CAIR Gets Failing Grades at Running Ohio Charter Schools
For example, in September 2006 CAIR-Ohio hosted an anti-Israel “teach-in” at International Academy, co-sponsored by the International Socialist Organization. One speaker, Hatem Bazian, is noted for making shockingly extremist statements, such as this gem from a May 1999 American Muslim Alliance conference in California where he reportedly invoked a notorious hadith about killing Jews:
In the hadith, the Day of Judgment will never happen until you fight the Jews. They are on the west side of the river, which is the Jordan River, and you’re on the east side, until the trees and stones will say, oh Muslim, there is a Jew hiding behind me. Come and kill him! And that’s in the hadith about this, this is a future battle before the Day of Judgment. (cited in Steven Emerson, American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us, pp. 214-215)
More recently, he was captured on video speaking at an April 2004 rally in San Francisco in support of the Iraqi terrorist insurgency, demanding “an intifada in this country”:
It’s about time that we have an intifada in this country that change[s] fundamentally the political dynamics in here. And we know every — they’re gonna say some Palestinian being too radical — well, you haven’t seen radicalism yet!
Education also appears to take a backseat to the financial interests of school officials — a fact noted by the state auditors. A 2003 Ohio state auditor’s report of International Academy found (p. 15) that the school paid $83,500 to Strategic Education and Economic Development (SEED) for teacher training, curriculum development, financial management, and government relations. According to filings with the Ohio secretary of state, SEED was a trade name for the Consolidated Investment Group, Inc., which the CAIR officials had incorporated. The state legislature closed that loophole in 2003, preventing charter school developers and board members from profiting from their positions in this manner.
But that law change didn’t stop school officials from skimming off the schools, as the audit noted further:
The Contract with SEED was terminated effective April 7, 2003, subsequently the Academy employed the officers of SEED to conduct management consulting services as Director of School Operations, Director of Personnel, Director of Community and Student Affairs, Director of Capacity Building and Education and Curriculum Consultants. This places these individuals in the same capacity to provide the educational, development and operations financial and facilities management, as under the contract between SEED and the Academy. Each receives $2,000 per month effective July 1, 2003.
Thus prevented by the state legislature from playing corporate shell games to skim from the schools, they created jobs for themselves at the schools and paid themselves handsomely — all while holding other government jobs.
The school operators have also continued to skim through elaborate real estate investment deals on property rented by Westside Academy and construction contracts for International Academy. The Franklin County auditor’s property tax records show that the building currently occupied by Westside Academy is owned by Unified Investment Corp., which lists its place of business as International Academy principal Mouhamed Tarazi’s home address and Tarazi as the business agent. The 2004 Ohio state auditor’s report notes in addition (p. 22) that a corporation in which Tarazi was a partner, Sali International, was also paid $140,386 by International Academy.
Oh, and did I mention that school employees participate in the Ohio Public Employee Retirement System (OPERS) and are thus exempt under federal law from having to pay Social Security taxes?
Don’t expect politicians to intervene in this situation, as school officials have powerful political patrons in the state and local governments. Several board members have contributed heavily to Democratic Party candidates and officeholders, in addition to helping with campaign fundraising.
They have also established cover with the Ohio Department of Education by infiltrating the agency. For example, one of their consulting business partners is Abdinur Mohamed, who works for the ODE overseeing the Title III federal program responsible for students with limited English language proficiency (a program through which the schools also receive funds).
Other school officials appear throughout the Ohio educational bureaucracy. Abukar Arman, the board president of Westside Academy, was appointed to the Ohio State Board of Education’s Foreign Language Advisory Council in March 2007. Mouhamed Tarazi was appointed in September 2006 to the State Board’s Ohio Committee of Practitioners, which advises the state government on any rule or regulation for educational programs funded by the federal government. Meanwhile, his wife, Norma, a CAIR-Ohio corporate officer, serves on the Fairness and Sensitivity Review Committee for the Ohio Graduation Test. Interestingly, she serves on a committee concerned with “fairness and sensitivity” despite having made openly anti-Semitic public statements about the local “Jewish lobby.”
It’s no surprise then that while state officials are cracking down on failing charter schools throughout the state, International Academy and Westside Academy remain untouched and unaffected. Afraid of being angrily branded as “Islamophobes” or “racists” by CAIR and their supporters, Ohio educrats, politicians, and the local media are content to look the other way concerning the failing performance of these two schools. In fact, International Academy, having only met at most two of 19 state standards in any school year since it opened, had their ODE contract renewed.
Fully aware of their political advantage, CAIR officials are more than content to use taxpayer dollars to further their Islamic extremist goals while simultaneously victimizing innocent schoolchildren who would be receiving a better education at practically any other nearby public school. One might think that those who react automatically anytime the “for the children” mantra is invoked would be appalled at CAIR officials’ deliberate exploitation of a particularly vulnerable Somali immigrant population. But when CAIR is involved, all bets are off.
just another in a long list of reasons to move out of ohio.
We have charter schools in Michigan that are predominantly Islamic; I’ve seen 10-12 year old girls in burqas.
Truly upsetting.
Using our constitution and our tolerance as a Trojan Horse from which to offload soldiers of JIHAD.
We need to learn from the lesson of Europe close our borders to islamic immigrants. We do not need them or their medieval, satanic culture.
Why is this upsetting? This is the logical outcome to “La educacion es la revelucion” – The (true)revolution is education, as presented recently by Bill Ayers (yes, that Bill Ayers) to upstart communist dictator Hugo Chavez.
If it weren’t so sad (and dangerous), it would actually be quite funny (think Keystone Cops)that as Americans we get all huffy and puffy about these types of abuses. When presented with irrefutable facts such as these (kudos to Patrick Poole, excellent work)we stomp our feet and rail against the machine… for about 30 seconds, and go right back to our six pack and Monday Night Football or Nutri-System dinner and Dancing with the Stars. Why do we act like we care when we won’t do anything about it?
Patrick Poole – “Don’t expect politicians to intervene in this situation, as school officials have powerful political patrons in the state and local governments. Several board members have contributed heavily to Democratic Party candidates and officeholders, in addition to helping with campaign fundraising.”
Patrick is right, if our elected officials won’t do anything about it, why should we. It may take 5 years, 10 years but socialism and the radicalism (in every form) that comes with it will take over what once was the greatest country in the world. If socialized medicine is put in place, that will be the tipping point, and we will spiral in to the abyss of socialism practically overnight.
As a side note, this is why a true reformer like Gov. Sarah Palin is so refreshing. We want reform, we like reform, we recognize reform when we see it but we don’t want to be reformers ourselves. The entitlement mindset coupled with moral relativism is exactly what Bill Ayers & Barack Obama foisted on the children of Illinois with the Chicago Annenerg Challege. CAIR, CAC, the names change but the mission remains the same… destroy America from the inside out… slowly, gradually, and with a big socialist smile & a hug (see Barack Obama & JoeBlow) will make it all seem sooooooooo right. You might even cry your eyelashes off like Oprah in the process.
We’re in a world of hurt and sadly it is going to get a whole lot worse.
P.S. Compare our education system to the damage Katrina did with a total lack of plannig and management by Gov. Kathleen Blanco & Mayor Ray Nagin (not Bush) and fast forward to today with the phenomenal management and evacuation of 2 million coastal residents by Gov. Bobby Jindal and the newly astute Mayor Nagin. We can all see the storm coming in America but what will our response be? Katrina or Gustav? We can choose the kind of whuppin’ we get, and we are going to get a whuppin’!
Unlike some have said, instances like this give more reason for a competitive market place of schools, allowing parents to choose where they want their children to grow. You have to wonder if the local Islamic cleric influenced parents to send their children to places like these, or if it was their own extremist beliefs that influenced their decision.
If parents are at all concerned about the quality and content of their children’s education, and want them to be successful in their endeavors while living in our country, a better option would surely pull most away from troublesome schools like these. The real question here is whether or not the alternatives in their area are any better in terms of education quality and content. Do any of them support a radical (peace-loving) Islamic faith-based curriculum? Plenty of christian parents send their children to christian faith-based school for either the curriculum, quality of education, or both. I’m not saying such school are always inherently better at educating children, but they show that religious school have a long track record of positives.
The issue here is in the nature of traditional Islamic faith and its incompatibility with the American way of life. Its intolerance of non-muslims with a focus on violent conversion as a prominent means of action is not something that americans can tolerate, or any democracy for that matter. The radical muslims have found a faith that preaches peace and could most likely do a far better job educating children. When you get down to the grit, the people running these traditional islamic schools are more concerned at recruiting soldiers for their jihad and less concerned about teaching children knowledge they will need to live in the real world. Without a strong passion to do the latter, most any school will be judged as wanting.
danviento said “If parents are at all concerned about the quality and content of their children’s education, and want them to be successful in their endeavors while living in our country, a better option would surely pull most away from troublesome schools like these. The real question here is whether or not the alternatives in their area are any better in terms of education quality and content. Do any of them support a radical (peace-loving) Islamic faith-based curriculum?”
These are all good questions.
I suspect the parents are responding to pressure from their local Imam. I also suspect the parents want their kids to be educated as Islamics, and not influenced by the “American culture.” The irony to that is, why did they even come here or do they stay here. This is after all, America. To expect our culture to not influence one’s children, is pathetically foolish. Unless the parents keep their children away from all contact with “America,” those kids will be influenced in one way or another.
Based on the “Honor Killings” that have already taken place here, it is obvious that once kids of Islamic parentage get to see, do, feel, here, and be, an American, they embrace it wholeheartedly. Which of course is why fathers decided to kill their daughters, so they could not be further corrupted by us despicable Americans. BUT, Dad will stay here to make as much money as he can, won’t he?
This is an example of why we cannot allow Obama to be elected. A Department of Education run by someone he appoints, would be so out of touch with actual education, & so intent on social conditioning (read: indoctrination), of children, that we could lose an entire generation.
Let the Islamics keep their kids down all they want, so long as they do not get public funds, &/or teach them to kill.
But, if we can prove any relationship to extremist agenda’s of killing or radical bigotry, then we must all march & demand these conditioning centers be shut down.
Seems to me, based on terrible performance, we also could take apart the education bureaucracy & its agenda by exposing its allowing these seriously under-performing schools to operate under the pretext of “political correctness!”
Looks like the folks in Ohio should be up in arms already!
Whether you agree with American theologian Walter Martin or not, America is now faced with multiple versions of this question:
“Are you willing to do for the truth, what the cults are willing to do for a lie?” Kingdom of the Cults – Walter Martin
Substitute the term “cult of persoality” for cult and look at Barack Obama. Substitute “cult of politics” and look at the two party system. Substitute “cult of entitlement,” “cult of class warfare,” “cult of big government” and look at socialism.
When multi-culturalism and moral relativism topple the Judeo-Christian principles that our nation and constitution are founded on, the truth will know longer matter. We’re very close to that now.
Before we go off on teachers’s unions and call for a competitive marketplace lets not lose sight of the fact that these Islamic schools are NOT public schools, likely do not have union workers, and are the direct result of the charter school movement that’s supposed to introduce competition.
If people don’t like a restaurant, they stop going, and it goes out of business. The theory was that if a charter school wasn’t working, people would stop sending their kids and it would go out of business.
So much for that theory.
GolfBlogger – “If people don’t like a restaurant, they stop going, and it goes out of business. The theory was that if a charter school wasn’t working, people would stop sending their kids and it would go out of business.”
There are a few problems with your rationale. Islam is a closed society. You do what your Imam or Mullah tells you to do. Why would they quit sending their children to a government school that provides virtually unlimited financial resources regardless of acheivement? Why would they teach their radical barbarism in a homeschool setting when they can compete and win government entitlements that not only pay for their religious teachings but provide all of their Muslim administrators a non-stop revenue stream?
They are using the good will of everyday Americans and the stupidity of useful idiots in government to advance their caliphate. They will not send their brainwashed children to another school for a “better” education. It is a global fact that eduction of their children, women or men of jihadist age is not their concern.
The Muslim school’s F grade doesn’t bother me but CAIR’s access to public funds does. If the public officials can’t or won’t stop this, they should be replaced.
The local news reported that two schools had failed but no mention was made about CAIR. Publicize this please.
This is why these people have to be stopped. We will literally hang ourselves with political correctness if this is to be allowed. We don’t stand for this in our schools. Muslims in this country have absolutely no reason to run their own schools. Ours should suffice. Close them down and stop this fear of offending. I would rather offend than be killed.
Anand-Reads it perfectly.That funding DOES bother me.Govt officials HAVE to be replaced.The CAIR cannot fund schooling.As a matter of fact the organization has no place in American society the way Islam is right now.
It is really amazing how CAIR who is a front group for Mohammad (Hellfire be upon it) can espouse to be a real school when the basic underlying fact is the spread of their cult ideology.
If these were stupid white Christian kids failing the school would be closed to much fanfare and cheers from the liberal press and government.
Actually such a school would never have been allowed to be opened.
But these are stupid black and brown Muslim kids and the bigotry of low expectations is in full bloom for all to see.
Maybe the kids aren’t failing at bad as we think.
Maybe the primary subject matter taught is how to hate America and the infidels.
They just aren’t being tested by the state in those areas.
If they were I’m sure they would get As in those subjects.
Its funny to read what all of you have written when you really do not know anything about Islam outside of what the biased Media is sending through your televisions.
Islam is not even about hate, but most of you are obviously blind to the fact. Ever decide to educate your self, why not pick up a Quran and actually find out what is written instead of passing judgment because you have no knowledge on the religion period
And as for the person who made a comment about “stupid black and brown kids” way to be racist, you make America so proud.
You call Muslims disgusting, but the way you are acting right now is an insult to the country you live in.
Grow up for once and gain some real knowledge by reading unbiased sources, because if CNN and Fox news are your only form of information, you are truly pathetic.
Charter schools are public schools which means that they cannot teach relgion. They just aren’t affiliated with a school district. So you can not call IAC and WSA “islamic schools”. Charter school teachers cannot belong to unions. Only school district teachers belong to unions. Also, if you had really looked at the websites or been to the schools, most of the teachers are white, Christian, and American, and all are licensed teachers. Why would they be teaching islamic extreamism and why shouldn’t they get good retirement systems? You are being racist and saying terriable hurtful things about little kids and their teachers. At the very least, get your facts straight.