Author:
Publication: WorldNetDaily.com
Date: February 24, 2003
Daniel Pipes compares American Islamic
schools with the madrassas of Pakistan, known to be hatcheries for future
terrorists
An Islamic school has removed alleged
terrorist co-conspirator Sami Amin al-Arian from its board of trustees,
the Florida school's principal told WorldNetDaily.
But his instrumental role at the
Tampa school raises disturbing questions about the use of mosques and schools
in America by terrorist sympathizers as fronts or bases of operation for
terrorist groups and their activities, experts say.
The Islamic Academy of Florida,
which al-Arian founded, also removed Sameeh Hammoudeh from its board. He
was named Thursday along with al-Arian, a college professor, and several
others in a federal indictment charging the men conspired to aid Palestinian
suicide bombers in Israel.
"We have already replaced them,"
said IAF Principal Abdul Majid Biuk, who maintained that the two are no
longer affiliated in any way with the academy, which was named in the indictment
as a "base of support" for Hamas fund-raising and other terrorist-related
activities.
He would not release the names of
the new board members, however.
"I cannot give you this information,"
Biuk said. "We will issue this information to our parents. That's all we
need to do."
IAF's website lists al-Arian as
its "founder and senior adviser," as well as a voting member of its board.
It also lists him as chairman of the K-12 school's Budget and Financial
Affairs Committee and chairman of its Facilities, Maintenance, Safety and
Transportation Committee. Hammoudeh headed IAF's Personnel Committee, according
to the website.
Al-Arian, who was born in Kuwait
to Palestinian parents, also was the academy's principal at one time, and
maintained an office there. He founded the school more than 10 years ago
as part of the Al-Qassam Mosque in Tampa, which was named after a mosque
in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Arian's brother-in-law, Mazen
al-Najjar, a Palestinian refugee, previously served as the school's principal,
until the INS arrested and deported him for visa violations and alleged
terrorist ties. Al-Arian is a permanent resident, but not a U.S. citizen.
His wife, Nahla, was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian parents.
Last week's federal indictment says
al-Arian was the school's "director" through at least June 2002. It also
says Hammoudeh was employed by IAF as its "treasurer."
What's more, the indictment cites
tax-exempt IAF as part of the defendants' criminal "enterprise," noting
that both men solicited donors for the school through various fund-raisers,
and then funneled some of the donations to organizations tied to Middle
East terrorism. Specifically, the indictment charges IAF offices were used
as a "base of support" and fund-raising for terrorist-related activities.
Federal investigators questioned
many of the 400 or so members of the mosque and the school's administrators,
donors and parents. IAF recently installed security surveillance cameras
on its six-acre campus, located along a dead-end street near the University
of South Florida, where al-Arian taught engineering. Neighbors reportedly
also were interviewed.
"I live next to the mosque and school
founded and run by al-Arian and have waited a long time to see something
happen at both," a neighbor said. "I could tell there was evil amok."
Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle
East Forum, says the school's role in alleged terrorist activities raises
larger questions about Islamic education in America.
Based on a prominent Muslim leader's
recent estimate that some 80 percent of American mosques are dominated
by radicals, logic suggests that the majority of Islamic schools also are
run by such radicals, Pipes says.
"I think one can extend that to
Islamic community centers and schools," he said in a WorldNetDaily interview.
"From what I can tell, the majority of them are founded by people like
al-Arian."
"Most of them, presumably, are not
actively engaged in planning and funding terrorism," he said. "But they
have great sympathy for that general point of view."
Pipes added: "This is a problem
that has not surfaced until now, but one that we should be focusing on."
If extremists are running most Islamic
schools, what are they teaching students? More than likely to hate Israel,
America and any other society that is not governed by Koranic law, says
Pipes, a Ph.D. Harvard historian.
In a 1988 speech in Cleveland, al-Arian
declared "Death to Israel!" And in a 1991 speech at the end of the Gulf
war, he pronounced, "Let us damn America, let us damn Israel, let us damn
them and their allies to death."
IAF's website gives no evidence
of such vitriol. It says it teaches young Muslims to "function constructively
in the American society." And a recent newsletter to parents highlights
student field trips to American historic sites.
However, disparaging references
to Israel and Jews have turned up in textbooks used by schoolmasters at
Saudi-run schools in the U.S. Such references are supported by passages
in the Koran. It's not clear what textbooks IAF uses. Biuk, the school's
principal, would not comment.
"I have nothing more to say to you,"
he said.
But IAF's website lists among the
school's goals and objectives to "shape morals and motives based on Islam."
It also stresses "raising children with [the] Quran as their Guidance."
Under "Islamic Philosophy," it encourages
parents to educate their children in the Islamic school, because devout
children will raise "your levels in paradise higher and higher," a reference
to the apparent caste system in the Quranic version of heaven.
"It will also increase the odds
that they will join them in paradise when they also die, the section adds:
"Some parents who would be residing in paradise, with of course the mercy
of Allah, would wish very eagerly that their children be there with them
too."
The website says "Allah will please
these parents by making their children join the family," at which point
it cites a Quranic passage (52:21). "To benefit from this open invitation
and eternal promise of Allah, Islamic education becomes a must, and Islamic
schools a necessity."
The Islamic studies curriculum at
IAF includes: "Qur'anic Studies, Aqeedah, Fiqh, Seerah, Hadith, Islamic
Civilization and the Arabic language."
Students who violate the school's
disciplinary code are made to copy page after page of text from the Quran.
Pipes says IAF and other Islamic
schools in American could be operating much like the madrassas of Karachi,
Pakistan, which are known to be hatcheries for future terrorists. The madrassas
require boys to memorize the many violent passages of the Quran, particularly
ones related to martyrdom and "fighting the unbelievers in the cause of
Allah." The unbelievers include Jews and Christians.
"They certainly could be," he said.
"There are many of us who are worried about this."
