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| Saudi Academy Disputes Radical Reputation |
| 2005-05-19 |
| The Islamic Saudi Academy is seen by some as a dangerous outpost of militant Islam on the outskirts of the nation's capital. And as evidence, they point to the school's 1999 valedictorian, who is charged with joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President Bush. But teachers, students and administrators at the school — which serves nearly 1,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade at two campuses just beyond the Capital Beltway — say such suspicions are unfounded. "These kids are not drilled in any kind of fanatical Islam," said Matt McClusky, who has taught American literature at the school for three years and is leaving to enroll in the New York Police Department training academy. "The kids are led to be open-minded." On a recent day at the school, most of the female students wore a traditional Muslim head scarf, but many did not. In one student essay on display, a youngster listed his favorite book as the Quran; another essay was about a student's favorite TV program — the gross-out reality show "Fear Factor." A student's artwork showed the emblems of the three Abrahamic faiths — the Muslim crescent, the cross and the star of David. The school was founded in 1984, primarily to serve children of the Saudi diplomatic corps. Today the student body is more diverse, with nearly three dozen countries represented, but much of the funding still comes from the Saudi government. In recent years, the academy has been at the center of debate over the religious curriculum in Saudi schools and whether it fosters radicalism. Those questions resurfaced when former valedictorian Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was charged in February. Abu Ali pleaded not guilty and argues that Saudi authorities extracted a false confession from him through torture. Two other people connected to the academy have turned up in terrorism-related cases: A federal indictment in Chicago last year named a former treasurer of the school, Ismael Selim Elbarasse, as a high-ranking official of the militant group Hamas, though Elbarasse was not charged with a crime. Mohamed Osman Idris, an ISA graduate, pleaded guilty in 2002 to lying on a passport application after an investigation into whether he was supporting Hamas. Frustrated by outsiders' perceptions of the school, academy officials say that two-thirds of the school's teachers are Americans and non-Muslims and would not work there if it promoted anti-Western propaganda. Also, with students from across the Muslim world, with a variety of religious and cultural traditions, it would be impossible to promote Wahhabism — a fundamentalist Saudi form of Islam that has influenced extremists — or any other specific strain, they say. The school's director general, Abdalla I. Al-Shabnan, said that some of the religious curriculum that comes from Saudi Arabia is actually toned down at the academy. "If there is anything in our curriculum that we feel is offensive, we ask the teachers not to teach that kind of subject here," Al-Shabnan said. School officials cited a textbook for first-graders that contains a notation in the teachers' edition instructing teachers to ensure "explaining that all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews, Christians and all others." Could this be an example of what WE feel is offensive? Or does WE only include muslims? School officials said teachers were told to disregard that characterization. At least while infidel reporters are present. "To say the other religions are false is totally absurd," particularly in instructions to first-graders, said the school's education director, David Kovalik. But Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Saudi Institute, a think tank that is critical of the Saudi regime, said it is difficult to believe that any amount of revision can salvage the Saudis' religious curriculum. "It's very clear what they teach," he said. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has asked the Justice Department to investigate the school, saying in a letter, "The continued association of the ISA with individuals linked to terror within the United States must be addressed." The Justice Department told Schumer it could not comment on whether the school was under investigation. Abdullah Hijazi, a senior from Mitchellville, Md., said he and other students have not been exposed to extremism in the classroom. At the same time, he said, most of the students have access to the Arab media, and "most of the student body generally sides with the Palestinian cause." But as for the Sept. 11 attacks, Al-Shabnan said: "Our religion was hijacked by a group of people who do not represent Islam." They never do. |
| Posted by:ed |
| #20 Dunno. You just need to keep extremists on all sides away from any WMDs, there’s that word again. |
| Posted by: Get Real 2005-05-19 23:41 |
| #19 cute, Get Real, name the Arab-Israeli peace conference and where they last met. Troll |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-05-19 23:30 |
| #18 Well since 1979 (actually earlier) the word from the muslim pulpit has been "DEATH TO AMERICA" "DEATH TO ISRAEL", "DEATH TO THE INFIDEL". After 9-11 we really have to take these fucktard seriously. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-05-19 23:27 |
| #17 BTW... I went to the Darth Misha School of Speech and Debate. |
| Posted by: badanov 2005-05-19 23:26 |
| #16 Do you really believe that ALL Arabs hate ALL Jews? Come on… Even I know Jews and Arabs who want to earn a buck or two and just enjoy life. Where do you live? There are ethnic tensions all over the world with killings everyday, you just have to look. And most of the dead are NOT Jewish. Most massacres seem to happen in Africa with guns bought from the US, China, Russia, France, UK etc. But because its Africa does anyone care? A dead innocent is a dead innocent. Hatred can twist minds, beware. |
| Posted by: Get Real 2005-05-19 23:22 |
| #15 I have read on these pages a lot of hate. Not on this site, you haven't. Targeting data against Islamists who won't drop their weapons and praise God they are alive, but not hatred. Not in Ranburg. Hate will NOT bring about justice, only more hate. Huh? Anyone thinks otherwise is a fool. Huh? The Jews shoot unarmed Arab children; the Arabs blow unarmed Jewish children up. Well, you got one element right. I don’t rejoice at religious hatred and bigotry, I despair. Who the f*ck needs you then? You should all be ashamed of yourselves. I recognize shame. I have shame the of same bastards who encouraged spitting on our military 30 years ago are basically doing the same now against some of the finest and bravest folks in the history of the world. I am ashamed our media, who are supposed to have a responsibility to our nation at war, support the murdering/pedophiliac Muslims in their war against civilization. Ashamed that d*ckless f*cks like you who log on here prefer to twist words and concepts to their own agenda rather debate openly and honestly, who prefer to jerk off about some nebulous concept of justice that makes Osama bin Laden wish he were Michael Jackson every night he sleeps with a goat. Oopsies... Guess I was rude, huh? Sorry. STFU and I don't do it any more, I promise. |
| Posted by: badanov 2005-05-19 23:21 |
| #14 Get Real, Maybe is because we are tried of all the retreaded NAZI/TRANZI/RACIST bullshit from the Religion of "Death to the Infidel". The monster in the room that we are all tiptoeing about and not directly addressing is that Islam may not be compatible with existing on the same planet with the rest of us. Using the "walks like a duck quacks like a duck" logic model it doesn't look to promising.... so what do we do? Nobody really wants to go there.... but we know we might have to soon. The idiots (yes they are) need to think about how they can co-exist on the same planet with us not how we can be their slaves. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-05-19 22:57 |
| #13 The Arab children cluster around the men with RPGs to protect them; the Palestinians target Israeli schoolbuses, 20% of whose riders are Arab Israelis. Not equivalent. But go ahead and despair all you please, since you haven't the brains to distinguish between accident and intent. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-19 22:44 |
| #12 Don't be a silly, 3dc! I said some girls, and anyway, I suspect your lovely wife doesn't like to share. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-19 22:42 |
| #11 I have read on these pages a lot of hate. Hate will NOT bring about justice, only more hate. Anyone thinks otherwise is a fool. The Jews shoot unarmed Arab children; the Arabs blow unarmed Jewish children up. I don’t rejoice at religious hatred and bigotry, I despair. You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Is there a hell? Well at least the dead children won’t be going there! |
| Posted by: Get Real 2005-05-19 22:37 |
| #10 Trailing Wife Some girls refuse to marry men with hairy backs. aaaahhh.. the wife calls me "silverback"... says I fit the profile..... Not sure if I should take offense or not at both views... Of course at 6'4" and 228lbs nobody gives me too much trouble.... iffen they know whats good for em. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2005-05-19 22:26 |
| #9 No. Only some of us are counted as the Children of Abraham, those who are descended from his wife Sarah or his concubine Hagar, the Egyptian slavegirl. But we all are the Children of Adam and Eve (or Homo sapien sapien, if you prefer the scientific designation). And some of us have hairy backs, or round little tummies, or blond hair. And others of us don't want to marry that. But not marrying is very different from, "Allah demands that we kill them all," and I am beginning to suspect that the rejected party is your very own self, GR, given how insistent you are on equating the two. Frank has you pegged. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-19 22:15 |
| #8 trollery at its' least valuable |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-05-19 22:11 |
| #7 But are we not all Children of Abraham ? Rejoice. |
| Posted by: Get Real 2005-05-19 21:49 |
| #6 Get Real, my dear, you really must learn the difference between marrying within one's religion, and teaching children that their God, the only True God, requires them to kill all the Jews as soon as possible, and enslave everyone else. Some girls refuse to marry men with hairy backs. Others prefer Italians. Some men prefer like dumb, voluptuous, bleached blonds. Tell your friend he's lucky he found out early on -- another Jewish girlfriend of mine discovered her fiance's antisemitic streak only after she'd put him through graduate school, money which he refused to pay back because, after all, she was only a Jew. But even that is not the same as training an entire generation to commit genocide if they can find a way to do so. You'll forgive me if I don't rejoice. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-19 21:39 |
| #5 A friend of mine was very friendly with a girl of Jewish origin, but she called it all off because 'he wasn't Jewish'. So Jews and Muslims have something in common then. Rejoice. |
| Posted by: Get Real 2005-05-19 19:42 |
| #4 Interestingly, a girlfriend of mine was assisting in the classroom at the local Jewish private school (that would be "public", of course, to you British speakers) a few days ago, when into her classroom strode eleven Saudi men in black suits and long beards. They spoke not a word to my friend or to the teacher, nor even to the principal (female) who was showing them around, but silently snapped photos for the better part of an hour (it was a Kindergarten art class). They then demanded to be taken to the place of worship and shown the prayer books. "What do your prayers say about Mohammed?" quoth one. "Why nothing," answered the principal politely, "Mohammed was born long after the prayers were written." Suddenly one of the Saudis realized with horror, "You're all ZIONISTS!" he exclaimed accusingly, "You've been lying! What other lies have you told us today?!?" Honest to Gawd truth. Our State Department, for reasons known only to itself, requested that they be shown over the school... immediately. I wonder if there is a connection? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-05-19 19:26 |
| #3 Nah, just a verbal statement that Islam was hijacked on 9/11 isnt enough. There are enough examples in the muslim world of much braver actions than that. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2005-05-19 11:40 |
| #2 Isn't it time for LH to tack a Moderate Muslim Watch label on? :) |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-05-19 11:28 |
| #1 The Sphincter of Allan in action. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-05-19 11:18 |