Aiming Hate & Bigotry At Children

The usual bigots are protesting loudly against the Khalil Gibron International Academy school in NY, claiming it is going to be a "madrassa" (an Islamist extremist religious school) with some even calling it "Jihad U", some claiming it to be a training school for terrorists. These bigots, who are participating in a very loose coalition, are working to deny children a chance at a decent education. The NY public school system doesn't have the greatest reputation for high quality education, and when the chance becomes available to attend one of these specialized schools, parents and children alike are thrilled. Now the bigots are trying to make children suffer, too. Is there any form of bigotry and hatred more heinous than targeting children?

They claim that the school is deliberately hiding information about its staff, its cirriculum, its goals, and some of the bigots plus those gullible enough to fall for their lies are leading rallies of parents who are now fearful that some sort of terrorist training school is going to open in their midst.

This is either extreme ignorance on the part of those complaining the loudest, or extreme deception, way past the point of racism.

The hate mongers claim that there is no information available about the school. However, it's right out there in pamphlets, letters to parents and publications from the NY Dept of Education, and there is plenty of material online, found with any search engine. Or is it rather that the scare-mongers, hate mongers, (or far worse and well deserved titles) want the public to think that the information isn't available, thus planting fears of some nefarious "madrassa" in people's minds?

Why are the usual scare-mongers deliberately trying to incite fear or worse by calling it a "madrrassa", when in the real world it is a school for children of any faith, it teaches secular lessons only that completely comply with the educational requirements of the state of NY, and its core curriculum and teaching philosophy is that of international peace as espoused by Khalil Gibran.


Here's the requirements for teachers: http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/A2BFC846-90D5-471E-B81F-D32C41F3886D/19529/AlmontaserDebbieteachers3.pdf


Here's the Kicker:

The school will teach in the philosophy of Khalil Gibran.

For those who so ignorantly (or perhaps purposely) call it a "madrassa" or "an Islamist school", they should try doing some very basic research. Khalil Gibran, one of the most influential symbols of interfaith worldwide peace in the 20th Century, was a Lebanese CHRISTIAN, a Maronite Catholic, who moved to America as a child and remained here till his death. He is known as one of the most famous poets in American history.

Why do so many people think that everyone with an Arabic sounding name is a terrorist?

JFK was inspired by Gibran's writings, and often quoted him. The Beatles turned his poems into songs. Gibran is still famous today in the New Age community.
Khalil Gibran - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


On New York's "Khalil Gibran International Academy" - Reader comments at DanielPipes.org http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/86585

THE MISPERCEPTION ON THE SCHOOL:
The school will be teaching the vision of Kahlil Gibran, the Middle Eastern studies, therefore teaching the Arabic Language.

Our Government made it clear that the USA interest in the Middle East is vital and important and therefore we will be there for a long time. The USA has invested billions of dollars in Iraq and in partnerships with many (and most) states in the Middle East and the Gulf. We have lots of interests to be in that region and lots of building / business to accomplish in the years to come. Having the education, knowledge and expertise about the region, the people, the language and the culture will help each individual willing to work and build his future working in that part of the world. Therefore "Generosity is not giving me that which I need more than you do, but it is giving me that which you need more than I do." -Khalil Gibran

In conclusion, we agree on one strong point "My take on the school: In principle it is a great idea – the United States needs more Arabic-speakers", I am sure you don't mind quoting you.
To all Brooklynites, friends of Brooklyn and NYC, try to get the facts. We are here to build together a better education to our NYC children.

"I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit."
-Khalil Gibran, "The Voice of the Poet"


Kahlil Gibran International Academy: A School for All Seasons BrooklynSoc.Org
One of 40 new schools was the dual-language (Arabic and English) Khalil Gibran International Academy created not only in recognition of the growing number of Arab American children in New York City's schools, but also the need to understand the Arabic language and culture. (Especially given our convoluted foreign policy tied to our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.) The Gibran Academy takes it name from the Lebanese-born poet and philosopher who wrote "The Prophet." It was created in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates-funded nonprofit agency New Visions for Public Schools, and the Arab-American Family Support Center a Community Based Organization which provides social services in Brooklyn. A public school, the misnomered “Arab American School” is open to students of all ethnic backgrounds. As an educational innovation the announcement should have been applauded but it almost immediately it became controversial. Even some normally liberal parents protested the placement of Gibran students in their schools, while, as usual, some abnormally conservative columnists simply wrote ignorant, bigoted, and hateful commentary such as referring to the Academy as a “madrassa” and shamelessly inventing quasi-“Protocols of Islam” agendas.

The new principal of the new school to be is Debbie Almontaser, a respected educator and interfaith activist who arrived in the US from Yemen when she was only 3. I know her personally from a Voice of America program we participated in about inter ethnic relations, and from research I have been doing about and for the Arab American community of New York City. Her school was to start slowly with about 80 sixth-graders in the first year and increase to something like a total of 600 students in grades 6 through 12. It will have a standard college preparatory curriculum that includes the history and contributions of the Arabs as a people, as well as Arabic language instruction. It had been reported in The New York Times, however that due to the protest, and perhaps the rabid publicity, that NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein had considered postponing the opening for a year. The most recent information is that the academy has found a temporary home in a Brooklyn school where parents and administrators were more level-headed and open minded.

If we think about the seeds of the Japanese-American internment as being planted by reaction to the “sneak attack” on Pearl Harbor we can recognize the dangerous analogy of 9/11 “terrorism.” As did Japanese Americans, have Arab Americans become “potential enemies in our midst?” The angry reaction to a small school by too many people who should know better ominously makes the grade B movies about rounding up Arabs on the streets of Brooklyn seem less fictional. Rudy Giuliani aside, I don’t want to believe that 9/11 has made New Yorkers as intolerant as perhaps they have become. I have been writing and lecturing for decades about achieving Community in a Multicultural Society and arguing that, despite all its historical flaws, the US and especially Gotham has been, until now, a good model for others to follow. Let’s not start moving backward.


The school is a joint effort of the NY Dept of Education and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation . It is accepting students of any and all faiths, will teach a completely secular curriculum, including English as a Second Language for the many immigrants of NY, and including courses on Arabic languages and culture, to answer the President's call for Americans to learn more about our global partners in the world economy.


http://insideschools.org/fs/school_profile.php?id=1604
MAY 2007 UPDATE: After abandoning plans to locate Khalil Gibran at PS 282, the Department of Education has announced that the school will share space in its first year with two Boerum Hill schools that already share a building. Those schools, the Brooklyn High School of the Arts and MS 447, will give up three classrooms and let Khalil Gibran's 60 students use the building's cafeteria and gym.

MARCH 2007 PROFILE: Khalil Gibran will be the city's first school to focus on Arabic language and culture, a fact that has garnered it a lot of attention since the Department of Education announced in February 2007 that it would open in Brooklyn with a 6th grade the following September.

Named after an early-20th-century Christian Lebanese poet, the school will offer Arabic language classes and focus on Arabic culture in other academic classes. Eventually, according to press reports, the school will offer half of all instruction in Arabic. The Tannenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding will run conflict resolution and diversity classes, according to the New York Sun. School leaders aim to recruit a student body that is half Arab.

Founding principal Debbie Almontaser, a longtime teacher at PS 261, has been a spokesperson for tolerance toward Islam and Arab culture since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, which sparked some violence against Arabs in the city. The school's lead partner, the Brooklyn-based Arab American Family Support Center, offers a variety of services to Arab immigrants and receives funding from the U.S. government and from other support organizations, including the American Jewish World Service.

Although the school is not terribly different from other schools around the city that organize studies around a particular region or language, some have criticized the Department of Education for allowing a school to focus narrowly on Middle Eastern culture. A columnist in the Fort Greene Courier suggested that the school could be "a public madrassa," referring to Islamic fundamentalist schools in the Middle East, and right-wing news networks nationwide have been abuzz with news about a "public 'jihad'" school. DOE and school officials have reiterated many times that the school will focus on culture, not politics that are fraught with controversy. "The school will not be a vehicle for political ideology," a DOE spokesman told the Sun.

Perhaps as a result of this mixed press, Khalil Gibran has had a hard time finding a location. When the Department of Education announced in March 2007 that it would be placed in the PS 282 building in Park Slope, which, according to the DOE, is operating at only half its capacity, parents there rallied against the plan, saying that it would deprive their children of some programs and facilities and require middle school students to share bathrooms with younger children. A parent also told the Sun that some families feared "the kind of criticism this school could face," referring to the anti-Arab criticism it has already received.

Admission: Open to 6th graders. Contact the school for details. (Philissa Cramer, March 2007)


http://schools.nyc.gov/doefacts/factfinder/ServiceDetails.aspx?id=135
School - Khalil Gibran International Academy
Description
Detailed Description
Information on the new school, Khalil Gibran International Academy.
Khalil Gibran International Academy is a new public middle school that will teach Arabic language and culture while adhering to all state academic and legal standards. This is a non-religious school and will be open to all New York City students. The school will be housed in the Sarah. J. Hale building at 345 Dean Street in Brooklyn and will enroll 60 6th graders in September.

It is notable that the Anti-Defamation League, (an internationally prominent Jewish anti-hatred and anti-extremism organization) even supports this school: In Defense of Brooklyn School (NY Sun)

On July 25, 2007, Sara Springer of the STOP THE MADRASSA COMMUNITY COALITION appeared on Hannity & Colmes, and spent almost the entire interview shrieking in hysteria about how this "taxpayer funded" school will train children to be terrorists. (once again, facts and bigotry rigorously avoid each other.) It is clear that there is a severe level of paranoia involved here.

Those who are making complete fools of themselves (aside from Sara Springer) with exaggerations and outright lies about this school include:

Atlas Shrugs
United American Committee
Gathering of Eagles
Center for Vigilant Freedom
FrontPageMag
Militant Islam Monitor
Melanie Phillips
Robert Spencer
Jihad Watch
Campus Watch
The Washington Times (still in search of a fact, any fact, on which to base a single story in their publication.)
Free Republic
Mark Steyn

It should be noted that there are ongoing investigations into the public demonstrations against this school, and into the deliberate lies being used in a conspiracy to deprive children of their civil rights. The potential for criminal charges is significant. The Mayor, the Governor, the District Attorney, the Attorney General (NY), and the US Attorney's Office have very little tolerance for bigots. I'm certainly not the one to make these type of decisions for prosecution, but this may very well have crossed the line from hate speech to hate crime.

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