Posted on 08/10/2007 2:30:53 PM PDT by neverdem
The controversial Khalil Gibran International Academy scheduled to open next month has attracted only a handful of Arabic-speaking students, The Post has learned.
Just six Arabic speakers and one English-language learner out of 44 registered students have enrolled at the Brooklyn public academy that critics fear will become a city-funded Islamic school.
"We didn't anticipate a full 50-50 split," said Department of Education spokeswoman Melody Meyer.
The English-Arabic school was envisioned by Principal Debbie Almontaser as a multicultural institution serving grades 6-12 for native Arabic speakers and students wanting to learn the language. Students would become fluent in both languages while immersed in Arab culture and history under her plan.
At least for the first year there will only be a handful of sixth-grade students able to enjoy the boxes of books and textbooks translated into Arabic that Almontaser ordered.
Not only did the school fail to fill all 60 seats, but it hasn't attracted a diverse student body, DOE numbers show.
Some 75 percent of students identified themselves as "black," according to the department. It declined to provide an exact figure, citing privacy laws.
There are no concerns about the racial disparities, Meyer said.
Almontaser came under fire this week for her comments to The Post that appeared to condone "Intifada NYC" T-shirts.
The shirts are sold by the activist group Arab Women Active in Arts and Media that operates out of the same office as a Yemeni-American association that Almontaser represents.
Rather than denounce the shirts, Almontaser tried to explain that "intifada" means "shaking off" and the shirts represented women "shaking off" oppression. She later condemned the T-shirt message's connection to Palestinian terrorism.
As The Post reported yesterday, United Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten slammed Almontaser's comments. She called the T-shirts "warmongering."
Other parts of Almontaser's vision...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Why does an islamic school bear the name of a Christian?
Wow, where the hell have I been?! This is the first I’ve heard of this school.
Now normally I wouldn’t have a problem with immersion learning of foreign languages.
It didn’t work too well for me - but that’s a different story.
But with 75% of the student body indicating their skin color as black, doesn’t this lead to a possible Farrakhan-ization of the school?
I am sure Michael Bloomburg will have a you just don’t understand the dynamics statement coming soon.
Thye got to find a new principal. She resigned her position.
The NY Times only put it on their blog, so I just linked that directly.
FReepmail me if you want on or off my New York ping list.
44 students? How much did the obscenity cost the taxpayers of NYC? They should hold the classes at that gaping hole in the ground where the Twin Towers once stood. That’d be quite an “immersion” in the Muslim culture...
“a city-funded Islamic school.”
You know the routine- I find yet another appalling news item about how low public education has sunk, shake my head with disgust & disbelief, ping it to you, you read it and are even more appalled than I am, you forward your ping list to it...it’s like we’re stuck in a bad dance club that keeps playing the same bad song and we keep running into each other.
So there are six Arabic speakers and one Arabic student of 44 registered. Who are the other 37 students, who enrolled in the Arabic language school but do not know, or want to learn, how to speak Arabic?
Could they be our home grown Black Muslim crazies, perhaps? I don’t know, which is why I’m asking.
I just contacted Senator Clinton. This is her jurisdiction. I cannot for the life of me understand why the taxpayers should pay for a madrassa. I cannot for the life of me understand why NYC is allowing this to happen, after 9/11. Have they no brains? I cannot understand (not) why the ACLU has not come down on this, and hard, for ‘separation of church and state.’
I think Mrs. Clinton needs to answer for this immediately. And I think that she needs to be dogged by it on the campaign trail. How is she planning on protecting our country, pray tell, if she allows a MADRASSA in Brooklyn, on YOUR tax dollar?
I was glad to see Michelle Malkin grilling this (former) Principal the other night on Fox. And happy as can be to see this (former) Principal resign. The school needs to be run out of town.
This is nothing new. I believe there was a lawsuit about it, but there was a “gay targeted” school in NYc a while back. I remember reading they had problems with smoking in the boys’ room of a different sort!
bboop——
you WILL get an immediate response from sen.clinton-—goes something like this :
....you fail to understand the complexity of the issue.
every single thing is a complexity with her. could it be due to the fact she has absolutely no standards ?
better to mail kleine and ask him how does he justify this school when many high schools are operating on triple sessions for more than 25 years due to over capacity.
and this
http://stopthemadrassa.wordpress.com/
http://www.nysun.com/specials/gibran.php An Arabic Public School
http://www.nysun.com/article/59954 Arab School Principal Says She Regrets Intifada Remarks
http://www.nysun.com/article/58054 Pawns in the Game
http://stopthemadrassa.wordpress.com/ Stop The Madrassa: Protecting Our Public Schools from Islamist
this school should be at ground zero....
teach the f’n muzzies what they did and then ship them all to a muzzie land....
why the hell are the taxpayers funding this madrassa????
pc lib/dems destroying the US in the name if public education....but
its for the children!!!!
The Executive Summary clearly states that teacher workshops on Islam will be given. Why hasn’t anyone said ANYTHING about this? I’ve written letters till my fingers are numb.
The halal meals deal has been disapproved and the students will be told they can bring em from home, but school will not provide.
The schools close partnership and intern program with the American Muslim Associations of Lawyers is EXTREMELY distrubing.
Dov Hikind is on this too now. Randi W. was all for it until the Intifada T-shirt stink. This school is less than 3 weeks from opening...it needs to be stopped.
Who is Klein? Superintendent of NYC or something? I will write to him. Haven’t heard from the Hil yet.
Thanks for the links.
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