Riding the Islamic Saudi Academy railroad

The Islamic Saudi Academy, which has taught jihad and hatred of Jews and Christians and still teaches that non-Islamic governments are "committing unbelief and allowing us to wage war against them," wants to expand, and it looks as if local officials are determined to allow this to happen, despite objections from free citizens. Jeffrey Imm has an extensive report of the recent hearing here, and here now are further observations from Brian C. Ledbetter of Snapped Shot: Why were there so many people there? Well, obviously, the school coordinated with parents and staff to ensure that everyone attended the meeting. No word on whether they offered credit, gave students a day off the next day, or what, but it was immediately obvious that these people were strongly "encouraged" to attend.

This became something of a problem when opponents of the expansion would get up to speak to the Commission. In most cases, the audience reacted audibly (through boos, through commotion, etc.) to any negative comments, and the Commission generally did nothing to try and stop it.

Keffiyah power. Notice that the Imam was given front-and-center seating.
What was interesting to see is how differently the public was treated depending on which side of the debate they came from.

An Arab grandmother gets up to congratulate the Commission on "proving that the government is open to diverse," and openly admits that most of the students will not be using the Commission's preferred busing scheme, only to have Commissioner Hall softly and jokingly demand that she get her grandsons on the bus.

On the other hand, whenever a resident who lives near the school would bring up a point about traffic safety, about accidents caused on the road, about potential flooding caused by the massive drainage system, or about the fact that the 111,000 square-foot building is out of character with their rural area, the Commission responded every single time by asking the county staff who were present to read off one or another line of information from the (highly questionable) ISA proposal that disputes the firsthand knowledge that they just heard.

Based on this obvious bias in interaction with the public, it's abundantly clear to me that the Commission has already predetermined that this project will be approved. Which is sad, considering that the government of Fairfax County is theoretically supposed to represent the citizens of Fairfax County.

Anyway, the transcript has not yet been posted on the Planning Commission's website, so I'll wait until that's available to give you some of the more juicy details.

In the meantime, I highly recommend checking out Jeffery Imm's report on the meeting, which describes in detail how utterly intimidating it was for him to speak out against the project in the presence of such an obviously thuggish crowd.