Mad For Madrassas

INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Islamofascism: Saudi money buys a lot in Washington, even an extension of a lease to an Islamic school that graduates terrorists and teaches its students it's OK to kill non-Muslims.A federal panel wants the Islamic Saudi Academy inside the Beltway shut down for promoting hate, something we've urged for years. But remarkably, this madrassa still has powerful backers — including the State Department. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom last week released the results of a probe of the academy, which is financed and operated by the Saudi government. It found the school has failed to eliminate violent and intolerant language in textbooks.

The texts used at its main campus, located just across the Potomac in
Alexandria, Va., contain passages that vilify Jews and proclaim
killing non-Muslims is sometimes permissible.

Despite the failing grade, local government officials renewed the
private school's lease in an old public high school building. The
Democrat county supervisor in charge of the lease doesn't see any
problem with the school or its texts.

In fact, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly
reportedly dismissed critics of the Saudi academy as "bigots" as he
accepted a check from the Saudi Embassy for another $2.2 million to
extend its lease. Perhaps not coincidentally, Connolly is running as a
Democrat for Congress. He hopes to fill the local seat of retiring
Republican Tom Davis, whose district includes one of the
fastest-growing Muslim populations in the country.

The commission that looked at the Saudi texts has turned to the State
Department to close the academy. State can do this because as part of
the Saudi government, the school is subject to the Foreign Missions
Act. But the Washington Times says State plans to let the madrassa
continue to operate. Why? The Saudis "told us they would revise the
textbooks by the 2008 school year," a spokesman said.

How foolish. The Saudis have been promising to reform their violent
texts every year since 9/11. Yet they just pump more petrodollars into
spreading their hateful Wahhabi propaganda here.

Within months of the attacks by 15 Saudi hijackers, the Washington
Post reported the Saudi academy's 11th-grade textbooks, for example,
say one sign of the Day of Judgment will be that Muslims will fight
and kill Jews, who will hide behind trees.

The Post went on to quote several students who say they are taught in
Islamic studies that "it is better to shun and even to dislike
Christians, Jews and Shiite Muslims." One teen told the paper he's
taught by academy teachers that it's OK for Muslims to hurt or steal
from such "kafirs."

This was the steady diet of hate the Saudi academy fed Ahmed Abu Ali,
who joined al-Qaida after graduating and plotted to kill President
Bush. Lest anyone think Ali was a misfit loner, he graduated
valedictorian and was voted as the "Most Likely to Be a Martyr."

As we've warned repeatedly on these pages, the Islamic Saudi Academy
is a breeding ground for terrorists, operating just across the Potomac
from the White House and Capitol. Who has the nerve to disregard Saudi
money and influence and shut it down?