Posted on 10/18/2007 5:38:48 AM PDT by milestogo
Thursday, October 18, 2007; 12:25 AM
McLEAN, Va. -- 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.
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."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
LOL. Why because their experience doesn't comport with your preconceived, uninformed world view? I have lived a total of nine years in three Islamic countries [Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia] and travelled to many more. I am under no illusions about the threat that militant Islamic fundamentalism poses to our country and Western Civilization, but it is not in our self-interest to demonize and radicalize one billion muslims.
“As far a returning the violence, believe me, there are many Freepers who would like to do much worse than a suicide belt to every living Muslim.”
References - links?
America didn’t radicalize the muslims. The muslims did the radicalizing on their own.....demonizing muslims.....oh my......and muslims do not cheer in the streets when planes are flown into buildings killing Americans.....maybe .....Americans should roll over one more time.....yep, that will work.....in terms of diplomatic speak.....not in the real world....but in the parallel universe.
"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.
“And we still don’t know if this particular school is preaching that Jews and Christians should be killed. Read the article in its entirety.”
...and the request that the Saudis review this “academy’s” curriculum and text was ignored. So, you think we should give them the benefit of the doubt after their non response”
Islamic groups hit curriculum at Saudi school
Two Islamic groups say a private Saudi school in Alexandria is teaching first-graders an extreme version of Islam that fosters contempt for other religions, a charge denied by the Saudi government, which creates curriculum for such schools.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a District-based Islamic civil rights and advocacy group, has joined with the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism in calling for an Arabic textbook to be removed from classes at the Islamic Saudi Academy.
One page in the manual for the first-grade textbook instructs teachers to tell students that any religion other than Islam is false.
"These first-grade students are very impressionable," said Kamal Nawash, a Palestinian and practicing Muslim who runs the six-month-old Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism.
"The extremist version of Islam encourages violence. We don't need to be teaching that anymore in this diverse world. We need to teach people to get along."
The Islamic Saudi Academy referred inquiries to the Saudi Embassy, which dismissed Mr. Nawash's assertion as an attempt to restart a failed political career.
Embassy spokesman Nail Al-Jubeir compared the textbook to any other religious teaching and said it was "shameful" of Mr. Nawash "to be using this as a source of bigotry."
"They are making a big thing out of nothing," Mr. Al-Jubeir said. "If that's the only thing they have to bring up, how pathetic the argument is. Judaism does not recognize Christ as the Messiah. Christians say the only way to salvation is accepting Christ in your heart."
CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said the textbook page conflicts with the teachings in the Koran, which says Jews, Christians and all "who believe in God" will "have their reward with their Lord."
"The [page of the] textbook is inaccurate in terms of portraying Islam's relationship with other faiths," Mr. Hooper said. "I would suggest either removing the textbook or inserting a notation that something is being changed in the textbook."...
But Mr. Nawash said he has no intention of running for office again and that his only motive is to stop extremist teaching that he fears will lead to terrorism.
"This is much more important, and it should have been done a long time ago. There is a strong movement of people pushing extremist Islam that tolerates any means, including terrorism, to meet their goals," he said. "It's not a handful, it's a worldwide uprising. ... We're not staying silent anymore."
This is not the first time Mr. Nawash has been under scrutiny.
His law firm once represented Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, a prominent U.S. Muslim leader who had a role in a Libyan conspiracy to assassinate Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. Al-Amoudi on Friday pleaded guilty to illegal financial transactions with Libya and admitted his role in the plot.
I can see that that is true. Here is how it works:
Right now, the government does not have the authority to go to a private school and say "Show us your curriculum," and then decide to shut down the school if it doesn't like what the school is teaching. To allow the government to do that would be a huge violation of the First Amendment.
Let's say that we go ahead and give the government the power to do that, mostly by doing nothing while they go ahead and set the precedent. It's an Islamic school after all, and what they teach may well be flatly opposed to the western and Christian tradition that is the basis for our society. If you were going to shut schools down, that one might be a great one to start with.
But it wouldn't end there. Sometime during the next Democrat administration (say, March 2009 or so) the Department of Education, at the prompting of the President, would decide to take a good hard look at all those Christian schools out there that don't march in step with the current drummer, schools like Doug Wilson's Logos School out in Idaho, or George Grant's Franklin Classical School in Tennessee, or Veritas Academy outside of Lancaster, PA.
And all the schools that didn't measure up to what the Department of Education thought was good and right (read: consistent with the government's ideology on education), those schools would be shut down. It would still be a huge violation of the First Amendment, and this time perpetrated against ourselves, not against our enemies in this latest Crusade.
I say, if you want to shut the school down, do so on the basis of existing law. Do not by any means create a new legal precedent that will blow up in our faces and take away constitutionally guaranteed freedoms down the road.
Too many have worked too hard for them for us to throw them away now.
“Why because their experience doesn’t comport with your preconceived, uninformed world view?”
Who says it is uninformed? Because it doesn’t comport with your preconceived and uninformed Stockholm Syndrome experience?
“I have lived a total of nine years in three Islamic countries [Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia] and travelled to many more. “
I absolutely have no doubt.
BTW the first amendment does not cover what is being taught by muslims as the gospel (kill or subjugate the infidels).....unless you too believe no violence is associated with islam....I know better...and when one looks to the find the truth....the truth is plain and out in the open for all to see....looks as though this school has something to hide.....or there would be open review, instead there is hiding and deception.
LOL. Couldn’t you come up with a more imaginative retort?
bump
That's not true at all. I see you still haven't understood a word I've written here.
What I'm saying is that there's more than one alligator in the pond. While you're focused on one, you're letting the other one swim up behind you and bite you on the @$$.
I'm all for fighting Islam, with arms if need be, and it may yet come to that. However, throwing our freedoms at it is absolutely the wrong thing to do.
When we were stationed in Jeddah (80-82), the embassy, military and private sector kids all went to the Parents Cooperative School (PCS). After age 16, or the end of the 9th grade, the kids had to go to school outside the Magic Kingdom. Classes were mixed sex up until that point.
“LOL. Couldn’t you come up with a more imaginative retort?”
Your response doesn’t surprise me. Liberals tend to hold creativity and imagination in higher regard than effectiveness and results.
Your defense of the Islamic Academy is not effective but it uses alot of imagination. I imagine that the ROP is peaceful all the time, however, I do come back to reality after a bit of hopeful wandering. You should try that.
I can agree with that statement......giving muslims the freedom to kill Americans is a fight I will enter every time. This school should open up...all other schools in this nation are reviewed and overseen.....why not the muslim schools?
Aren't there Christian teachings about "one true religion" or that Jews believe they are the "chosen people?" Every religion believes that it represents the one true way for salvation and redemption. Ann Coulter was criticized for saying "perfected Jews." How far must this political correctness infect religious teachings by one group or another?
An alarming fact from the WashPost article below...So some want to give this institution the benefit of the doubt. LOL, typical...read about the Academy’s valedictorian who espouses and absorbs all the good things the school has to offer.
“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.”
Bob Jones University Press
A Beka
Accelerated Christian Education
Liberty Baptist
Landmark
Rodd & Staff
Many others
Of course, in none of these will there be any teaching of the use of violence. Patriotism is taught. Morals and character are taught.
i live in Northern VA, i am familiar with the school and its famous alum. I find it alarming.
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