You won’t believe shocking ties of the group behind Arabic language classes.
http://israel-commentary.org/?p=3727http://israel-commentary.org/?p=3727
By Aaron Klein
A flurry of news media reports last week highlighted a Harlem public
elementary school that will become the first in New York to require
students to study Arabic.
Entirely unreported is that the organization that co-created and
funded the Arabic language program for the New York school, KleinOnline
has found, maintains close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood while the
group’s founder also started the Al Jazeera television network.
The Qatar Foundation International, or QFI, a nonprofit group
financed by the government of Qatar, gave Harlem’s Hamilton Heights, a
K-5 public school school, a $250,000 grant to support the Arabic program
for three years. The school’s Arabic language program was reportedly
developed by QFI and the the Global Language Project.
In addition to the Harlem school, KleinOnline found that the QFI just
awarded “Curriculum Grants” to seven U.S. schools and language
organizations to “develop comprehensive and innovative curricula and
teaching materials to be used in any Arabic language classroom.” Those
schools include Bell High School, a Los Angeles public school, and
Safford K-8 in Arizona’s Tucson Unified School District.
QFI, based in Washington DC, is the U.S. branch of the Qatar
Foundation, founded in 1995 by Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikha Hind bint
Hamad Al Thani. Thani is still the group’s vice-chairman, while his
wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, chair’s the organization’s board. Thani
also launched Al Jazeera in 1996 and served as the television network’s
chairman.
The Qatar foundation is close to the Muslim Brotherhood. This past
January, it launched the Research Center for Islamic Legislation and
Ethics under the guidance of Tariq Ramadan, who serves as the center
director.
Ramadan is the grandson of the notorious founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna. Ramadan
was banned from the U.S. until 2010 when the Obama administration
issued him a visa to give a lecture at a New York school.
The Qatar Foundation, meanwhile, named several institutions after
Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the top leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Many regard Qaradawi as the de facto spiritual leader of Egypt’s Muslim
Brotherhood.The Foundation instituted the Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi
Scholarships and in 2009 established a research center named the
Qaradawi Center for Islamic Moderation and Renewal.
Qaradawi has personally attended scores of Foundation events,
including conferences at which he served as a keynote speaker. Qaradawi
achieved star status because of his regular sermons and interviews on Al
Jazeera. Two weeks ago, Qaradawi was in the news after he told Egyptian
Muslims it was their religious duty to vote for one of three Islamic
candidates in the country’s presidential election, describing them as
the “best for Egypt” because they will “apply the Islamic Shariah and achieve justice.”
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)documents
how Qardaqi openly permitted the killing of American troops in Iraq and
praised the “heroic deeds” from “Hamas, Jihad, Al-Aqsa Brigades, and
others.” Reports by the London newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat repeated
Israeli claims that Al-Qaradawi once served to fund “the heart of
Hamas,” the Al-Islam Charity, through his Welfare Coalition.
With additional research by Danette Clark and Brenda J. Elliott
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