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Debbie Almontaser dreamed of starting a public school like no other in New York City. Children of Arab descent would join students of other ethnicities, learning Arabic together. By graduation, they would be fluent in the language and groomed for the country’s elite colleges. They would be ready, in Ms. Almontaser’s words, to become “ambassadors of peace and hope.” Things have not gone according to plan. Only one-fifth of the 60 students at the Khalil Gibran International Academy are Arab-American. Since the school opened in Brooklyn last fall, children have been suspended for carrying weapons, repeatedly gotten into fights and...

FORMER PRINCIPAL OF ARABIC SCHOOL WANTS JOB BACK   By YOAV GONEN and TATIANA DELIGIANNAKIS   October 16, 2007 --The former principal of the city's controversial Arabic academy launched an 11th-hour effort yesterday to get her old job back - and then slapped her would-be employer with a free speech lawsuit. MORE: How The Post Reported The StoryDebbie Almontaser submitted paperwork to be reinstated as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, which she founded, in Brooklyn minutes before the application deadline expired. She then announced she is suing the Department of Education over what she called her "forced"...

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A public school in New York that will teach Arabic language and culture opened Tuesday amid accusations that it will impose a radical Islamist agenda in its classrooms. About a dozen security guards and police officers were on patrol Tuesday when the Brooklyn school opened, mainly to shepherd the throngs of reporters covering the event. Much of the criticism was directed at the school's Arab-American founding principal, Debbie Almontaser. Two local tabloids reported claims she had ties to Islamic extremist organizations. The controversy reached a fever pitch when Almontaser was quoted defending the use of the...

NEW YORK - Supporters of an Arabic-themed academy are calling for the reinstatement of the public school's founding principal, who resigned amid a frenzy of negative publicity after she defended the word "intifada" on T-shirts. About 200 people demonstrated in support of the Khalil Gibran International Academy on Monday night... They carried signs that read "NYC needs multi-cultural education" and "The Torah and the Koran both teach peace." Many were Muslims themselves, while others were Jewish. They shared outrage over the political flaying that led Deborah Almontaser, the founding principal, to resign earlier this month. "I thought this was not...

A planned Arabic-themed public school in Brooklyn has prompted polarized reactions. Critics warned Monday that students could be "indoctrinated" with radical Islamic beliefs and supporters called such statements "racist." The Khalil Gibran International Academy has generated controversy almost from the start... The schools first principal resigned after criticism over her affiliation with a group that sells tee-shirts with the word "intifada" on them. Debbie Almontaser called it quits after she failed to condemn the use of the highly charged word, an Arabic term for the Palestinian uprising against Israel... New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn)said the school's children could be...

The Department of Education "spit" in the face of Arabs with the appointment of a Jewish woman as principal of the city's new Arabic-themed school, a Muslim activist said yesterday. (snip) "It's like somebody spit in our face as Arabs," said Rimawi, a founder of the Islamic Society of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and an organizer with the Arab Muslim American Federation. (snip) "This is no respect to our community. Where is the respect?" he asked. Salzberg is an Orthodox Jew who had worked to develop the curriculum at the Khalil Gibran International Academy. Her predecessor, Debbie Almontaser, a devout Muslim...

The embattled principal of an Arabic-themed public school in New York resigned Friday after coming under fire for failing to condemn the use of the highly charged word "intifada" on T-shirts. Debbie Almontaser was supposed to oversee the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn. The city's Department of Education says it remains committed to launching the school in September. Almontaser's departure comes on the heels of an editorial flaying in the New York Post and an article this week that connected Almontaser to Arab Women Active in Art and Media. That group is selling shirts imprinted with the words "Intifada...

The controversial Khalil Gibran International Academy scheduled to open next month has attracted only a handful of Arabic-speaking students, The Post has learned. Just six Arabic speakers and one English-language learner out of 44 registered students have enrolled at the Brooklyn public academy that critics fear will become a city-funded Islamic school. "We didn't anticipate a full 50-50 split," said Department of Education spokeswoman Melody Meyer. The English-Arabic school was envisioned by Principal Debbie Almontaser as a multicultural institution serving grades 6-12 for native Arabic speakers and students wanting to learn the language. Students would become fluent in both languages...

NYC Principal at Center of 'Intifada' T-Shirt Controversy Resigns Friday , August 10, 2007 NEW YORK — A New York City principal who came under fire for controversial comments about an "intifada" T-shirt that seemed to condone terrorism has resigned. On Friday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg accepted the resignation of Debbie Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, an English-Arabic school set to open next month in Brooklyn, N.Y. Almontaser had come under fire for comments she made to the New York Post about an "Intifada NYC" T-shirt that is sold by an activist group that shares an office with...

A Muslim school is opening in Brooklyn next month and guess who's paying for it. Well, that didn't take you very long, did it? You're right. The taxpayers. The very people whom so many radical Muslims want to kill are going to pay for a nice little Muslim school in New York. Try that with a Christian school and see how far you get. Wait! There's more! It seems that the principal (taxpayer paid, or course) of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser, is under more heat ... as if she wasn't already. A group called Arab Women...

The principal of an Arabic-language public school due to open next month is under fire for taking what several Jewish groups are condemning as a soft stance on the violent Palestinian Arab uprising known as the intifada. The principal, Debbie Almontaser, was quoted yesterday interpreting T-shirts that say "Intifada NYC" as not an endorsement of violence but rather "an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society ... and shaking off oppression." She followed the word's literal Arabic meaning, which is "struggle" or "uprising." In a statement late yesterday afternoon, Ms. Almontaser backed away...

Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran Madrassah Will Function As Jihad Recruitment Center By William Mayer and Beila Rabinowitz August 7, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - It is now clear why the New York Department of Education has been dodging requests by concerned citizens who have been trying to determine what type of institution the proposed Khalil Gibran International Academy will be. Charges leveled against KGIA by these writers - that it will in essence function as a madrassah, a center for indoctrination not education - are proven by the school's own executive summary [Access KGIA Executive Summary Here],...