Well, they don’t actually call it a “madrassa”, any more than the EU calls its new governing authority a “constitution”.
The Department of Education calls it the “Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA)”. It will be a new public school that will teach Arabic history, culture, and language.
And we all know where the textbooks and curricular materials come from. There are very few resources for Arabic and Muslim education in this country that are not funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Yet Mayor Bloomberg and the school authorities want everybody to go back to sleep.
“Trust us,” they say. “This is just another public school. Everything will turn out just fine. And by the way, I have a nifty little parcel of Florida swampland you might want to pick up while you’re at it…”
And now it turns out that the principal of the new school, Dhabah Almontaser, is directly linked to the folks that are selling these attractive and fashionable T-shirts. “Intifada NYC”! What could be more cool and hip and peace-in-our time than that?I’ll let Stop the Madrassa tell the story:
The t-shirts read: “Intifada NYC — awaam.org.” Let’s consider what those words mean.- - - - - - - - - -
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, an intifada is:
Arabic for uprising. Starting in 1987, Palestinians have engaged in an intermittent intifada against Israel on the West Bank and Gaza Strip in their pursuit of a Palestinian state.
So “Intifada NYC” means… what? An uprising in New York City — against whom? or an uprising against Israel, but in New York City? Your guess as good as ours. Here’s what we know — this slogan and logo are this summer’s big publicity campaign for that website that is also listed on the t-shirt: awaam.org .
That awaam.org website can be found here: Arab Women Active in the Arts and Media.
The AWAAM is sponsored by (and apparently housed by) the Yemini American Association: the AWAAM contact information:
AWAAM: Arab women Active in the Arts and Media
c/o Yemeni American Association
464 3rd Avenue
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11215
info@awaam.org
Tel: (917) 703-0488
Who is the founder and a board member of the Yemeni American Association? Dhabah Almontaser, principal for KGIA.
For the rest of the details on this sordid story, go over to Stop the Madrassa. They also have more general information about KGIA.
Pamela Hall of Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition will be on Glenn Beck tonight, Tuesday July 31 — at 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm EDT on Headline Prime, CNN. Everyone should tune in to see how the issue is treated there in the belly of the beast.
And the other Pamela is also covering the story here.
5 comments:
VERY old news Baron -- Daniel Pipes' blog has many updates from months prior.
Tushar —
I want you to look at the mission statement on our masthead: We are in a new phase of a very old war.
I often report on things that are centuries old. Get used to it.
I happen to be finishing up a bad day in which carpers and complainers and whiners have been emailing me about how our blog does this and that wrong, and we should improve it by doing such-and-such.
I tell you, I’ve had enough.
There are 24 hours in a day. I’m one person. There’s only so much I can cover.
Yes, I’ve been familiar with KGIA since the issue first started. In fact, I’m friends with the “Stop the Madrassa” blog — that’s why I put up this post; it was at their request.
See what doing a favor gets me?
I thought they were doing a good job, and my time was limited, so I let them cover it. So now I’m “late” and shouldn’t cover it.
Give. Me. A. Break.
Hang in there Baron, you've too much class to be wasting time with the smallminded.
Whoa!
Baron, I did not intend to insinuate any of those things. Sorry to be the one to "break the straw on the camel's back." I, for one, have never shared that objection about this fantastic blog. I was simply pointing this out. Apologies for not being clearer!
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