Free Republic

Josh Shapiro just gave away the largest Muslim grant in state history. Why?Local and state outlets reported it—and even quietly celebrated it. But no one asked the hard questions. No one challenged the ideology, the curriculum, or the dangerous precedent. That didn’t happen until Liberty Sentinel and journalist Alex Newman blew the lid off what this really was: a taxpayer-funded expansion of Sharia under the banner of “diversity.”In March 2025, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania awarded $5 million in taxpayer money to Al-Aqsa Islamic Academy—a Philadelphia-based Islamic school currently serving about 300 students. With this grant, the school now plans to...

Gov. Josh Shapiro joined an iftar dinner at the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society in North Philly to announce a historic grant from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, the largest ever awarded to a Muslim organization. Shapiro told the assembled group of a few dozen community members Tuesday night that institutions such as Al-Aqsa “are more important than ever before” in the current climate “as we’re facing tumult overseas, and we’re facing a lot of rising hate here at home.”