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Christmas in America is a season of time-honored traditions — the sacred performance of the annual ACLU lawsuit over the presence of an insufficiently secular “holiday” tree; the ritual provocations of the atheist displays licensed by pitifully appeasing municipalities to sit between the menorah and the giant Frosty the Snowman; the familiar strains of every hack columnist’s “war on Christmas” column rolling off the keyboard as easily as Richard Clayderman playing “Winter Wonderland” . . . (snip) One sympathizes, up to a point. As America degenerates from a land of laws to a land of legalisms, much of life is...

The Board of Supervisors met last night to vote on the lease renewal by the Saudi government of county-owned buildings for the notorious Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax, Virginia. The Islamic Saudi Academy is a school in Northern Virginia and is operated by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. Regular Atlas readers are well aware of this dangerous institution -- see here. Their valedictorian is serving life in prison for plotting to assassinate then-President Bush. Back in 2008, State Department officials would not close the Saudi-financed Islamic school in Northern Virginia that failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in...

A controversial Saudi-funded academy that teaches strict adherence to traditional Islamic law has been given the green light to expand its Virginia campus — a decision by local officials that infuriates opponents who say the school's teachings are anti-American. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 6-4 Monday to grant a zoning exemption to the Islamic Saudi Academy. The officials said the outcome was based strictly on zoning issues, not on what goes on in the school's classrooms. That left some in the community outraged. "How could they ... say they are such fine students? They are fine students but...

By Jerry Markon and Ben Hubbard Washington Post Staff Writers Tuesday, July 15, 2008; Page B01 A Saudi-funded academy in Fairfax County used textbooks as recently as 2006 that compared Jews and Christians to apes and pigs, told eighth-graders that these groups are "the enemies of the believers" and diagrammed for high school students where to cut off the hands and feet of thieves, a Washington Post review of the books has found. Saudi officials acknowledged that the textbooks used at the Islamic Saudi Academy had contained inflammatory material since at least the mid-1990s but said they ordered revisions in...

The Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax, VA has been using text books which teach 12th graders that it's permissible for Muslims to kill those who convert out of Islam. The Academy is funded by the Government of Saudi Arabia and the Saudi Ambassador sits on its board. The Academy's website states that their "Islamic Studies Program is unique and comprehensive" and leads of by stating that the students study Arabic (but I'm not sure what is so unique about Arabic language studies when it comes to Islamic studies). This report from the Washington Post about the June 9, 2008 arrest...

The arrest of a top official at a Saudi-financed school in Northern Virginia has fueled further criticism of the institution following findings released last week that say its textbooks contained violent and intolerant language. snip The school's director general, Abdalla Al-Shabnan, was arrested June 9 and charged with obstruction of justice - a misdemeanor count that follows accusations that he failed to report an allegation of child abuse made by a student at the school. A 5-year-old girl at the academy's campus in Fairfax said she had been sexually assaulted by a family member, according to court documents. Mr. Al-Shabnan,...

State Department officials said Thursday they have no plans to close a Saudi-financed Islamic school in Northern Virginia that has failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in textbooks. "They told us they would revise the textbooks by the 2008 school year," State Department spokesman Rob McInturff said. "We don't plan to take additional action apart from the discussions that have been going on with the Saudi government." Results released Wednesday from a federal investigation into the Islamic Saudi Academy - with campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax - found textbooks at the 900-student private school had passages that blame the...

A congressionally mandated panel that promotes religious freedom is recommending the Bush administration close a Virginia-based Islamic school run by the Saudi government if school officials don't comply with demands to turn over textbooks that may include lessons on jihad and intolerance toward other religions. "Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the (school) promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States," said a report released by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Saudi embassy officials say the books long ago were cleaned up and made available to commission members, but...

Al Qaeda High - Alleged Bush Assassin a Graduate of Local Saudi Madrassa Stella Jatras, who normally follows the Balkans for us, reports on efforts to establish yet another Saudi Madrassa outside Washington, D.C. Nestled snuggly in the Northern hills of Virginia, lies the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), better known as Al-Qaeda High. ISA's most notable graduate - so far - is Ahmed Omar Abu Ali. Ali was arrested recently for plotting to assassinate President Bush. Ali was born in Houston and later moved to Falls Church, Va., where he was valedictorian of his class at ISA. After graduation, a...

The Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria is an outpost of militant Islam, say critics who point out that the school's 1999 valedictorian is charged with joining al Qaeda and plotting to assassinate President Bush. Two other persons connected to the academy also have been linked to terrorism-related cases, and a U.S. senator has asked the Justice Department to investigate the school. 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....

WASHINGTON - The federal indictment of a graduate of a Saudi-backed Islamic school in suburban Virginia for plotting to kill President Bush is the latest example of the school's links to troubling activity, Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., charged on Wednesday. Schumer said he is asking Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, to explain where the school receives all of its funding, and whether the school may be "a breeding ground for anti-American sentiment - and, possibly even terrorist activities." It has been widely reported the school receives substantial funding from the Saudi kingdom. Schumer...

Emergency Announcement. Thursday - February 24, 2005 Islamic Saudi Academy will be closed today. Offices are open with a liberal leave policy in effect.

SAUDI 'SOLDIER' BY STEPHEN SCHWARTZ IN Alexandria, Va., on Tuesday, a 23-year-old Northern Virginia man of Saudi Arabian background named Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was charged with conspiring to assassinate President Bush. Abu Ali and his accomplices are accused of plotting to kill the president by gunfire or a car bomb. The indictment also spells out such criminal activities as assisting and receiving support from Osama bin Laden's band of murderers. Abu Ali was extradited to Virginia after many months in a Saudi jail. What's most remarkable about this case is the degree to which this would-be assassin is a...

Apt Pupil By Ben JohnsonFrontPageMagazine.com | February 24, 2005This week, the Justice Department accused 23-year-old Virginia native Ahmed Omar Abu Ali of plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush. Media coverage has predictably centered on Abu Ali’s claims of torture while he was held in a Saudi Arabian prison and on the fact that the accused was “his high school’s valedictorian.” Largely omitted from this coverage is the fact that his high school operates under the authority of the Saudi Arabian government, teaches an extremist form of Wahhabi Islam, and has direct ties to at least three other terrorists...

WASHINGTON - A Virginia man accused of plotting with al-Qaida to kill President Bush should be held indefinitely, federal prosecutors said Wednesday in court filings that also rejected his contention that he was tortured while held in Saudi Arabia. At a court hearing a day earlier in Alexandria, Va., 23-year-old Ahmed Abu Ali offered to display scars on his back as proof that he was tortured by Saudi authorities. In their filing Wednesday, prosecutors said, "There is no credible evidence to support those claims." Abu Ali never complained about his treatment during several meetings with an American diplomat in Saudi...

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 22 (UPI) -- U.S. citizen Ahmed Omar Abu-Ali was charged in federal court Tuesday with plotting to assassinate President Bush with either a gun or a car bomb. Abu-Ali was named in a six-count terrorism indictment in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., upon his return from Saudi Arabia, where he had been held for nearly two years, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. He was ordered held without bond and a detention hearing was scheduled for Thursday.

Virginia man charged in alleged plot to assassinate Bush By MATTHEW BARAKAT Associated Press Writer ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- A former high school valedictorian in Virginia was charged Tuesday with conspiring to assassinate President Bush and conspiracy to support the al-Qaida terrorist network. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a U.S. citizen, made an initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court. He claimed that he was tortured while detained in Saudi Arabia since June of 2003 and offered through his lawyer to show the judge his scars. The indictment said that in 2002 and 2003 Abu Ali and an unidentified coconspirator...

A northern Virginia school that caters to children of Saudi diplomats is teaching first-graders that Judaism and Christianity are false religions. The allegations come from a Muslim group. The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism is calling on the Islamic Saudi Academy to remove the textbook used to teach first-graders. The teachers' edition of the textbook emphasizes several points, including the statement "All religions other than Islam are false religions." A second notation tells the teacher to ensure "explaining that all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews, Christians and all others." The coalition's director, Kamal Nawash,...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A school that caters to children of Saudi diplomats is teaching first-graders that Judaism and Christianity are false religions, according to a Muslim group concerned that such teachings breed hatred. Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism is calling on Islamic Saudi Academy to remove the textbook used to teach first-graders. The teachers' edition of the textbook outlines several points of emphasis, including the statement, "All religions other than Islam are false religions." The coalition's director, Kamal Nawash, a Muslim, said it would be acceptable to teach that Islam is the only correct religion. But to explicitly tell first-graders...