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(from left to right: Junaid M. Afeef, Council's Executive Director, the Honorable Mayor Richard Daley, Zaher Sahloul, Council Chair and Mosque Foundation President, and Tariq Malhance, Council Board Member and Muslim Community Center President) |
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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3995
June 24, 2009
Chicago Islamists Push Statewide Arabic Programs In Public Schools
By BEILA RABINOWITZ
June 24, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago [CIOGC] is reporting on their website that they met on June 15th with Ron Huberman the new CEO of Chicago public schools. This follows a meeting organized on June 9th by Barbar Abrajano executive director of the Chicago Center for Cultural Connections which included Junaid Afeef, executive director of the CIOGC.
The purpose of the meeting was to lobby for the inclusion of Arabic language programs in all of Illinois public schools, whereas currently only a few test schools in Chicago are trying out the concept [see for example, Terror Linked Bridgeview Mosque Behind Push For Arabic Language Instruction In Illinois' Public Schools].
One of the subjects discussed at the June 15th meeting was a, "comprehensive - resource guide on Muslims and Islam to help CPS teachers who teach American - Muslim students better understand the beliefs and culture of their students." [source, http://www.ciogc.org/Go.aspx?link=7654881]
Among those meeting with Huberman was Dr. Zaher Sahloul, the president of the terror linked Bridgeview Mosque Foundation. Sahloul is also the chairman of the CIOGC. Okab Hassan, the principal of the Peck Elementary School organized the meeting. Hassan has been instrumental in pushing for the Islamization of the Illinois public school system. He chairs the Public School committee for the CIOGC and is in charge of "outreach and communication with public schools". http://www.ciogc.org/Go.aspx?link=7654631
To that end, his school partners with a school in Amman, Jordan. In 2006 he was accompanied by Mayor Daley on a visit to officially ""twin" both schools. In a video interview Hassan said exchanges of teachers,administrators and students were planned. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5640531640956019977
Hassan stated that the partnership was supposed, "To expand the education of my children, to reach out beyond borders." [source, http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Mayor.Daley.Jordan.2.327772.html]
Unfortunately given the rabidly anti-West, anti-Semitic content of Middle East education, especially as manifested in its textbooks, this reaching out process will most likely reap similarly skewed results. http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=chicagoid=6.24.09%2Ehtm
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MIM: In a video interview Okab Hassan stated that Jordanian students, adminstrators and teachers will be brought to the United States and American students teachers and administrators will go to Jordan as part of the "twin" schools exchange program.
(22:12 into the tape).http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5640531640956019977
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MIM: On the CIOCG website Hasan is listed as being the chair of the committee for outreach and communication with public schools.
Public Schools
Chair: Okab Hasan
Outreach and communication with public schools
http://www.ciogc.org/Go.aspx?link=7654631
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http://www.ciogc.org/Go.aspx?link=7654881
Council leaders and organizers meet with Ron Huberman, CEO of Chicago Public Schools
Last Modified: Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:35:59 GMT v1.001 The American-Muslim community has great full-time Islamic schools in various parts of Northern Illinois. Nearly all of these great institutions are valued members of the Council. The vast majority of th American-Muslim students in Northern Illinois, however, attend public schools, and one of the largest concentrations of American-Muslim students are found in the Chicago Public School system.Over the years Council leaders and organizers have worked consistently sought to work with leaders in the Chicago Public Schools system. Okab Hasan, a longstanding community leader and a principal at a CPS school, has been instrumental in building and sustaining these relationships.
Recently several leaders and organizers connected with CPS' new CEO Ron Huberman. Building on the work done with Arnie Duncan, these two recent meetings with Ron Huberman were very helpful in advancing training and programming to help American-Muslim students in CPS. Junaid Afeef, executive director of the Council, met with Ron Huberman on June 9th as part of a delegation of religious community leaders. This meeting was organized and led by Barbara Abrajano, executive director of the Chicago Center for Cultural Connections.
On June 16th Amal Ali, Youth Outreach Coordinator, Ausaf Farooqi, Development Manager and Dr. Zaher Sahloul, Council Chairman met with Ron Huberman and several of his staff during a community meeting organized at a local Hyde Park restaurant. The meeting was organized by Mr. Okab Hasan. During this meeting the Council presented several projects that have been successfully implemented in the past within CPS. Among the projects discussed was a comprehensive resource guide on Muslims and Islam to help CPS teachers who teach American-Muslim students better understand the beliefs and culture of their students.
Both meeting were very positive. Ron Huberman expressed a firm commitment during both meetings to work with the American-Muslim community. At the same time, CPS is looking to gain the help and support of local religious communities including the Muslims to use mosques, churches and synagogues to help tutor and mentor CPS students.
The Council is working diligently to follow up on these projects and on exploring the nature and extent of the partnership between religious institutions and CPS for tutoring and mentoring.
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http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Mayor.Daley.Jordan.2.327772.html
May 2 2006
Chicago Students Partner With Jordanian Schoolby Jay Levine
AMMAN, Jordan (CBS)
Click to enlarge 1 of 2
Click to enlarge 2 of 2
Mayor Daley went back to the classroom Tuesday on his Middle East trip.
A Chicago school will now have a partnership with a school in Amman, Jordan.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine is traveling with the mayor and reports on how the arrangement will benefit students in both cities.
The warmth of the Jordanian people has impressed everyone in the Chicago delegation, especially the mayor.
Chants of "Long live Mayor Daley" welcomed th e mayor Tuesday morning to a school entering into a partnership with one on Chicago's Southwest Side.
"To expand the education of my children, to reach out beyond borders," said Chicago principal Okab Hassan.
As Okab Hassan toured the Jordanian school with Mayor Daley and chatted with students there Tuesday morning, his own students and teachers were looking forward to the new relationship back in Chicago at Peck Elementary School.
"I think it's fantastic," said Kathie Meyers, an 8th grade teacher at Peck.
"We'll be able to learn their culture, their clothing and also what they learn over there," said eighth grade student Maria Lopez.
As their principals signed the agreement linking the two schools, Mayor Daley emphasized that we had a lot to learn from this school and Jordan's system.
"Just think, we're coming here and America realizes that Jordan has a higher literacy rate than America," Daley said. "You can build all the schools you want, and no one values education. It's not only in the schools, it's in the community at large, it's in the family. And that's what they have here."
But Jordan's education minister emphasized that programs like this one have implications far beyond education.
"[It] can help build bridges of understanding and cooperation and probably help eliminate a lot of stereotyping and misconceptions," said Jordan Education Minister Dr. Khaled Toukan.
And it can help the violence those misconceptions can lead to.
"I'd like all of us to remember the 60 people who lost their lives at this hotel and two others last December," Daley said. "I think it's appropriate that we have a moment of silence for them and their families."
Mayor Daley's address to the American Chamber of Commerce took place at Amman's Grand Hyatt, which has soldiers outside, like all western hotels here. There are concrete barricades to keep car bombs away and metal detectors to keep suicide bombers out.
But there is a determination to get back to business. The luncheon for the mayors was a virtual vote of confidence.
"One criminal act does not deny the rights of all," Daley said.
"These things happen, but they will not disrupt the way of life," Amman's mayor said.
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MIM: An example of the jihadist incitement found in Jordanian school textbooks.
Elaboration
1. In the eight years that have elapsed since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian educational system has been using Jordanian and Egyptian textbooks. It is only in the past academic year that the Palestinian Ministry of Education has added textbooks to the curriculum that were specially written for the 1st and 6th grades and this year, according to reports, for the 2nd and 7th grades as well.
2. The Jordanian textbooks, intended for all students in high schools and most of the classes in the elementary schools, abound in expressions of incitement and hatred that were reintroduced when the educational system was transferred from Israeli to Palestinian responsibility. These books are indicative of the "war to the death" mentality against Israel and Zionism and everything that they represent.
3. Following are some examples of incitement, hatred towards Israel and antisemitism, according to subject:
The Iz a-Din al-Kassam receives much praise in descriptions of Palestinian bravery, and the battle of Karama is described as resulting from the Zionist lust for expansion. Stone-throwers are also glorified in these books.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/patext1.html
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MIM: Palestinian Media Watch concluded that the Jordanian textbooks were a contributing factor to war.
However, Israel reprinted the books without the hate education. In fact, Jordan registered a complaint to the UN charging that Israel's changing the schoolbooks was a violation of international law, but the UN checked what Israel had done and approved it. The PA has put back into the old Jordanian education all the hate education that Israel had removed.
Moreover, as early as three years ago foreign governments offered money to the PA to reprint these old books without the hateful material. The PA turned down the money and refused to reprint them using a variety of arguments, the first of which was: "Don't get involved in our education - it is our Palestinian heritage." These hateful Jordanian books are republished today unedited by the PA by choice and the PA must stop passing responsibility onto others for the hate content.
Finally it should be stressed that all the books cited here were written during the most optimistic periods of the peace process, before the violence began in September 2000. They are not a reflection of the war, but were a great contributing factor to the war. The ongoing attempts to defend PA schoolbooks are tragic, as the PA is using these arguments to justify their indefensible hate education, and to refuse to improve their books. The PA is planting the seeds of the next war in their youth, and the defenders of PA hate education, including Israelis, are nurturing those seeds of war. http://www.pmw.org.il/schoolbooks.html
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MIM: Middle East Facts reveals the hatemongering in Jordanian and Egyptian school textbooks.
Egyptian and Jordanian school textbooks, despite the Peace Accords, continue to contest the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Israel does not appear on any of their maps. Furthermore, several textbooks still contain anti-Semitic remarks and negative stereotypes. The sixty or so textbooks produced by the Palestinian National Authority in the last two years, with the support of the international community, contain the following features:
2. Jews are not included in chapters on tolerance. There is no recognition of Jewish holy places in Palestine, but allegations of "judaization" of Moslem holy places.
3. There is no legitimacy to the State of Israel. It is presented as a usurper and an occupier since its establishment in 1948.
4. Israel is presented as the only source of all the ills affecting the Palestinians (identity and national culture, refugees, economy, tourism, ecology, women's rights).
5. The Oslo Accords are mentioned only to emphasize the entry into Palestine of the PLO armed forces. Their content with regard to mutual recognition and renouncing of violence to settle the conflict is passed over in silence.
6. Jihad and Martyrdom are glorified in the context of the liberation all of Palestine. http://www.mefacts.com/outgoing.asp?x_id=11160
This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3995
