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August 29, 2007

NYC's Khalil Gibran International Academy: An Incubator for Islamist Radicalization?

The imminent opening of a publicly funded Muslim academy in New York City (described by the Thomas More Law Center as nothing more than a thinly disguised incubator for Islamist radicalization that will immerse its students in Islamic culture, with three fundamentalist Islamist imams on its Board of Advisors, as well as other promoters with connections to militant Islamic organizations) has raised questions about the double standard that exists when it comes to religion in our schools.

... an executive summary of the KGIA proposal, point to the school as an anti-American, anti-Christian, and anti-Jewish propaganda center paid for by American tax dollars.

Some of the school's promoters have ties to questionable Islamic organizations including CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations), an unindicted co-conspirator in cases dealing with the funding of terror, whose founder and chairman publicly stated in 1998: "Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith but to become dominant. The Koran should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth."

On KGIA's Advisory Board is Imam Talib Abdul-Rashid, the resident imam of the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood. The "About Us" page of the Mosque of the Islamic Brotherhood website contains the ominous slogan of the Muslim Brotherhood: "The Koran is our constitution; Jihad is our way; and death in the way of Allah is our promised end."

The Executive Summary of the new school has a section entitled "A Day in the Life of a Student at the Khalil Gibran International Academy," which describes how imaginary students pass through a hallway adorned with portraits of Arab philosophers, inventors, poets, musicians. Notably, there is no mention of portraits of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, or our other Founding Fathers.

Of interest also is that in order to deflect criticism of the school, Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser (pictured above) has resigned. According to the NY SUN, she could not credibly distance herself from organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and refused to answer questions from the Sun as to whether she viewed Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organizations. Furthermore, as the Sun also points out, any perceived need for an Arabic school in New York City is best addressed not by going to the taxpayers, but y a system of true school choice through vouchers (I suggest that it should only be done by private means as Christian schools are funded).

After all, why should American taxpayers fund a madrassa, or even "it's alternative." And besides, if CAIR supports it, you know its a bad choice with negative effects on non-Muslims and moderate Muslims, alike.

Related link: Gibran's Legacy - The Department of Education's Arabic-themed school has now drawn the attention of a group founded to preserve the memory of Khalil Gibran, the Lebanese-American author and poet whose name the school bears. The Friends of Gibran Council stated in a press release yesterday that, based upon available information to date, the proposed school "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." The release further points out that Gibran's ancestry was Lebanese, Christian, and Maronite, making the act of attaching his name to a school dedicated to Arab language and culture a bit suspect.

Cross posted from Hyscience

Posted by Richard at August 29, 2007 7:52 AM