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Planting Posinous Plants in Our OWN Garden — Wednesday, November 28, 2007 How DUMB are we?? How MUCH to we Care????   Islamic Academy in U.S. Under Fire By MATTHEW BARAKAT, AP Posted: 2007-11-24 22:57:01
ALEXANDRIA, Va. Yes, people, Alexandria, VA, as in United State of America..........on OUR home turff!!!!!!!!
(Nov. 24) - Its most virulent critics have dubbed it "Terror High," and 12 U.S. senators and a federal commission want to shut it down.
 The teachers, administrators and some 900 students at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County have heard the allegations for years — after the Sept. 11 attacks and then a few years later when a class valedictorian admitted he had joined al-Qaida.
Now the school is on the defensive again, with a report issued last month by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom saying the academy should be closed, pending a review of its curriculum and textbooks.
Abdalla al-Shabnan, the school's director general, says criticism of the school is based not on evidence, but on preconceived notions of the Saudi educational system.
The school, serving grades K-12 on campuses in Fairfax and Alexandria, receives financial support from the Saudi government, and its textbooks are based on Saudi curriculum. Critics say the Saudis propagate a severe version of Islam in their schools.
But al-Shabnan said the school significantly modified those textbooks to remove passages deemed intolerant of other religions. Among the changes, officials removed from teachers' versions of first-grade textbooks an excerpt instructing teachers to explain "that all religions, other than Islam, are false, including that of the Jews, Christians and all others."
At an open house earlier this month in which the school invited reporters to tour the school and meet students and faculty, al-Shabnan seemed weary of the criticism.
"I didn't think we'd have to do this," he said of the open house. "Our neighbors know us. They know the job we are doing."
Indeed, many people familiar with the school say the accusations are unfounded. Fairfax County Supervisor Gerald Hyland, whose district includes the academy, has defended it and arranged for the county to review the textbooks to put questions to rest. That review is under way. The academy's Alexandria campus is leased from Fairfax County.
Schools that regularly compete against the academy in interscholastic sports — many of them small, private Christian schools — are among the academy's strongest defenders.
Robert Mead, soccer coach at Bryant Alternative High School, a public school in the Alexandria section of Fairfax county, said the academy's reputation has been unfairly marred by people who haven't even bothered to visit the school.
"We've never had one altercation" with the academy's players on the soccer field, Mead said. "My guys are hostile. Their guys keep fights from breaking out."
The academy opened in 1984 and stayed out of the spotlight until the Sept. 11 attacks. Criticisms were revived in 2005, when a former class valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was charged with joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia. He was convicted on several charges, including plotting to assassinate President Bush, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Most recently, the religious freedom commission — an independent federal agency created by Congress — issued its report, saying it was rebuffed in its efforts to obtain textbooks to verify claims they had been reformed.
The commission recommended that the academy be shut down until it could review the textbooks to ensure they do not promote intolerance.
Since the commission's report, the academy has given copies of its books to the Saudi embassy, which then provided them to the State Department. The commission is waiting to get the books from the State Department.
On Nov. 15, a dozen U.S. senators, including Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., wrote a letter to the State Department urging it to act on the commission's recommendations. And on Tuesday, Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Steve Israel, D-N.Y., introduced legislation to write the commission's recommendations regarding the academy into law.
Michael Cromartie, the commission's chairman, said he does not question the character of the student body or the faculty, most of whom are Christian. The commission is focused specifically on the textbooks, and has legitimate concerns given the problems that have been endemic in the Saudi curriculum, he said.
"It's not about whether the students are civil to their opponents on a ball field. It's about the textbooks," he said.
At the open house, seniors said they worry that news accounts will hurt their college applications. Most students said they were shocked that the government panel had recommended closing the school.
Omar Talib, a senior, said the school caters to students from across the Muslim world, not just Saudis. It makes no judgments on other religions or against Shiite Islam, as some critics have contended.
"I have four children at this school. I've never heard them say 'Mom, today we learned we should kill the Jews,'" said Malika Chughtai of Vienna. "If I heard that kind of talk, I would not have them here."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 2007-11-24 16:15:25
 Let me guess.........they are "peaceful"????
Bull................!
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, once a valedictorian at the school, was charged in Saudi Arabia two years ago with taking part in an al-Qaida plot to assassinate President Bush. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Sources: AP, C
And PEOPLE..................what do you think, these Musim/Islamic children, are being taught at their homes????? That go to school and are friends with your children, perhaps????? Right! THE SAME THING!!!!!!! Can't everyone see the forest???? Or ...........is the trees blocking your view??????
be blessed.......
haney
A Face of a Killer....this is SAD!!
A sceen shot of the shooter's video AFP / Getty Images
Nine Die in School Shooting in Finland
By MARIUS TURULA, AP Posted: 2007-11-07 17:02:27 Filed Under: World News TUUSULA, Finland
(Nov. 7) - An 18-year-old student opened fire in a Finnish high school Wednesday, killing seven students and the principal before turning the gun on himself, police said. The teenager, who was not identified, shot himself in the head but survived for a time. He died at Toolo Hospital, chief doctor Eero Hirvensalo said. The attack at Jokela High School in Tuusula, some 30 miles north of the capital, Helsinki, shocked the Nordic nation, where gun ownership is fairly common by European standards but deadly shootings are rare. Finnish media reported that in 1989 a 14-year-old boy shot and killed two students, apparently for teasing him. Police said at a news conference after the attack that the gunman in Wednesday's attack shot the victims — five boys, two girls and the female principal — with a .22-caliber pistol. About a dozen other people were injured as they tried to escape the school, police said. "He was from an ordinary family," police chief Matti Tohkanen said about the gunman, who belonged to a gun club and got a license for the pistol Oct. 19. He did not have a previous criminal record, he said. Finnish media said the shooter revealed his plans in a YouTube posting before the attack. The video, titled "Jokela High School Massacre," showed a picture of a building by a lake that appeared to be the high school, along with two photos of a young man holding a handgun. The person who posted the video was identified in the user profile as an 18-year-old man from Finland. The posting was later removed. The profile contained a text calling for a "revolution against the system." Another YouTube video clip showed a young man clad in a dark jacket loading a clip into a handgun and firing several shots at an apple placed on the ground in a forested area. He smiled and waved to the camera at the end of the clip. A third clip showed photos of what appeared to be same man posing with a gun and wearing a T-shirt with the text "Humanity is overrated." Police said they would investigate any possible connection the gunman might have had to the video. Terhi Vayrynen, 17, a student at the school told The Associated Press that her brother Henri Vayrynen, 13, and his classmates had witnessed the shooting of the principal outside the school through the classroom window. She said the gunman then came into Henri Vayrynen's class shouting: "Revolution! Smash everything!" When no one did anything, he shot the TV and the windows of the class room but did not fire at the students. The he ran out and down the corridor, Terhi Vayrynen said. Kim Kiuru, a teacher at the school, said the principal announced over the public address system just before noon that all students should remain in their classrooms. "After that I saw the gunman running with what appeared to be a small-caliber handgun in his hand through the doors toward me after which I escaped to the corridor downstairs and ran in the opposite direction," Kiuru told reporters. Kiuru said he saw a woman's body as he fled the building. "Then my pupils shouted at me out of the windows to ask what they should do and I told them to jump out of the windows ... and all my pupils were saved," Kiuru said. More than 400 students, from 12 to 18, were enrolled at Jokela, officials said. Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen described the situation as "extremely tragic," and declared Thursday a day of national mourning with flags to be flown half-staff.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 2007-11-07 11:16:04
So.......we don't even take the time to see these kids for WHAT they NEED!!! I know one person can't do it all........but, a bunch of us together can try. And yet there are people in this day & time........that WANT to take what HOPE we have left in this world.......AWAY!!!!! With such comments as these................ and this one  WHICH............INFURIATED......me!!!!!!!!!!!! How dare them, try and take what lil' hope this ol' crazy world has. Our kids today, ........if they don't have the human companionship they need, DON'T ...... DO NOT take away the hope of God or Angels watching over them!!!!!! How cruel can you be????? Besides the point, that it's the TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!! But, I'm sure you'll never believe that. But, that is your choice. Don't take it away, from someone else!!!!!!!!!
It is VERY hard for me to say this, to any of the creators of such herisary!!!!!!!! But, here goes.........
be blessed........ haney  This is NO Myth..........it IS FACT!!!!!!!!!!!!
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