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Saudi Academy Near DC Gets Zoning Variance to Expand
A Saudi-funded academy was granted a zoning exemption Monday that allows it to expand at its 34-acre Popes Head Road campus in Fairfax County, Virginia, culminating a years-long campaign to enlarge the school at that location...The school has been subjected to a series of high-profile examinations of its religious curriculum, which has been revised repeatedly in the recent to remove passages that extolled militant jihad and martyrdom. As recently as 2007, at least one textbook still said that the killing of adulterers and apostates was "justified."Students, parents and teachers have maintained that the school does not teach intolerance. "Throughout my whole time in ISA, I've never been taught to hate anyone," said Heba Rashed, 16, a junior at the school. Kill apostates, but don't hate them. The school's curriculum was revised again at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year after the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom condemned its textbooks. Critics of the academy say most of the offensive material has now been removed. But they say the textbooks clearly remain guided by Wahhabism...Last week, the school's 1999 valedictorian, Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who had been convicted in 2005 of plotting with al-Qaeda to kill President George W. Bush, was resentenced to life in prison. Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-08-05 |
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