Posted on 08/07/2007 3:00:27 PM PDT by Baladas
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 from her comments, reported by the New York Post, saying she regretted suggesting the T-shirt slogan was appropriate. "By minimizing the word's historical associations I implied that I condone violence and threats of violence," she said. "That view is anathema to me and the very opposite of my life's work."
Ms. Almontaser has previously led inter-group tolerance lessons for city schoolchildren, and her supporters say her school, the Khalil Gibran International Academy, will bridge differences by teaching a diverse group of students the Arabic language alongside a traditional college preparatory curriculum.
Among the critics to emerge before she released her statement yesterday were several groups that had extended close support to the school, set to open in Brooklyn this September.
"I feel like a fool. I think Abe Foxman should feel like a fool. And certainly Joel Klein if he sponsors it will be a fool," a CUNY board member who had decided to support the school, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, said
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
al-taqiyya.
TRANSLATION: I’m sorry I got caught.
Anybody who believes her explanation probably also believes Yasser Arafat deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
Jeeeeezzzz...ye ole BS’o’meter is going to get posted a lot today!
Liar, liar, burqa on fire.
Time to lower the curtain on this farce. Someone ought to be suing them for violating the Establishment clause. The woman sounds like a head case, and definitely too stupid to be running any kind of school.
What’s the problem here? Currently, we import people from the Middle East to do the terror work that Americans won’t do. Now, we’ve set up a school that will teach Americans how to be terrorists. Isn’t it good that we’ve expanded such opportunities for our young people?
/S
I am opposed to this school for several reasons:
We have no idea of the lesson plan. it sounds like a madrassa, with public funds.
We should be teaching kids in English, not in hundreds of different languages.
It’s discriminatory to have a school just for the Arabic community when we don’t have schools exclusively for all other communities.
And it’s a dihonor to the good name of Khalil Gibran.
I dare say dear Debbie came to realize she just charted herself on millions of radars that she would have been better off not appearing.
I am so torn over my future as an American born woman.
Do I learn to wear a burqa?
Do I also need to learn Spanish?
Someone should print up some shirts that say “Mein Kampf NYC.” Ms. Almontaser won’t be offended, since the literal meaning of the word “Kampf” is struggle.
I’ve asked some acquaintances at the NYC Dep of Ed and a lawyer I know at the NYCLU (ugh) how an Arabic culture school can be justified when Arabic culture cannot be studied, addressed, or explained without studying Islam, and wouldn’t this be a violation of church and state. The responses I received were perfect imitaitons of Ralph Kramden’s “homida homida homida...”
Why can these people not see what the Arabs are really up to?
Do I also need to learn Spanish?
I say, burqa. Chicks in burqas are hot! But then, combine burqas with Latino chicks, and, as Cosmo Kramer says, oh, baby!
As someone who works with criminals on a daily basis, when a criminal says they’re sorry, what they mean is they are sorry that they got caught and now have to be in jail.
Are you sure they're chicks, or hairy guys with bombs?
Indedd, it can not be studied without glorifying Islam? Is anyone going to talle the truth about the first Muslim centuries, when a few thousand Arab rulers feasted on the labor and the cultures of the Syrian and Persian cultures which they had taken over? Virtually everything was derivitive. Apart from religion and government the Arabs brought nothing to the table. Neither art nor science. What they brought was the law and order of their form of colonial government.
Good grief!
"And it is perfectly okay to lie to an infidel like you, since you are too stupid as a nation to survive."
Don’t worry. According to the left, America is the most oppressive society on earth, so when the Muslims take over, you’ll be better off. You’ll be free of such hassles as putting on makeup, driving cars, or going to the doctor. And you’ll have three new friends for life as your husband takes on new wives.
It will be paradise on earth!
Wait until we get school vouchers in place. We'll be funding Madras's all over the country.
Hey, “muslimah”, welcome to the internet, you clueless twerp!
(”Gee, they’re really not supposed to talk about me this way.”)
Liberals, feeling their way through the world guided solely by their emotions, are convinced (subconsciously) that the key to their survival is sucking up to those who want to slit their throats. They suffer, en masse, from the Stockholm Syndrome.
She is a Bald-faced LIAR.
She is a Bald-faced LIAR.
She is a Bald-faced LIAR.
If NYC Bd. of Ed. wants to encourage arabic language learning, it can make arabic a language students can take as their foreign language requirement in high schools in general. Why do they need a whole separate school for this? They don’t. NYC should forget the Arabic School idea. This would go for schools established to promote other foreign languages as well.
OMG-that slew me!
Mrs. Almont-ass-her ought to be wrapped in a burqua and shipped back to whatever Arab country she came from.
Ping
The real story here is that we agree to open up an Arab school and get upset when they act like just like Arabs around the world do. What the F did we expect?
This balkanization by design is a pathetic excuse for reasoned policy.
So getting young girls to show tshirts supporting the way arabs treat women is supporting women’s rights.
I happen to know a group of Saudi girls living middle class lives here to escape being over there where their families were very very rich but they were disowned.
Page 8 of the Executive Summary of the school clearly states there will be workshops on ISLAM...
Do your friends know of this?
Nope.
We flock to the gun shows, gun stores, and ranges. :)
If we work hard and keep our eye on the target we can destroy our own country.
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 .....IF (underlined) I said “Kill all Muslims before they kill us,” would I be granted the same misunderstanding? I only meant they are part of Philly society. HMMMMMM?
The “Intifada” Comes To New York City
The American Thinker | 8/7/07 | Steven M. Warshawsky
Posted on 08/07/2007 1:45:29 PM PDT by RepublicanPatriot
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1877780/posts
It’s disgusting to ask the US taxpayers to pay for this school, and it’s totally hypocritical to let them DO Islam at this school when Christian kids can barely wear crosses and pray quietly without being strung up by the ACLU.
I cannot see how this is being allowed.
“By minimizing the word’s historical associations I implied that I condone violence and threats of violence,” she said. “That view is anathema to me and the very opposite of my life’s work.”
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Lying to the infidels is OK.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is all part of the Marxist movement to destroy America. That is why it is being tolerated.
Why can’t people see that our government schools K-12 and our universities are on a campaign to destroy America?
Where are Rush and Sean on this?
In my opinion the **biggest** threat to our nation are our schools! It is more of a threat than any other single issue without exception.
It is time that we completely defund government subsidy of education on the K-12 and university levels. We need to do this immediately before it is too late.
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