CBN News has covered the ongoing controversy surrounding the Islamic Saudi Academy in northern Virginia extensively. As I reported back in June 2006, this K thru 12 school--which is owned and operated by the Saudi government and sits just 14 miles from the White House--has used textbooks that vilify Jews and Christians and promote a radical Wahhabi strain of Islam. The Academy is basically an American-based extension of Saudi Arabia's educational system. No wonder, then, that The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel formed by Congress, last year recommended that the school be closed. That didn't happen. In fact, Fairfax County (VA) renewed the Academy's lease just last month. They can't be too happy, then, about this new report:
A federal investigation released Wednesday reveals that some Islamic textbooks are teaching kids it's okay to kill adulterers and converts from Islam.
The books have been used by the Islamic Saudi Academy, which teaches 900 students in grades K-12 at two campuses in Alexandria and Fairfax. The school receives much of its funding from the Saudi government.
Passages in their textbooks state that "the Jews conspired against Islam and its people" and that Muslims are permitted to take the lives and property of those deemed "polytheists."
The academy has come under scrutiny from critics who allege that it is teaching an intolerant brand of Islam.
Last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a panel formed by Congress, recommended the school be shut down out of concern it promoted violence.
"We feel more confident that the potential problems we flagged before really are there," said the commission's spokeswoman, Judith Ingram, after the content of textbooks were reviewed
In the review, the panel recommended that the school make all of its textbooks available to the State Department so changes can be made before the next school year.
Stay tuned.