The Khalil Gibran International Academy was conceived as a public embrace of New York City’s growing Arab population and of internationalism, the first public school dedicated to the study of the Arabic language and culture and open to students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.
But nearly three months after plans for the middle school were first announced, a beleaguered Department of Education is fending off attacks from two angry camps: parents from Public School 282, the elementary school in Park Slope, Brooklyn, that was assigned to share building space with the Khalil Gibran school, and a handful of columnists who have called the proposed academy a madrassa, which teaches the Koran.
Now the chancellor of schools, Joel I. Klein, is considering other locations for the school, or even postponing the opening for a year, according to several people involved in the discussions, and the whole endeavor has been turned into a test of tolerance — and its limits — in post-9/11, multiethnic New York.
The principal, Debbie Almontaser, who came to America from Yemen at age 3 and who organized peace rallies and urged tolerance after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been vilified on Web sites as having an “Islamist agenda.”
Ms. Almontaser said she was prepared for the reaction. “Quite frankly, I don’t let it bother me,” she said. “I don’t lose sleep over it. My main objective is the opening of the school.”
Friends of the teacher, who is known as a moderate active in interfaith groups, call the accusation preposterous.
“It’s tragic that they should be targeting her,” said the Rev. Dr. Daniel Meeter, pastor of Old First Reformed Church in Park Slope.
Some call the controversy over the school heartbreaking. “Now is the critical time to teach young people Arabic,” said Eileen F. Reilly, a director at Camba, a Brooklyn social services agency, and a friend of Ms. Almontaser’s. “If a school like this can’t happen in Brooklyn, where can it happen?”
Others say that there is no room for such a school in New York. Alicia Colon, a columnist for The New York Sun, wrote that Osama bin Laden must have been “delighted” to hear the news of the school. “New York City, the site of the worst terrorist attack in our history, is bowing down in homage to accommodate and perhaps groom future radicals,” she said. “I say break out the torches and surround City Hall to stop this monstrosity.”
Khalil Gibran, named after the noted Lebanese-born poet and philosopher who wrote “The Prophet,” is a partnership with New Visions for Public Schools, a nonprofit agency that has helped open dozens of schools, and the Arab-American Family Support Center, a social service agency in Brooklyn.
Plans for the school called for it to enroll 81 students for the 2007-8 school year, beginning with sixth graders only, and eventually expanding to Grades 6 through 12.
It was envisioned like other dual-language schools in the city, like the Shuang Wen Academy, a top-performing elementary school on the Lower East Side that teaches classes both in English and in Mandarin.
The first sign of discontent came from the parents of P.S. 282, where the school was supposed to share space. They staged protests and besieged Mr. Klein’s office with e-mail messages this winter and spring.
Their litany of complaints was long: They objected to sharing space with another school, particularly with middle and high school students who they said could put their elementary school children in danger. They predicted that class sizes at P.S. 282, now comfortably small, would increase close to capacity. And they were indignant when told that they would have to sacrifice space they used for activities like computer instruction and chess.
“We all just want 282 to remain an elementary school with the same space and services that we have now,” said Xiomara Fraser, the PTA president. “Their interest is getting a whole new school that has nothing to do with this school and that will encroach on our space and disrupt the flow of this school.”
As the efforts by the parents of P.S. 282 stalled, another form of protest was just getting started. Ms. Almontaser had become a high-profile figure in Brooklyn after 9/11 and had spoken in interviews about her embrace of Muslim customs, including wearing a hijab, and how she was a part of the American melting pot.
A Web site called Militant Islam Monitor recently posted side-by-side photographs of Ms. Almontaser wearing different types of headscarves, suggesting that she had changed her appearance to disguise her “Islamist agenda.”
In The New York Sun, a column by Daniel Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum, a conservative research center that says its goal is to promote American interests in the region, declared that “A Madrassa Grows in Brooklyn,” contending that the school would generate problems and promote an “Islamic outlook.”
Mr. Pipes, who lives in Philadelphia, said in a telephone interview, “What you find is that the materials that are included in an Arabic curriculum have a natural tendency to promote Islam.”
A Department of Education spokeswoman said the school would have a standard college preparatory curriculum, with separate Arabic language instruction.
Ms. Almontaser said she planned a curriculum that was not religion-based, and that would include the history and contributions of the Arab people.
Supporters of the school, many of them residents of heavily Muslim communities in Brooklyn, have come out in large numbers to defend Ms. Almontaser.
“It’s just outrageous,” said Mohammad Razvi, the executive director of the Council of Peoples Organization. “It is not fair for anyone to make such negative remarks just because the school is going to be teaching Arabic as a language. She’s a person who brings communities together and makes them understand and works on peace.”
Mr. Razvi said he intends to send his 11-year-old son, Akeel, to Khalil Gibran if it opens this fall.
“People are very much excited, very much encouraged by the school,” said Shamsi Ali, an imam at the Islamic Center on East 96th Street in Manhattan and a member of the advisory board of Khalil Gibran. “After Sept. 11, particularly, Arab communities felt misunderstood. Such a school, I think, will show our good intentions.”
If the school is postponed, it may be because of logistics as much as controversy. Since a location has not been confirmed yet, the Education Department has not been able to accept applications formally. At this point in the year, most fifth graders already know where they will be attending sixth grade in the fall.
“The location right now is being worked on by the Department of Education, and I’m confident that they are working to find us a home that will be embracing and positive,” Ms. Almontaser said.
Meanwhile, the parents of P.S. 282 have labored to distance themselves from the school’s other opponents. Linda Littlefield, a parent and PTA member, said the parents were “horrified” by the ideological opposition by columnists to an Arab language school. “We felt that was so damaging,” she said, emphasizing that the Park Slope parents did not have a problem with the theme of the school, but did not want to share the school itself.
“We don’t talk to them,” Ms. Fraser added of the columnists. “They do what they have to do to sell their papers.”
