The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USIR) has asked the State Department to shut down the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA) in Fairfax County, Northern Virginia for concerns about whether “what is being taught at ISA promotes religious intolerance.”
The USIR found that ISA “is the only school in the United States that is operated with direct authority of the Saudi Embassy” and that the Saudi Ambassador is the Chairman of the school’s Board of Directors.
However, the major concern of USIR is that the official textbooks used in a school to teach students (Arabic and Islam) contain a language of intolerance and violence.One ninth-grade text tells students that judgment will not come “until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.”
Ms. Judith Ingram, USIR Communications Director said textbooks used to teach Arabic language use “intolerant language that misguides grade pupils.”
The commission said for many years it has raised concerns about the Saudi Arabia government and members of the royal family have directly or indirectly been involved in the global propagation of an ideology that promotes hatred, intolerance and violence.
In March of 2006, the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. published a report summarizing efforts by the Saudi Government to review a number of school textbooks and revise government curriculum to remove language that promotes intolerance and hatred.
In May this year the USIR commission went to Saudi Arabia to discuss religious freedom concerns and determine if Saudi Arabia was implementing policies to ensure religious tolerance.
Although well-received in Saudi Arabia, Commission representatives say they were denied meetings with key agencies such as Saudi Arabia’s Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice and the Ministries of Education and Justice.
Asked if the Commission received any complaints from either students or parents, Ms. Ingram said, they are working with the Saudi as reported in 2006.
In the report about the trip to Saudi Arabia, the Commission points out that it “received mixed and contradictory messages about which government entity has responsibility over materials that are sent abroad.”
Concerns have been raised whether Islamic Saudi Academy is in violation of a United States law restricting activities of foreign embassies.
However, according to the school’s website, “ISA is a college prep educational institution, established in 1984, which serves the Pre-K through 12th grade students with an American curriculum, along with Arabic and Islamic Studies.”
Despite statements by the school indicating that it is a private school, USIR contends that the school is neither Private nor Charter since it operates on two properties owned or leased by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.
It was also said that despite numerous requests by the USIR commission and members of Congress to make textbooks available for examination, officials of Saudi Arabia Embassy in Washington DC have refused to submit these textbooks.
From its fact-finding trip to Saudi Arabia in June, the USIR Commission had made, inter alia, the following recommendations:
The Secretary of State should use the Foreign Missions Act to;
• Close the school until such a time when official Saudi text books used at Islamic Saudi Academy are made available for comprehensive public examination in the U.S.
• Ensure verifiable prohibition of any scheme(s) aimed at continuing Saudi government funding of ISA through other indirect means.
ISA is a fully accredited school with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Commission for International and Trans Regional Accreditation, with a vision of becoming the premier educational institution for the Saudi and Muslim community for grades PreK-12 in the United States.
The school approximately has 1,000 students on two campuses. Efforts to get comments from the school administration were fruitless..
Emmanuel Opati is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
