A group that has been campaigning to close the Arabic-language public school set to open in Brooklyn next month called today for the firing of an adviser to the school, Imam Al-Hajj Talib Abdur-Rashid, a cleric at a Harlem mosque.
The group, the Stop the Madrassa Coalition, accuses Mr. Abdur-Rashid of distorting history to favor Islamic contributions in his teachings. A spokeswoman for the group, Pamela Hall, described them as “indoctrination in which they make everything Muslim- and Islamic-centric, at the expense of the rest of the world’s contribution to history.”
Mr. Abdur-Rashid was one of several people to serve on an advisory council of the Khalil Gibran International Academy selected by its original principal, Dhaba Almontaser. A call to Mr. Abdur-Rashid seeking comment was not immediately returned.
A member of the advisory council, Rabbi Andrew Bachman, today said the board never actually met and has been effectively absolved since Ms. Almontaser resigned earlier this month. Rabbi Bachman said he has not heard from Khalil Gibran’s new principal, Danielle Salzberg, since she took over last week.
The Stop the Madrassa Coalition, includes about 70 community members, some of them public school parents, according to the group. Supporters include a group that opposes illegal immigration, New Yorkers for Immigration Control and Enforcement, and a group that describes itself as a watchdog against domestic terrorism, the United American Committee, according to the group’s website.
The organization’s demand appears timed to coincide with a rally in support of the school, scheduled for 6 p.m. this evening at the Department of Education headquarters downtown. The rally is being sponsored by religious and political groups, including Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, an immigrant rights group, the Center for Immigrant Families, and an Arab cultural group, the Arab Women Active in Art and Media.
The women’s group created T-shirts that read “Intifada NYC,” which were publicized by the Stop the Madrassa Coalition as evidence of what they describe as the hidden extremism of Ms. Almontaser, who had defended the T-shirts.
Ms. Almontaser has worked for 11 years in the city schools, where she focused on teaching inter-group communication and tolerance.
The Stop the Madrassa Coalition today also called for an increase in Arabic-language classes in the city and announced plans to start a library of patriotic American books. “Think of it as America’s Back-To-School resistance to radical Islam in our schools,” the group said in a statement.
