Opponents of the Islamic Saudi Academy howled with derision when supporters of the Richmond Highway facility defended their school Tuesday night, Oct. 19. One man shouted “bravo” and “encore” after every speech deriding the institution as a “terrorist training cell” or a “threat to America.” Several people booed and hissed at the elected officials behind the dais at the Fairfax County Government Center. Tensions grew so thick at one point that Supervisor Gerry Hyland (D-Mount Vernon) threatened to walk out of the public hearing rather than have it hijacked by a vocal group of opponents.
In the end, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to extend the annual lease of county-owned land at 8333 Richmond Highway to Saudi Arabia. The agreement will generate $2.6 million for the county, with an option to raise the rate 5 percent in two following years. Hyland said that he was sympathetic to those who raised concerns about the school, including several speakers noting of Ahmend Abus Ali, the Islamic Saudi Academy graduate who was convicted of trying to kill former President George W. Bush.
“I have a problem with that,” Hyland told opponents shortly after offering a motion to extend the lease. “So do you.”
The building on Richmond Highway was originally constructed by Fairfax County Public Schools. But by the late 1980s it was in disrepair and the school system decided it no longer needed the facility. In 1989, the county executed the first lease with the royal embassy of Saudi Arabia doing business as the Islamic Saudi Academy. The terrorist attacks in 2001 changed the perception of many Fairfax County residents, however. Now detractors say the school is indoctrinating a generation of radical Islamic terrorists who will try to implement Sharia law in America.
“Their graduates are a rogues gallery of people who spend their weekends photographing bridges,” said James Lafferty, chairman of the Virginia Anit-Shariah Task Force. “Get as tough with those people as you do the people who aren’t cleaning up their front yards.”
THE SUPERVISORS docketed the academy’s lease agreement at the end of a daylong session, which included several blight declarations. A handful of speakers expressed alarm that the county was willing to take action against landlords who are unwilling to improve their property yet allow the academy to maintain operations. Others said they are still angry about the lease agreement supervisors approved two years ago.
“We’re mad as hell,” said Denise Lee of Act for America. “And we’re not going to take it anymore.”
School officials explained that they are not expecting to use the Richmond Highway facility for the long term. The academy has another site on Pope’s Head Road in Fairfax Station, and school officials say they are looking at other potential locations throughout the county. Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay said he was pleased the school system is examining the potential for doing something with the property after the academy’s lease expires.
“We don’t have a magnet school for the arts in this county,” said McKay, whose district is across the street from the facility. “This would be an ideal location.”
Many speakers who opposed the lease extension said they are concerned the school’s textbooks may be teaching children to kill Christians, Jews and Americans. One woman waved a sheet of paper she said was an instruction on how to remove hands and feet of infidels. Another speaker placed several dimes on the podium, which he said was a reference to the 30 pieces of silver paid to Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus Christ.
“This is a public safety problem,” said Thomas Cranmer of Great Falls. “Would you approve a lease to a Nazi organization that wanted to put Jews in gas chambers?
WHEN THE SPEECHES were over and it was time for the supervisors to consider the lease, Hyland produced several letters of support for the organization, which included the two neighborhood associations closest to the school. He also said he received letters of support from a handful of local businesses, and that he only heard from two constituents opposing the lease extension. The supervisor said the academy has been located on Richmond Highway for most of his time in elected office and that the school is widely considered a good neighbor in Mount Vernon.
“This school has been a darn good neighbor to the citizens that live closes to it,” said Hyland. “The academy is not going to be there forever. We know that.”
John Cook (R-Braddock) offered a motion that would have denied the lease extension in favor of finding an ultimate disposition of the property. Pat Herrity (R-Springfield) agreed with Cook, pointing out that the way agreement is worded the matter would be docketed for another public hearing until four years had elapsed. But a majority of supervisors moved forward with extending the lease, giving school officials more time to find an alternative location for the part of the Islamic Saudi Academy located on Richmond Highway.
“We will work to oust you,” said Jerry O’Dell after the public hearing concluded. “Down with the tyrants who sit on our board.”
