Sunday, July 20, 2008

Controversy about the Islamic Saudi Academy's teaching materials; founded or unfounded?

According to Town Hall contributor, Cal Thomas, there continues to be a School for Scoundrels. Is there anyone here in the forum close to Fairfax County that could check out this story and checking into the validity that they are still using hate books?

Despite a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, VA., has continued to use textbooks that teach hatred of everyone not of their specific brand of faith, the U.S. State Department has yet to act to close down the school. Officials of the academy, which has about 1,000 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 12, promised to excise passages in the textbooks that disparage Jews and Christians, but according to an examination by The Washington Post for the 2006-2007 school year, though "much of the controversial material had been removed, at least one book still contained passages that extolled jihad and martyrdom, called for victory over one's enemies and said the killing of adulterers and apostates was 'justified.'"

For the rest of the article: School for Scoundrels

I  have not heard much about this since, however, a search of news turned up this little gem, courtesy of AP, Washington Post, and WTOPS News:

FAIRFAX, VA. - Fairfax County supervisors are asking Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to determine whether they should continue leasing property to a private Islamic school.
....
One review by a federal commission concluded that some textbooks used by the school contain language intolerant of Jews and other groups as well as passages that could be construed as advocating violence.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly ..... (WROTE) that the county doesn't employ the linguists and scholars needed to determine whether the Fairfax academy's teaching materials promote violence or intolerance.

A review of the  Saudi Academy Website,

Since its establishment, the Islamic Saudi Academy has viewed its relationship with the community and culture as vital to the mission of the school. ISA not only promotes respect and mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims, Arabs and Americans while keeping within the Muslim faith, it strives for its staff and students to uphold tolerance, honesty, integrity and compassion, qualities that represent the best of both American and Arabic cultures.

The apparent controversy regarding the Saudi Academy may be a misunderstanding, poor translation of what was in the textbook(s), and/or al-Taqiyya.

I sure wish I knew what is going on.......

Don't worry folks apparently the book(s) in question only attacked what al- Qur'an القرآن ‎terms "people of the book" (Jews and Christians) and other non-believers. It does not reference politically correct liberal apologists (not yet anyway).

2 Comments:

Blogger Rosemary Welch said...

State Dept. renewed their lease. Need I say more?

7/20/2008 12:48 PM  
Blogger Bos'un said...

Moslems, Democrats and the State Department practice al-Taqiyya.

7/23/2008 6:25 AM  

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