FINALLY! THE WAHHABIST MADRASSAH IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA GETS SOME MEDIA SCRUTINY!

A video from some time back:



As a native of Northern Virginia, I have done extensive research on the Islamic Saudi Academy. See HERE, HERE, and HERE. In fact, it was this 2005 bus accident which brought me into the blogosphere:

"In yesterday's crash of the private school bus, the driver, Abdelrazeg Abdalla, 31, of Falls Church, was charged with several counts, including operating the Islamic Saudi Academy bus on a suspended license."

"Investigators said Abdalla's driving privileges had been suspended at 12:01 a.m. yesterday because of insurance-related issues. He was fired by school administrators shortly after the charges -- including citations for reckless driving and driving a vehicle with faulty equipment -- were issued.

"They determined that the bus had little or no brakes at all and that the tires were in fact bald," said Alexandria Police Capt. John Crawford, adding that investigators found skid marks to suggest that Abdalla tried to apply the brakes.

[...]

Abdalla was hired as a driver in August after a comprehensive background check that he said included a search for any past convictions and "points on his license."

But a check of court records in Virginia revealed seven past charges, including several traffic violations for speeding and crossing a double yellow line. Several of the charges had been dismissed.

Abdalla also had a misdemeanor conviction in Fairfax for abducting his estranged wife and 3-month-old daughter at knifepoint. He had originally been charged with felony kidnapping, but friends and family -- including his wife -- wrote letters of support to the court on Abdalla's behalf, and he agreed to plead guilty in May 2003, after nearly three months in jail, to a reduced charge of misdemeanor assault and battery.

After his release, Abdalla was picked up by Department of Homeland Security officials and detained for about six months, according to court records. It could not be determined why he was detained.

There are plenty of skeletons in the ISA's closet and plenty of grounds not to allow the school's expansion. Indeed, the school should never have been allowed here in the first place.

BACKLASH IN FAIRFAX COUNTY?

Last November 4, Democrat Gerry Connolly, for some years the Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, overwhelmingly won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On February 3, Fairfax County held a special election to fill Connolly's seat on the Board. Although Democrat Sharon Bulova won that seat, the vote was much closer than expect in a county which has been strongly liberal for decades:

"In November, we got our clocks cleaned," [chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Party] Bedell said. "Three months later, even in a special [election], this was a squeaker. That's good news for Republicans."

Leaders of both parties noted that Republicans turned out in greater proportions than Democrats....

A lifelong local here in Northern Virginia, I didn't expect Republican Pat Herrity to garner some 49% of the votes in this special election. Clearly, he was running as the underdog in this special election.

In other words, the Republican candidate for Tuesday's special election outperformed his opponent by a much larger margin than expected.

Sign of a coming sea change?

AL-JAZEERA REPORTS ON THE ISLAMIC SAUDI ACADEMY IN FAIRFAX COUNTY, VIRGINIA

I have previously posted about the Islamic Saudi Academy here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS.

Go HERE to see the MEMRI clip of Al-Jazeera's report on the Islamic Saudi Academy. At marker 2:28 on the clip, you will hear the word "madrassah," defined as follows by the American Heritage Dictionary:

A building or group of buildings used for teaching Islamic theology and religious law, typically including a mosque.

Those who have read this web page by Daniel Pipes, also know about other connotations for the word "madrassah."

The Islamic Saudi Academy (a madrassah) is coming under long-needed scrutiny. At this point, a Google search of the school yields over 9000 hits, and the number of hits increases every day.

Predictably, Moslems are complaining about the scrutiny of the school, never mind ISA's broken promises about revising the offending textbooks as well as various other problems at the school. From the MEMRI transcript for the above-linked video:

[T]his is a nightmare for the families of the students enrolled in the academy. This pressure is exerted by several Congressmen, known for their great hostility towards Arabs and Muslims.

[...]

What should be said about a commission that some say is unconstitutional and contradicts the very meaning of its name? This commission [which recently issured the report on the textbooks] calls upon all countries of the world to respect freedom of religion there, while the commission itself violates this freedom on its own land.

Um, ISA supporters, remove the beam from your own eye before trying to remove the speck from another's eye.

THE ISLAMIC SAUDI ACADEMY: FAIRFAX COUNTY BACKPEDALS ON THE LEASE

Photo Credit: the Washington Post


Background: Previous Always On Watch postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy are HERE and HERE.

From this article in the June 24, 2008 edition of the Washington Post:

Fairfax County leaders asked U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday to determine whether the county should continue leasing property to the Islamic Saudi Academy following controversy surrounding the school's teachings.

With unanimous support from the county's Board of Supervisors, Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D) sent a letter to Rice "formally requesting" that the State Department provide direction regarding the county's one-year lease renewal, approved last month, with the Saudi Arabian government for operation of the academy.

You might recall from earlier postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy that previously the County supervisors voted unanimously to renew the school's lease and called citizens who voiced concerns about the school "bigots engaged in slander." You can watch the May 19 pro forma hearing at the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors HERE; select "Public Hearings" from the May 19 links.

Continuing now with the above-cited Washington Post article:

At issue are recent reviews of teaching materials concluding that some textbooks used by the Islamic school in Fairfax contain language intolerant of Jews and other groups as well as passages that could be construed as advocating violence.

Read the entire report from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom HERE. The report is damning!

Please watch this NBC 4 video of June 23, 2008. The video is approximately three minutes in length.

THE ISLAMIC SAUDI ACADEMY

The Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia and situated in Northern Virginia, is in more hot water -- or should be. Please see this report just released about the textbooks being used at ISA.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors refused to heed citizens' concerns in a May 19 hearing to renew the lease to ISA. Indeed, those citizens who took time from their day to testify before the Board were termed "slanderous bigots" by Board Chairman Gerry Connolly, who is now the Democratic Party's nominee for our Congress's House of Representatives.

In addition, this damning report also came out about the Islamic Saudi Academy -- after the lease was unanimously approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

WILL DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY BE THE DEFENSE?

The Islamic Saudi Academy, a Northern Virginia school owned and operated by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia and an institution originally founded to education the children of embassy officials and staff, may have run into some legal trouble over allegations of not reporting sexual abuse. Not only that, but apparently the school's director also attempted to delete the computer records of the child's claim.

Read the story HERE.