This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3084
August 7, 2007
Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran Madrassah Will Function As Jihad Recruitment Center
By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz
August 7, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - It is now clear why the New York Department of Education has been dodging requests by concerned citizens who have been trying to determine what type of institution the proposed Khalil Gibran International Academy will be.
Charges leveled against KGIA by these writers - that it will in essence function as a madrassah, a center for indoctrination not education - are proven by the school's own executive summary [Access KGIA Executive Summary Here], a document recently released under threat of a lawsuit by the Stop The Madrassah Coalition.
The summary is actually a manual for creating an Islamist vocational school, one in which every activity is planned around creating social activists with an Arab supremacist mindset, in the mold of KGIA's activist/principal Dhabah Almontaser.
Despite the New York Dept. of Education Chancellor's assertions to the contrary, KGIA will even bow to shari'a in its cafeteria, where halal food will be served. This is a clear incursion of Islamic religious principles into the public sector, a reason recently cited by Mr. Klein as justification for shutting the institution down.
With a pedagogy wrapped around social activism, the student will be strongly urged to get involved with the surrounding Arab community, within which a radical Islamist sentiment figures prominently.
The executive summary is open about how KGIA will function as a prep school for social activists, outlining a mythical day at the institution where the, "goal is to share with the rest of the freshman class their own collaborative experiences and reflect upon the lessons they've learned from them utilizing the following quote."
"Genuine collaboration is a coming together of people to create something that would have been impossible to make alone. A dialogue, a communication, a connection that transforms the participants can occur. Deep collaboration compels us to see ourselves through others. Truly collaborative works are commitments in time and space, cause and effect at once, even a form of love." - Tom Rollins - social activist [source page 16-17 executive summary]
Actually the quote is from Tim not Tom Rollins [to whom Almontaser mistakenly made the attribution] he is indeed a social activist, he is also a public school teacher who operates a group call KOS [chaos] which preaches a radical, art based anti-American message.
"Tim Rollins wrote a few years ago that he used the profession of schoolteacher as a cover..." [source http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/Collab/KOS/Rollins.htm#background]
In that role Rollins' approach perfectly coincides with that of KGIA, which is also cover, a front operation.
One of Rollins murals is called "Amerika - for the people of Bathgate," a nightmarish Guernica-like work of art that draws its primary inspiration from Kafka's novel "Amerika" in which the United States is portrayed as a land of broken dreams and empty promises. Spelling America with a "k" is a predilection of modern extreme leftists who believe that employing the German spelling of the word equates the U.S. with Nazi Germany.
According to the executive summary this brand of social activism will not only be encouraged it will be a requirement starting with the sixth grade - "A minimum of 40 hours a year" - must devoted to such activities as "Town Meeting Coordination."
Town meetings being typical settings for Brooklyn's Islamists to allege that America is bigoted and that Muslim civil rights are routinely and intentionally abridged.
As detailed on page 21 of the KGIA blueprint, another area of agenda based education, social responsibility, will be taught by the notorious Educators for Social Responsibility, a group with clear Marxist leanings.
In a column by Sol Stern a City Journal commentator on educational issues, he noted about one of the prime movers in the Educators for Social Responsibility movement, Seth Gutstein, "on the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, he [Gutstein] was able to convince his seventh-grade math class that the U.S. was wrong to go to war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. "I told students that none of the hijackers were thought to be Afghan," Gutstein writes. He also told them that he would not "fight against Iraq or Afghanistan...because I did not believe in going to war for oil, power, and control." [source http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon2007-03-19ss.html]
The "Human Rights" section will be co-taught by an "Arab-American lawyer," unnamed but consider that the American Muslim Association of Lawyers [AMAL] will offering internships to KGIA students.
AMAL is the acronym for the American Muslim Association of Lawyers.
Omar Mohammedi owns the AMAL domain - www.theamal.org - indicating an extremely close relationship between Mohammedi and AMAL [Otmlaw.com is Mohammedi's website].
Domain Name:THEAMAL.ORG
Created On:02-Jan-2006 05:45:00 UTC
Last Updated On:25-Dec-2006 20:31:41 UTC
Expiration Date:02-Jan-2008 05:45:00 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:GoDaddy.com, Inc. (R91-LROR)
Status:CLIENT DELETE PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Status:CLIENT UPDATE PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:GODA-016305810
Registrant Name:Omar Mohammedi
Registrant Organization:Association of Muslim-American Lawyers
Registrant Street1:200 Madison Avenue
Registrant Street2:Suite 1901
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:New York
Registrant State/Province:New York
Registrant Postal Code:10016
Registrant Country:US
Registrant Phone:+1.2127253846
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:[email protected]
More importantly Omar Mohammedi is the president of the New York chapter of CAIR [source http://www.cair-net.org/default.asp?Page=articleView&id=2304&theType=NR].
CAIR is the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Saudi funded, Hamas front group which was recently named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation Hamas funding prosecution. Ghassan Elashi, the primary defendant in this case founded the Texas chapter of CAIR and was previously convicted and sentenced in the Infocom terror fundraising case.
Other former CAIR members have been convicted of terror related offenses and one, still very active in the organization, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing plot.
Bassem Khafagi - former director of Community Relation for CAIR, plead guilty to bank and visa and has been deported to Egypt. According to Fox News, "The FBI said Khafagi is a founding member of the Islamic Assembly of North America, a charity that purports to promote Islam...Federal investigators said Islamic Assembly has funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and has published material advocating suicide attacks on the United States.Randall Todd "Ismail" Royer - a former communications & civil rights specialist for CAIR, according to AP "Royer...admitted helping members of the conspiracy join the militant Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Taiba in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks. He pleaded guilty to the use of a firearm in a crime of violence and aiding and abetting the carrying of an explosive during commission of a felony. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison."
Siraj Wahhaj - CAIR advisory board member named as an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman 1993 World Trade Center bomb plots by US Prosecutor Mary Jo White. Rahman is serving a life sentence.
Through Mohammedi, a group with ties to the terrorist group Hamas will be having direct access to KGIA's students, grooming them to be future CAIR legal activists.
AMAL is affiliated with the National Association of Muslim Lawyers group - http://www.namlnet.org. Farhana Khera, a Pakistani is the group's president.
Khera is also the executive director of Muslim Advocates - http://www.muslimadvocates.org -which is an offshoot of NAML.
"I think many Muslim Americans realize that the founding values of our country - freedom, justice and equality - these values were now being threatened and that…we cannot allow this time of fear to shred America's promise of freedom and justice." - http://www.muslimadvocates.org/news_more.php?id=34_0_3_0_M
Khera and her group Muslim Advocates were parties in a Fourth Circuit Court appeal, in the case of Ali Salih Al-Marri, an al-Qaeda sleeper agent. [Al-Marri Amicus] It is the extremist position of Muslim Advocates and the National Association of Muslim Lawyers that foreign al-Qaeda operatives operating in our midst deserve the same constitutional rights as American citizens.
In remarks made by President Bush on May 23, 2007 he stated:
"In December 2001 We Captured An Al Qaeda Operative Named Ali Salih Al-Mari Who Was Planning Attacks In The U.S. Our intelligence community believes Ali Salih al-Mari had training in poisons at an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan and had been sent by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad ("KSM") to the United States before 9/11 to serve as a sleeper agent ready for follow-on attacks. Our intelligence community believes KSM brought Ali Salih to meet Osama bin Laden, to whom he pledged loyalty. Our intelligence community also believes he and KSM discussed potential attacks on water reservoirs, the New York Stock Exchange, and U.S. military academies." [source http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070523.html]
AMAL, NAML and Mr. Mohammedi share an Islamist ideology and have united with others in a strategy of legal intimidation to deny the United States the tools which are necessary to preserve national security against the terrorist threat.
The participation of such organizations and individuals in the day-to-day operation of KGIA provides irrefutable evidence about how the school will function - a publicly funded madrassah that will instill in students a psychology of victimhood and resentment - which will then be channeled through a pedagogy designed to shuttle them into the ranks of an already seething community of Islamist social activists.
Further indication of the nature of those supporting the KGIA is represented by another incident involving principal Dhabah Almontaser, proving her extremism.
Almontaser sits on the board of the Yemeni American Association [YAA] her husband Naji is the group's vice president. An organization associated with the YAA, the Arab Women Active in Arts and Media [AWAAM] were, at a recent Arab street fair, selling t-shirts with "Intifada NYC" and "Future Palestinian Activist" emblazoned on them.
The Intifada is the Arabic term for "uprising" used to describe the Palestinian terror campaign waged by Hamas and other groups against Israeli civilians. Of this obvious incitement Almontaser took to the same dissembling that she has previously relied upon when declaring that she had no idea what shari'a, Islamic law, even meant.
When confronted by the New York Post Almontaser stated that "The word [intifada] basically means 'shaking off'...I think it's [the Intifada t-shirts] pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society...and shaking off oppression." [source, New York Post, City Principal is "Revolting, Tied to Intifada NYC Shirts, by Bennett and Jana Winter, August 6, 2007]
KGIA's executive summary makes it clear that the school's children will be trained to think of themselves as Arabs first, who must struggle to free themselves from an "oppressive" American society. The focus of the school is outer directed, its students are "students of the world," which is why world history is taught a full year before American history and their is no mention of assimilation.
Conflicts of interest infuse KGIA's relationship with its lead partner the Arab American Family Support Center [AAFSC]. John Abi Habib, a KGIA board member, is the owner of MSI Net, Inc., a technology consulting firm that sells educational programs to New York schools, will provide website development courses as well as technical support. Mr. Habib is intimately involved with the school on numerous levels also serving on its site selection committee.
This suggests KGIA will function much as AAFSC does using tax payer money to push its agenda, peddling favors, business opportunities and hence influence.
"AAFSC, will have a constant presence on site. They will provide a site coordinator as well as staff members who will serve as student advisors and Arabic language teachers. Moreover, they will provide various social services such as counseling, ESL for parents, and youth empowerment workshops as well as help facilitate the school's Student Council. The site coordinator and AFFSC instructors will work closely with the administration and staff in developing the extended day Arabic language and cultural arts programs." [source executive summary, pg 3]
AAFSC's participation in the KGIA is overwhelming [the presence of adult outsiders, brought into the building as part of the provision of AAFSC's services looms as a serious additional security concern] even to the extent of using the building within which the school will be housed to extend its own service provision, an unprecedented use of a public school building.
AAFSC, which has no ability to credential teachers, will nonetheless be supplying unvetted Arab language instructors, "Until we are able to retain certified teachers, our lead partner, AAFSC, will provide Arabic language teachers as part of an extended day program. We anticipate being able to fully implement our dual language program by the third year."
The prospect of having AAFSC provide "Arabic language instructors" with hidden agendas looms large in such a scheme.
Foreign exchange programs will be encouraged at KGIA, provided by AAFSC affiliate, the American Middle East Leadership Center, whose president is Rami Nuseir [http://www.amln.org/board_r_nuseir.htm].
Nuseir is AAFSC's lead counsel. His two top lieutenants at the Leadership Center are both Palestinian activists, so one can only imagine what manner of international exchange programs will be made available KGIA's students.
Nuseir's statements spin a familiar Islamist theme, that the American government is warlike and anti-human rights, "...our mission is to show that Americans as people, not as a government, are pro-peace and supportive of human rights and good relationships with the Middle East," [source http://www.amln.org/press_article1.htm]
Nuseir's work with AAFSC was commended by CAIR, especially his recognition of "youth" as representing a tremendous opportunity for Islamist activism.
"The AAFSC still has many things that they would like to see the Arab American community achieve. The highest priority according to Nuseir is seeing a stronger institutional infrastructure within the community…The youth is the greatest hope for the community that Nuseir can see. The youth has more energy, are technologically savvier, more flexible, and most importantly, have "less baggage….The only way to avoid this is by having a link between all organizations, a way to stay connected without interfering or infringing. The biggest hurdle is the community putting their individual differences aside and looking at the big picture. In the meanwhile, the AAFSC is working hard at achieving that goal and serving their community" - http://www.cair-ny.com/HomePage/Article/Params/articles/1302/pathlist/s969_o1182/default.aspx
In order to dispel the reasonable assumption that deference to Islamic culture and indeed shari'a will imbue KGIA, school officials state that 62% of Arabs are Christian yet in any reasonable analysis, nearly every party and organization involved with KGIA does not just represent Arab Muslims but hard core Islamists with a definite agenda.
The picture that the backers of KGIA present is a hoax which extends even to the shameless use of a Christian, Khalil Gibran as the institution's poster child, when Gibran has nothing to do with the school at all except as window dressing and PR.
KGIA's game plan as set forth in the executive summary, clearly demonstrates that every activity at the institution will be planned around indoctrination not education.
The school will provide a suffocating mixture of slanted pedagogical methods specifically created to influence vulnerable children in a setting where propagandists will masquerade as respected role models.
This methodology will allow Dhabah Almontaser and her associates to use the Khalil Gibran International Academy as a laboratory, turning out Islamist clones.
This is a dangerous and fraudulent approach to learning, one that is diametrically opposed to the precepts of American public education.
The executive summary proves that this school will become exactly what these writers have been alleging - a publicly funded indoctrination center, run by and for a group of individuals and organizations who are terror friendly. Even the school's internships, cultural exchanges and other out of-classroom educational experiences will be channeled through extremist organizations, whose primary loyalty is to shari'a.
It's hard to imagine a more insidiously constructed educative model and it's difficult to understand why KGIA has not already been shut down.
With this school scheduled to open in a few weeks, the time is long past due - Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein must act to stop KGIA immediately. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=kgiaexec8607.htm
MIM: Concerned citizens should write to Joel Klein and urge him to "Stop the Madrassah" at:
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3084