There’s been a recent furor in the US media over the Saudi Academy in Norther Virginia after a report [13-page PDF document] by the congressionally funded U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). The report is strongly critical of the Academy but strangely, according to the Arab News piece cited below, never bothered to contact the Academy directly, instead relying on second- and third-hand reports.
The USCIRF report Much is made of the allegation that the Academy is, in fact, an element of the Saudi Embassy in Washington. Only by the narrowest interpretation—one that neglects reality—could this be true. International Schools, including American schools abroad—are usually linked to an embassy. The American schools in Dhahran and Riyadh, for instance, operate as they do because they are under the sponsorship of the US Embassy. They all show the Ambassador as holding the senior-most position on the School Board. The US government, however, is rarely the sole source of funding, instead charging tuition from the non-USG dependents attending the school. I don’t see any material difference between how the Saudi Academy relates to the Saudi Embassy and how the American schools in Saudi Arabia relate to the US Embassy in Riyadh.
Others commenting on the report focus on the fact that one student (Ahmed Omar Abu Ali), convicted of providing support to and receiving support from Al-Qaeda, conspiracy to assassinate the president, conspiracy to hijack aircraft, and conspiracy to destroy aircraft, attended the Academy. He did. But the thousands of other graduates of the Academy have not been charged, indicted, or convicted of anything. Whatever may have turned Abu Ali into a terrorist, it cannot be the Academy on its own.
The report also neglects to notice any of the changes in practices affecting religious freedom that State Department reported in its annual Report on Religious Freedom issued last month. [My summary is here.]
Also missing from the USCIRF report is the fact that there are Christian and Jewish teachers and students at the Academy. There are actually more Christian students at the school that Muslims. That sounds very discordant to the allegations of extreme denigration of other religions.
Saudi Arabia does have a serious problem when it comes to dealing with religions other than Islam. But the Academy in Virginia does not actually seem to be part of that problem.
That said, the headline of this Arab News article is over the top in its own right. The Academy is not about to close or be closed. The legal grounds suggested by the USCIRF report are specious.
Saudi School in US Faces Closure
Barbara Ferguson, Arab NewsWASHINGTON, 19 October 2007 — A federal advisory panel has recommended that an Islamic school supported by the Saudi government should be shut down until the US government can ensure the school is not fostering radical Islam.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom has released a report that criticizes what it calls a lack of religious freedom in Saudi society. The report also says Saudi schools promote religious extremism.
Particular criticism is leveled at the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), a 23-year-old private school serving nearly 1,000 students in grades K-12 on two campuses in northern Virginia’s Fairfax County.
“Significant concerns remain about whether what is being taught at the ISA promotes religious intolerance and may adversely affect the interests of the United States,†the report says.
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October:19:2007 - 15:28
Three of my wife’s family members attended this school, almost a dozen of my friend’s children attend this school and one friend’s wife teaches there now. It just so happens that one of my university level Arabic teaches happened to have taught there for some 20 years, as well as one of the engineers I work with now.
By anyone’s standards it is certainly an element of the Saudi government. It is basically the state run school for Saudi diplomat’s children. This is well known, and I doubt anyone going to the school or working there would deny it.
Just the tuition basics prove this fact. Saudi citizens go there for free, as a benefit of their Saudi citizenship. Not just the children of diplomats, but ALL Saudi children. Their only costs are for transportation, if required, costing about $1,500 a year.
Non Saudi citizens are required to pay about $5,000 a year to attend the school. I am not sure if this includes the transportation costs or not. Almost all of the children of Saudi diplomats go to this school. My two youngest sisters in laws went, with the youngest going from K-12, graduating from there several years ago.
As the majority of kids attending this school are Saudi, despite it’s diveristy, the majority of the funding for the school comes directly from Saudi funds. Also, it must be noted the role that the Saudi government has taken in issues with the school, everything from funding to the proposed purchase of lands for it.
Having said that I find this to be something of a witch hunt. The panel recommends that the school be shut down until they can prove they are not teaching extremism. Since when, in the USA, whether a private person or business, is one required to prove their innocennce before charges are leveled?
If you look at the people employed at the school, as well as the students, you’ll see a wide range of children from multiple backgrounds. You will even find a wide range of students from various religious backgrounds. Hindus, Christians and Muslims all attend this school as well as teach at it.
Why? Because it’s academics are far superior to any public American school. I am an engineer and we have had several students who graduated from ISA come to work for us and they turned out to be excellent.
One of my sister in laws left ISA during her second year in high school. She decided to go to a local public school instead. Academically she was so far advanced from the other students that she was able to finish the rest of her diploma in her junior year and graduate early.
Take a look at any year book from ISA, and I have seen many, you’ll see the range and diversity of it’s students. Also, as a way of pointing out how connected it is to the Saudi government, in at least a couple of them you’ll see large pictures and statements from former Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar.
Non Muslim students are allowed to opt out from religious classes. I can state here that as of a few years ago pretty offensive stuff regarding Christians and Jews were taught in these classes. My step-son attended these classes and made it pretty clear the stuff he saw in text books and the things he was taught in class.
It is also my impression that these materials have been removed from the classrooms and this type of stuff is no longer taught. Like I said before, if the panel or any other part of the US government has a case to make against the school, let them do so. But to throw out vague ideas, mostly based on the practice of schools in Saudi, and then expect someone to prove their own innocence is a bit stupid.
Lets be open and upfront here, lets not play any games. The school is run by the Saudis and primarily funded by the Saudi government. Denying this plays into the hands of the people who do not like Saudis, and hate Islam.
Lets be honest about the fact that some of this offensive stuff was indeed taught at the school, but that it no longer is. The truth here, as always, is somewhere in the middle.
It is in the middle of what you are saying John and what the panel’s report says.
It would be wrong to upend the school and send about 1,000 kids looking for a new school in the middle of the year because of some unfounded and unproven allegations. By all means, if they are still teaching this stuff at ISA, close it down.
When they want to close the school they had better come armed with proof, not just allegations and supposition, which is all they have here.
I have personally been contacted by the national media regarding this issue and have passed on their contact details to former and current members of ISA who will be making their own opinions know.
October:19:2007 - 15:36
By the way, most of what the Arab News is reporting is coming from the AP. As to your assertion that more Christians attend ISA than Muslims, that is just plain false.
Take a look at the year books over the past few years, including last years, and you’ll see there are a lot of Christians, but nothing near a majority. Off the top of my head Muslims would be a clear majority, Hindus coming in second with much smaller percentage, right there with Christian students.
Ethnic make up would probably be about 50-60% Saudi and or Khaliji students, the rest running the range from American to Gujaraty.
Another reason the kids like it so much………they get both Muslim AND Christian holidays off.
John, it is indeed true that some very bad stuff used to be taught about Christians and Muslims. These are the classes that non Muslims were exempt from. My step-son went and told us stories about Christians and Jews being called monkeys, apes and pigs. Keep in mind this was the 1990s however.
Before anything is done we need a full hearing of the facts as they exist today, not in the past.
October:19:2007 - 15:37
opps……….meant to say “some very bad stuff taught about Christians and Jews”. Sorry.
October:20:2007 - 00:36
I’m not denying that the Saudi embassy runs the school. I’m saying, ‘So what!?’ That’s the norm for international schools related to embassies. The US does exactly the same thing with it’s international schools, usually part of the Dept. of Defense school system.
I’m not denying, either, that Saudi schools have had a serious textbook issue. That appears to have changed, at least to a large degree if not completely. That the group did not bother to visit the school before flaying it suggests that they were less than serious.
As far as the composition of the student body, I was only quoting the article: I’ve no personal information.
October:20:2007 - 12:15
I, too, find it incredible that they never visited the school before making pronouncments like this.
I do not see on what legal grounds they could close the school. As usual, people with very little knowledge feel free to write reports that have little or nothing to do with the real world, but more with the way they think it is.
October:20:2007 - 13:25
And for a recent example of this we can look at Congressional grandstanding about the Turks and Armenia.
Why bother doing hard things like thinking when there’s cheap political points to be scored?
There are no legal grounds to close the Saudi Academy. There’s only political arm-twisting populated by boogiemen. Well, Halloween is just around the corner….
October:21:2007 - 11:48
This issue certainly is sensitive to some people. This “award winning columnist and author and member of the Arab American Writers Group” is practically foaming at the mouth about the whole thing.
October:21:2007 - 15:02
Nothing like a good scare to justify another year’s funding!
It’s all twaddle.
October:22:2007 - 13:14
Assuming Abu Sinan’s figures are correct, something like 90% of the funding of the Academy is from the KSA government, so fundraising is not a concern.
The author, Ray Hanania, doesn’t even acknowledge any changes to the Academy’s textbooks or curriculum. Rather, it seems the thrust of Hanania’s article is that CIRF’s criticism of the Academy should be ignored because “there are just as much ugly rhetoric published in pro-Israeli and Israeli textbooks and schools.” Thus the author’s implication is that whatever the Academy is doing that is offensive should continue. He concludes, “It’s all about promoting anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hatred” – meaning, I suppose, that promoting anti-Western and anti-Jewish/Zionist hatred is appropriate material at the Academy.
All in all, an ugly and insensitive response to something that should require cool evaluation. Strange coming from an author more known for his comedy then for his hate.
October:22:2007 - 13:40
Ray does have a point, however. Muslims and Islamic institutions in the USA and the West are being held to a different set of standards than other religious groups.
I think if any of this material remains in Saudi texts at ISA, they should be removed. I also think that religious hatred and intolerance at other religious institutions in the USA should be addressed as well.
Some of the most vile things said in the name of religion I have ever heard have come from right wing evangelical type Christians. I know many who attended these types of schools in the USA and they were taught this stuff as a matter of course.
I hate the double standard at play here.
My wife was talking to a good friend of hers whose 9 year old attends ISA. The lady said that they really do not use text books at all anymore, rather the lessons are based almost completely on hand outs and packets that the teachers, sometimes with the help of the parents, put together.
I’d love to see a study done about the teachings at Christian schools around the country. Some people, besides myself, might be very dismayed at what is taught there.
October:22:2007 - 14:56
Muslims and Islamic institutions in the USA and the West are being held to a different set of standards than other religious groups.
Since 9-11, I think this is a correct approach. It is little different than the extra scrutiny some Christian groups received in the 1990s after the Waco siege and the Oklahoma City bombing. I think one looks for the difference between teaching hatred as a “philosophical” approach – which may be disrespectful of another group, but not threatening – and hatred as in “go out and kill or intimidate”, which is a definite security issue. The Anti-Defamation League is a good organization to contact about such matters.
October:22:2007 - 15:26
I dont think it is correct at all. Either hate speech, and teaching it is wrong, or it isnt. If it is wrong then it all deserves to be treated in the same manner.
I was in the US during the 1990s and didnt notice anything of the kind that you mention. Christian groups were not help up to extra scrutiny. Waco was held to be the work of a cult, not a blemish on all Christians. Interesting to not the contrast, whereas jihadis and violent Islamist are held to be an accurate depiction of Muslims and Islam, violent Christians are always “cultists”.
More to the point, the real Christian nature and motivation of Tim McVeigh is one that has never really been looked at in the USA, and would be denied by all mainstream Christian leaders.
Regulary in the USA right wing/racist/extremist Christian groups are found with explosives, arms staches, even chemical weapons, yet it forms nothing more than a blip on the radar. Heaven forbid if one of these were Muslim.
The Anti Defamation has it’s owm agenda and is hardly a neutral source, although I admit their work on the far right both at home and abroad is good.
I suggest you read up on their materials regarding the far right and their Christian jihadis here in the USA and see if you dont think they are under reported. The ADL sure does.
October:22:2007 - 15:37
There’s still a lot of pathetic crap being taught in some religious schools, but it’s not as bad as it once was. I think the Saudi Academy has cleaned up its materials. I do not respect Nina Shea, however, which makes it easy to disregard the CIRF, unfortunately.
Hanania is an okay comic. Not so great as a political/social commentator, though.
October:22:2007 - 16:01
I was in the US during the 1990s and didnt notice anything of the kind that you mention. Christian groups were not help up to extra scrutiny.
Throughout the Clinton Administration these groups were the main focus of domestic terror investigators. Why would you have noticed? It’s not as if the Timothy McVeigh’s of this world made it a habit to hang around mosques or Muslim religious schools or Arab embassies. Or that Muslims were members of the KKK who burned crosses in front of people’s houses.
Yes, the ADL does think “Christian” (hah!) white-supremacist groups are under-reported. But the ADL people I’ve met seem pleased with how closely these groups are scrutinized by law enforcement (including their schools) and these small small groups currently do not pose the sort of existential threat Al-Qaeda and its allies do. You have already noted that “extremist Christians” (and I’m only aware of individuals, not groups) have been found accumulating weapons. I have not heard of any reports of attacks.
Furthermore, it can be difficult nowadays to take some of these groups seriously. I never saw any KKK people in my life in suburban DC. I only found out about their existence from a Jewish proprietor of a small business, who claimed he finally figured out that the customers who mysteriously dumped their purchases out of his custom plastic bags before they left his store belonged to the KKK. He responded by supplying these specific customers with plain plastic bags and everyone was happy.
October:23:2007 - 02:30
The Klan has pretty much been litigated out of existence in any meaningful way. They lost a major civil suit that bankrupted the national organization. All that’s left are rump groups that are more talk than action, though they occasionally pull off a stunt.
Religious schools should have no trouble teaching that theirs is the ‘best religion’. They should not be demonizing other religions while doing so.
October:23:2007 - 05:00
Religious schools should have no trouble teaching that theirs is the ‘best religion’. They should not be demonizing other religions while doing so.
Should we cheer Charles Manson and his followers, then?
October:23:2007 - 07:50
Solomon,
I wasnt hanging around mosques for most of the 1990s either. I moved to the UK in 1998 and accepted Islam shortly there after. So I am very aware of what was being done in the US about radical Christian and white racial groups, as well as militias, which often had overlapping membership. The answer is very little.
You give more credit to AQ than they are due if you really think they form anything near an existential threat to the USA. We are more than a match for any radical religious group and this kind of talk is nothing more than scaremongering.
You really make me laugh Solomon. So you never saw any KKK people when you were in DC? Well, I guess I might have to disappoint you to let you know that they do not always wear their hoods and robes in day to day life. I bet you saw more than a few, you just didnt recognise them without the robes! LOL! You are a hoot.
Racist and extreme right wingers look just like anyone else. If you think the KKK is an indicator of what the extreme white racialist/Christian movement is in the USA, you are way behind the times.
As for violent racist groups found with stashes of arms and explosives, it happens all of the time. The question you SHOULD be asking is why dont you hear about it?
I think that racist/extremist Christian groups actually pose more of a threat to America than do radical Muslims. Why? Because they have to access and the knowledge that most Muslims do not, yet have the same yearning to slaughter for their religion.
Take a look at the “Turner Diaries” the Bible of the far right. The Oklahoma attack was based partly on this work. The dream of all far right Christian extremists is very similar to that expressed in the book. Driving a truck full of explosives into a federal building, the FBI if at all possible, and blowing it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_Diaries
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE1DB103AF935A15752C0A967958260
http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/covenantswordarmlaw.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Covenant,_The_Sword,_and_the_Arm_of_the_Lord
October:23:2007 - 08:10
Only if you think Manson’s ‘religion’ represents a serious and immediate threat should it be demonized. Otherwise, marvel and pity seem adequate.
October:23:2007 - 09:51
No. If nothing can be rejected, then everything is accepted, and nothing is immoral. Intellectual debate becomes stifled by whoever is loudest, and what is accepted in society will change to accomodate such voices – a form of intimidation by an implicit fear of or actual violence. Thus, the society that rejects hate will become ruled by fear, until it learns to hate living in fear once more – and you’ve gone full circle. This is not a new observation.
October:23:2007 - 10:15
Solomon, once again you are way off in left field. No one here has stated that nothing can be rejected, you are pulling things out of your………..hat.