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March 29, 2007

MIM: According to NYC Board of Education spokesman David Castor the "Khalil Gibran International Academy" "will not be a vehicle for politics. His claim is both dangerous and disingenuous a more apt name for the school would be the Khalil Gibran Islamist Academy because all of the individuals involved are promoting an Islamist/Arab supremist/ leftwing agenda which runs the gamat from diversity to da'wa and will be the first taxpayer funded public madrassa in NYC.

For starters: KGIA Principal Dhabah aka Debbie Almontaser received a CAIR award together with Ghazi Khankan, who shouted "I bring you salaams and greetings from the Mujahideen at CAIR" at one of the group's rallies. Almontaser wears a hijab and has spent years doing da'wa in the public schools after 9/11 when incredibly the NYC Board of Education decided that the best way to deal with 9/11 was to present her with the title of "muliticultural instructor" and send her into public school classrooms to tell students about Islam and Arab culture. As everyone involved with the KGIA she hyped a non existent backlash and hysteria with the operative word being discrimination and fear on the part of Muslims to exploit 9/11 for da'wa purposes. Note that never once does anyone involved with the KGIA allude to the fear and shock which non Muslims felt after 9/11 and it is Muslims and Arabs who are depicted as the real victims which is also given as one of the raison d'etre for the KGIA which will open 7 years after the attacks.

MIM:One example of Almontaser's perifidiousness can be seen in her response to non Muslim public school children who asked why Muslims and Arabs perpetrated the attacks. In reponse Almontaser ,an experienced pedagoge/propagandist exploited the children's naivete and inability to comprehend nuance by telling them that was not really Arabs and Muslims who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks because she as the authority figure and expert has determined that they could not have been.

"I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims," ...Those people who did it have stolen my identity as an Arab and have stolen my religion."

Almontaser and some of her colleagues have plans under way to extend her technique and workshops to a wider pool of schools. She and some of her Jewish and Christian colleagues have created a group called Brooklyn Bridges and are devising a "Sept. 11 Curriculum" to be taught in schools across the city. "We're all ignorant until we learn," she says.

"I'm just grateful for the opportunity to educate."

MIM: In a VOA interview Altmontaser explained how she was able to do da'wa funded by Christians and US taxpayers in the public school in the guise of a "multicultural educator". Her position and access to young children is a study in legal Islamism at it's most insidious and is more proof of why she should not be in charge of an Arabic/Islamist public school.

Debbie Almontaser teaches a public school class of fifth graders about Arabs and Islam

"...After September 11th, ... I left my job as a classroom teacher, took a leave of absence, to do Islam sensitivity training; Arab culture training, as well as presentations at churches, synagogues, community based organizations…wherever there was a need...There was such animosity and fear, that it was important for me to help people understand who Arabs, Muslims and South Asians were...The Arab and Muslim and South Asian communities really feared having their kids go to school... they kept their kids home for weeks on end ...we were fortunate to get the Christian Children's Fund to pay me a part-time salary. I was able to work part-time and also do this work for free in our schools.."http://www.voanews.com/english/archive/2004-11/2004-11-24-voa51.cfm?CFID=56741565&CFTOKEN=53120549

MIM: Here is a description of Almontaser's BOE funded and facilitated jihad through da'wa [Islamic propagation activities) prior to her being given her position as KGIA which will enable her to have an entire school dedicated to turning out students who will promote an Islamist/Arab supremacist agenda and Koranic religious instruction under the guise of multiculturalism.

Twenty-six expectant faces stared at her and the board as they waited patiently for her to tell them why she was there. She smiled warmly to the class and introduced herself, "My name's Debbie Almontaser," she told them, "and I'm a multicultural educator."

Almontaser explained that they would be spending the next hour discussing Arabs and Islam and the importance of acceptance and tolerance among different communities....

After 9/11, Almontaser, whose name means to win or overcome, was overwhelmed with requests to help foster dialogue among different communities. Her occasional workshops transformed into her full time job. "After Sept. 11 there was an unending need to educate people," she said, "and because I had always had a passion for this type of work, I felt equipped to do it."

Just as Almontaser was considering leaving her teaching job to pursue her workshops more seriously, the district superintendent, Carmen Ferenia, approached her to begin a multicultural program designed specifically for school children.

"She was the obvious choice to do the work," Ferenia said of Almonatser.

Today the Board of Education and the Christian Childrens' Fund pay Almontaser to go from school to school teaching children about Arabs and Islam and the importance of tolerance and respect. This is the first time that the Christian Children's Fund has ever sponsored a project of this type in New York.

As part of the sixth-grade workshop, Almonataser asked each student to write questions and thoughts about Islam and Arabs. "It's important to give children a safety net to talk about their concerns," she explained. "They need to feel safe enough to say what they think and feel."

"...I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims," Those people who did it have stolen my identity as an Arab and have stolen my religion...".

The board of directors consists of individuals with direct ties to organisations promoting an anti American and anti Western agenda and make up of the KGIA enterprise reveals that all of the individuals and groups are interlocking and will in affect be running an insular institution with federal and state funding under the guise of a public school.

Assad Jebara who sits on the board of directors of the Arab American Family Services Center [AAFSC] and is also the president of the ADC and one of the groups largest donors. The AFSCF is the main coordinator of KGIA's activities and will be providing the Arabic teachers as well.

MIM: The ADC is heavily funded by Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal a Saudi billionaire who paid for the group's new HQ and has held telethons for the families of suicide bombers. In 2001 then Mayor Giliani rejected Talal's 10ml donation to a 9/11victims fund when he said that American foreign policy was to blame for the attacks. In addition to his board membership of the AAFSC and the ADC Assad Jebara is on the Board of Governors of the Arab American Institute headed by James Zogby.

The American Arab Family Services Center will provide the Arabic speakers for the school which will promote their openly Islamist agenda according to Dr.Daniel Pipes who is opposed to opening the school:

For the heavy ideological freight that Arabic instruction carries, see "Does Learning Arabic Prevent Moral Decay?" where one learns that some Muslims believe "Knowledge of Arabic can then help the Western countries recover from the present moral decay." (This is not as surprising as it sounds, for Muslims commonly assume that a non-Muslim who learns Arabic is en route to conversion to Islam; I experienced this many times during my Cairo years. http://www.danielpipes.org/

Also see: New York set to open Khalil Gibran 'Jihad' School - connected to Saudi funded ADC -principal won CAIR awardhttp://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/2755

For more on the ADC see: The ADC shows it's true colors:http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/118

The Khalil Gibran International Academy slated to open in September, as the first Arabic studies school is one very public example of an Islamisation which has been taking place in Brooklyn which has the highest Arab population in New York. Besides pushing an Islamist agenda the sense of entitlement and resentment which emanates from all the organizations and individuals connected to the school give rise to legimate fears that the KGIA will become a hotbed of Islamist activism and a breeding ground for angry Muslim and Arab youth who have no wish to engage with non Muslims because they believe they and their community are superior and priviledged. The KGIA raison d'etre is to propagate the notion that Arabs and Muslims have been and still are the victims of 9/11. There is no mention of who perpetrated the attacks, instead groups like the AAFSC obscenely exploit the events to promote the myth of victimhood.

MIM: The founder of the AAAFS Emira Habiby Browne who is a Christian Arab born in Israel (which she calls Palestine) is a textbook study in how non existent victimhood is being exploited in order to gain financial, social and political advantages for Arabs and Muslims. She told an interviewer that she had nightmares of being "rounded up and put into camps" yet she founded the American Arab Family Support Center to "serve the needs of the Arab American Community in New York City" with state and government help which contradicts her claim that she found "discrimination" in American organisations. Another point which debunks her "poor victimised Arab" status is the fact that she has been feted internationally by the State Department who paid for international junkets so that she could propagate stories about immigrants and multi culturalism in America.

When I heard, when I first heard it and I heard them say Pearl Harbor, immediately I had visions of being rounded up and being put into camps. I mean, every time anything happens I think all of us of Arab background feel this sense of incredible dread and fear of oh my gosh what is going to happen now?"

http://www.oercommons.org/libraries/i-had-visions-of-being-rounded-up-emira-habiby-browne-describes-the-impact-of-the-september-11-2001-attacks-on-arab-americans/

MIM:. According to the AAFS Muslims in Brooklyn and New York are living under a siege mentality and are being threatened and harassed on a daily basis and are marginalized by non Muslims because they are Middle Eastern yet a look at the board members onf the AAFS shows that all professionally trained with university backgrounds and the woman director Habiby Brown is earning 90, 000 dollars a year.

One of their board members is also part of the mayor's office so the group has direct access to city [8 officials and the group solicits funding [8 of 10 of their board members are engaged in fundraising, yet most of the AAFSC's programs get state and federal funding] .

The AAAFSC then extends this use of outside funding by providing legal and counseling services which enables Arab and Muslim immigrants to use taxpayer funded facilities for educational medical and other expenses while contesting their often illegal status at the same time.

MIM: AAFSC board member Ahmed Jebara is a wealthy CEO of the clothing company and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Arab and Muslim causes and was one of the American Arab Anti Discrimination Committees main donors. Last year he helped finance the new ADC office in New Jersey.

Assad Jebara, President & CEO, Zana Di Jeans/Alpha Garments, Inc. [1]

• Board of Governors, Arab American Institute
• Director, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee

Retrieved from "http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Assad_Jebara" http://www.arabamericannews.com/newsarticle.php?articleid=6940

Our efforts would not have succeeded without the gracious generosity of two ADC supporters. The financial contribution of ADC National Board Member Assad Jebara made it possible for ADC-NJ to initiate the process of locating an office space and hiring a staff member. We could not be more grateful to Mr. Jebara for his generosity. In addition, Mr. Mohamad Matari of Matari Realty was instrumental in securing the office space and for making ADC-NJ an offer it could not refuse. The Arab American community, and ADC-NJ in particular, owes its undying gratitude to these committed gentlemen. http://adcnj.us/ADc_Office.htm

http://www.aafscny.org/KGIA.htm

Our Lead Community Partner…

The Arab-American Family Support Center (AAFSC)

AAFSC is the first and largest Arabic-speaking social service agency in New York. AAFSC's goal is to help new immigrants and their families become acclimated to life in the US, enabling them to fully participate in US society.

AAFSC plays an important role in the school. Their On-Site Coordinator ensures that all students and their families have access to a wide range of services, Adult English language instruction (ESL) parenting classes, Arabic language instruction for the first year, counseling and access to healthcare.

Our Collaborating Partners:

Alwan for the Arts

The Brooklyn Museum

Lutheran Medical Center

Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility

MSI Net. Inc

Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious

Understanding

Teacher's College – Columbia University

And many more!

Enroll Now for Fall 2007!!

Contact: Debbie Almontaser, Principal

Phone: 718-650-9831

Website: www.kgiany.org

Email: [email protected]

"The Universe is my country and the human family my tribe" - Khalil Gibran

Khalil Gibran International Academy

A New Century High School

Building bridges of understanding one student at a time through community, connection and learning.

Inspired by the wisdom of Khalil Gibran whose teachings influenced Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr., KGIA's mission is to prepare students of diverse backgrounds for success in an increasingly global and interdependent society. Through our multicultural curriculum and intensive Arabic language instruction, students graduate with the skills they need to become independent thinkers and global citizens. Students graduate ready for college with a deep understanding of different cultural perspectives, a love of learning, and a desire for excellence.

What's Special About Our School?

KGIA is dedicated to creating a school culture based on high expectations with caring and trusting relationships that enable each student's talents and contributions to be nurtured, acknowledged and celebrated.

KGIA Highlights:

· 8:00 am – 5:00 pm school day

· Small class size

· Student-centered teaching

· Rigorous college preparatory program

· Diverse student and teacher body

· Interdisciplinary instruction

· Arabic as a second language

· Cultural Arts Programs (music, culinary arts, and dance instruction)

· Optional Saturday Academy

· Project Based Field Trips for real world learning

· Peer Mentoring and Tutoring

· Personalized student Advisory program

· Community Service

· Conflict Resolution Classes

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King, Jr

KGIA Core Curriculum 6 – 8 grades:

Courses for all grades:

*Science * ELA

*Math *Student Advisory

*Art *Technology

*Social Studies *Arabic Language

* Physical Education

Our Middle School Focus:

6^th grade - Transition from elementary school

7^th grade - Explore our diverse world

8^th grade - Explore international careers and prepare for high school

KGIA will expand through 12^th grade graduating its first class in 2014

8^th graders in the lower school will have first priority for the KGIA upper school.

Extra Curricular Activities Include:

• Peer Mediation Program
• School Ambassadors Program
• Student Government
• Robotics Team
• Dance
• Drama
• Music Band
• Sports Clubs

"Your neighbor is your other self dwelling behind a wall. In understanding all walls shall fall down" - Khalil Gibran.

------------------------

MIM: The partnering groups listed on the AAFSC website as partners for the KGIA all have political agendas:

Alwan for the Arts

A political anti Israel group promoting an Islamist and anti Western agenda. A recent speaker was Mustafa Bargouti a cousin of the terrorst Marwan Bargouti jailed for several life sentences for the murder of Israelis.

According to their website:

Alwan for the Arts serves the Arab community and educates the broader public by showcasing a range cultural events; thereby enriching the cross-cultural and artistic encounter.

Since 1998, Alwan for the Arts has played a leading role in promoting the diverse cultures of the Arab countries in New York City. It organized film festivals and screenings, book/poetry readings and signings, lectures and conferences, art exhibits, musical and theatrical performances, and language and literature classes. In 2003, Alwan established a center in lower Manhattan which provides a physical base for its diverse cultural activities. http://www.alwanforthearts.org/about.html

MIM: Note that Arab and Muslim groups portray themselves as the real victims of 9/11 and have exploited the attacks to demand more services and funding for their organisations on the grounds that Americans have to better understand and accomodate Arab and Islam interests while hyping a non existent backlash and discrimination.

In a piece titled "Arab Culture near the WTC" Alwan board member Anny Bakalan revealed that for many Muslims and Arabs 9/11 was the best thing that ever happened to America.

There was a silver lining to Sept. 11th," Bakalian said. "In as much as there has been stereotyping and persecution and negative pressure on the Arab and Middle Eastern community, there has also been a generosity of spirit and an openness on the part of Americans to understand fellow Americans."

Her words echoed that of the director of Alwan Ahmed Issawi who stated:

" … it was just a "happy coincidence" that Alwan was located in Lower Manhattan, the place most associated with the result of Arab anger and violence. http://www.alwanforthearts.org/05_06/downtowne_rev.html

MIM: Alwan for the Arts also hosted a virulently anti semitic organisation called Al Awda in support of cop killer Jamal Abu Mumia and fundraised for Addameer a group which has been linked to Hamas.

http://www.newjerseysolidarity.org/alawda/sept2005/nycdppoliprisoners.shtml

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