For Immediate Release:
Contact: Pamela Hall
info@stopthemadrassa.org
COALITION DEMANDS THE RESIGNATION OF IMAM TALIB ABDUL-RASHID, CALLS FOR MORE ARABIC CLASSES IN 2008-2009, AND ANNOUNCES THE AMERICAN PATRIOT YOUTH LIBRARY FOR KGIA
The Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition announces three Back-to-School Initiatives.
First, the Stop the Madrassa Coalition demands the resignation from the KGIA Advisory Council of Imam Talib Abdul-Rashid, Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Harlem. The Imam is unfit to serve in any capacity in a public school system, since he insists on teaching that Muslims came to America before other explorers and derides any other history as “European imperialistic notions of history rooted in White Supremacy,” as well as opposing celebrating Thanksgiving as “European colonial misguidance."The Imam’s mosque, the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood, Harlem has a logo that is a sword with the words “There is no deity but God and Muhammad is his prophet.” The Mosque’s slogan on the “About”page at their website is, verbatim, the Muslim Brotherhood slogan: “Allah is our goal, The Prophet Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullah is our leader, The Qu’ran is our constitution, Jihad is our way, And death in the way of Allah is our promised end.”
This radical Imam’s participation in the design and governance of the KGIA is yet another proof that this school should be stopped before it opens. The Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition speaks for Americans across the country who oppose the use of taxpayer funds for what would amount to dangerous Islamist schools in New York City or their own neighborhoods. To ensure that does not happen in Brooklyn, the Coalition calls upon Mayor Bloomberg and New York City Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein not to open the Khalil Gibran International Academy.
Second, the Stop The Madrassa Community Coalition calls on the New York City Department of Education to begin the planning process now for the 2008-2009 school year, to increase by at least 300% the number of secular high school Arabic language instruction classes from the number now available in the 2007-2008 school year. Only two high schools - Stuyvesant and Fort Hamilton - now offer classes in Arabic language instruction,according to a May 7, 2007 letter from New Schools Executive Garth Harries. Since July 27, 2007, we have urged the NYC Department of Education to provide more Arabic classes. The Department of Education can move on from the debacle they have created with the KGIA fiasco, by developing a specific plan for increasing the number of elective, non-religious, non-Islamic, non-ideological Arabic classes, to be taught according to college preparatory standards and by background-checked teachers, with additional curricula criteria to be determined by experts in the field.
Third, we are launching today the American Patriot Youth Library (APYL). We want the students currently scheduled to attend KGIA to have a special library of books about America, to counteract the kinds of Islamist propaganda KGIA Advisory Council Imam Al-Hâjj Tâlib ‘Abdur-Rashîd teaches. We hope that when KGIA is closed - and it will be, sooner or later - the books can go with the children to their new and better schools, or home for them to keep. Think of it as America’s Back-To-School resistance to radical Islam in our schools.
We want them to have the kind of books we would buy our own children and grandchildren, especially if we thought they were at risk of being exposed to this kind of propaganda. Books about American History, Biography and Geography that aren’t filtered through the philosophy of the Muslim Brotherhood (on the website of KGIA adviser Abdur-Rashid) and CAIR-NY (a founder of the American Muslim Association of Lawyers, KGIA partners listed in the “KGIA Executive Summary”).
So today we invite New York City’s parents and grandparents - as well as families across America - to help us with the purchase of a book for Khalil Gibran International Academy, from the online American Patriot Youth Library (APYL) . We’ve selected an Amazon.com wish list of 76 books (to commemorate that great date 1776) in American History, Biography and Geography. You can help by purchasing one book or several, to give the kids at KGIA a view of America that reflects our history, our pride in our country and our ideals.
We’ll deliver the books before school starts. These students deserve the best education New York City and America can provide, and they won’t get it at KGIA. Here’s the direct link to the American Patriot Youth Library website at Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/39YBRT9MWSGGU/.
