everything that occurs in the Department of Education, especially concerning School Safety.  If they know the procedures they have inside knowledge they can use to infiltrate the system.  This is a huge issue.  Thousands of students could be placed at risk.

The third issue is they will be given enormous amounts of dollars to fund their agenda, which is indoctrination, not education.

There are illegal immigrant students in the educational system already. 

I know of an incident in Edward R. Murrow where I.C.E was called in.  KGIA will not report an illegal immigrant.  They will harbor them.  T because the paperwork and documents didn't match. KGIA will get these kids proper documentation.

This is a very scary situation.  Every local politician I've spoken to refuses to go near this.  Some of them fawn over Almontasser.

More importantly -- this sets a dangerous precedent. Our taxpayer dollars being used to build these houses of hate.

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NYC To Open Arabic  Public School

STEYN on NY Arabic Public School

Allah Snackbar! NY Public School Madrassa Defeated

IT'S ALIVE! NY Public School Madrassa

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An Arabic Public School

NY Public school Madrassa Army PR Lie ADVANCE ISLAM AT ANY COST, LIE, CHEAT

How low can Islam go to get what they want? There is no bottom. They want that public school madrassa and they mean to get it. They are going to use our tax dollars to brainwash our kids.

Here is the latest dirty, disgusting trick. On May 28th The New York Post reported here,

IRAQ GI SALUTES CITY ARAB SCHOOL

-- As resistance in Brooklyn to a public school focused on Arabic language and culture persists, a U.S. soldier has emerged as its unlikely champion.

Army Sgt. Patrick Kowalchuk, 28, who has completed two tours in Iraq, intended only to support Khalil Gibran International Academy's principal when he wrote her an e-mail early this month.

But it soon evolved into a public-relations tool.

"American society desperately needs this bridge to Arabic language and culture, and I am glad there are visionary and courageous people like yourself who are laying down the framework," Kowalchuk wrote to the principal, Debbie Almontaser.

Almontaser recently read the e-mail, with Kowlachuk's permission, at a meeting of 100 parents of kids at Brooklyn HS of the Arts and Math and Science Exploratory School.

Kowalchuk told The Post parents must embrace the academy.

"If it were given a chance to prove itself, it could," he said by phone from Fort Carson, Colo., where he teaches Arabic to soldiers in his unit.

Photo: Principal and useful tool: Almontaser

Almontaser is well schooled in the Islamic practice of taqiya. Deception, any and all, to advance Islam. Almontaser ruse was exposed by William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz at Militant Islam Monitor.org here

Khalil Gibran Jihad School's new public relations ploy - Army Sgt. Patrick Kowalchuk reports for duty

Kowalchuk's appearance at this point in the KGIA controversy appears to be nothing more than a desperate ploy by Ms. Almontaser, who is seeking to create a patriotic symbol to rescue her school which has already been rejected by PS 282 and is encountering similar resistance at Boerum Hill where Joel Klein's Department of Education is trying to cram the institution down the throats of protesting students, parents and faculty members.

Finding it intriguing - to say the least - that a U.S. serviceman would be involved with Almontaser, whose record of anti-war activism and public statements reveal her to be a radical Islamist, PipeLineNews contacted him Tuesday morning, asking for a comment.

He stated that he couldn't talk at the moment because he was "at work" but would speak to us "in his off hours" and gave us a cell contact number and a time to call back this afternoon.

When the return call was made - at the time he suggested - we found he had provided a cell number which wasn't his, but belonged to someone in New York, a male with a heavy accent. In a follow-up call to Fort Carson, one of Kowalchuk's associates informed us that the Sergeant was now refusing to talk to us, period.

Kowalchuk's amateurish game playing and deceit should place him in good stead if and when he decides to teach at KGIA. It is also illustrative of the larger duplicity manifest in Almontaser's developing PR strategy.

This strategy shift came about because New York's DOE, Ms. Almontaser and all of those involved with lobbying for KGIA are denying the implicit religious and political nature of the institution and as a result are now trying to do an end run around the issue, seeking out friendly journalists to shill for the school while Almontaser, Joel Klein and others sit back and calculate the effect.

Read it all. These people will stop at nothing to set the precedent and establish Arabic schools in our public school system. This Arabic school MUST BE STOPPED. As Mark Steyn so succinctly put it:

" it shows how we mischaracterized, we willfully misunderstand Islam. Yes, on the face of it yes Arabic is a language in a sense there is would be no difference between opening a foreign language school - a Spanish language school or a french language school - but in fact Arabic is more than a language. It is explicated the language of Islam so in that sense it is part of the Islamic religious imperial project. Radical Islam advances through the Arabic language. And you go all kinds of places that aren't in the Arab world now like Pakistan, Indonesia, Central Asia, the Balk ins, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Canada and the United States and you will here those Imams preaching in Arabic. Arabic is not just another language like French or Italian, it is the spearhead of an idea logical project that is deeply opposed to the United States.

Related:
NY Public School Madrassa Advisor Threatened NYU with Danish Cartoon JIHAD
NYC To Open Arabic  Public School
STEYN on NY Arabic Public School
Allah Snackbar! NY Public School Madrassa Defeated
IT'S ALIVE! NY Public School Madrassa
Islam Attacks! Madrassa in NY Public School System

and also check out

An Arabic Public School

Read the Sun’s coverage of plans to open an Arabic-language public school in Brooklyn.

UPDATE: Christine of The Center for Vigilant Freedom sent this incredible background info on dhimmi soldier boy:

I don’t think that  soldier and his Arabic teaching is as innocent as portrayed in the media.  IF this is the same guy….

I think this is a book review by this Patrick Kowalchuk – it seems to be about Arabic as a language -

It’s pretty incoherent I think, but he definitely has literary aspirations.  Here’s his poetry…if it’s the same fellow

I wonder if this is the same Kowalchuk (and if he is the school’s same kowalchuk?) here – “A poet’s gathering against the war” – but in 1999 (Serbia/Bosnian war….) (another link to same email on the “war resistors league” here ).  And another here

Maybe there are 2 Patrick Kowalchuks who know Arabic?

Or this review of Jarhead

This guy sure writes fancy huh….And the Tribes organization (actually your standard Lower east side artsy group) has a great Hillary photo here (scroll down) here

Also you’re probably aware of this, but Debbie Almontaser’s son is in the army – wonder if he knows Kowalchuk – and that curricula is to be spread through all the schools in NY, not just the madrassah – or so she writes here