This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3990
June 18, 2009
Terror Linked Bridgeview Mosque Behind Push For Arabic Language Instruction In Illinois Public Schools
By WILLIAM MAYER and BEILA RABINOWITZ
June 18, 2009 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Illinois' public schools are being targeted by a coalition of Chicago and out-of-state Islamists who have worked a back room deal to introduce Arabic language programs. [see Illinois Senate Resolution 0290] The stealth campaign whereby this initiative was launched was referred to in an April 2009 message on the website of one of the most radical and well attended mosques in the United States, the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation.
Addressing the issue its president, Dr. Zaher Sahloul writes:
"In the last local election on April 7th, 2009, three candidates running for the School Board of District 230, Laura Murphy, Carol Baker and Michael Hastings won their seats. In a recent Candidate Forum organized by the Mosque Foundation, these and other candidates in neighboring school districts pledged to support the introduction of Arabic language to the curriculum in their public schools. This is a landmark moment in the Mosque Foundation initiative to introduce Arabic Language to our Public Schools."
If this idea gains widespread support it would indeed be a "landmark," though not in any positive sense of the word. [Note: the program is already being offered on a limited basis, as SR Res 0290 states, "A few public schools in this State have already begun to offer Arabic as a foreign language, such as Lindblom Math & Science Academy, Lincoln Park High School, Roosevelt High School, Volta Elementary School, Durkin Park Elementary School, and Peck Elementary School."]
The teaching of the Arabic language comes complete with a far-reaching set of unique difficulties, as Middle East historian Dr. Daniel Pipes has observed.
'Arabized students show decidedly greater support for the Islamist movement and greater mistrust of the West. Arabized students tend to repeat the same simplistic stories and rumors that abound in the Arabic-language press, particularly Al-Munqidh, the newspaper of the Islamic Salvation Front. They tell about sightings of the word "Allah" written in the afternoon sky, the infiltration into Algeria of Israeli women spies infected with AIDS, the "disproving" of Christianity on a local religious program, and the mass conversion to Islam by millions of Americans. I was not the only one to notice this distinction. When asked if the new, Arabized students differed from the other students, many students and faculty answered an emphatic yes.'
Coffman also find a similar trend in other Arabic-speaking countries:
'...because Arabs draw so close a connection between classical Arabic and the faith of Islam, Arabization invariably leads to an identification with the (supranational) Islamic religious tradition. Even the most secular Arab nationalists (such as the Ba'thist variants in Syria and Iraq) must appeal to Islamic symbolism to bolster sagging legitimacy and to mobilize the masses (as Saddam Husayn did in his wars against Iran and the U.S.-led coalition). Hence, Arab nationalism has, however inadvertently, contributed to the rise of Islamism. Indeed, today's Islamist surge is the natural, perhaps inevitable consequence of the Arab nationalist policies of thirty years ago.'""Evidence from Algeria also points to the impact of Arabic instruction, as documented in James Coffman's breakthrough 1995 article "Does the Arabic Language Encourage Radical Islam?" He compared Algerian students taught in French versus those taught in Arabic and found that
[source, http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2007/03/the-arabist-and-islamist-baggage-of-arabic.html]
Aside from the question as to the advisability of introducing Arabic language instruction, there is the issue of the nature of the mosque which is pushing this program.
As these author's noted in a series of articles published in 2004 [see for example, http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=ctu%2Ehtm Interfaith Outreach & "Excessive Placidity" Towards Islam] Chicago's Bridgeview Mosque aka the Bridgeview Mosque Foundation has history of functioning as a locus for radical Islamist activity, at times resembling "jihad central."
Below an extended excerpt from the piece:
"The Bridgeview Mosque has a history of terrorist ties going back to the 1990's, and has been under federal watch for many years. The Mosque's [then] spokesman was Rafiq Jaber, he is the head of the Islamic Association in Palestine, the U.S. wing of Hamas.
Some of its members have been arrested on terror related charges.
'In 1993 a Palestinian-American who was a member of the mosque was convicted in Israel of distributing money and weapons to operatives of Hamas, the terrorist Palestinian group. He was given a five-year sentence.' - New York Times, September 21, 2001
That Palestinian American is Mohammed Abdul Hamid Khalil Salah, head of the Quranic Literacy Institute.
Jamal's Mosque has also been linked to the following groups.
Islamic Association for Palestine - 'The FBI memo said that the Islamic Assn. for Palestine, like Holy Land, had received "large sums of money" from Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook' LA Times Editorial December 6, 2001. The American Middle Eastern League for Palestine - 'These facts strongly suggest that the IAP and the American Middle Eastern League for Palestine [a sister group] are part of Hamas' propaganda apparatus.' - Statement by the Department of Immigration & Naturalization The North American Islamic Trust [the mosque's owner] - Owns approximately 25% of US Mosques, is funded by Wahabi/Salafi radical Muslims in Saudi Arabia. Siraj Wahhaj was a character witness for the "Blind Shayk" Omar Abdel Rahman, who was convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, Wahhaj was also listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in a 1995 plot to blow up New York landmarks. Wahaj is a former board member of NAIT. NAIT also owns the Islamic Academy of Florida - "a criminal enterprise" as described in the federal indictment handed down in February against the school's founder - Sami al-Arian and others alleged to be Hamas fundraisers. The Holy Land Foundation - Shut down by FBI as a known Hamas front group [successfully prosecuted by the federal government in the United States' largest terror funding case. All of the defendants were convicted on all charges]. Steven Emerson - a pioneer in the field of investigating radical Islamic activity - described a visit to the Mosque in his book American Jihad - '...the Imam of the Mosque was Jamal Said...the walls of the vestibule were covered with Hamas posters...you could see daggers plunged into Jewish hearts wrapped in the American flag.'
Jamal Said was the Bridgeview Mosque Imam in 2001. After 9/11 the Bridgeview Mosque held a press conference, Jaber, Said, and Jamal, were in attendance. Oussama Jammal was quoted as saying "How certain are we that Arabs were behind it?"
Unbelievably it is this terror linked institution which is behind the push to get Arabic language instruction into the Illinois public school system.
In an April 2009 message on the mosque's website, President Dr. Zaher Sahloul wrote:
"In the last local election on April 7th, 2009, three candidates running for the School Board of District 230, Laura Murphy, Carol Baker and Michael Hastings won their seats. In a recent Candidate Forum organized by the Mosque Foundation, these and other candidates in neighboring school districts pledged to support the introduction of Arabic language to the curriculum in their public schools. This is a landmark moment in the Mosque Foundation initiative to introduce Arabic Language to our Public Schools."
[source, http://www.mosquefoundation.org/articles/articletype/articleview/articleid/303.aspx ]
In order to provide additional support for this idea, on May 21st the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago organized a lobbying effort in the Illinois state legislature which was comprised of "More than 500 Muslim leaders, activists and students are expected to flock to Springfield to meet and lobby their State representatives for several initiatives including the introduction of Arabic language in Public schools.." [source, ibid]
The language initiative was presented to the Illinois State Legislature in the form of a resolution authored by Senator Jacqueline Collins [D] and co-sponsored by Representative Paul Froehlich [D].
Legislation offered at the behest of special constituencies is nothing new in politics, however this proposal is worlds apart from the norm in that it represents a back-door effort by Muslim radicals to institute a program that will have a substantial and negative effect because Arabic language instruction tends to serve as a pathway to Islam something that should be deeply troubling in any secular society.
In an article entitled, The Arabist and Islamist Baggage of Arabic Language Instruction, the above referenced Daniel Pipes engages the issue again:
For the heavy Islamic 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."
[source, http://www.danielpipes.org/blog/2007/03/the-arabist-and-islamist-baggage-of-arabic.html]
Of note, the same Muslim organizations which are supporting this effort to introduce Arabic culture into the public schools acknowledge Dr. Pipes' main point, that is serves as a gateway to Islam.
Writing on its website, the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago recently posted a piece, The Importance Of Arabic, which reads in part, "For Muslims, Arabic holds a special place in their hearts as it is the language of the Quran. The Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, spoke Arabic and many major Hadith collections and Islamic literature were originally written in Arabic. American Muslims may not all understand Arabic, but they value it. They believe that it will be a great benefit if their children get an opportunity to become conversant in Arabic through the public school system." [source, http://www.ciogc.org/Go.aspx?linkv54857 ]
This proposal, which Rep. Paul Froehlich and Senator Jacqueline Collins and other political figures are blindly pushing, will have a very deleterious effect on the educative process in a city already infamous for broken schools.
The idea itself did not arise out of a perception that it might help bolster a failing public education system. Far from it, this idea is being promulgated by a hard-line coalition of Muslim activists [allied with a reprehensible Hamas-linked mosque] who fully understand and support its stealth jihad overtones.
As a result we believe that this now very limited program should be discontinued immediately. It's disingenuous, bad public policy, deadly from a national security perspective and ultimately violative of the First Amendment's "establishment" clause.
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Excerpt from a report on Muslim Action Day in Springfield, IIlinois.
The issues that were advocated for were: pushing for public education funding reform, opposing online gambling in Illinois, advocating the reduction of greenhouse emission in Illinois and promoting investment in Green technology, and finally introduction of Arabic language instruction in all Illinois' Public High Schools.
The day started early with breakfast at the Governor's Mansion where Muslim community leaders met with legislators. Among the legislators to attend the breakfast was Rep. Paul Froehlich (D) from the 56th District (which is the greater Schaumburg area). Rep. Froehlich is a co-sponsor of the "Arabic language instruction in public schools" resolution introduced by Senator Jacqueline Collins (D). Also attending the breakfast were Senator Mike Jacobs (D) from the 36th District (Quad City area) and Rep. Greg Harris from the 13th District (encompassing numerous North Side Chicago Mosques).
After the breakfast, more than 10 buses carrying 500 Muslims arrived at the Howlett Auditorium for a Kick Off Rally. The packed auditorium was buzzing with excitement and energy as the audience was engaged by CIOGC Chairman Dr. Zaher Sahloul, CIOGC Executive Director Junaid Afeef, and IMAN's Executive Director Rami Nashashibi, who also serves on the CIOGC Executive Committee.
Sen. Dan Cronin (R) from the Islamic Foundation community, Rep. Paul Froehlich (D) from the Masjid Al-Huda community and Rep. David Miller (D) from the CMecca School community engaged the Muslims and gave an added boost to an already excited crowd. Salam Al-Marayati, Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, flew in from Los Angeles to show solidarity with Muslims in Illinois and also spoke to the crowd
http://muslimmedianetwork.com/mmn/?p=4100
http://www.ciogc.org/Go.aspx?link=7654859&mode=print
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Powerful, Positive Impact of American Muslims in Springfield! Over 450 American Muslims Participate in Muslim ACTION! Day
Over 450 American-Muslims from across Illinois came to Springfield on May 21, 2009 to participate in the Council of Islamic Organization of Greater Chicago's first annual Muslim ACTION! Day! This day of civic engagement and advocacy for the common good brought together a wide range of people from elementary school children to and through the pioneer leaders of the Muslim community. Muslim ACTION! Day placed the community's diversity on display in the State Capitol. Muslim ACTION! Day had multiple activities for students, community leaders and the community at large. The participants accomplished a tremendous amount of work in just one day of advocacy. Leadership Breakfast with Legislators
Community leaders arrived the night before and very early in the morning to attend an intimate breakfast meeting with legislators at the Governor's Mansion on Muslim ACTION! Day. In addition to leaders from the Council's executive committee and staff, the breakfast was also attended by leaders from the Springfield Muslim community and by leaders from the youth and young professionals' generation. Among the legislators to attend the breakfast was Rep. Paul Froehlich (D) from the 56th District (which is the greater Schaumburg area). Rep. Froehlich is a co-sponsor of the Arabic language instruction in public schools resolution introduced by Senator Jacqueline Collins (D). Like Senator Collins, Rep. Froehlich is a strong supporter of American Muslims. Kick-Off Rally Features Legislators, State & National Muslim Leaders As the buses arrived at the Capitol Complex they were guided to the Muslim ACTION! Day Kick-Off Rally held in the Howlett Auditorium just adjacent to the Statehouse. The 450 plus participants gathered together to get organized and energized for the citizen advocacy to come!
The Muslim ACTION! Day rally was electric with positive messages of civic engagement and Muslim values and there was a keen focus on serving humanity. The audience was engaged by Council Chairman Dr. Zaher Sahloul as he reflected on the great leaders who once served in the Illinois General Assembly including President Abraham Lincoln and President Barack Obama and imagined a not-too-distant future when several of the youth in the audience would one day serve in the Illinois' General Assembly, the U.S. Congress and the White House. IMAN's executive director Rami Nashashibi, who also serves on the Council's executive committee, delivered his vision of civic engagement for the common good with his trademarked passionate oratory as well. Sen. Dan Cronin (R) from the Islamic Foundation community, Rep. Paul Froehlich (D) from the Masjid Al-Huda community and Rep. David Miller (D) from the CMecca School community engaged the community and gave an added boost to an already excited crowd. Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, flew in from Los Angeles specifically to be a part of Muslim ACTION! Day. Mr. Al-Marayati capped off the rally with a poignant message on the impact of grassroots mobilization for the common good on the national scene. Citizen Advocacy in the Statehouse! Participants gathered in groups of 3 or more and headed out to the Statehouse as soon as the Kick-Off Rally ended. Both the Senate and the House were in session so everyone headed to the third floor. Both chambers were busy taking votes early on so not everyone was able to see their legislators outside of the Senate and House chambers.
Those who were not able to see their legislators outside of the Senate and House chambers visited the legislative offices and hand-delivered literature on the issues for which they were advocating directly to Legislative Aides. In the process of doing this many participants had an opportunity to see the inner offices of their elected officials and were able to meet with key support staff as well. The Rotunda on the first floor was abuzz all afternoon with American Muslims. All of the corridors, the cafeteria in the basement and the chairs in the Rotunda were filled with American Muslims taking in the experience of citizen advocacy. Some of the participants were veterans of citizen advocacy, but for many, Muslim ACTION! Day marked their first foray into this important act of civic engagement. Several leaders including Council Chair Zaher Sahloul, Vice Chair Tasneem Osmani and executive committee member Bambade Shakoor-Abdullah visited with Rep. Tom Cross (R) and Sen. Christine Radogno (R) in previously scheduled meetings to discuss a wide range of issues. While the community was advocating and engaging their legislators, six gifted young high school students from the American Muslim community spent the day as honorary Senate pages. These six young men and women (all of whom were selected through a competitive process) had the opportunity to see the legislative process from the legislators' perspective! Lunch, Prayers & Fellowship At the conclusion of Muslim ACTION! Day everyone re-grouped at the Visitors Center. Volunteers from the Springfield Muslim community organized and distributed lunch and drinks to the participants. It was a beautiful Spring afternoon with warm and sunny weather and lunch turned into a picnic! Everyone had a chance to visit with folks from all over the state. The youth had a chance to talk about their experiences, people prayed together on the well-manicured and lush lawns surrounding the Visitors Center and by 3pm the buses departed for home! And with the successful conclusion of Muslim ACTION! Day 2009 the Council team is gearing up for Muslim ACTION! Day 2010 to be help in May 2010! Stay tuned… Picture Gallery of Muslim ACTION! Day Reflections of Honorary Senate Pages from Muslim ACTION! Day | |||||||||
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MIM: Zaher Sahloul is also the chairman of the Council of Islamic Organisations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC).
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This item is available on the Militant Islam Monitor website, at http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/3990
:: 
In the last local election on April 7th, 2009, three candidates running for the School Board of District 230, Laura Murphy, Carol Baker and Michael Hastings won their seats. In a recent Candidate Forum organized by the Mosque Foundation, these and other candidates in neighboring school districts pledged to support the introduction of Arabic language to the curriculum in their public schools. This is a landmark moment in the Mosque Foundation initiative to introduce Arabic Language to our Public Schools.
Madinah Patterson stated, "Arabic should definitely be offered at all high schools, it should be fundamental. It's fun to learn, and it opens up many doors and it opens up opportunities that a lot of other students won't be able to have."
The Arab region with its rapidly growing population provides a huge export market for goods and services. With a GDP of over 600 billion dollars annually, the region also has much to offer the world market. In order to do business effectively, one must understand the language and culture of the people with whom one hopes to negotiate and conduct trade.