Posted on 10/26/2002 6:51:14 AM PDT by Tancred
The former St. Mary's Church in downtown Mansfield may soon become home to an Islamic high school.
The Al-Noor Academy in Quincy purchased the old church in September and plans to renovate it into a school, according to Al-Noor principal Robert Mond.
Mond, who recently moved to Mansfield himself, said the school will not tear down the old church but renovate it into a school for ninth- to 12th-graders using some of the existing classrooms in the building. Mond said it has not yet been decided if the Quincy school will be moved to Mansfield or if the old church will be opened as a second school.
Al-Noor currently has 39 students with four full-time staff members and 10 part-time staff members.
The academy was established in 2000, as a non-profit educational institution to serve the Muslim community in the greater Boston area and in northern Rhode Island, according to the school's web site. The school will have its first graduating class this spring, Mond said. Currently the 11th- and 12th-graders at Al-Noor also attend classes at Quincy College.
St. Mary's location near the Mansfield commuter rail station is one of the reasons the school chose to buy the old church, Mond said.
"We have students coming from Rhode Island who will be able to take the train," Mond said.
Mond, who previously worked at the American University Sharjah in the United Arab Emirate, said he looks forward to getting to know Mansfield. He said that Muslims have "gotten a bad rap" in the past year since Sept. 11 for the actions of some whose beliefs "have nothing to do with what we teach here."
Al-Noor is supervised by a board of trustees. President of the Board of Trustees is Dr. Saeed Shahzad, a founding member of the Islamic Academy of New England and a past member of the board of directors of the Islamic Center of New England.
"The school is dedicated to maintaining academic standards well above that of other schools in the area," the web site reads. "The objective of the academy is to provide the community with well learned youth with a Muslim character. Our educational program will go beyond mere instruction in academics; it will be a complete program designed to teach Islamic values and the Islamic way of life."
Leni
Yes, Islam is assimilating the United States. We will be conquered in a way that no other nation would have dreamed it could conquer us.
INFECTED
Yes. With a disease more deadly than cancer. It wears a smiley face and speaks with a smooth tongue, extending its right hand of peace, friendship and good will while hiding its left hand of terror, butchery and deceipt.
Which includes speaking with a forked tongue.
Raping Leb style.
Having four wives.
Pushing stone walls over on the others who have no wives.
Adding special taxes to Infidels that are people of the Book.
Killing all other Infidels.
Strapping explosives on their children.
Turning back human knowledge to the Middle Ages.
And so on. You know the story.
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