It's OK. The opposing soccer coach says they're good guys. All is well. More stellar reporting from AP: "Saudi Islamic school defends self against 'Terror High' label," by Matthew Barakat for Associated Press (thanks to Twostellas):
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Its most virulent critics have dubbed it ''Terror High'' and 12 U.S. senators and a federal commission want to shut it down.The teachers, administrators and some 900 students at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County have heard the allegations for years - after the Sept. 11 attacks and then a few years later when a class valedictorian admitted he had joined al-Qaida.
Now the school is on the defensive again, with a report issued last month by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom saying the academy should be closed pending a review of its curriculum and textbooks.
Abdalla al-Shabnan, the school's director general, says criticism of the school is based not on evidence but on preconceived notions of the Saudi educational system.
The school, serving grades K-12 on campuses in Fairfax and Alexandria, receives financial support from the Saudi government and its textbooks are based on Saudi curriculum. Critics say the Saudis propagate a severe version of Islam in their schools.
But al-Shabnan said the school significantly modified those textbooks to remove passages deemed intolerant of other religions. Among the changes, officials removed from teachers' versions of first-grade textbooks an excerpt instructing teachers to explain ''that all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews, Christians and all others.''
At an open house earlier this month in which the school invited reporters to tour the school and meet students and faculty, al-Shabnan seemed weary of the criticism.
''I didn't think we'd have to do this,'' he said of the open house. ''Our neighbors know us. They know the job we are doing.''
Indeed, many people familiar with the school say the accusations are unfounded. Fairfax County Supervisor Gerald Hyland, whose district includes the academy, has defended it and arranged for the county to review the textbooks to put questions to rest. That review is under way. The academy's Alexandria campus is leased from Fairfax County.
Schools that regularly compete against the academy in interscholastic sports - many of them small, private Christian schools - are among the academy's strongest defenders.
Robert Mead, soccer coach at Bryant Alternative High School, a public school in the Alexandria section of Fairfax county, said the academy's reputation has been unfairly marred by people who haven't even bothered to visit the school.
''We've never had one altercation'' with the academy's players on the soccer field, Mead said. ''My guys are hostile. Their guys keep fights from breaking out.''
The academy opened in 1984 and stayed out of the spotlight until the Sept. 11 attacks. Criticisms were revived in 2005, when a former class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was charged with joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia. He was convicted on several charges, including plotting to assassinate President Bush, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Most recently, the religious freedom commission - an independent federal agency created by Congress - issued its report, saying it was rebuffed in its efforts to obtain textbooks to verify claims they had been reformed.
The commission recommended that the academy be shut down until it could review the textbooks to ensure they do not promote intolerance....
On Nov. 15, a dozen U.S. senators, including Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wrote a letter to the State Department urging it to act on the commission's recommendations. And on Tuesday, Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Steve Israel, D-N.Y., introduced legislation to write the commission's recommendations regarding the academy into law.
Michael Cromartie, the commission's chairman, said he does not question the character of the student body or the faculty, most of whom are Christian. The commission is focused specifically on the textbooks, and has legitimate concerns given the problems that have been endemic in the Saudi curriculum, he said.
''It's not about whether the students are civil to their opponents on a ball field. It's about the textbooks,'' he said.
At the open house, seniors said they worry that news accounts will hurt their college applications. Most students said they were shocked that the government panel had recommended closing the school.
Omar Talib, a senior, said the school caters to students from across the Muslim world, not just Saudis. It makes no judgments on other religions or against Shiite Islam, as some critics have contended.
''I have four children at this school. I've never heard them say 'Mom, today we learned we should kill the Jews,''' said Malika Chughtai of Vienna. ''If I heard that kind of talk, I would not have them here.''
A courageous stand!
Whitewash High?
Potemkin Facade High?
"a class valedictorian admitted he had joined al-Qaida."
In fairness, who among us didn't experiment a bit in our formative years. Some kids smoked some pot, sorority chicks made out with each other, and others joined the largest terror outfit in the world. We all just need to be more open minded and try to "understand" young people.
''I have four children at this school. I've never heard them say 'Mom, today we learned we should kill the Jews,'''
thats because they are taught that at a very young age at school, mosque, and at home. so why would they say mom we learned it today.
thats like a 9th grade christian coming home from school saying mom i learned that we are not suposed to lie, cheat, and kill gee shucks mom
''I have four children at this school. I've never heard them say 'Mom, today we learned we should kill the Jews,'''
thats because they are taught that at a very young age at school, mosque, and at home. so why would they say mom we learned it today.
thats like a 9th grade christian coming home from school saying mom i learned that we are not suposed to lie, steal, and kill gee shucks mom
How does a foreign government and alien culture manage to plant an exclusive - foreign-government-run-operated school in a suburb of DC? ...
How does same manage to get a major "news" outlet to concoct a sympathy "news" story which will promulgate (and therefore "legitimize") the illegal (anti-US constitutional arrangement) situation? ...
Who (traitors) is selling the USA to its sworn enemies?
How much money is filling the bank accounts of these traitors to their own nation, people, and Western civilization, ... ?
Why? Are such traitors self-loathing brainwashed PC-indoctrinated "liberals"? Are they just plain in it for money (and some piece of power)? Are they fully disenchanted with their culture and nation and will give it all up - to the culture of islam? Or is it all about something other...?
While I am pleased at some of what is written here, how can we really trust them? Their goal is subterfuge until they reach critical mass and can then exert force with the least amount of harm to themselves and their cause.
TINBH
One of the answers to how a foreign government sponsors a school in another country is that it is done world-wide by a number of governments, including the UK and the US. Both of those governments sponsor "British" and "American" schools around the world. The US spends your tax dollars to do so, albeit, only at the rate of $25,000/school/year.
As far as the little dears "not learning to kill Jews today" is concerned, of course not. They were taught to read the Qur'ran in either English or Arabic at the age of six or so. Thus, they have read and learned the 10 or so suras which promote the end of all kuffars. So, yes, they "didn't learn it today."
"Among the changes, officials removed from teachers' versions of first-grade textbooks an excerpt instructing teachers to explain ''that all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews, Christians and all others.''
Well, that's good, because Newsflash: It's the early 7th century "religion" called Islam that consists of a conversation between one human male and a non-existent pre-Islamic pagan Moon deity that's false.
We have got to get Islam out of this country. It's an insult to have to read such crapola as the quotation above.
Plenty of Jew killing in the Qur'an - no need to review it at school.
"...arranged for the county to review the textbooks to put questions to rest. That review is under way."
-- from the article above
That's all that counts. What are in the textbooks. What are in the lectures and other classroom activities based on the textbooks. Make sure that none were overlooked when they were handed in for inspection. None.
As for the comment by the soccer coach, that the boys from the Saudi Academy were sweet and peaceful, always trying to stop "altercations" caused by other boys, well, soccer-shoe maker, stick to your last. But then what do we say to those in the business of offering their sage opinions about everything, who have not the remotest connection to shoes and shoemakers. What saying do we use for those, such as Glenn Beck, or Dinesh D'Souza, who presume to tell us about the wonderfulness of Islam because they are in the business of telling us what they think about everything, in rapid sound-bites on television, or applause-line witticisms on the profitable college-and-corporate lecture circuit? What last do these non-shoemakers possess, so that we can tell them to stick to it?
It is an Islamic *religious* academy. Even if their scholastic text books don't contain hatred toward non-Muslims, the Quran and Hadith do, and I'm sure they have those religious texts there.
And are they required to recite Al-Fatiha during their prayers? You know, where they disparage Jews ("those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down") and Christians ("those who go astray"). [Shakir translation from Quran 1:7]
Well, to defend the school , all they need do is hold up the koran and read certain passages, right ?
Hey defenders of islam and the school, you are screwed before you start. Most people are not as stupid as Glenn Beck.
They dont have lyin eyes.
Who in the governmetn has failed to understand that Islam, by its tenets, is an anti-Constitutional subversion?
Only 99%, or is the figure higher?
Some students will be more radical than others but whatever is in the textbooks, there will be terrorist-minded cliques of adolescent boys networking among those 900 students. It's a prime recruiting ground.
These boys will be the 'better class' of Muslims who go on to college and get the advanced training in computer technology, biology, what-have-you. IfI had a choice between leaving those forty black muslim terror training camps left intact around our country and shutting down this one school, I'd shut down this school.
Shut down this school.
I can't believe it's been there since 1984. "1984" - speaks volumes.
Islamic peoples should go back to their own Islamic countries. End of Story. Goodbye. Go Away. Good Riddance. We don't miss you.
Changing such teachings as "not all other religions are false" doesn't mean squat,big deal.Let me see if i can finish out the rest of the real statement,just as you would have to when a muslim would EDIT a verse they wish you to deem peaceful when it isn't.
"They aren't false but they are not true religions because they have corrupted God's words,which the true wrods are found in islam.Now lets turn to the next chapter and learn about apes and pigs and crusaders and apostates and how they all deserve to be murdered raped and sodomized."
Any person with a brain who can see what is taught in any squalored cess pool of the Islamic world knows exactly what is being taught in the schools here.
We are being pressured to allow terrorism and hate and segregation and just about everything else this country has bled and died for to eradicate to be born and bred here.No pressure on the good folks of Saudi Arabia to allow even one church or temple.Okay a 30 minute meeting with the Pope where the good King Saud just shakes his head and Says nope,can't allow it,islam only.Good enough now here i have a present for you.
It's all rediculous.islam should not be allowed here nor anywehere else.All those helping in paving the scourages one way road should be shoved under the pavement and steamrolled.
If the political nut jobs want to carry on with the MC-PC BS then why can't they be smart enough about it to at least make it a two way street.Saudi Arabia wants a mosque here,then a church goes up in Saudi Arabia with the same rights of worship we allow the mosque visitors.
Sounds like a plan to me and not one of suicide.
"allah" is not "God."
"allah" is a pagan rock idol. A billion duped people are praying to a god that doesn't exist.
Which has got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Bar none.
I am amazed at the knowledge level of a few on this forum.
There is one single source of creation and that is called God in English, and Allah in Arabic. Even the Christian Arabs call God Allah. Jesus refered to the creator as Ilahi, a version of Allah. God cannot be different, our perception may be but the creator God is same no matter how you call him/ her or it.
I hope the department will read all the books of the school and ask them to remove passages that breed hate, if that is the case or just plain shut them down. We don't need hate sermons- http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/06/hate-sermons-from-pulpit.html
Mike Ghouse
Really now. Did the factions that allowed this school to be built expect something different? I mean come on: we have cities stupid enough to allow mosques to be built. I would have to say: any city official that allows these things to be built should be voted out of office. Once the idea is raised for a city to put a school or mosque up, the American citizens should be allowed to have a recall election, and vote the idiots out of office.
By-the-way Allah is a moon god
UgetwhatUdeserve and allow into your life. Think about it.
Heres all you need to know from an e-mail i got from a muslim guy:
You are saying that if our God (Allah) wants to protect our Holy Qura'n that he will do it, and if our Book (The Holy Qura'n) is Holy as we say it does not need our intervention, and will protect itself by his own without our Intervention, and I have a very simple answer for all these! It is a story happened from many years ago, there were some people wanted to burn (Al-Qa'ba') that building which made of stones in Saudi which the Muslims go every year for (Hajj) over there to see it and round around it, do you know what Allah did? Allah left those bad people to burn that building which the Muslims consider it as the most pure place on the whole Earth! Now you're wondering, why Allah did that? Why he left those bad people to burn (Al-Qa'ba')? I will tell you why, because Allah wanted to test the Muslims, Allah wanted to see what the Muslims will do, so, it is the same thing now, for example; If someone wants to use our Holy Qura'n as toilet paper Allah will let him do that to see what the Muslims will do, so, it is just a test for all Muslims!Allah wants to know if we love our Religion or don't!
"God cannot be different, our perception may be but the creator God is same no matter how you call him/ her or i" --posted by Mike Ghouse, above.
Sorry, God and "Allah," a pagan moon god, are not the same. Mohammed misled the pagan Arabians.
"Even the Christian Arabs call God Allah." --again, posted by Mike Ghouse, above.
Is this true? Anyone know? If it is, as Christians they are using the wrong name. There is no "Allah," the chief deity in the pre-Islamic pagan pantheon of 360 pagan deities. The Moon god, a rock idol. That is "al-ilah," that Mohammed called "Allah." Also, the reason why Mohammed never has to explain in the Koran who Allah is is because the Arabians already worshipped "allah" as a pagan deity. Nope, no real God commands the annihilation of whole groups of people ("Infidels" - Jews and Christians) if they don't convert to Islam. Sorry, doesn't happen. That is Mohammed speaking as "Allah" in the Koran. And indeed, Mohammed killed many, many, many Jews and Christians because they would not convert to Islam.
"By-the-way Allah is a moon god" --posted by UgetwhatUdeserve," above.
Correct. Pagan. As such, doesn't exist.
If God and Allah are the same, why do they contradict each other?
I have to agree with Darcy. Why would God as God command us to not bear false witness against our neighbor, not murder, not steal, not commit adultery, not covet our neighbor's wife and then after Jesus came to earth, command us to love our neighbor as ourselves, turn the other cheek and render to Caesar what is Caesar's if He was going to turn around and, as Allah, tell Muslims that taqiyyah (lying) is fine as long as it furthers Islam, that Muslims are to murder Jews where they find them, that it is A-okay to take non-Muslims' lands, wives, kids, and stuff after they have invaded and subdued a non-Muslim country, that Muslims are not allowed to sleep with married women unless they are slaves that their right hand possesses, allow Mohammad to take his son's wife for his own, tell Muslims not to associate with non-Muslims, tell Muslims to offer the choices of forced converstion, subservient, tax oppressive dhimmitude or death when meeting with non-Muslims and have his Imams teach in their mosques NOT to follow the laws of the countires Muslims are working to colonize and take over?
This is beyond illogical, even for multi-cultural, PC freaks who've been brought up in the U.S. public school system. Are Muslims so convincing in their lies and we so lacking in critical thinking that we can't see the contradictions in these two entities?
No, Allah is not God. Allah is a creature, made up in the mind of a very clever and ruthless con artist, nothing more. And just like guns don't kill people, Allah doesn't kill people. But believing in him and following Mohammad's make believe set of "Allah-said-so" strictures certainly gives Qu'ran following Muslims an excuse to practice human nature's most base passions. If you have a black heart then Islam would be the perfect belief system to rationalize doing the despicable things a black heart does best.