Recommendation To Close Islamic Saudi Academy

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

It remains to be seen whether or not anything will come of the recommendation of a federal panel. From this source, October 18, 2007:

McLEAN, Va. (AP) - A private Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the U.S. government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam, a federal panel recommends.

In a report released Thursday, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom broadly criticized what it calls a lack of religious freedom in Saudi society and promotion of religious extremism at Saudi schools.

Particular criticism is leveled at the Islamic Saudi Academy, a private school serving nearly 1,000 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in northern Virginia's Fairfax County.

The commission's report says the academy hews closely to the curriculum used at Saudi schools, which they criticize for promoting hatred of and intolerance against Jews, Christians and Shiite Muslims.

"Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States," the report states.

The commission, a creation of Congress, has no power to implement policy on its own. Instead, it makes recommendations to other agencies.

The commission does not offer specific criticism of the academy's teachings beyond its concerns that it too closely mimics a typical Saudi education.

The report recommends that the State Department prevail on the Saudi government to shut the school down until the school's textbooks can be reviewed and procedures are put in place to ensure the school's independence form the Saudi Embassy.

Messages left Wednesday with the State Department and the Saudi Embassy were not immediately returned.

Several advocacy groups in recent years have cited examples of inflammatory statements in religious textbooks in Saudi Arabia, including claims that a ninth-grade textbook reads that the hour of judgment will not come "until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them."

Saudi officials said they have worked in recent years to reform the textbooks and the curriculum, but critics say progress has been insufficient.

The school's director-general, Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report. But he said the academy has adjusted its curriculum in recent years and removed some of the inflammatory language that had been included in the Saudi text. The school's curriculum may now serve as a model for the Saudi government to use in continuing its reform of Saudi schools, he said.

"There is nothing in our curriculum against any religion," Al-Shabnan said.

He also said he is willing to show the school's curriculum and textbooks to anybody who wants to see them, and he expressed disappointment that the commission did not request materials directly from the school.

"We have an open policy," he said.

He also pointed out that many of the school's teachers are Christian and Jewish.

The commission based its findings in part on a the work of a delegation that traveled to Saudi Arabia this year. The commission asked embassy officials to review the textbooks used in Saudi schools generally and at the Islamic Saudi Academy specifically but did not receive a response.

Commission spokeswoman Judith Ingram said the commission did not request to speak to academy officials because that went beyond the commission's mandate.

The report also criticizes the school's administrative structure, saying it is little more than an offshoot of the Saudi Embassy, with the Saudi ambassador to the United States serving as chairman of the school's board of directors. The structure "raises serious concerns about whether it is in violation of a U.S. law restricting the activities of foreign embassies."

After the Sept. 11 attacks, critics questioned the nature of the religious education at the Saudi academy. The school again found itself in the spotlight in 2005, when a former class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was charged with joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotting to assassinate President Bush.

Abu Ali was convicted in federal court and sentenced to 30 years in prison. He is appealing his conviction.

Over two years ago, in an article dated October 5, 2005, significant concerns arose about the Islamic Saudi Academy:

WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism on American shores.

The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques in major cities across the country, including New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents, bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and Christians.

A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the only authentic Islam....

Some six months before the above article, the Washington Post published the following about the Islamic Saudi Academy:

Eleventh-graders at the elite Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia study energy and matter in physics, write out differential equations in precalculus and read stories about slavery and the Puritans in English.

Then they file into their Islamic studies class, where the textbooks tell them the Day of Judgment can't come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews.

As early as 2004, Paul Sperry wrote "Look Who's Teaching Johnny about Islam," an article indicating that that the influence of the Islamic Saudi Academy extends further than the boundaries of the school's two campuses:

A top textbook consultant shaping classroom education on Islam in American public schools recently worked for a school funded and controlled by the Saudi government, which propagates a rigidly anti-Western strain of Islam, a WorldNetDaily investigation reveals.

The consultant, Susan L. Douglass, has also praised Pakistan's madrassa schools as "proud symbols of learning," even after the U.S. government blamed them for fueling the rise of the Taliban and al-Qaida.

Douglass, routinely described as a "scholar" or "historian," has edited manuscripts of world history textbooks used by middle and high school students across the country. She's also advised state education boards on curriculum standards dealing with world religion, and has helped train thousands of public school teachers on Islamic instruction.

In effect, she is responsible for teaching millions of American children about Islam, experts say, while operating in relative obscurity.

WorldNetDaily has learned that up until last year Douglass taught social studies at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Va., which teaches Wahhabism through textbooks that condemn Jews and Christians as infidels and enemies of Islam. Her husband, Usama Amer, still teaches at the grades 2-12 school, a spokeswoman there confirmed.

Susan Douglass also has connections to the Council on Islamic Education:

Critics complain that Douglass, who taught at the Saudi academy for at least a decade, has convinced American textbook publishers and educators to gloss over the violent aspects of Islam to make the faith more appealing to non-Muslim children. The units on Islam reviewed by WND appear to give a glowing and largely uncritical view of the faith.

Asked about it, Douglass referred questions to the Council on Islamic Education, which did not respond. CIE's website lists her in its staff directory as a "principal researcher and writer."

CIE is a Los Angeles-based Muslim activist group run by Shabbir Mansuri, who has been quoted in the local press saying he's waging a "bloodless" revolution to fight what he calls anti-Muslim bias in public schools and promote Islam in a positive light in American classrooms. Mansuri, who consults with Saudi education ministers at his center, claimed in a 2002 op-ed piece that Islam has been on American soil "since before this nation was founded."

[...]

Douglass has argued for more in-depth coverage of Islam in classrooms, while at the same time advising that Christian principles, including historic facts such as Christ's crucifixion, are clearly qualified with attributions such as "Christians believe."

Houghton Mifflin is not the only major publisher influenced by CIE. Prentice Hall also collaborates with the group. And its "Connections to Today," which is the most widely used world history book in the country, instructs students that jihad is an "inner struggle to achieve spiritual peace," according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Also, CIE has helped write supplemental teachers materials that engage children in entertaining Muslim role-playing activities in the class. Parents say they make the study of Christianity and other religions seem dull by comparison....

I'm not holding my breath for the academy to close. Similar calls, including calls for extensive education of the institution, have come before. Besides, as I mentioned earlier in this posting, the school's influence extends much further than the boundaries of the academy's campuses. Nevertheless, closing the academy would be a step in the right direction.

Director Of The Islamic Saudi Academy Arrested

The Islamic Saudi Academy is a school in Northern Virginia and is operated by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.

From this source (hat-tip to Radio Free Dar al Harb):

Islamic Saudi Academy Director Arrested for Obstruction of Justice
June 16, 2008
Fairfax, VA

On June 9th, Fairfax County Police arrested the Director General of the
Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), Mr. Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, on the charges of
Obstruction of Justice without Force (VA Code 18.2-460). Charged and released on
the same day, Mr. Al-Shabnan is out on his own recognizance as he awaits his
first hearing at Fairfax County General District Court on August 1, 2008, at
9:30 a.m.

Mr. Al-Shaban’s arrest stems from an investigation into the ISA’s alleged failure to comply with State requirements for reporting child abuse. According to authorities, instead of reporting the child abuse, Mr. Al-Shabnan deleted the report, contacted the student’s parents, and recommended psychological counseling for the young victim. Mr. Al-Shaban’s June 9 arrest comes after a May 23rd police search of the ISA where they gathered evidence that has contributed to the charges against Mr. Al-Shabnan.

Years of Controversy Continue

The ISA has been at the center of controversy for many years. A 2007 United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report promoted members of Congress to call for the closure of the school. The 2007 USCIRF report prompted a coalition of concerned grassroots organizations to request the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to delay the renewal of the ISA lease until a Federal investigation into the ISA was completed. During the hearing, County Supervisors dismissed concerns as slanderous, bigoted, and unfounded. During the course of the hearing, Fairfax County Chairman, and Democratic Candidate for the 11th Congressional District, apologized to Mr. Al-Shabnan for what he deemed slanderous accusations that impugned the integrity of the Islamic Saudi Academy.

Since that May 19 hearing, the Mr. Al-Shabnan has been arrested and the USCIRF has confirmed ISA textbooks justify murder as an Islamic right.

Only Supervisor Gross has responded to the issue, and she continues her support for the ISA, and its textbooks that contain passages filled with hate and incitement to violence. Chairman Connolly has yet to retract his apology to the ISA and Mr. Al-Shabnan. Supervisor Hyland has not yet commented on whether the texts cited in the USCIRF report are the similar to those he identified as “texts of concern” during his independent and undocumented investigation of the ISA.

These hateful passages remain despite a 2006 US State Department request for the ISA to remove all insensitive and offensive content from textbooks. The ISA’s non-compliance with the 2006 US State Department request has not been accounted for and raises concerns about what the ISA, as an extension of the Saudi government, considers offensive, and the level of accountability they have to their local hosts and Federal government.

Since the US Treasury Department still considers Saudi Arabia as one of the leading financiers of terrorism, and USCIRF reports identify Saudi Arabia’s education as filled with incitements to murder as a religious freedom, the US State Department has not commented as to whether they will extend this policy and allow Iran and North Korea to open official schools in the US as well.

The ISA’s has run afoul of Virginia law before in hiring a bus driver, Abdelrazeg Abdalla, who had a suspend license, seven traffic violations, a misdemeanor for kidnapping his wife and child at knife point, and a six month detainment by Homeland Security. Nevertheless, the ISA hired Mr. Abdalla as a bus driver. Mr. Abdalla, operating a faulty ISA, bus was responsible for a 2005 multi-car accident.

Additionally, the ISA winner of the superlative Most Likely to Be a Martyr, and 1999 class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, has been convicted on charges of terrorism and attempting to assassinate President Bush.

As a result for the a May 19 hearing, the ISA’s lease of Fairfax County property continues as the Board of Supervisors unanimously supports the ISA as a model school beyond reproach.

A video of the complete May 19 Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Hearing on the Islamic Saudi Academy can be found at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/cable/channel16/vod.htm

Select “Public Hearings” from the May 19 links.

Of Note:

42:58 Fairfax County Chairman Connolly charges of slander remarks

49:35 Supervisor Gross: Latin can be violent and Parochial Schools contain material as equally offensive as the ISAs.

1:02 Supervisor Hyland begins testimony about why and how they’re is no documentation on his investigation.

Previous Always On Watch postings on the Islamic Saudi Academy are HERE and HERE.

Previous Northern Virginiastan postings on the Islamic Saudi Academy are HERE.

Previous IBA postings on the Islamic Saudi Academy.

More Problems At The Islamic Saudi Academy

Previous Northern Virginiastan postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy are HERE.

The problems with the school just keep adding up!

Photo Credit: the Washington Post
From this June 27, 2008 article by Patrick Poole at Pajamas Media (via Jihad Watch):

The controversial school funded by the Saudi Embassy had its corporate charter revoked in 2004 and has never filed required tax forms with the IRS.

...[A] review of the corporate records on file with the Virginia State Corporation Commission finds that the Islamic Saudi Academy’s corporate charter was terminated by the state on December 27, 2004. There is no indication from state records that the incorporation has been revived or renewed, and the last corporate report the school has filed with the state of Virginia that we could find was 2004 — the same year its corporate charter was terminated. A check of corporations in neighboring District of Columbia and Maryland found nothing for the academy.

[...]

...As the academy has forfeited its Virginia incorporation and is now operating as a d/b/a of the embassy, and considering that the school is funded by the embassy, operates on property owned and leased by the embassy, the embassy speaks publicly on its behalf, and it uses Saudi government curriculum, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that it is solely an entity of the Saudi government controlled entirely by the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC — a position directly in opposition to the present claims of the State Department.

Our investigation also found that at no time has the Islamic Saudi Academy ever filed an IRS Form 990, which is required of every tax exempt organization, including private schools. And according to IRS Publication 78, at no time has the school ever requested or received a tax exemption letter from the IRS. Nor, apparently, has it ever filed corporate taxes with the US government as would be required if it were an entity independent from the Saudi embassy, as it has no recognized tax exemption.

If the school was a separate corporation as State Department officials have repeatedly claimed, it would have to have an active corporate charter (which it doesn’t appear to have since December 2004), and it would either have to file IRS Form 990s if it were operating as a tax exempt organization, or file tax returns if it were operating for-profit. That has not happened in either case according to our investigation. Rather, all evidence indicates that the Saudi Embassy is in full corporate control of the school, and it is operating entirely under its agency, which makes the school subject to the Foreign Missions Act and under the authority of the State Department. If it isn’t part of the Saudi Embassy, it seems that the academy is operating illegally.

This new evidence doesn’t give much leeway to the State Department to shirk the matter.

Read the entire article.

Apparently, in addition to the school's other problems, the school's charter was revoked and some required IRS filings were not done. Surprise, surprise! NOT!

Meanwhile, go HERE to see the MEMRI clip of Al-Jazeera's report on the Islamic Saudi Academy. At marker 2:28 on the clip, you will hear the word "madrassah," defined as follows by the American Heritage Dictionary:

A building or group of buildings used for teaching Islamic theology and religious law, typically including a mosque.

Those who have read this web page by Daniel Pipes, also know about other connotations for the word "madrassah."

The Islamic Saudi Academy (a madrassah) is coming under long-needed scrutiny. At this point, a Google search of the school yields over 9000 hits, and the number of hits increases every day.

Predictably, Moslems are complaining about the scrutiny of the school, never mind ISA's broken promises about revising the offending textbooks as well as various other problems at the school. From the MEMRI transcript for the above-linked video:

[T]his is a nightmare for the families of the students enrolled in the academy. This pressure is exerted by several Congressmen, known for their great hostility towards Arabs and Muslims.

[...]

What should be said about a commission that some say is unconstitutional and contradicts the very meaning of its name? This commission [which recently issured the report on the textbooks] calls upon all countries of the world to respect freedom of religion there, while the commission itself violates this freedom on its own land.

Um, ISA supporters, remove the beam from your own eye before trying to remove the speck from another's eye.

Obfuscation At The Islamic Saudi Academy

I have blogged many times about the Islamic Saudi Academy, alma mater of wannabe Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali, valedictoriam at the school a few years before. One example of what I've previously written is here, and here is another.

Now comes this November 19, 2007 article, from AAFAQ: The Leading Arab Reform Web Site:

American Senators demand Closing of Saudi Academy in Washington

(Washington – Aafaq) - On Thursday, 12 members of the United States Senate demanded that the Secretary of State, Condolezza Rice, close the Saudi Islamic Academy in Washington because of the refusal of the Saudi officials to make available for inspection the curricula that are taught in the Academy. [Full Story in Arabic]

The Saudi News Agency (WASM) said that members of the Senate demanded that the Department of State follow up on the agreement that the United States and the government of Saudi Arabia made last year on improving the freedom of religion in Saudi Arabia and stopping the export of religious extremism.

The director of the Saudi Academy, Abdullah Al-Shabnan, held a press conference on Thursday, in which he denied the use of Saudi curricula in the school and also pointed out the curricula used do not contain any enmity toward other religions or sects.

The Saudi Academy refuses to make its curricula available for inspection to the American government or to the news media.

It may be mentioned that the Institute for Gulf Affairs Washington issued a lengthy report last year, in cooperation with Freedom House. The report received worldwide attention, because it showed that the curricula used in schools in Saudi Arabia are still filled with extremism, intolerance toward of other religions, and the incitement of hatred and violence toward other religions and cultures, despite claims of the Saudi government to the contrary.

Contrast the above with the following, which appeared on November 16, 2007 in the Washington Post:

Officials of a Northern Virginia Islamic school yesterday criticized a federal commission, saying that the panel unfairly damaged the school's reputation by recommending it be shuttered until it could prove that it is not promoting intolerance and violence through its textbooks.

Abdalla Al-Shabnan, director general of the Islamic Saudi Academy, said a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom calling upon the State Department in September to close the school had taken everyone by surprise and left those affiliated with the school shaken.

Yesterday, Al-Shabnan invited a few reporters, including one from The Washington Post, to tour the school and meet with teachers, students and parents. Officials displayed some of the textbooks used, including a few routinely used by students in Fairfax County public schools. Others, written in Arabic, are religious or language texts, academy officials said. They denied that any of the texts promote religious extremism.

"Some people believe we get our orders from the [Saudi] Embassy," Al-Shabnan said. "That is not the case. I am the one in charge. I am responsible for all the action in the school."

Parents and students say the commission's views do not describe the school they know. Dana Nicholas, assistant principal of the girls' school, said the academy uses a curriculum similar to the one used by Fairfax public schools. There are religious classes and Arabic is taught, said Nicholas, who described herself as a devout Christian. But, she added, "we are just a normal school."

Commission members said they were not persuaded by the school's invitation to reporters, nor a letter they received from Al-Shabnan on Wednesday. In the letter, dated Nov. 12, Al-Shabnan stated that the school had made its textbooks available to a Fairfax County supervisor for review. Supervisor Gerald W. Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) said yesterday that his office had received six boxes of books from the school and that a translator from the county's library system was looking through them.

Al-Shabnan also invited commission members to come to the school to review the textbooks.

Commission Chairman Michael Cromartie said the offer was not taken up because academy officials wanted mutually acceptable scholars and translators to review the textbooks. He said the commission had repeatedly asked Saudi Embassy officials in Washington for the books but had not received them.

The commission, created by Congress under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, issues an annual report about religious freedom around the world. Its members are appointed by the White House and congressional leadership.

Officials with the commission said they had spent several years examining textbooks used by schools in Saudi Arabia, which gives the Northern Virginia academy much of its funding. Those textbooks, the commission members said, promoted violence against Christians, Jews, Shiites and polytheists.
The Islamic academy, which has two campuses in Northern Virginia, was founded in 1984 to educate children of Saudi diplomats from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. About 30 percent of the roughly 1,000 students are Saudi, school officials said. The school's governing board is led by the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

Officials of the school said the materials used there are unique, obtained from Saudi Arabia but changed to meet the needs of an American student body.

Al-Shabnan said yesterday that he had turned over the school's textbooks to the Saudi Embassy. He said he expected that embassy officials would turn the textbooks over to the State Department.

Department officials and others with knowledge of the issue, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing inquiry, said U.S. officials think the commission's recommendation to close the school was premature. They said the State Department was proceeding cautiously, speaking with Saudi officials about issues of religious tolerance and school curriculum, to avoid creating a crisis.

Hello, State Department? The crisis has already been created.

The Islamic Saudi Academy — In The News Again

Not flattering, to say the least.

From this article at The Investigative Project:

A Saudi Arabian man living in Tampa is being held without bond after being arrested June 4 for attempting to board a US Airways flight carrying a concealed weapon. Raed Abdul-Rahman Alsaif was trying to fly to Phoenix.

According to a criminal complaint by Gregory J. Mertiz, Special Agent with the Transportation Security Administration in Tampa, Alsaif submitted three bags for screening to TSA officers. A Transportation Security Officer saw a large butcher knife inside one of the bags. The knife was "artfully concealed between the outside fabric and the expandable pull handles of the bag," the complaint said, and the weapon was stored in a way that would have been "accessible to him [Alsaif] in flight."

[...]

Raed Alsaif is a 2003 graduate of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Alexandria, Virginia, the same high school that was the subject of a report in June 2008 by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) which alleged that ISA was using radical Saudi textbooks. According to the report, passages in the textbooks used at ISA justify violent actions and intolerance to the reader including killing Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, apostates (converts from Islam) and adulterers. School officials say they have deleted the offending passages.

In 2003, the same year that Alsaif graduated from ISA, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, a U.S. citizen and ISA graduate and valedictorian was arrested in Medina, Saudi Arabia on terrorism related charges. In 2005, Ali was convicted on nine counts including providing material resources to Al-Qaeda and conspiracy to assassinate President George W. Bush. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

Alsaif has been previously arrested on drug charges and driving without a license in Hillsborough County.

In addition to his current concealed weapon charges, authorities found that Alsaif has been living in the country illegally....

Go HERE to read the entire article, which has embedded links.

Meanwhile, on July 13 at 6:00 PM, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing to consider allowing expansion of the Popes Head Road location of the Islamic Saudi Academy. Never mind that when Fairfax Christian School held that same property, the Christian school was never allowed to expand nor even to rebuild one of the structures which burned to the ground in the early 1980's. Much of Popes Head Road remains a country lane, the reason given for previously denying expansion to Fairfax Christian School. Apparently, different rules now apply, never mind that the safety issues remain the same.

In fact, when the issue of the expansion of the Islamic Saudi Academy came before the Zoning Board this spring, the board unanimously approved the expansion over the objections of the neighborhood. The Zoning Board wasn't the least interested in the Wahhabist ideology being espoused at the Islamic Saudi Academy, and the board so stated.

Will the Board of Supervisors even care at the upcoming hearing that yet another graduate of the Islamic Saudi Academy has shown himself to be something less that the supposedly wonderful students which the school graduates?

Furthermore, why is Fairfax County rolling over for a group whose 12th grade textbooks teach that it’s fine and dandy to kill homosexuals, adulterers, or anyone who leaves Islam?

Any interested in speaking before the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on July 17 should immediately sign up.

But one doesn't have to speak to show objection to the expansion of the school. Just showing up and sitting with the objectors makes a statement.

Last time, only six objectors to the Islamic Saudi Academy showed up as compared to 600 ISA supporters. Let's change that ratio this time around. Arrive by 5:30 PM to get a seat.

Checking Curriculum At The Islamic Saudi Academy

Fairfax County has decided to take a look at the materials being used at the Islamic Saudi Academy, alma mater of aspiring Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali. Essay by J. Grant Swank, Jr:

Per Washington Times’ Julia Duin, hate is taught at the 23-year-old Islamic Saudi Academy, Alexandria, VA.

The school has been under investigation before. Presently citizens are asking the State Department to close the school because it threatens other religions and could undo our Republic.

“The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which advises Congress, the State Department and the president on religious-freedom issues, has issued a 30-page document saying the Saudi Embassy, which operates the 933-student academy, is violating U.S. law.”

This is not hysteria on the part of USCIRF. It is cold logic, as anyone who has been following the history of this school’s instruction is aware, not to mention verses in the Koran that advocate killing all non-Muslims.

Those who seek to bar the publishing of these verses are a party to the atrocities instigated by extremist Muslims. It is akin to Germans who shied away from exposing Hitler setting up camp to extinguish Jews and Jewish sympathizers.

In other words, bald fact, no matter how unpleasant, must be put “out there.” Those who hope it simply “will go away” are integral to the threat.

“At issue are textbooks the USCIRF says contain ‘highly intolerant and discriminatory language, particularly against Jews, Christians and Shi'a Muslims.’ Its findings are based on a three-year study of Arabic-language textbooks, some of them from the Saudi Academy, by the Center for Religious Freedom in the District.

“The textbooks instructed students to ‘hate’ Jews, Christians, ‘polytheists’ and other ‘unbelievers,’ praised violent jihad as a ‘religious duty’ and to believe as fact the anti-Semitic forgeries known as ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.’"

Now would it surprise anyone that the academy heads inform media that no such hate literature exists?

What knowledgeable persons know about extremist Islamics is that they believe Allah permits them to lie, considering deceit a virtue when it furthers Islam World Rule. Therefore, for academicians at the school to boast that texts and instructors’ lectures are void of hate is exactly what Allah would decree.

“Saudi officials said in response that the textbooks were being revamped and an official at the academy, who asked not to be named, said school textbooks were revised in 2006.

“The USCIRF was rebuffed when it asked the embassy this summer to see copies of the new textbooks, spokeswoman Judith Ingram said.

"’We've simply gotten nowhere with our requests,’ she added.”

Nowhere? What does that honestly say about academy officialdom? This is not rocket science. This is in-your-fact warning.

If fundamentalist Bob Jones University was accused of teaching hate, it would welcome outsiders to read every text on campus as well as attend every lecture in every lecture hall.

If evangelical Wheaton College were accused of instructing Christians to kill non-Christians, campus officials would hold press conferences, invite any personages to investigate curricula and sit in on any teaching forums throughout an entire school year.

Why then is the Islamic Academy not opening up its classes and texts to anyone? This school is located in America. It is using our soil to destroy our nation.

If that is not the case, then the academy must come forth with the evidence.

“The Saudi Academy is one of 20 international Saudi schools around the world. The Virginia academy's main campus is on Richmond Highway in Alexandria and a west campus for young children is on Popes Head Road in Fairfax. Twenty-eight percent of its students are Saudi citizens.

“The USCIRF has long been critical of Saudi Arabia, and in 2004 it named the kingdom a ‘country of particular concern’ in terms of religious-freedom violations. As a result, the Saudi government promised the State Department it would allow greater religious tolerance within its borders. During a visit there this spring, USCIRF officials said they were stonewalled by the Saudis on several issues, including the content of current school textbooks.”

There is reason for suspicion. Anyone who sidelines that suspicion is part of the problem, furthering the plot to undermine America.

There is going to be an investigation of sorts. Excerpt from the Associated Press, October 29, 2007:

Fairfax County officials are reviewing Arabic-language textbooks at a private Islamic school following a federal panel's recommendation that the school be shut down.

The county does not expect to find any problems with the textbooks at the Islamic Saudi Academy, but wants to study the issue "to put the matter to rest," Fairfax County spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald said Monday.

[...]

Fitzgerald said the county is not concerned about the books' contents, but because it is the academy's landlord it wants to investigate in light of the commission's report.

"In order to put the issue to rest, these actions are being taken," Fitzgerald said. "I'm sure there won't be anything in there that people would find objectionable."

Sounds as if Ms. Fitzgerald is "investigating" with a certain mindset. How objective will this investigation be?

What About The Islamic Saudi Academy?

"Senate Will Probe Saudi Distribution Of Hate Materials (in its entirety)

"WASHINGTON - The American government is demanding that Saudi Arabia account for its distribution of hate material to American mosques, as the State Department pressed Saudi officials for answers last week and as the Senate later this month plans to investigate the propagation of radical Wahhabism on American shores.

"The flurry of activity comes months after a report from the Center for Religious Freedom discovered that dozens of mosques in major cities across the country, including New York, Washington, and Los Angeles, were distributing documents, bearing the seal of the government of Saudi Arabia, that incite Muslims to acts of violence and promote hatred of Jews and Christians.

"A Washington-based group that is part of the human rights organization Freedom House, the Center for Religious Freedom also found during its yearlong study that the Saudi-produced materials describe democracy and America as un-Islamic. They instruct recent Muslim immigrants to consider Americans as enemies and the materials urge new arrivals to use their time here as preparation for jihad. The documents also promote the version of Islam officially embraced by Saudi government and several of the September 11, 2001, hijackers, Wahhabism, as the only authentic Islam.

"In response to the Freedom House report and as part of the Saudi Arabia Accountability Act of 2005 sponsored by Senator Specter, a Republican of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee - of which Senator Specter is chairman - will be holding hearings into the hate materials on October 25, a spokesman for the senator, William Reynolds, said yesterday.

"The Accountability Act, introduced in June, says its purpose is 'to halt Saudi support for institutions that fund, train, incite, encourage, or in any other way aid and abet terrorism, and to secure fully Saudi cooperation in the investigation of terrorist incidents.' The legislation is highly critical of the House of Saud for its support of terrorist activity and cites the January Freedom House report as evidence of the kingdom's complicity in the spread of radical Islamist ideology.

"As part of the Accountability Act, Senator Specter has in the past held Judiciary Committee hearings into Saudi financing of terrorism and Saudi Arabia's role in injecting ideology into textbooks for Palestinian Arab schoolchildren.

"Many of the details of the Judiciary Committee hearing later this month, Mr. Reynolds said, are still being arranged, including a final witness list. In the meantime, the committee expects testimony from the State Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Freedom House, and terrorism experts. The committee will press to determine whether the Saudi government has taken steps to stop the distribution of the materials, and will cull from witnesses recommendations to prevent their future dissemination, Mr. Reynolds said.

"Also demanding answers about the hate materials is the State Department's undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, Karen Hughes. During a high-profile trip to the Middle East last week, Ms. Hughes said American representatives had addressed the propagation of Saudi hate material in America during private meetings with government officials.

"In a State Department briefing held en route to Ankara, Turkey, from Saudi Arabia last Tuesday, Ms. Hughes was asked why she had raised the issue that day during a public meeting with Saudi journalists, becoming the first Am'rican official to do so publicly. 'We had been raising the issue privately,' Ms. Hughes said, 'and as part of raising difficult issues that we need to discuss, I felt it was appropriate.' The undersecretary did not elaborate on the results of the private meetings, but the degree to which Saudi Arabia is making efforts to stop the propaganda will be a subject of the Senate hearings, Mr. Reynolds said.

"Requests for comment from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia yesterday were not returned."

According to Daniel Pipes, the report from Freedom House, an organization which sent Muslim volunteers into fifteen prominent mosques throughout the United States and collected materials disseminated by Saudi Arabia, shows that the following points are expounded in the distributed materials:

"Reject Christianity as a valid faith: Any Muslim who believes 'that churches are houses of God and that God is worshiped therein is an infidel.'

"Insist that Islamic law be applied: On a range of issues, from women (who must be veiled) to apostates from Islam ('should be killed'), the Saudi publications insist on full enforcement of Shariah in America.

"See non-Muslims as the enemy: 'Be dissociated from the infidels, hate them for their religion, leave them, never rely on them for support, do not admire them, and always oppose them in every way according to Islamic law.'

"See America as hostile territory: 'It is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country governed by infidels because this is a means of acquiescing to their infidelity and accepting all their erroneous ways.'

"Prepare for war against America: 'To be true Muslims, we must prepare and be ready for jihad in Allah's way. It is the duty of the citizen and the government.'"

And while the Senate is taking a look at Saudi-funded materials distributed to mosques in the United States, perhaps scrutiny of certain Muslim schools should also be undertaken, starting with the nearby Islamic Saudi Academy, from which valedictiorian Ahmed Abu Ali, accused of conspiring with Al Qaeda to assassinate President Bush, graduated. According to this site:

"A few miles outside of Washington and a stone's throw from Mt. Vernon Plantation - George Washington's home - the Saudi government is teaching Wahhab Islam to hundreds of Muslim-American children. The school, called the Islamic Saudi Academy, is one of an estimated 200-600 in the U.S. that indoctrinate 30,000 students in the teachings of Koran...."

On February 25, 2005, the Washington Post published the following information in an article entitled "Where Two Worlds Collide":

"Eleventh-graders at the elite Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia study energy and matter in physics, write out differential equations in precalculus and read stories about slavery and the Puritans in English.

"Then they file into their Islamic studies class, where the textbooks tell them the Day of Judgment can't come until Jesus Christ returns to Earth, breaks the cross and converts everyone to Islam, and until Muslims start attacking Jews....

'With two lavish campuses in suburban Virginia, dozens of highly qualified teachers and accreditation from two respected organizations, the Islamic Saudi Academy stands out among Muslim schools in the Washington area.

"The academy educates the children of Arabic-speaking diplomats along with other children of differing heritages -- about 1,300 students altogether. But the financial support from the Saudi government brings with it a curriculum that reflects the particularly rigid strain of Islam practiced there, Muslim educators say.

"'One of the things the community has been concerned about for years is the Saudi influence and Saudi money,' said Amir Hussain, a California professor who has researched Muslim communities in North America. 'You have people who come in and say, "Hey, I'll build you a school." Then people begin to realize, if that school gets built with Saudi money, do we want that kind of curriculum?'

"The Islamic Saudi Academy does not require that U.S. history or government be taught, offering Arabic social studies as an alternative. Officials there said that only Saudis who intend to return home do not take U.S. history, though a handful of U.S.-born students who plan to stay in this country said they opted against it, too.

"School officials would not allow reporters to attend classes. But a number of students described the classroom instruction and provided copies of textbooks.

"Ali Al-Ahmed, whose Virginia-based Saudi Institute promotes religious tolerance in Saudi Arabia, has reviewed numerous textbooks used at the academy and said many passages promote hatred of non-Muslims and Shiite Muslims.

"The 11th-grade textbook, for example, says one sign of the Day of Judgment will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees that say: "Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him."
Several students of different ages, all of whom asked not to be identified, said that in Islamic studies, they are taught that it is better to shun and even to dislike Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims.

"Some teachers 'focus more on hatred,' said one teenager, who recited by memory the signs of the coming of the Day of Judgment. 'They teach students that whatever is kuffar [non-Muslim], it is okay for you' to hurt or steal from that person...

"None of the academy's officials would publicly address the students' statements. One, who spoke anonymously, said he had no knowledge of intolerant passages being assigned or intolerant views being taught. He said textbooks with such passages would be replaced soon....

"The schools are legally allowed to teach whatever they want -- as long as they meet state requirements -- but have a responsibility to be accurate, scholars say.

"'As a matter of educational policy, no, it's not a good idea to cross a nation off the map or to in any way misrepresent history,' said Charles Haynes, of the First Amendment Center in Arlington. 'It is a civic responsibility of all schools, religious and secular, to do the best job of educating students to a variety of perspectives...."

Additional information about Islamic schools in North American can be found here and here, both of which have links to explore.

Also see the detailed article, "How a Public School in Scottsdale, Arizona,Subjected Students to Islamic Indoctrination," from The Textbook League. The article begins like this:

"At the Mohave Middle School in Scottsdale, Arizona, students who took a 7th-grade social-studies course during the 2004-2005 school year were subjected to gross, prolonged indoctrination in Islam.

"Much of the indoctrination was delivered in a corrupt schoolbook titled History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, produced by a commercial publishing company that calls itself the Teachers' Curriculum Institute (TCI). The writers of History Alive! The Medieval World and Beyond, by relentlessly presenting Muslim religious tales and religious beliefs as matters of historical fact, have striven hard to induce students to embrace Islam."

Apparently, mosques aren't the only locations for promoting Islamification.

WaPo conflates two school bus accidents

The subtitle of the article Second Child Dies of Injuries From Bus Crash from the April 21 edition of the WaPo is School's Driver Charged In Unrelated Accident. I don't mean to minimize the tragedy of the deaths of Harrison Orosco, 7, and Lilibeth Gomez, 9, who died from their injuries in the school bus accident last week, but this blog is about "monitoring how Islam is subverting public institutions (media, politics, business, schools, and religious organizations) in Northern Virginia and the greater DC metro area": for that reason, I will be focusing on the unrelated incident.

"In a separate incident in Alexandria yesterday, a private school bus with faulty brakes and bald tires crashed, but none of the 34 students aboard was injured. Police said the driver should not have been behind the wheel."

"In yesterday's crash of the private school bus, the driver, Abdelrazeg Abdalla, 31, of Falls Church, was charged with several counts, including operating the Islamic Saudi Academy bus on a suspended license."

"Investigators said Abdalla's driving privileges had been suspended at 12:01 a.m. yesterday because of insurance-related issues. He was fired by school administrators shortly after the charges -- including citations for reckless driving and driving a vehicle with faulty equipment -- were issued.

"They determined that the bus had little or no brakes at all and that the tires were in fact bald," said Alexandria Police Capt. John Crawford, adding that investigators found skid marks to suggest that Abdalla tried to apply the brakes.

The chain-reaction crash, in which two other drivers sustained minor injuries, occurred as the school bus ferrying students to the Islamic Saudi Academy failed to stop as it traveled south down a hill on North Quaker Lane near Duke Street. The bus struck a Honda Civic, causing a chain-reaction crash involving the bus and three cars.

Police said Abdalla told them he was unable to stop the vehicle as traffic slowed. State police towed the bus to a maintenance lot for examination."

Virginia State Police determined that the bus was unsafe to drive and said it would remain out of service until the problems were repaired.

David Kovilik, director of education for the Fairfax County academy, said the bus was not part of the fleet's normal daily rotation, calling it "a spare."

He said that the bus passed its Virginia state inspection in July and that it was subject to daily mechanical checks as well as monthly preventive maintenance.

"I looked at the bus [after the crash], and the tire tread was thin, and on one axle the brake was worn down to the metal," Kovilik said. "The other three tires had functioning brakes."

Kovilik said Abdalla was hired as a driver in August after a comprehensive background check that he said included a search for any past convictions and "points on his license."

But a check of court records in Virginia revealed seven past charges, including several traffic violations for speeding and crossing a double yellow line. Several of the charges had been dismissed.

Abdalla also had a misdemeanor conviction in Fairfax for abducting his estranged wife and 3-month-old daughter at knifepoint. He had originally been charged with felony kidnapping, but friends and family -- including his wife -- wrote letters of support to the court on Abdalla's behalf, and he agreed to plead guilty in May 2003, after nearly three months in jail, to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault and battery.

After his release, Abdalla was picked up by Department of Homeland Security officials and detained for about six months, according to court records. It could not be determined why he was detained.

A phone number for Abdalla could not be found yesterday.

Kovilik said Abdalla's firing was based solely on his driving the school bus without a valid license. He said he was stunned by news that Abdalla had a court record.

"Oh no, no, no!" he said. "I'm going to revisit this."

--- End of article ---

Questions:

1. The Washington Post no longer has on its web site an important story about the hiring practices of The Islamic Saudi Academy, owned and operated by the nation of Saudi Arabia and alma mater of Ahmed Abu Ali, arrested on national-security charges. Why did story about the school's bus accident disappear from the Post web site? Did CAIR or a similar group see to it that the article was removed?
2. Exactly what are the hiring practices of the Islamic Saudi Academy?
3. Are children and the general public endangered by the bus-fleet operations of the Islamic Saudi Academy?
4. What is the school-license status of the Islamic Saudi Academy?
5. Who are the friends who influenced the court to reduce the bus driver's previous charge of felony kidnapping to a misdemeanor?
6. Why is anyone ever detained by Homeland Security allowed to have the responsibility for transporting children? Not to mention the knife-point kidnapping charge?

Eating Crow?

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

If the story below turns out to be substantiated, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors might want to reconsider their renewal of the lease to the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia for the Islamic Saudi Academy.

Follow-up to this posting about the Islamic Saudi Academy, from NBC4 News in Washington, D.C.:

Islamic School Searched After Abuse Allegations Surface
Authorities Say School's Director Didn't Report Abuse Allegations

POSTED: 3:42 pm EDT June 3, 2008
UPDATED: 6:52 pm EDT June 3, 2008

FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va. -- Fairfax County police searched the Islamic Saudi Academy's west campus last month in connection with an investigation into child abuse allegations.

A 5-year old girl told a teacher in mid-May that her father was sexually abusing her, News4's James Adams reported. Two teachers and the principal at the west campus put together a report and forwarded it to the school's director general, Adams said.

According to court documents, the school's director, Adalla Al-Shabnan, did not believe the girl's complaint.

He later told investigators that he recommended psychological counseling for the girl after meeting with her parents.

Authorities said Al-Shabnan never reported the allegations of abuse to a child protective or law enforcement agency.

Virginia law requires abuse allegations to be reported within 72 hours.

Related: Watch The Report

On May 23, detectives searched and seized computers, notes and records from the school's Fairfax campus.

According to court documents, Al-Shabnan directed the original report to be deleted from the school's computers.

Calls to the academy's director were not returned.

Fairfax County police declined to comment on the investigation.

No charges have been filed.

Yet.

Surely, the school's director, Al-Shabnan, is aware of the strict laws about suspected child-abuse cases reported to a school! One has to wonder if perhaps he didn't file a police report because of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors May 19 hearing about renewing the school's lease. Did the girl tell of the abuse before the hearing regarding the Islamic Saudi Academy's lease? If so, this case could get very ugly.

How does the Board of Supervisors feel now about their pro forma hearing?

Officially, the Islamic Saudi Academy's lease renews for another year on June 30.

Voted Most Likely To Be A Martyr

According to a November 29, 2005 story on this news channel (all emphases this blog author's):

American Citizen Convicted For Terrorism: Man Conspired To Assassinate The President

"FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- An American citizen whose father worked for the Saudi Embassy is convicted for conspiring with Al Qaida operatives to assassinate President George W. Bush.

Ahmed Abu Ali, of Falls Church, Va., admitted to the crime in a videotaped confession.

"As a boy, Abu Ali attended the Saudi Islamic Academy in Alexandria. He even became a member of the National Honor Society. In his senior year, Ali's classmates voted him 'the most likely to become a martyr.'

"In the video, the 24-year-old said he went to Saudi Arabia in 2002 to study Islam, and met an Al Qaida operative who invited him to join the Jihad against America.

"'I immediately accepted because of my hatred of the U.S., for what I felt was its support of Israel against the Palestinian people,' Abu Ali said on the tape.

"Abu Ali also admitted that he suggested blowing up American warplanes, warships, or targeting hi-ranking U.S. officials.

"He also said it was his Al Qaida contact's idea to kill the president.

"Ali Abu went on to say on the videotape, 'I preferred this idea because it was easier to carry out since the U.S. president often appears in pubic places.'

"The group then plotted exactly how they would carry out the assassination.

"They agreed that they would 'either use at least three snipers who would fire simultaneously to increase the hit probability, or to carry out a martyr operation when the U.S. president goes out to greet the people.'

"During his trial, Ali testified that the Saudis beat the confession out of him. But jurors saw him on tape pretend to cock a rifle and laugh.

"'What was striking was how relaxed he looked, almost carefree...[he] didn't look like someone tortured, pressured into confessing,' said Roger Cressey, an NBC News Terror Analyst.

"Now the little boy voted most likely to become a martyr is facing 20 years to life in prison.

"Abu Ali will be sentenced in February."

Note: As we locals well know, the name of Abu Ali's high school is the Islamic Saudi Academy, not the Saudi Islamic Academy.

If the following information from the Washington Post is accurate, no wonder Ahmed Abu Ali was so willing to conspire with Al-Qaeda:

"The 11th-grade textbook, for example, says one sign of the Day of Judgment will be that Muslims will fight and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees that say: 'Oh Muslim, Oh servant of God, here is a Jew hiding behind me. Come here and kill him.'..

"Some teachers 'focus more on hatred,' said one teenager, who recited by memory the signs of the coming of the Day of Judgment. 'They teach students that whatever is kuffar [non-Muslim], it is okay for you' to hurt or steal from that person..."

In light of the conviction of Ahmed Abu Ali, isn't it time for an extensive investigation of ISA on the part of Homeland Security? The Islamic Saudi Academy published a caption saying "Voted Most Likely to be a Martyr" to appear below Abu Ali's yearbook photo!

A bit of background information on ISA is very interesting. According to "The Madrassa on Main Street: Teaching Fundamentalist Islam on U. S. Route 1,

"A few miles outside of Washington and a stone's throw from Mt. Vernon Plantation - George Washington's home - the Saudi government is teaching Wahhab Islam to hundreds of Muslim-American children. The school, called the Islamic Saudi Academy, is one of an estimated 200-600 in the U.S. that indoctrinate 30,000 students in the teachings of Koran."

And just how did ISA get such a prime piece of property, so close to our nation's capital

"In 1988, 'Dusty' Rhodes, the Fairfax County official in charge of renting school facilities, bragged to a local pastor that the Saudis had not paid the county a dime for the deed to the school. According to Rhodes, the Saudis got the use of the building in exchange for making renovations. Once renovations were complete they were given the deed. At the time, Fairfax County discriminated against churches who used public school facilities by charging them commercial rates, rather than the lower rates charged other community groups. The county was forced to halt the discrimination after a lawsuit.

"In a county where just the tax assessment on a vacant acre can exceed $250,000, the Saudis not only got the building but acres of athletic fields."

Where did Abu Ali acquire his deep hatred of the United States? In Saudi Arabia? Or did his hatred begin with his Wahhabist education at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County, Virginia?

Addendum: I sent this story to Jihad Watch, Robert Spencer's site, which graciously printed the story as "American Citizen Convicted For Terrorism."

Some Texbook Revisions At The Islamic Saudi Academy

After years of asserting that no Wahhabist hatred fills the pages of their textbooks (more here), the Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, has done some backpedaling. From this source:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- An Islamic school in northern Virginia with close ties to the Saudi government has revised its religious textbooks in an effort to end years of criticism that the school fosters hatred and intolerance.

While the Islamic Saudi Academy deleted some of the most contentious passages from the texts, copies provided to The Associated Press show that enough sensitive material remains to fuel critics who claim the books show intolerance toward those who do not follow strict interpretations of Islam.

The academy, which teaches nearly 900 students in grades K-12 at its campus just outside the Capital Beltway, developed new Islamic studies textbooks for all grades after a 2008 congressional report called portions of the previous editions troubling. The school provided the AP copies of the new textbooks, which revise language on hot-button issues such as requiring women to cover their heads and how Muslims should relate to people of other religions.

[...]

The school was founded in 1984 and largely stayed out of the spotlight until the Sept. 11 attacks, which focused attention on the Saudi educational system. In December 2001, two former ISA students, Mohammed El-Yacoubi and Mohammed Osman Idris, were denied entry into Israel when authorities there found El-Yacoubi carrying what the FBI believed was a suicide note linked to a planned martyrdom operation in Israel.

In 2005, a former ISA valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted in federal court of joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush.

Last year, the school's then-director, Abdalla al-Shabnan, was convicted of failing to report a suspected case of child sex abuse.

Last year also was when the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report saying the school's textbooks contained several troubling passages, including one saying it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam and another saying "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people."

The new books don't contain those passages. The AP reviewed them with assistance from Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, who has criticized the academy and the books used there and in schools in Saudi Arabia.

[...]

Al-Ahmed, whose group monitors politics and education in the Gulf, said the revised texts now being used at ISA make some small improvements in tone. But he said it's clear from the books that the core ideology behind them -- a puritanical strain of Islam known as Wahhabism that is dominant within Saudi Arabia -- remains intact.

"It shows they have no intention of real reform," al-Ahmed said.

Al-Ahmed cited other passages that, while not offensive, reflect what he sees as a medieval mentality despite the academy's efforts to modernize. One chapter deals extensively with sorcery, for instance, while another warns Muslims to be careful in accepting party and wedding invitations from non-Muslims.

"We don't live in the desert 1,000 years ago," al-Ahmed said. "It's disconnected from today because the authorities themselves are disconnected."

Not all agree wtih Al-Ahmed, as explained below:

Eleanor Doumato, a visiting fellow in international studies at Brown University who reviewed the textbooks at the academy's request, endorsed their contents.

These "books do not contain inflammatory material, nor do they encourage students to exhibit intolerance," she wrote in a letter co-signed by Gregory Starrett, an anthropology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "In addition, these books counsel patience, gratitude, kindness, honesty and other important moral qualities that are encouraged by Muslims and non-Muslims alike."

Doumato and Starrett were paid by the academy to conduct their review....

The problem all along in dealing with the ISA has been the school's conflict of interest with American values of freedom and democracy.

The school continues to operate. However, according to the article, a review

is being conducted by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a regional accrediting body. The association initiated a review of the school's accreditation status last year, and is looking at the new textbooks as part of its review. Spokeswoman Jennifer Oliver said the review is ongoing.

Some Shady Connections

(All emphases by Always On Watch)

I have previously reported on some of the activities at the Herndon Day Laborer Center. See "The [Muslim?] Origins of Project Hope." Seed money for that facility, when it drew on private funding, came from Project Hope and Harmony, founded by Mukit Hossain.

From a May 17, 2006 article "Kingdom of the Illegals," which appeared in FrontPage Magazine:

"...Lost in all the controvery, however, is the more disturbing fact that the site -- a covered building featuring picnic tables and bathrooms -- was founded by a Muslim charity with ties to suspected Saudi-backed terror front groups. Its town operating permit won't expire until the fall of 2007, allowing the group not only time to aid and abet hundreds more illegal immigrants, but possibly recruit them.

"The hiring center -- called the Herndon Official Workers Center -- is a charitable front for da'awa, or Islamic outreach to non-Muslims. Local law enforcement officials say the Saudis see new Hispanic arrivals to America as particularly ripe for conversion to Islam, and have even added an annex to their madrassa in another Washington suburb to help indoctrinate the beholden immigrants....

The madrassa is the Islamic Saudi Academy, of course--the alma mater of convicted aspiring Presidential assassin Ahmed Abu Ali. I previously reported on the Islamic Saudi Academy in "What about the Islamic Saudi Academy?" With regard to ISA, Mr. Sperry states the following:

"Located in Alexandria, the Islamic Saudi Academy a year after 9/11 helped set up a similar day-care center for Hispanic immigrants on its campus (which used to be the home of Mount Vernon High School before Fairfax County officials, in their infinite wisdom, leased it to the Saudi government). At one corner, day laborers routinely flock to a 'Pollo' chicken takeout. What better way to introduce them to Islam than to open an annex in the old home economics building just yards away?

"A spokeswoman for the little 'Progresso Hispano' school, which she confirms is operated in part by the Saudi academy, provides 'immigrant services' and 'English classes' to local Hispanics. She would not be more specific, and said the annex's website is 'down.'

"But a county notice of the special planning and zoning exception needed for the annex's approval in November 2002 says that Progresso Hispano 'provides ESL classes, job skill training, good parenting classes, citizenship classes and other support services to the Hispanic community.'

Those 'other support services' are what worry law enforcement authorities.

Now, back to Mukit Hossain:

"Stepping in last year to run the government-sanctioned site was an obscure group by the name, Project Hope and Harmony, which landed (in partnership with nonprofit Reston Interfaith) the $200,000 contract. The man behind the project is Muslim activist Mukit Hossain.

"But he's not just any activist. Born in Bangladesh, Hossain also runs a shadowy Muslim charity in Herndon which recently had its accounts closed by Wachovia bank due to suspicious activity related to possible money-laundering. The Foundation for Appropriate and Immediate Temporary Help, or FAITH, received a $150,000 donation last year from a front group run by Saudi bagman M. Yacub Mirza, whose home and offices were raided by federal agents after 9/11. FAITH helped establish the Project Hope and Harmony....

"[R]ecently, FAITH has become unusually interested in helping Hispanic illegal aliens.

"In addition to running their hiring site, FAITH's Hossain has organized feasts for hundreds of illegals during Thanksgiving, rounding them up and feeding them an intentionally nontraditional Middle Eastern dinner of beef kebabs and rice (instead of turkey and dressing) at Zuhair's Cafe in Herndon. He and other FAITH workers also gave away a van full of new winter coats (price tag: $10,000) to the Hispanic workers and their families. They've also raised money to buy them work boots and bicycles....

"Hossain serves as a member of the mosque's board of trustees when he's not working for FAITH and catering to Hispanic illegals. He's also a founder of the Muslim American Political Action Committee, or MAPAC, which he set up to recruit Muslim candidates to run for federal office and work for the 'empowerment of Muslim Americans.'

"What's more, Hossain is active in the Muslim American Society, which investigators say is the U.S. front for the Muslim Brotherhood, a worldwide jihad movement that gave rise to Hamas, PIJ and al-Qaida...."

The aforementioned mosque is the All Dulles Area Muslim Society [ADAMS Center], and Paul Sperry provides some interesting information about the ADAMS Center:

"Despite it claims of being moderate and progressive, ADAMS is a hard-line Wahhabi mosque controlled by the Saudis, investigators say. A Saudi pamphlet, called 'Religious Edicts for the Immigrant Muslim,' was recently found at the mosque. It states that 'it is forbidden for a Muslim to become a citizen of a country (such as the United States) governed by infidels.' Not surprisingly, even some of the mosque's more prominent members, such as Ibrahim Hooper of CAIR, have not hidden their wish to turn America into an Islamic state."

On May 12, 2006, a few days before Mr. Sperry's article was published in FPM and shortly after the election in which the Herndon mayor and two councilmen, all supporters of the taxpayer-funded center for day laborers, were defeated at the voting booth, the Washington Post published a letter from Mukit Hossain:

"Project Hope and Harmony led the effort to create a site at which day laborers could congregate in Herndon. We felt it was a moral imperative to help those who badly needed help and to solve a community problem with the help of members of that community. Sadly, opponents of the site say that it serves illegal immigrants, and they found eager allies for that viewpoint among anti-immigration groups and self-righteous journalists.

"The site has done its intended job; it has ended the chaos on the street corners where laborers assembled in the heat, cold or rain in the hope of getting a job. Often, the day laborers were exploited. But apparently it doesn't matter how well the site works, how much it would cost to expel workers that our economy needs or how inhumane it would be to close the site: Critics still want the day laborer site shut down.

"Some say the public has spoken through the recent election. Some say the laborers would be better served by returning home and perhaps trying to come back as legal immigrants. Some say they don't want the 'illegals' to be put on a path to legalization. But the more I hear these opinions, the more I see them for what they really are: bigotry.

"I once saw a bumper sticker that read, 'Hate is not a family value.' Apparently, in Herndon, it is about to become one unless the decent silent majority reclaims the community."

If Paul Sperry's information is accurate, the above letter from Mukit Hossain takes on a degree of irony. And I keep remembering another uncomforable fact: Islam divides all the world into Muslim and "other."

Finally Paul Sperry's FPM article provides a reminder that illegal immigration can pose a national-security risk:

"Hispanic illegals at a 7-11 in Falls Church turned a quick buck by helping the 9-11 hijackers obtain fake IDs."

Congressman Frank Wolf Attempts To Hold The Islamic Saudi Academy Accountable

Here at Northern Virginiastan, we have written frequently about the Islamic Saudi Academy. Despite numerous problems, the school continues to operate without impunity or adequate investigation. Most politicians and our own State Department refuse to hold the ISA accountable. But one Congressman is trying!

From the Mt. Vernon Gazette on September 24, 2008:

U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf (R-10) has again called for a thorough investigation and review of curriculum textbooks being used by the Islamic Saudi Academy citing the U.S. Commission in International Religious Freedom's claim that they "promote violence and intolerance."

In a September 16 letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Wolf chastised the State Department for not answering his previous letters on the Saudi Academy textbook issue and for ignoring his plea to have the controversy settled prior to the commencement of the 2008-09 school year.

"I write to let you know that I just received my first response from the State Department after having written three letters over a two-month period regarding the Islamic Saudi Academy and concerns raised by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) on the content of textbooks being used there," Wolf wrote.

"After seeming inattention to these concerns, the letter my office ultimately received in response did not address my repeated requests that you convene a meeting of relevant State Department and USCIRF representatives -- to include the expert analysts commissioned by USCIRF to translate and interpret the ISA textbooks as well as any analysts commissioned by the State Department...to conclusively determine what is being taught at ISA," he stated.

To buttress his request, Wolf included a recent report by the Heritage Foundation that stated "ISA is subject to the terms of the Foreign Missions Act" and that it is in the State Department's powers to declare ISA "a foreign mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."

IN THE LETTER to Wolf, signed by Matthew A. Reynolds, Acting Assistant Secretary, Legislative Affairs, the State Department indicated that, although they had not answered previous inquiries about ISA in writing, they had kept Wolf and his staff informed of their actions.

"Your letters have raised important issues. We have appreciated the opportunity to discuss these with you and your staff in recent months. No government should produce materials that are intolerant of religious, racial, or ethnic groups, nor include such material in its educational curricula," Reynolds wrote.

When questioned as to why his letter seemed to indicate that no contact had been made by the State Department relative to his ISA inquiries, Wolf insisted, "The State Department has never been by my office." However, he did not confirm or deny any contact between his staff and the State Department over the period of time of his correspondence with Secretary Rice.

"The matter is very simple. If there is no problem with the textbooks than the State Department should act to remove the cloud. If there is a problem then remove the books," Wolf said.

"Two scholars from the Religious Freedom Commission have looked at these text books and they say there is a problem. It needs to be resolved one way or the other," he said.

Reynolds also pointed out to Wolf that, "the school has reported that it is in the process of adopting new religious curricula and textbooks for the 2008-09 school year. The ISA has stated publicly that the new school year's textbooks are currently being reviewed by professors at two American universities." Neither the professors nor their universities were identified by Reynolds in his letter to Wolf.

DEBATE ABOUT the school's curriculum and textbooks ignited in October 2007 when the Religious Freedom Commission issued a report calling for the school's closure "until such time as the official Saudi textbooks used at ISA are made available for comprehensive public examination." The Commission also sought intervention by the State Department and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

The school building at 8333 Richmond Highway, is leased from Fairfax County. That lease recently came up for renewal and was renewed for one year with an option for two one year extensions on a motion from Mount Vernon District Supervisor Gerald Hyland, in whose district the school is located.

ISA's Director General Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, who heads the school, has insisted all along that the textbooks do not contain hate and violence imbedded within the subject matter. He has also insisted that the textbooks of ISA are not those supplied by the Saudi Arabian government.

At the outset of the controversy, Hyland had a specialist in Arabic review the texts. Her report concluded that the curriculum texts did not, on their face, contain offensive language pertaining to hate, violence and religious intolerance. However, she did conclude that certain passage should be expunged because they could be misinterpreted.

Al-Shabnan submitted the curriculum texts to two independent university scholars to have them analyzed and evaluated. A report on those findings was to have been delivered to Hyland's office no later than Monday, Sept. 22. As of late afternoon Sept. 23 the report had not been delivered and phone calls to ISA and Al-Shabnan office were received by voice mail with no call back.

"We have not received the report or any explanation from the Academy as to why we have not received it," said Brett Kenney, chief aide to Hyland.

The entire matter including both the textbook issue and ISA's lease renewal was further complicated early this past summer when Al-Shabnan was arrested as a result of his failure to report a complaint from a five year-old female student that she was allegedly being sexually abused at home by her father. Virginia law requires reporting of all such accusations by school personnel.

Al-Shabnan was originally charged with two misdemeanors of failing to report and obstruction of justice. He said that he did not believe the girl and advised the parents to seek psychiatric help for her. However, he also ordered the school's computers to be purged of any report about the complaint.

In the final analysis he was fined $500 on the failure to report charge. The school also instituted an in-depth training program for all personnel on Commonwealth requirements dealing with such matters.

Following the vote to renew the lease, Fairfax County Board Chairman Gerald Connolly sent a letter to Secretary Rice asking the State Department to make a determination not only on the textbook matter but also the lease renewal. He noted that during the Board’s public hearing on the lease no objections were voiced by the State Department or the Commission "regarding either the renewal or the textbooks."

A reply from the State Department stated, "No authorization from the Department to renew the lease is required. The Department has not used the Foreign Missions Act to regulate private pre-school, elementary and secondary school curricula." Actions by the State Department on Wolf's requests remain unresolved.

What is it going to take to get our government, which is sworn to protect us, to take a hard look at the Islamic Saudi Academy?

The Islamic Saudi Academy: Fairfax County Backpedals On The Lease (Updated June 25)

Photo Credit: the Washington Post

Background: Previous Northern Virginiastan postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy are HERE.

From this article in the June 24, 2008 edition of the Washington Post:

Fairfax County leaders asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday to determine whether the county should continue leasing property to the Islamic Saudi Academy following controversy surrounding the school's teachings.

With unanimous support from the county's Board of Supervisors, Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) sent a letter to Rice "formally requesting" that the State Department provide direction regarding the county's one-year lease renewal, approved last month, with the Saudi Arabian government for operation of the academy.

You might recall from earlier postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy that previously the County supervisors voted unanimously to renew the school's lease and called citizens who voiced concerns about the school "bigots engaged in slander." You can watch the May 19 pro forma hearing at the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors HERE; select "Public Hearings" from the May 19 links.

Continuing now with the above-cited Washington Post article:

At issue are recent reviews of teaching materials concluding that some textbooks used by the Islamic school in Fairfax contain language intolerant of Jews and other groups as well as passages that could be construed as advocating violence.

Read the entire report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom HERE. The report is damning!

Please watch this NBC 4 video of June 23, 2008. The video is approximately three minutes in length.

(Crossposted to Always On Watch and Infidel Bloggers Alliance, and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS)

UPDATE FROM THIS ARTICLE IN THE JUNE 25, 2008 EDITION OF THE WASHINGTON TIMES:

Federal officials unable to act
State cites lack of authority

The State Department has no authority to close a Saudi-supported school criticized for violent teachings, a spokesman said Tuesday, despite an official request for guidance from the Northern Virginia county that leases space for the school's main campus....

[...]

"My understanding at this point is that this doesn't come under State Department jurisdiction," Mr. McInturff said. "It would have to be credentialed by the State Department as an embassy or as a consulate. That to my knowledge has not happened to this school."

However, the commission contends the act could give the secretary of state authority to take action to close the school. The act defines a foreign mission in part as "any mission to or agency or entity in the United States which is ... substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government."

Read the entire article at the link for this update.

King Fahd Academy

The King Fahd Academy is in West London:



Are the same textbooks being used at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County, Virginia? Read this February 23, 2005 press release from Senator Charles Schumer. Excerpt:

Today, Sen. Charles E. Schumer questioned whether the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia, is another example of radical Islamic madrassas funded by and linked to terrorism here and abroad. Yesterday it was reported that a recent graduate, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, of the Academy was indicted on charges of providing material support to terrorists and in conspiring to assassinate the President of the United States. Sen. Schumer immediately called for an investigation into the funding of the Academy by the Justice Department, and is now urging the Saudi Arabian Ambassador, Prince Bandar, to further disclose the nature and funding of the school.

“We need to know if the Islamic Saudi Academy is another example of the Saudi government turning a blind eye to terrorism. I hope that the ISA is not another madrassa in the United States,” Schumer stated....

{Hat-tip to Woman Honor Thyself for the above video]

Islamic Saudi Academy's Lease Renewed

(Previous postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy here at Northern Virginiastan)

According to this comprehensive posting at Blue Ridge Forum, the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia recently had its Islamic Saudi Academy lease renewed with Fairfax County, without a written report ever having been submitted with regard to the textbooks used at ISA. The vote by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to renew the least for another year was unanimous.

A video of the hearing at the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is HERE. Select "public hearings" on May 19, 2008 to access the video (about 45 minutes).

A written report from the Traditional Values Coalition is HERE.

On May 30, 2008, at noon Eastern Standard Time, Radio Free Dar Al Harb will further discuss the Islamic Saudi Academy. The radio show is available later via podcast.

Update On The Islamic Saudi Academy

The following posting absolutely requires interested readers to check out the links.

Background information HERE and HERE at two previous postings at Always On Watch.

The Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia and a school for grades Kindergarten through Grade 12 here in Northern Virginia, got quite a mention in the Associated Press today. Excerpt:

McLEAN, Va. (AP) — Textbooks at a private Islamic school in northern Virginia teach students that it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam, according to a federal investigation released Wednesday.

Other passages in the school's textbooks state that "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people" and that Muslims are permitted to take the lives and property of those deemed "polytheists."

The passages were found in selected textbooks used during the 2007-08 school year by the Islamic Saudi Academy, which teaches 900 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax and receives much of its funding from the Saudi government....

Read the entire article.

Also see the following information:

One

Two

Three

Four

Number Four, by my compadre Pastorius over at Infidel Bloggers Alliance, is a must-read! A thing of beauty, I tell ya.