Why Do We Allow America’s Enemies to Run Schools Here?
Posted on October 23, 2007
With such a headline, you’d be excused for assuming this piece is just another attack on our failing schools, just another screed against the evils of teachers unions, or a whack against the left wing lunatics who run our universities. No, this time the title is no mere hyperbole. This time it says exactly what it means for in the state of Virginia a school is being run by radical Islamists, funded by a foreign nation, and under condemnation from the U.S. government. In this time of war, the State of Virginia really is allowing our enemies to run a school teaching Islamist hate to our children right in our midst.
A private Islamic school funded by the Saudi government is being accused by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom of teaching Wahhabi Islamism to 1,000 K-12 children in Fairfax County, Virginia. Wahhabism is the strict and hateful brand of Islam that buttresses the twisted ideas of people like Usama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization and the Taliban extremists in Afghanistan and it is guiding the daily class work of some of Virginia’s children.
The Commission reports that the curriculum at the Islamic Saudi Academy reflects the religious intolerance taught at schools in Saudi Arabia where intolerance and bigotry against Jews and Christians is the norm. In part, the Commission’s report states that, “significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States.”
Naturally the school and it’s minders in the Saudi embassy profess shock and dismay that they’d be questioned about their efforts to teach their own brand of “truth” to American children. But, it isn’t just extreme Islamism that the school is faulted for. The Commission also warned that the close operational ties and funding scheme between the school, the Saudi embassy and the government of Saudi Arabia may violate U.S. law restricting the activities of foreign embassies.
This school was in the news once before, too. After the Sept. 11th attacks by radical Islamists, a former valedictorian of the school, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted of, and is now serving a 30 year prison sentence for, plotting the assassination of president H. W. Bush in 2005. Ali became an al Qaeda member while attending college in Saudi Arabia after graduation from the school in Virginia.
So, why do we do this? Why do we so blithely ignore the simple logic of keeping our enemies at arms length? Why are we so stupid as to allow the enemy to set up schools right in our midst?
I asked this question of a history teacher just the other day and he remarked that our free society should actually prohibit any efforts to keep the enemy out. And besides, he said, we allowed a Nazi party to be created right here in our midst in New York during WWII by allowing the American Bund, an American Nazi organization, to operate freely.
But, my history-teaching friend is mistaken in his belief that the Roosevelt Administration so easily allowed the Bund to operate without impediment in some self-flagellating exercise in “free speech” during a time of war. In fact, both the state of New York and the Roosevelt administration dogged members of the Bund and eventually interred and deported many of its members.
In 1939, for instance, the New York District Attorney began investigating Bund leader Fritz Kuhn for tax evasion and embezzlement efforts that eventually drove him from his post in the Nazi organization. Additionally, the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities (HUAC) also went after various members of the Bund and did their level best to hamper the groups activities. And as America entered World War II, the Roosevelt administration placed many of the Bund’s members and their families in interment camps for Germans and Italians* with many of these folks being deported to Germany at the close of the war.
So, contrary to what my history teacher friend thought, neither the U.S. government nor the State of New York sat idly by as our enemies created organizations that promoted ideas antithetical to the American way.
So that brings me back to the question at hand: Why are we allowing these so-called schools to set up shop right in our midst and why are we allowing them to teach hate and radical ideologies contrary to freedom, liberty and the American way?
Have we become stupid since 1939, or are we simply trying to destroy ourselves?
*Few people are aware that Roosevelt also interred Germans and Italians in camps just like he did with Japanese Americans. In fact, they were arguably treated worse than the Japanese for many of the Germans and Italians were not freed right after the war, but were kept for many, many months after the war ended. Then many were deported and not allowed to regain their American citizenship once their camps were dismantled.
» Filed Under History, News, War On Terror
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9 Responses to “Why Do We Allow America’s Enemies to Run Schools Here?”
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Syndicate Me
So do you support government intrusion into the curriculum of private religious schools?
A private Islamic school funded by the Saudi government is being accused by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom of teaching Wahhabi Islamism to 1,000 K-12 children in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Fairfax County, Va. Right down the road from George
MuslimMason University, a public university that has kowtowed to Islamists and put in footbaths for their ritual prayers. What ever happened to “separation of mosque and state”?“So do you support government intrusion into the curriculum of private religious schools?”
No. But, disallowing them ENTIRELY when they are based on Wahhabism and are inimical to the USA is not meddling in the curriculum, its assuring national security.
Radical Islam is not a religion, it is an enemy to civilization.
No. But, disallowing them ENTIRELY when they are based on Wahhabism and are inimical to the USA is not meddling in the curriculum, its assuring national security.
So you support government shutdown of private religious schools based on what they teach. Interesting. The name of this site should be changed to SACL.
Btw, are you familiar with the Bill of Rights? The first one is pretty clear on this:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
You getting it yet?
Rejected by PBS:
“Islam vs. Islamism” – video
Why do we allow foreign nation to teach foreign language and culture in our schools. That is not how you raise children to be loyal Americans. Mexico also has schools in the U.S.
Mantis is another naive shrill whose ideology overrides his common sense.
People like him treat the Bill of Rights as a suicide pact, i.e. “I don’t care if Osama knows where the nuke is hidden and a million people are going to die in an hour. Now that you have him in custody, you have to mirandize him and allow him counsel before asking him anything about it.”
Sinister delenda est.
Media Legitimizes Islamic Extremists While Defaming Muslims
On October 29, 2007, Texas court held a hearing on TRO filed against Joe Kaufman. The next day the Internet was flooded with the following headlines:
“Islamic Groups Sues Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate”
“Islamic groups sue man who arranged protest”
“TRO Against Anti-Muslim Group Extended”
“TX Muslims Sue FL Islamophobe for Defamation”
We already addressed the “Anti-Muslim” and “Islamophobe” aspects earlier. There are other, more subtle, but also more dangerous issues with those headlines. We cannot stress enough how important it is to draw a distinction between moderate Muslims and Muslim extremists, between Islam and Islamism. However the aforementioned headlines and articles associated with them completely ignore that distinction and mislead their readers in the process.
The infamous Nazi rallies are never described as Christian events because most Christians are disgusted with the Nazis. However, when Islamofascist organizations put out their events, it seems to be universally acceptable to describe those events as Muslim or Islamic. Why such double-standards? Why does the media shun Christian extremists, but embraces Muslim extremists? Is there a hidden agenda or just complete ignorance?
Western Muslim community and Western media must address the following issues arising from ignoring the difference between Islam and Islamism:
1. Radical Muslims are legitimized as mainstream
2. Moderate Muslims are bunched together with the radicals, which gives credence to the notion that all Muslims are radicals and gives rise to Islamophobia
We ask everyone in the media:
- If you do not understand the difference between Islam and Islamism, stop providing your opinions on the subject
- If you do understand that difference, please make it clear every time you address the subject and call everything by its proper name
Some of the favorite media questions are “where are the moderate Muslims” and “why are they silent”. Well, we are right here. It’s you who don’t want to hear what we have to say.
Original post
“The infamous Nazi rallies are never described as Christian events because most Christians are disgusted with the Nazis.”
Apparently Muslims aren’t too disgusted with Nazism. Because radical Islam was BORN from Nazi influence and “Mein Kampf” is the biggest selling, non-Koranic book in the Muslim world today!
Sorry, but Muslims defame themselves with this kind of stuff.