The Joys of Diversity: 'Every Day, They're Fighting'

The daily terror at the Intifada High School. Sounds like a lovely learning environment.

The Muslim principal who cried "bomb!" in a crowded school has left chaos and violence in the classrooms she created. And now, she's moved a step closer to returning.

It is against this tumultuous backdrop that we learn Brooklyn's Khalil Gibran International Academy -- founded in 2007 by firebrand ex-Principal Debbie Almontaser as the city's first public Arabic-themed school -- this year has suspended more than one-third of its student body for infractions ranging from hitting to weapons.

"Every day, they're fighting," said Voneeda Black, who nervously sends her 6-year-old to the elementary school with which Gibran shares a building.

"You don't see parents," she said. "Three or four times a week, there are cops here, if not more."

It may be the worst record in the city. So how did this happen?

Two and a half years ago, the hijab-wearing Almontaser invented the academy as a way to foster peace and understanding. But she was promptly removed, stuck elsewhere in the school system. She cried "unfair!"

Then, last week, Almontaser won a crucial ruling that could help bring her back. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the school system discriminated against Almontaser's race and religion. Fired, for being an Arab.

Rubbish.

Almontaser was tossed after she proclaimed, in a detailed interview with this newspaper, that the term "intifada" -- which has led to mass murder, both downtown and in the Middle East -- does not equal bloody uprising. She defined the hot-button word as a benign "shaking off" of oppression. Particularly against girls. As if American girls are worse off than those in, say, her native Yemen.

Even accepting Almontaser's word that she's no radical, her comments suggest a tolerant, morally relativistic view of violence, for which there is no place in our schools. The commission didn't see it that way.

Almontaser has expressed utter joy to have -- finally! -- scored a victory in her claim to have been oppressed. The ruling, at the very least, will cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in settlement and legal fees, as it breathes life into Almontaser's lawsuit. At worst, she'll be back.

So I think it appropriate to take a hard look at Gibran -- a school founded on the flawed notion that segregating Arabists will lead to harmony.

Since it opened, the tiny school on the edge of DUMBO has had one of the city's highest rates of violence. A teacher was taunted by kids as a "terrorist" in 2008. It's gotten steadily worse.

More than a third -- one in three! -- of Gibran's 114 students, grades six through eight, have been suspended this year, according to the Department of Education.

Twenty-two were yanked from school for five days. Eight kids were considered so rowdy or dangerous, they were banned from class six to 10 days.

Nineteen fights led to student injuries or intimidation. In two other cases, weapons were used. This number has climbed from last year's 17 violent incidents and 26 suspensions.

And the school year isn't over yet.

The best part? We're paying for it.

Won't be long until they start receiving awards for their commitment to diversity.

'Intifada NYC' Principal Sues NYC

Gee, never saw this coming.

The founding principal of the city’s first Arabic-language school has filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court against the city’s Education Department, Chancellor Joel I. Klein and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, claiming that they violated her right to free speech and “conspired to deny her the opportunity to regain her position as principal” of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, in Brooklyn. The principal, Debbie Almontaser, resigned under pressure this summer, following a furor that erupted after she was quoted in The New York Post defending the use of the word “intifada” on a T-shirt sold by a Brooklyn-based organization of Arab women. Last month, Ms. Almontaser said she was a victim of a smear campaign by conservatives and would apply to get her job back. But Education Department officials said they would not consider her application among the 25 others that were submitted at the time.

Waaaah!

Previous items on this fraud here.

Former Intifada NYC Principal: I'm the Victim

We figured she wouldn't go quietly.

Principal of Arabic School Says She Was Forced Out

Debbie Almontaser, who resigned under fire from her position as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, the city’s Arabic-themed school, spoke out publicly for the first time today since her case attracted headlines and protests from opposing sides. Ms. Almontaser, a Yemeni-American with an extensive record of educational and community work in Brooklyn, stepped down on Aug. 10 amid a controversy that erupted after she was quoted defending the use of the word “intifada” as a T-shirt slogan.

Ms. Almontaser released a prepared statement through her lawyer and later read the statement from the steps of City Hall in a news conference that started soon after 5 p.m. In the statement, she said that she was forced to participate in an interview with The New York Post, that the newspaper misrepresented her views and that city officials then threatened to shut down the academy if she did not resign.

Cry me a river.

She also blames Stop the Madrassa and Daniel Pipes.

Leading the attack was the “Stop the Madrassa Coalition” run by Daniel Pipes, who has made his career fostering hatred of Arabs and Muslims. The coalition conducted a smear campaign against me and the school that was ferocious. Members of the coalition stalked me wherever I went and verbally assaulted me with vicious anti-Arab and anti-Muslim comments. They suggested that, as an observant Muslim, I was disqualified from leading KGIA, even though the school is rigorously secular, and its namesake, Khalil Gibran, was a Lebanese Christian. To stir up anti-Arab prejudice, they constantly referred to me by my Arabic name, a name that I do not use professionally. They even created and circulated a YouTube clip depicting me as a radical Islamist.

Then the evil bloggers took over and she was history.

Previous items on Almontaser here.

H/T Hot Air.

Intifada NYC T-Shirts a Hot Item

I figured this would happen when news first broke about these t-shirts, as there are enough Islamist sympathizers, Jew-haters and leftwing nuts that would be proud to wear something so offensive.

Proving again that even bad publicity can be good for business, the group that created "Intifada NYC" T-shirts is being swamped with requests for its controversial fashion statement.

The shirts, produced by Arab Women Active in Arts & Media, made headlines after Debbie Almontaser, the first principal of a controversial Arabic-themed city school, defended them.

The furor led to her resignation as principal of Khalil Gibran International Academy on Aug. 10.

"Good question. No comment," was all Erica Waples, an organizer with AWAAM, had to say when asked about the surge of support for her insurgent-themed line of clothes.

AWAAM's Web site has received messages of encouragement and order requests for the pink-hued shirts that the group says advocates empowerment for Arab women.

"I am so sorry for all that your organization has been going through, I would very much like one of the intifadah NYC shirts," one fan wrote.

Then there's the Jewish conspiracy crackpots. It's all their fault.

Another posted: "Expose the ignorance. Expose the Zionist angle."

Others are also looking to cash in. Can't wait for the legal action over trademark infringment.

"I designed this shirt primarily in defense of free speech and expression," said Randall Hayes, of Louisiana, referring to tees he has begun marketing with the same slogan.

And Berkeley, Calif., activist Yaman Salahi is selling "Intifada USA" shirts "inspired by [the] xenophobic and presumptuous reaction of papers like yours to the Arabic school," he told The Post.

New York Madrassa Open for Business

On her way into the Khalil Gibran International Academy a girl walks past NYPD Integrity Control Officer Lyndsey Martinez, as he stands outside the entrance to the school on the first day of classes Tuesday Sept. 4, 2007 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. The New York City public school is the first in the city to offer instruction in Arabic and on Arab culture. (AP Photo/Tina Fineberg)

We noted the farce known as the Khalil Gibran International Academy last month and the controversy surrounding former principal Debbie Almontaser and the Intifada NYC fiasco. Well, today this abomination opened for business.

New York's first Arabic school opens under police guard

NEW YORK (AFP) — Under police guard, about 60 pupils at New York's first Arabic bilingual school turned up for classes on Tuesday amid accusations the institution is a potential breeding ground for Islamic extremists.

"This is absolutely not a religious school. The kids are here to be citizens of a school committed to excellence," Garth Harris, head of development for New York City's Education Department, told a crowd of reporters gathered outside the school building.

"There are 200 small schools in New York teaching Chinese, French or Russian," Harris said.

The students who arrived for opening day came from a range of ethnic and racial backgrounds, with some of the girls wearing headscarves. Outside, more than a dozen police were on hand to make sure reporters did not cross a yellow tape posted a few meters (yards) from the school building.

Principal Danielle Salzberg, named in mid-August, declined to speak to journalists. "She is with the children," Harris said.

This genius supports inclusive multicultural education, but misspells the name of the Madrassa.

H/T: Killgore Trout.

UPDATE: More from Atlas Shrugs and Urban Infidel.

Jewish Principal Takes Over at Arabic School

The farce surrounding the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn took a bizarre turn Monday as a Jewish educator named Danielle Salzberg has been appointed interim principal while ousted principal Debbie Almontaser remains defiant, complaining of religious bigotry as the reason for her ouster, rather than her support of the group which produced the odious "Intifada NYC" t-shirts.

NEW PRINCIPAL 'CHOSEN'

A Jewish educator who can't utter a phrase of Arabic has been tapped to head the city's controversial Arabic-themed school, officials announced yesterday.

In a shocking move, the Department of Education named Danielle Salzberg interim acting principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy in Brooklyn. Salzberg will replace Debbie Almontaser, who resigned under pressure last Friday because of her remarks to The Post defending "Intifada NYC" T-shirts.

Before her appointment, Salzberg was a senior program officer with the nonprofit New Visions for Public Schools, which is partially funding the academy. In that role, Salzberg worked with Almontaser and the school's six teachers to develop its specialized curriculum of Arabic language and culture.

Previously, Salzberg helped launch the new Baruch HS, where she was an English teacher, and Millennium HS, where she was assistant principal until March. She first started teaching at city schools in December 1996.

Salzberg, 35, is not an Arabic speaker, said Department of Education spokeswoman Debra Wexler. A source with direct knowledge confirmed that Salzberg is Jewish but did not have details on how observant she is.

Meanwhile, Almontaser said her own religion, Islam, not her failure to condemn the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts, led to the ouster, according to her resignation letter obtained by The Post.

"Unfortunately, a small group of highly misguided individuals has launched a relentless attack on me because of my religion," Almontaser wrote to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein last Friday. "They have used my religion as the pretext to undermine the Academy and have taken my words out of context to distort my record and portray me as something that I am not."

Would you like some cheese with that whine?

She just doesn't get it, and obviously never will.

The Post's Andrea Peyser tees off on Almontaser as well as the idiotic notion that New York City needs a madrassa.

SCHOOL BAD IDEA EVEN BEFORE HEBREW-HAHA

DID you hear the one about the Muslim school led by a Jew?

Suffice it to say, it won't have long for this world.

This might be the worst joke ever to hit Brooklyn. Desperate to save its fast-sinking Khalil Gibran International Academy, the Department of Education yesterday named a new principal to replace Debbie "Intifada is Good" Almontaser - who resigned in disgrace before the school opened its doors.

Two things you need to know about the "interim acting" head of the school, whose stated goal is to educate Arab students and sympathizers from grades 6 though 12.

No. 1: The new principal speaks no Arabic.

No. 2: She is a member of the tribe. A Jewess.

Danielle Salzberg is walking into a minefield created by her predecessor, who defended the sale of T-shirts bearing the slogan "Intifada NYC" by stupidly defining the word "intifada" not as the spilling of Jewish blood - but as the benign "shaking off" of oppression.

What was not addressed - even as the Gibran Academy has been revealed as a potential hotbed of anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiment - is why the devil the place was cooked up in the first place. Some bright combination of political correctness and insane guilt has determined that New York needs a public school catering to Arabs.

As she stormed out the door and Salzberg tiptoed in, Almontaser made herself into the poor victim of a hate crime, lashing out at her critics.

Perhaps the Ed Department believes that putting a token Chosen Person at the helm of a rotten organization will save it.

A better question is: Why does the city need a Khalil Gibran Academy?

Indeed.

Well, when you have a mayor like Michael Bloomberg, who never met a constituency he wouldn't pander to, you can figure it out.

Also check out the Post editorial Debbie in Denial and the New York Sun checks in with Jewish Woman Taking Over at Arabic-Language School

New York City's education department is turning to a Jewish woman who belongs to an Upper West Side synagogue to lead an Arabic-language public school that critics have portrayed as a terrorist-friendly "madrassa" in the making.

Khalil Gibran International Academy, which is scheduled to open to a few dozen students for the first time next month, had its founding principal, Dhaba "Debbie" Almontaser, resign on Friday after a flap over her response to a T-shirt promoting an "intifada," or uprising, in New York. Ms. Almontaser's replacement will be Danielle Salzberg, who does not speak Arabic, but grew up in an Orthodox Jewish household and belongs to a Manhattan synagogue, her father, Michael Salzberg, told The New York Sun yesterday.

LGF reader Ornery Elephant noted this very curious poll at Survey Monkey:

What do you think about the I word?

Seems Almontaser and her sympathizers are trying to gin up support for the "Intifada NYC" shirts. Whoever put this up doesn't seem the least bit repentant. Check out these questions:

Can the term “Intifada NYC” ever have a positive non-violent connotation?

Is the controversy around these t-shirts reasonable?

Has media coverage about "Intifada NYC" been fair?

They just don't get it.

Previously: Almontaser Still on NYC DOE Payroll.

UPDATE: Hot Air links and Allahpundit notes the comedic possibilities.

Almontaser Still on NYC DOE Payroll

While former Khalil Gibran International Academy principal Debbie Almontaser resigned Friday, it's disturbing to see she's still on the payroll of the Department of Education. Of course, city officials are probably worried that the stormtroopers from CAIR would probably file some nuisance lawsuits.

Compounding the problem is the feckless Mayor Michael Bloomberg making nice-nice with this woman, who shouldn't be anywhere near a school.

INTIF-ADIOS TO SCHOOL CHIEF

The principal of a controversial city-funded Arab-themed school abruptly resigned yesterday after she ignited a firestorm by saying there was nothing wrong with T-shirts that said "Intifada NYC."

Pressure for Debbie Almontaser's ouster had mounted all week since her tortured explanation that "intifada" was a message of empowerment. The inflammatory statement was about Arab women in New York City "shaking off oppression" and not supporting the Palestinian uprising that killed thousands, she said.

Those remarks, first reported in The Post on Monday, focused renewed attention on her mission to create a dual-language Arabic school for grades 6 through 12. Critics say Khalil Gibran International Academy, which would be located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, will isolate Muslim students.

"I think she felt that she has become the focus of, rather than having the school focus, and so today she submitted her resignation, which is nice of her to do and I appreciate her service," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday on his radio show.

Almontaser will remain on the Department of Education payroll and be reassigned to a position not connected with the academy.

"I became convinced yesterday that this week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized," Almontaser said in a statement. "I will not allow the recent outcry to undermine these possibilities for the children of our city."

She was to make $120,197 as principal.

The Department of Education said it remains committed to opening the school, and is searching for a new principal.

Numerous elected officials, citizens and advocacy groups said Almontaser's comments, made in a city already in the cross hairs of Islamic terrorists, raised doubts that she could handle the sensitivity of managing an Arab-themed school.

Maybe if she lit up a cigarette or served some food with trans-fats, then Bloomberg would spring into action.

Despite Almontaser's years of experience working in media and as a spokeswoman for the Arab community, Bloomberg said she simply misspoke about the tees.

"She's certainly not a terrorist. She really does care . . . She's not all that media savvy, maybe, and she tried to explain a word rather than just condemn," he said.

Yes, he's presidential material. He'd fit right in with the painfully pandering Democrats any day of the week.

Meanwhile, the Post editorial smacks School's Chancellor Joel Klein upside the head.

JIHAD'YA LATER

First the good news: Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser yesterday quit as principal-designate of the city's new Arabic-themed public school - though not without blaming her resignation mostly on The Post (not by name, of course).

But here's the bad news: The Department of Education says it still plans to open the Khalil Gibran International Academy. And Almontaser herself will remain on the DOE payroll in an undetermined role.

After she defended the sale of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Intifada NYC," and then issued a quasi-apology that only made things worse, it was inevitable that Almontaser would have to step down as head of the Arabic academy she'd first proposed.

Her words had brought a sharp rebuke from, among others, teachers-union head Randi Weingarten (until then a strong supporter of the Gibran school), who said, "Parents and teachers have a right to be concerned" about a school run by someone who didn't seem to understand the difference between "peace and war-mongering."

Chancellor Joel Klein's office refuses to release Almontaser's resignation letter. (Why not? Did she write something that would embarrass the department even further?)

But it did issue a statement attributed to Almontaser in which she complained, "This week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized."

That is, she's blaming the media - in this case, Post reporters Chuck Bennett and Jana Winter and this page - for reporting and commenting on her foolishness.

I doubt this is the last we'll hear from Almontaser, and if she continues down this radical path, the city will have some explaining to do as to why she's still on the payroll.

Elsewhere, the New York Sun reports there are increased calls for this school to be shut down entirely, which I wholeheartedly concur with.

"I hope that this is the beginning of the end for this entire project," a Democrat who represents Boro Park in New York's state Assembly, Dov Hikind, told The New York Sun Friday. "If this woman, who I hear is a nice woman, if she couldn't get this right, then I think the whole concept just doesn't work."

The Department of Education had backed Ms. Almontaser after her statements about the "Intifada" T-shirts, saying it accepted her quick apology, in which she said she regretted "minimizing the word's historical associations." But after the president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, issued a condemnation of Ms. Almontaser, the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said he admired her decision to resign, saying the "controversy about her remarks threatened to destabilize the school."

Must everyone qualify their remarks by noting "how nice" Almontaser is? This pandering political correctness is simply nauseating.

Previously: "Intifada NYC Principal Resigns.

UPDATE: Reader NY Nana notes the NY Times has finally discovered the story after ignoring it all week.

Head of City’s Arabic School Steps Down Under Pressure.

So nice for the "paper of record" to catch up with the New York Post, New York Sun and the blogs after six days.

Arab School All About "Peace"

Try not to laugh too much. Apparently, they offered up this tripe with a straight face.

Arab School's Peace Goals

August 8, 2007 -- Internships with Muslim lawyers, trips to the Middle East and community activism are the hallmarks of the city's Arab-themed school scheduled to open this fall.

I guess education is out of the question.

What they apparently have planned is to have the "students" hang out with agitators figuring out ways to file frivolous lawsuits over perceived slights to their cherished faith, trips to Arab hellholes, and learning how to march to demand special privileges.

This is what a "school" is suppose to be about?

How about learning United States history? Reading? Writing? Science? Math?

Guess that's not on the agenda.

The controversial Khalil Gibran International Academy's grant application for private funds says the school wants to produce "agents of change" and "ambassadors of peace" by focusing on the "complexity of Arab history and the diversity of Arab culture."

Fine, if that's what you want to do, move to some Arab land, where no doubt you can learn the joys of Arab culture.

But this is America. Try to assimilate. You know, it just might work. Hundreds of millions have done it before.

Principal Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser - who backtracked this week from comments condoning the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts that are sold by activists with ties to her - insists political dogma will not be on the curriculum.

All students, no matter their ethnicity, or religion, will be welcome, she said.

Sure.

Previously: Intifada NYC, Intifada NYC Principal "Regrets" Remarks

Intifada NYC

Those Che Guevara t-shirts are such popular items, why not some harmless "Intifada NYC" shirts to help raise awareness?

Activists with ties to the principal of the city's controversial new Arabic-themed school are hawking T- shirts that glorify Palestinian terror, The Post has learned.

The inflammatory tees boldly declare "Intifada NYC" - apparently a call for a Gaza-style uprising in the Big Apple.

The organization selling the shirts, Arab Women Active in Art and Media, shares office space on Brooklyn's Third Avenue with the Saba Association of American Yemenis.

Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser, principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy - which is scheduled to open in Brooklyn next month - is a board member and spokeswoman for Saba.

Members of AWAAM refused to comment.

But Almontaser downplayed the significance of the T-shirts.

"The word [intifada] basically means 'shaking off.' That is the root word if you look it up in Arabic," she said.

"I understand it is developing a nega tive connotation due to the uprising in the Palestinian-Israeli areas. I don't be lieve the intention is to have any of that kind of [violence] in New York City.

"I think it's pretty much an opportunity for girls to express that they are part of New York City society . . . and shaking off oppression."

If they want to "shake off oppression," why are they going to attend an Arabic academy? After all, women are oppressed under Islam. So how about some "Renounce Islam" t-shirts?

AWAAM's co-founders, Rama Kased and Mona Eldahry, are also active in the more militant pro-Palestinian group, al-Awda, whose main U.S. office is in California.

That organization, according to the Anti-Defamation League, is an active supporter of the terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

"The T-shirt is a reflection of a movement that increasingly lauds violence against Israelis instead of rejecting it. That is disturbing," said Oren Segal, a spokesman for the ADL.

Almontaser, a community activist and Muslim, has said the new grade 6-12 public school will be modeled on other dual-language city schools and have no religious component.

Sure.

As it so happens, Ms. Almontaser has some interesting connections, including one Linda Sarsour.

Linda Sarsour is the director of the Arab American Association of New York. In 2005 she organised the Arab American Heritage festival together with her friend Dhabah aka Debbie Almontaser, the principal designate of The Khalil Gibran International Academy. In a 2004 article Sarsour revealed that Arab men pictured in an Arab newspaper recruiting suicide bombers for martyrdom were relatives and friends - one of them was her brother in law who is serving a 12 year sentence for his involvement with Hamas. Sarsour's husband is facing deportation and she was "questioned by US authorities". One reason could be that her husband together with his brother and Sarsour's cousin, may have been involved in Hamas activities as well. He comes from El Bireh and his name was given as Maher Judh" in the article below. Note that Sarsour too "was questioned by US authorities".

Daniel Pipes has A Madrassa Grows in Brooklyn.

Arabs or Muslims, Ms. Almontaser says, are innocent of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001: "I don't recognize the people who committed the attacks as either Arabs or Muslims." Instead, she blames September 11 on Washington's foreign policies, saying they "can have been triggered by the way the USA breaks its promises with countries across the world, especially in the Middle East, and the fact that it has not been a fair mediator."

At a community meeting with the New York Police Department commissioner, she berated the NYPD for using "FBI tactics" when informants were used to prevent a subway bombing, thereby polarizing the Muslim community. For Ms. Almontaser, it appears, preventing terrorism counts less than soothing Muslim sensibilities.

Rewarding these views, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a foreign-funded front organization, in 2005 bestowed an honor on Ms. Almontaser for her "numerous contributions" to the protection of civil liberties.

More on Almontaser here.

“President Bush is trying to destroy the United States that I love and of which I am a result. He has abandoned our forefather's ideals of a society of freedom; democracy and pluralism build by immigrants. He is a nightmare."

“We are in favor of combating terror, but that cannot be done by violating fundamental human rights, says Debbie Almontaser (37). - After the terror attacks last year our government has put aside our civil rights and it is particularly Muslim, Arab-American and South Asian families that suffer under this."

UPDATE: Bryan at Hot Air links. Michelle Malkin and Gateway Pundit also link. Also check out the video at One Jerusalem.