October 5, 2006, - 11:20 am
OUTRAGE: Your Tax $$$ Fund Arabic Lessons For Islamists
By
Remember President Bush’s January announcement of his foreign language instruction initiative–the National Strategic Language Initiative?
He announced it at the U.S. University Presidents Summit on International Education. It sounded like a great concept that would help our country fight terrorism.
The idea was to spend our tax money wisely, by funding instruction in Arabic, Farsi, and other languages in our public schools. Skilled speakers and readers of these languages are badly needed as future federal law enforcement agents, analysts, etc. to help us fight the war on terror. Ideally, non-Arabic, non-Muslim Americans would learn these languages and grow up to be reliable translators that our government badly needs.
Currently, there is a backlog in translation of documents in these languages at the FBI. Worse, Islamists who hate America, but love Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and Hamas, are utilized as translators by the FBI, CIA, DHS, and other agencies. Often, their translations cannot be relied upon, because they are trying to cover up their terrorist buddies’ real plans.
Problem is, the money is NOT going to regular Americans we can rely on to grow up and support this country in its efforts in the war on terror. Nope. Instead, YOUR TAX MONEY IS GOING TO FUND ARABIC LESSONS IN DEARBORNISTAN!
A tiny story in today’s Detroit Free Press announced that of two federal grants going to the State of Michigan under the National Strategic Language Initiative, only one is to teach Arabic (the other teaches Chinese). And it is going to America’s only Islamofascist dominated public school district–the Dearborn Public Schools.
Aside from bringing to mind the phrase about “shipping coal to Newcastle,” this is an outrage.
Aside from the fact that Arabic is already offered in the Dearborn School district, I’ve noted and again, the City of Dearborn is dominated by Islamists. Thousands of its residents are extremist Muslims who openly support Hezbollah, HAMAS, Islamic Jihad, etc. This summer, saw repeated rallies of at least 10 percent of the city in support of these groups.
I’ve also where this money will be spent. At Dearborn’s Fordson High a/k/a “,” principal Imad Fadlallah is a cousin of Hezbollah spiritual leader Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Fadlallah took at least a week off of school at the beginning of this school year to go to Lebanon–reportedly to attend Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah’s celebrations of Hezbollah’s “victory” over Israel. In 2005, he allowed students at Fordson–the nation’s only Muslim-dominated public high school–to get time off from school and get extra credit for campaigning at the polls against Christian candidates running for Dearborn offices, in favor of Muslim ones.
And then there’s this choice quote from him in an AP story:
Nowadays, I have a very, very hard time defending American democracy. . . I can’t defend anymore.
Is this the kind of school district where our tax dollars should go to teach Arabic?
Only if we want to help our enemy within defeat us.
Gail McGinn, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Plans and Senior Language Authority, announced the grant, saying:
It’s important to encourage students to study this, for their future, for their job opportunities and for their individual growth.
Wrong. This money is for America’s future, for its future national security. That’s why it’s part of the Defense Department, which isn’t in the individual growth biz. And that’s why it’s not a good move to include the students in this particular school district in this important, now-squandered program.
Dearborn is getting a three-year $885,975 grant from the Department of Education, PLUS an annual $1 million grant from the Department of Defense. Absurd. Almost $6 million of your taxes wasted–and worse, used to educate kids who aren’t the most pro-American in languages we need patriots to learn.
This money would be better spent in an average non-Arab, non-Muslim community in Middle America, not populated by those who hate us. So why isn’t it going there?
National Strategic Language Initiative? Nothing strategic about this move.
Unless it’s our enemies’ strategies we’re pursuing.
Tags: al-Qaeda, America, Bush Announces, Central Intelligence Agency, Dearborn, Dearborn School, Dearborn school district, Debbie Schlussel, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Deputy Undersecretary, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense, Detroit Free Press, Federal Bureau of Investigation, federal law enforcement agents, Fordson Principal, Gail McGinn, Hamas, Hassan Nasrallah, Hizballah, Imad Fadlallah, Islamic Jihad, Israel, leader, Lebanon, Michigan, Mohammed Fadlallah, Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Newcastle, particular school district, Plans and Senior Language Authority, President, principal, Remember President, spiritual leader, Spiritual Leader /Terrorist, USD
I’m not surprised one but at this story. Severe oversight sounds necessary.
The standard college-level Introduction to Arabic textbook is al-Kitaab (“The Book” – Brustad, al-Batal, al-Tonst, eds.):
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?isbn=158901104X&TXT=Y&itm=4
In its DVD portion, the character who walks you through the lessons, “Maha”, is tall, skinny, and blond Egyptian, with pale eyes and fair skin. And in an older version of the text, one section students had to memorize showcased another Arab character talking about “Mark, my Israeli friend….” (I’m surprised the DVD doesn’t have a video of John Lennon singing “Imagine”!)
IN MY ARABIC CLASS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, THERE WAS NO ISRAEL, ONLY “PALESTINE” ON THE MAP AND IN OUR LESSONS AND TEXTBOOKS.
DEBBIE SCHLUSSEL
Jeremiah on October 5, 2006 at 12:48 pm