New York public school accused of radical Islamist agenda

Originally posted by Boondock78

Originally posted by intrepid
Is this the school in question? If so it seems pretty innocuous to me. Read all 3 pages. Short read really.

read it all.
6 month old article that tells us nothing new.....

BUT it answers the questions that you posed, what will they teach.

Originally posted by intrepid
BUT it answers the questions that you posed, what will they teach.

yeah, it does say what they will teach....still sayin it on the news too but they have yet to produce any of it..
strange....

so, anything current?

Regardless of what we think, what matters is that this national media attention will perhaps impose a higher level of scrutiny on this program.

If they are only going to teach the language, and parts of the culture void of any teachings from Islamic religious scriptures and Islamic laws, I would have no problem with it. I have a hard time seeing how any teacher would be able to separate the Arabic culture from Islam, but I suppose it can be done.

Try to open a grade school class in a public school on Roman culture including the Roman Catholic teachings... and I'm sure you will find equal criticisms.

There are some in the Islamic world who believe they can convert most of the world to Islam, and damn all those they cannot.

Originally posted by mnmcandiez
If youre in america, you should learn about american culture.

And what would that culture be?

Can you show me one aspect of any American culture that wasn't influenced by an outside group?

Check out the Bio on the schools namesake(damn interesting read):

Gilbran Khalil

Turns out that even though he was an Arab he was a Christian, not a Muslim.

Aye, how do you teach islam without teaching sharia law?
Maybe that would be a good thing.
When western women see sharia law, the conversion rate
will grind to a halt.

reply to post by DrLeary


you got that right Drleary, i saw the cnn interview with Pamella hall on cnn and i just felt like slapping that woman for these accusations. Unless they get the proof than i will shut my mouth up but honestly most of the people going there are African American. I dunno man i just felt like slapping the crap out of that woman.

Originally posted by UM_Gazz

How can a school that focuses on Arabic 'culture' avoid the teachings of Islam?

Same way you can teach Jewish culture without teaching Judaism. Same way you can teach American culture without teaching christianity.

Arabic culture encompasses far more than Islam and has been around much longer than the Islamic religion. Arabic does not equal Islam.

[edit on 9-4-2007 by Valhall]

Originally posted by intrepid
Check out the Bio on the schools namesake(damn interesting read):

Gilbran Khalil

Turns out that even though he was an Arab he was a Christian, not a Muslim.

Yep he was a Lebanese-American. And if you haven't read Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, you're missing a great treasure.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love.
When you love you should not say, "God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the heart of God."
And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the pain of too much tenderness.
To be wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

- Kahlil Gibran

[edit on 9-4-2007 by Valhall]

If we can separate Arabic culture from Islam whilst teaching, why can't we separate islamophobia from all things Arabic?

Ultimately, that is the point here.

Originally posted by UM_Gazz
If we can separate Arabic culture from Islam whilst teaching, why can't we separate islamophobia from all things Arabic?

Ultimately, that is the point here.

Weeeelllllllll, you'ld have to take out the gov't use of the media to fuel it's terror attacks on the western people about Arabs. Not going to happen anytime soon unless you visit sites like this one.

The first step could be in exposing news like this, even if it requires a controversial twist to make a point.

Is Islam bad, or any worse than any other religion? the answer to that is simple, and should be obvious to anyone reading this.

The Arabic culture, is a culture, Islam is a religion.

What we teach our children today will have a major impact in the future of this world.

We can teach them tolerance through teaching them other cultures and languages and perhaps that should be a priority in the education of today's children.

From where we as a society go forward now depends a great deal on what influences our children. If they accept that Islam is bad, and Arabs are the enemy we may have a world of war and conflicts as a perpetual destiny, at least until there are none of us left. If humanity wishes to survive long into the future at some point all sides will have to lay down the weapons of war and learn to pursue an agenda of acceptance and understanding.

reply to post by intrepid


i gotta say, in london the so called Islamophobia has been used as a poor excuse for years, first a religious school then a mosk then another mosk, now most of london is islamic !!!, i now hate the place, europe now calls london londonistan !!!, believe me the reason many arabs want seperate schools is because the religous texts in the quran sais to seperate from the so called caffers= us !!. we unbelievers are apparently not worthy to mix with there children !!!!!. i would agree if they want to learn arabic then just add a new class to a normal school, and understand that Islamophobia can also bee seen as westernphobia by muslims !!!, however thats never said cause every one seems afraid to hurt there feelings. read the quran & it clearly explains that unbelievers are better dead, & to not mix with them.

It doesn't look like anyone read what I posted not long ago in the other news thread about this, so I'll repost it here:

post by djohnsto77

The principal of the school has already had to resign before it even opened because of her ties to a t-shirt that seems to advocate terrorism in New York City:

www.foxnews.com...

NEW YORK — A New York City principal who came under fire for controversial comments about an "intifada" T-shirt that seemed to condone terrorism has resigned.

On Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg accepted the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, an English-Arabic school set to open next month in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Almontaser had come under fire for comments she made to the New York Post about an "Intifada NYC" T-shirt that is sold by an activist group that shares an office with the Yemeni-American association that Almontaser represents.


Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

[edit on 9/5/2007 by djohnsto77]

This is the result of dangerous pernicious organizations like CAIR, which has stated that Islam is not here to be an equal in America, it has come here to dominate.

Many a time, under the cloak of cultural tolerance the forces of fundamentalism hide from where they try to take a stab at the american civilization and american values

Sounds like a damned good idea to me.
America is in sore need of better understanding of the Middle East. The ignorance towards the area, people, and culture is astounding.

They even should teach a bit about Islam. Not as faith, but as academic study.
When I was in school, we learned about the Salem Witch Trials. That didn't mean we went out and burned people at the stake.


I also took Russian in High school. Learning about Communism helped me to understand a lot about the cold war. We got perty deep into the culture too... even had Russian food brought in a couple times. Those people make some damned fine chow, by the way. Later, I ended up working with this real brute of a Russian immigrant. He seemed like a real SOB to most folks, but because I understood his cultural background, we got along fine.

Seriously folks, what's wrong with learning about a group of people that is undeniably important in the modern world? Hell, you can even make a good case for understanding their culture and Islam itself to better equip kids to be resistant to conversion.

I mean wouldn't knowing something about a people help you to deal with them both in friendly and confrontational senses?

The fact that anyone would be afraid of information really shocks the hell outta me. Well, no it doesn't. It's still sad tho.

[edit on 5-9-2007 by BitRaiser]

Originally posted by IAF101
This is the result of dangerous pernicious organizations like CAIR, which has stated that Islam is not here to be an equal in America, it has come here to dominate.

Many a time, under the cloak of cultural tolerance the forces of fundamentalism hide from where they try to take a stab at the american civilization and american values

That's a really interesting statement considering what it says in both your avatar and your sig graphics.

Ah... cooler me stupid, but isn't America supposed to be "the great melting pot"? Isn't Tolerance supposed to be an American Value?

Are you willing to dump those noble and admirable notions out of fear?

Yes, CAIR is scary and shouldn't be put up with, but honestly Evangelists scare me much more than any Islamic group I've encountered. They're allowed to run schools in the US.

Have you seen Jesus Camp?
You wanna talk about scary...

FYI, I believe that all schools should be closely monitored for signs of indoctrination towards any political or ideological system. Including Capitalism. Schools should be there to produce the critical, thinking minds of the future.

Too bad they are mostly there to produce simple minded conformists with little aspirations beyond being good little consumers.

reply to post by xmotex


History...........where Islam is........war and genocide follows. The Koran itself calls for spreading its filthy self by force and to kill JEWS and "non-believers" whereever found. Convert or DIE...........

This school WILL breed evil..............

Originally posted by BitRaiser
Sounds like a damned good idea to me.
America is in sore need of better understanding of the Middle East. The ignorance towards the area, people, and culture is astounding.

How does creating a separate, segregated school for these Arabic people contribute to mutual understanding and integration?

Originally posted by djohnsto77

How does creating a separate, segregated school for these Arabic people contribute to mutual understanding and integration?

It's not a separate, segregated school. Anyone who wants to attend it can apply to the school. It's not a school for Arabs...it's a school focusing on Arabic language and culture. It's basically a charter school, dj. Instead of being a charter school focused on math, or science, or literary endeavours, it's going to focus on Arabic language and culture.

[edit on 9-5-2007 by Valhall]