This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3260
November 21, 2007
Almontaser Mounts First Amendment Case Against NY School District
November 21, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a wide reaching and at times rambling presentation - Debbie Almontaser v New York Department of Public Education, et al. attorneys for the ex-principal of Brooklyn's controversial Khalil Gibran International Academy, Dhabah Almontaser, allege that their client was unlawfully fired by the New York Department of Education because she exercised "speech protected by the First Amendment."
Additional allegations include that Ms. Almontaser was denied due process of law, suffered breach of contract and was subjected to emotional distress due to damage done to her reputation.
The filing presents a sanitized version of Almontaser's long history as a practitioner of da'wa, characterizing her as ceaselessly working to promote understanding and religious diversity.
This case will obviously be followed with great interest by supporters of KGIA as well as its critics. What is clear at this early juncture is that Almontaser's attorney's strategy in filing this case in federal court indicates that they feel that their clients best case is represented in a constitutional challenge to her firing, given the expansive definition and broad application that federal courts have given to the First and Fourteenth Amendments. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=almontaser11.21.07.htm
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3260