Posted on 10/24/2007 1:30:33 PM PDT by vietvet67
With such a headline, you'd be excused for assuming this piece is just another attack on our failing schools, just another screed against the evils of teachers unions, or a whack against the left wing lunatics who run our universities. No, this time the title is no mere hyperbole. This time it says exactly what it means for in the state of Virginia a school is being run by radical Islamists, funded by a foreign nation, and under condemnation from the U.S. government. In this time of war, the State of Virginia really is allowing our enemies to run a school teaching Islamist hate to our children right in our midst.
A private Islamic school funded by the Saudi government is being accused by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom of teaching Wahhabi Islamism to 1,000 K-12 children in Fairfax County, Virginia. Wahhabism is the strict and hateful brand of Islam that buttresses the twisted ideas of people like Usama bin Laden and his al Qaeda organization and the Taliban extremists in Afghanistan and it is guiding the daily class work of some of Virginia's children.
The Commission reports that the curriculum at the Islamic Saudi Academy reflects the religious intolerance taught at schools in Saudi Arabia where intolerance and bigotry against Jews and Christians is the norm. In part, the Commission's report states that, "significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States."
Naturally the school and it's minders in the Saudi embassy profess shock and dismay that they'd be questioned about their efforts to teach their own brand of "truth" to American children. But, it isn't just extreme Islamism that the school is faulted for. The Commission also warned that the close operational ties and funding scheme between the school, the Saudi embassy and the government of Saudi Arabia may violate U.S. law restricting the activities of foreign embassies.
This school was in the news once before, too. After the Sept. 11th attacks by radical Islamists, a former valedictorian of the school, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted of, and is now serving a 30 year prison sentence for, plotting the assassination of president H. W. Bush in 2005. Ali became an al Qaeda member while attending college in Saudi Arabia after graduation from the school in Virginia.
So, why do we do this? Why do we so blithely ignore the simple logic of keeping our enemies at arms length? Why are we so stupid as to allow the enemy to set up schools right in our midst?
I asked this question of a history teacher just the other day and he remarked that our free society should actually prohibit any efforts to keep the enemy out. And besides, he said, we allowed a Nazi party to be created right here in our midst in New York during WWII by allowing the American Bund, an American Nazi organization, to operate freely.
But, my history-teaching friend is mistaken in his belief that the Roosevelt Administration so easily allowed the Bund to operate without impediment in some self-flagellating exercise in "free speech" during a time of war. In fact, both the state of New York and the Roosevelt administration dogged members of the Bund and eventually interred and deported many of its members.
In 1939, for instance, the New York District Attorney began investigating Bund leader Fritz Kuhn for tax evasion and embezzlement efforts that eventually drove him from his post in the Nazi organization. Additionally, the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities (HUAC) also went after various members of the Bund and did their level best to hamper the group’s activities. And as America entered World War II, the Roosevelt administration placed many of the Bund's members and their families in interment camps for Germans and Italians* with many of these folks being deported to Germany at the close of the war.
So, contrary to what my history teacher friend thought, neither the U.S. government nor the State of New York sat idly by as our enemies created organizations that promoted ideas antithetical to the American way.
So that brings me back to the question at hand: Why are we allowing these so-called schools to set up shop right in our midst and why are we allowing them to teach hate and radical ideologies contrary to freedom, liberty and the American way?
Have we become stupid since 1939, or are we simply trying to destroy ourselves?
*Few people are aware that Roosevelt also interred Germans and Italians in camps just like he did with Japanese Americans. In fact, they were arguably treated worse than the Japanese for many of the Germans and Italians were not freed right after the war, but were kept for many, many months after the war ended. Then many were deported and not allowed to regain their American citizenship once their camps were dismantled.
Warner Todd Huston is a senior writer for The New Media Journal. He also serves as an NMJ Radio Headline News Roundtable Editor, a free lance writer, graphic designer and works in Desktop Publishing. Like every man when young, Mr. Huston was sure that Conservatives were inhumane, ignorant of history and greedy...then he grew up.
Mr. Huston, please call your dictionary. FDR didn't "inter" (bury in the ground) those Germans and Italians. What he did was intern them (confine them in order to prevent them from moving freely about the country).
For today's domestic Islamic indoctrinators, however, interment is a fine and long-overdue idea.
We’ve allowed communists to run our public school system for years . . . what’s the big deal with Islam?
“Why Do We Allow America’s Enemies to Run Schools Here?”
The question should be, “Why do we allow America’s enemies to immigrate and stay here, at all?”
Agreed that the Swift Vets were very effective, which is why the Dems are still invoking their name. However, we can’t wait unitl “enough money can be raised for some effective advertising”. It seems that conservatives are always waiting for someone to do something. Can you imagine if alot of people gave $1.00 to an organization(s)that gets the word out? Can you imagine if people got involved in passing the word and taking a stand? Why is it too much trouble for people to give two hours to take a stand for our country? I have a tough time getting self-proclaimed patriots to show it by coming out to our Friday night rally against the moonbats! We are down to a friend and myself for the last 3 years! We made a vow not to leave! Let’s end Armchair Patriotism!
Because our gubment is infested with dumbassed people er liberals.
“Chamberlain (GB- prior to WWII) all over again.”
And it is either party and the POTUS that give in to these enemies of the country.
Did you let the Governor know how disgusted you are that he tried to placed the radical Muslim on the immigration panel?
BTW, we need to be clear, that is “illegal” immigration.
I am forever emailing Senator Webb and Warner expressing my views on the Federal and State.
I play no holes bared.
When they come after Catholic schools you will have no one to blame but yourself.
In addition to my above post, if it is found ILLEGAL activity is going on at the school, then by all means criminally prosecute the offenders.
Neal Boortz and one of his listeners are to be thanked for that man no longer being on the panel.
I have been a lurker at free republic for almost, I think and I could be wrong, but 10 years? At one time, some and maybe a few are still posting, they are by far the most intelligent people in the USA
Why bother with Kanie, I don’t like liberals, Jim Webb is not a silve bullet but, he responds to my emails the same for Warner.
Kanie has got his head up a orifice, I am sure Warner and Webb gave kanie a special thanks
Feinstein answers emails too, but she’s still a horrible senator. It isn’t about whether they answer or not that counts. I treat all Liberals the same.
Ask yourself one question, what is the worlds most serious scourge, San Francisco lunatics or muslims, Maybe God is being kind and is pitting on against the other.
God works in mysterious ways
Each is a plague against the common law that Reagan protected
One of the things that worries me about vouchers is that if we can get vouchers for Christian and Jewish private schools, it would also be legal to get vouchers for Islamic schools.
If vouchers would result in a proliferation of more private schools, both secular and religious, would it necessarily really be what we wanted?
Fox News just ran a report on Iraq. The report Drove a Stake into heart of American liberalism. Iraq is now more safe than DC where the thrown of liberalism exist.
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