Let's Review The Danish Cartoonifada

A series of videos, posted because of the recent South Park cartoonifada.

What is it with Moslems getting so violently offended by CARTOONS, anyway?



More below the fold.


Point:


Counterpoint from Wafa Sultan:


Counterpoint from Ayaan Hirsi Ali:

YouTube link, in case the above video doesn't play properly.

Now, for some reading about the South Park cartoonifada: "Re ‘South Park,’ the Silence of the Media Lambs Continues." Brief excerpt:

...That’s right: an American-born Muslim convert with ties to a small extremist group operating openly in the United States of America can affect the programming policy of a cable comedy network whose headliners — Stone and Parker, and Jon Stewart — pride themselves on their fearless irreverence....

Read sure to read it all.

Northern Virginians will note a connection with Fairfax, Virginia, and George Mason University in that one of the members of Revolution Muslim, namely twenty-year-old Zachary A. Chesser (aka Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee) lives in Fairfax and formerly attended the university. I wonder: Does Abu attend the nearby Dar al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Virginia? Just wondering.

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Virginia Politicians And The Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center (Updated)

About Dar Al-Hijrah (with thanks to Denise), quite the web of Wahhabism (links from Wiki for convenience):

That mosque produced two 9/11 jihadists, one Ft. Hood mass murderer (Maj. Nidal Hasan worshiped there when he was stationed in the D.C. area) and Imam Anwar al Awlaki ,who emailed back and forth, advising Maj. Hasan and also praised the 1999 valedictorian of the in Alexandria Omar Abu Ali (who is now serving a life sentence for his part in joining Al Qaeda and attempting to assassinate President Bush); Al Awlaki glowingly compared Omar Abu Ali to Rosa Parks.

A link to the article associated with the video below the fold.
LINK

So, what's going on in your neighborhood with your politicians? Whose fundraisers are your so-called elected representatives attending?

UPDATE: The only one of the politicians who showed up for the fundraiser at the mosque was Gerry Connolly, representative in the U.S. House and former chairman of the Board of Supervisors of Fairfax County. Figures that he would show up. He was the leader of expand the Islamic Saudi Academy a while back.

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Approval Given For The Expansion Of The Islamic Saudi Academy

Post below the fold so as not to distract too much from my Lizzie Borden Post!

At the madrassah's Popes Head Road location in southern Fairfax County. The narrow country lane is a deathtrap.

The site of this branch of the Islamic Saudi Academy was previously that of Fairfax Christian School, which was always denied any requests for expansion and even for rebuilding a small structure which had burned to the ground.

Atlas Shrugs has the videos.

Jihad Watch also has coverage, and the comments section is quite lively. I contributed to the fray at Jihad Watch, of course.

If the topic of this madrassah interests you, you'll want to check out the above links!

At least the vote for approval wasn't unanimous this time. And a couple of the Board members did go on record with their objections. Previous approvals at the local-government level have always been unanimous.

Last week, Radio Free Dar Al Harb dedicated this edition of the radio show on BTR to discussion of the Islamic Saudi Academy. Yeah, I was there as one of the interviewees.

Regular readers of my posts know that I've been watching the Islamic Saudi Academy for years. In fact, this April 2005 bus accident caused by ISA bus driver Abdelrazeg Abdalla is one of the reaons I jumped into the blogosphere with both feet.

I doubt that this post will be my last regarding the Islamic Saudi Academy. Furthermore, I've heard the law suits against the school are in the works, but I don't know the details.

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Video: Glenn Beck On The Islamic Saudi Academy

(Two postings today. Please scroll down)



A video from some time back and my commentary are below the fold.



As a native of Northern Virginia, I have done extensive research on the Islamic Saudi Academy. 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.

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Yet Another Update On The Islamic Saudi Academy (Links To Videos Added)

(Two posts again today. Please scroll down)

Photo Credit: the Washington Post
Background HERE and HERE - and plenty of it.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors hasn't yet made a decision about the school's expansion. The decision will be made on August 13.

But on this morning's news I heard that the Board will base its decision strictly on zoning regulations - not on the school's curriculum, which has been shown to be Wahhabist in orientation.
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Indeed, barely anyone at the governmental level want to do a damn thing about the school's curriculum. Not the state, not the Virginia Department of education, not the county, not the State Department. Each of those wants to pass the ball to someone else. Consequently, the Islamic Saudi Academy continues to operate with impunity.

The exception: U.S. Representative Frank Wolf. See this posting of September 28, 2008, over at Northern Virginiastan.

I do note this morning that FNC is covering the story. FNC interviewed Frank Gaffney about the Islamic Saudi Academy (aka "Terror High"). Mr. Gaffney recently wrote an essay about the school. The essay is entitled "Welcome to Faisal County." Read the essay HERE.

Must-see videos over at Atlas Shrugs.

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The Islamic Saudi Academy Seeks To Expand

(Note: Two posts today. Please scroll down)

Photo Credit: the Washington Post
I frequently blog about the Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia and situated in compound-like facilities in Fairfax County, Virginia. Previous Always On Watch postings about the Islamic Saudi Academy are HERE and HERE.

Tonight, July 10, 2009 @ 6:00 PM, the school will go before the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, in the final step of approval for expansion of the school's Popes Head Road location.

Yesterday, the following arrived in an email to me:

The Fairfax County government recently sent invitations to a free dinner presentation on Islam as a religion of “peace and harmony” to county churches and to some who have testified against the Academy’s planned expansion in the past. County government personnel and resources were used to distribute the e-mailed invitations.

“The Fairfax County government has been compromised and the Saudis and their radical cohorts are getting their money's worth out of all of their political contributions,” said James Lafferty, chairman of the Virginia Anti-Shariah Task Force. “Churches and synagogues here can’t even get the government to talk to them, let alone help them proselytize.

“Fairfax County government is already following the first rule of Shariah law – Islam is the state religion and the only religion. While brave American men and women are dying to defeat terrorists – spineless Fairfax County politicians turn a deaf ear to terrorism in its midst.”

The email also cited this essay at Townhall.com.

Dhimmiwits at the local-government level!

Considering that at the last hearing, the Zoning Board didn't want to hear anything whatsover about ISA's ideology, curriculum, and well-documented issues of the recent past, all of which you can find in the aforementioned links to previous postings, I predict that the Board of Supervisors will roll over once again and submit to the Wahhabist school, located a few scant miles from our nation's capital.

Some of us here in Northern Virginia are knocking ourselves out in what seems to be a futile attempt to stem the tide of Wahhabism. What we face is a leadership who refuses to face the facts. In fact, on one occasion, a member of that leadership, one Gerry Connolly who was Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and has now been elected to the United States House of Representatives, referred to those testifying against the Islamic Saudi Academy as "slanderous bigots." Lovely, just lovely.

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Eurabia And Amerabia: Two Videos

Meanwhile, closer to home, even as Brits in Luton plan to demonstrate against Al Qaeda on March 28, Fairfax County, Virginia, is considering allowing the expansion of the Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saud Arabia. In the video below, you'll note the black bag walking around starting at time marker 1:29, the Islamic prayer session inside the Fairfax County Government Center, commonly referred to by us county residents as "The Taj Mahal," and all the kaffiyehs, symbols of Pseudostinian solidarity:



Some reading: article about Fairfax County's preferential treatment of the Islamic Saudi Academy. A must read!

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Textbook Revisions At The Islamic Saudi Academy

After years of asserting that no Wahhabist hatred fills the pages of their textbooks (more here), the Islamic Saudi Academy, owned by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, has done some backpedaling.
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From this source:

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) -- An Islamic school in northern Virginia with close ties to the Saudi government has revised its religious textbooks in an effort to end years of criticism that the school fosters hatred and intolerance.

While the Islamic Saudi Academy deleted some of the most contentious passages from the texts, copies provided to The Associated Press show that enough sensitive material remains to fuel critics who claim the books show intolerance toward those who do not follow strict interpretations of Islam.

The academy, which teaches nearly 900 students in grades K-12 at its campus just outside the Capital Beltway, developed new Islamic studies textbooks for all grades after a 2008 congressional report called portions of the previous editions troubling. The school provided the AP copies of the new textbooks, which revise language on hot-button issues such as requiring women to cover their heads and how Muslims should relate to people of other religions.

[...]

The school was founded in 1984 and largely stayed out of the spotlight until the Sept. 11 attacks, which focused attention on the Saudi educational system. In December 2001, two former ISA students, Mohammed El-Yacoubi and Mohammed Osman Idris, were denied entry into Israel when authorities there found El-Yacoubi carrying what the FBI believed was a suicide note linked to a planned martyrdom operation in Israel.

In 2005, a former ISA valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, was convicted in federal court of joining al-Qaida while attending college in Saudi Arabia and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush.

Last year, the school's then-director, Abdalla al-Shabnan, was convicted of failing to report a suspected case of child sex abuse.

Last year also was when the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a report saying the school's textbooks contained several troubling passages, including one saying it is permissible for Muslims to kill adulterers and converts from Islam and another saying "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people."

The new books don't contain those passages. The AP reviewed them with assistance from Ali al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, who has criticized the academy and the books used there and in schools in Saudi Arabia.

[...]

Al-Ahmed, whose group monitors politics and education in the Gulf, said the revised texts now being used at ISA make some small improvements in tone. But he said it's clear from the books that the core ideology behind them -- a puritanical strain of Islam known as Wahhabism that is dominant within Saudi Arabia -- remains intact.

"It shows they have no intention of real reform," al-Ahmed said.

Al-Ahmed cited other passages that, while not offensive, reflect what he sees as a medieval mentality despite the academy's efforts to modernize. One chapter deals extensively with sorcery, for instance, while another warns Muslims to be careful in accepting party and wedding invitations from non-Muslims.

"We don't live in the desert 1,000 years ago," al-Ahmed said. "It's disconnected from today because the authorities themselves are disconnected."

Not all agree wtih Al-Ahmed, as explained below:

Eleanor Doumato, a visiting fellow in international studies at Brown University who reviewed the textbooks at the academy's request, endorsed their contents.

These "books do not contain inflammatory material, nor do they encourage students to exhibit intolerance," she wrote in a letter co-signed by Gregory Starrett, an anthropology professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "In addition, these books counsel patience, gratitude, kindness, honesty and other important moral qualities that are encouraged by Muslims and non-Muslims alike."

Doumato and Starrett were paid by the academy to conduct their review....

The problem all along in dealing with the ISA has been the school's conflict of interest with American values of freedom and democracy.

The school continues to operate. However, according to the article, a review

is being conducted by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a regional accrediting body. The association initiated a review of the school's accreditation status last year, and is looking at the new textbooks as part of its review. Spokeswoman Jennifer Oliver said the review is ongoing.

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More Problems For The Islamic Saudi Academy

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

The problems with the school just keep adding up!

Photo Credit: the Washington Post
From this June 27, 2008 article by Patrick Poole at Pajamas Media (via Jihad Watch):

The controversial school funded by the Saudi Embassy had its corporate charter revoked in 2004 and has never filed required tax forms with the IRS.
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...[A] review of the corporate records on file with the Virginia State Corporation Commission finds that the Islamic Saudi Academy’s corporate charter was terminated by the state on December 27, 2004. There is no indication from state records that the incorporation has been revived or renewed, and the last corporate report the school has filed with the state of Virginia that we could find was 2004 — the same year its corporate charter was terminated. A check of corporations in neighboring District of Columbia and Maryland found nothing for the academy.

[...]

...As the academy has forfeited its Virginia incorporation and is now operating as a d/b/a of the embassy, and considering that the school is funded by the embassy, operates on property owned and leased by the embassy, the embassy speaks publicly on its behalf, and it uses Saudi government curriculum, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that it is solely an entity of the Saudi government controlled entirely by the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC — a position directly in opposition to the present claims of the State Department.

Our investigation also found that at no time has the Islamic Saudi Academy ever filed an IRS Form 990, which is required of every tax exempt organization, including private schools. And according to IRS Publication 78, at no time has the school ever requested or received a tax exemption letter from the IRS. Nor, apparently, has it ever filed corporate taxes with the US government as would be required if it were an entity independent from the Saudi embassy, as it has no recognized tax exemption.

If the school was a separate corporation as State Department officials have repeatedly claimed, it would have to have an active corporate charter (which it doesn’t appear to have since December 2004), and it would either have to file IRS Form 990s if it were operating as a tax exempt organization, or file tax returns if it were operating for-profit. That has not happened in either case according to our investigation. Rather, all evidence indicates that the Saudi Embassy is in full corporate control of the school, and it is operating entirely under its agency, which makes the school subject to the Foreign Missions Act and under the authority of the State Department. If it isn’t part of the Saudi Embassy, it seems that the academy is operating illegally.

This new evidence doesn’t give much leeway to the State Department to shirk the matter.

Read the entire article.

Apparently, in addition to the school's other problems, the school's charter was revoked and some required IRS filings were not done. Surprise, surprise! NOT!

Meanwhile, 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.

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The Islamic Saudi Academy: Fairfax County Backpedals On The Lease (Updated June 25)

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.
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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.

(Crossposted to Infidel Bloggers Alliance and Northern Virginiastan and THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS)

UPDATE FROM THIS ARTICLE IN THE JUNE 25, 2008 EDITION OF THE WASHINGTON TIMES:

Federal officials unable to act
State cites lack of authority

The State Department has no authority to close a Saudi-supported school criticized for violent teachings, a spokesman said Tuesday, despite an official request for guidance from the Northern Virginia county that leases space for the school's main campus....

[...]

"My understanding at this point is that this doesn't come under State Department jurisdiction," Mr. McInturff said. "It would have to be credentialed by the State Department as an embassy or as a consulate. That to my knowledge has not happened to this school."

However, the commission contends the act could give the secretary of state authority to take action to close the school. The act defines a foreign mission in part as "any mission to or agency or entity in the United States which is ... substantially owned or effectively controlled by a foreign government."

Read the entire article at the link for this update.

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Dhimmis At The Local Level

In an astounding display of dhimmitude, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors renewed the Saudi Royal Embassy's $2.2 million lease for the Islamic Saudi Academy in Northern Virginia.

The 45-minute video of the hearing is available HERE; select "Public Hearings" from the May 19 links. Watch it, but take your blood-pressure medication first. Pay particular attention toward the end, when the Board members put on a display of consummate dhimmitude.
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Among the idiotic statements from Board members, who were presented with concerns about the curriculum used at the Islamic Saudi Academy, is the following (paraphrase):

Latin has violence in it too.

Gerry Connolly, the Board Chairman, also stated, in strong terms, that those who voiced concerns about the school were slandering the school, but that such slander came under the right of freedom of speech. His tone was that of scolding those who had taken time from their day to voice their concerns.

Apparently, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors was (1) uncomfortable with the testimony objecting to the lease and (2) conducting a pro forma hearing.

The vote by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to renew the Islamic Saudi Academy's lease for another year was unanimous. Applause followed the Board's decision.

On the May 30, 3008 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, our second guest, John of Radio Free Dar Al Harb, and I discussed the recent hearing held by the Board of Supervisors. As is often the case with Blog Talk Radio, I had some volume issues with my portion of the discussion; nevertheless, listeners can get the gist of what John and I were saying.

Additional reading: A comprehensive posting on the Islamic Saudi Academy is available HERE, at Blue Ridge Forum.

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