To: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on ISA Expansion – Urging Focus on Children’s Safety and Interests
From: Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors –
As a former citizen of Virginia for 14 years, I urge you once again to deny the request for the expansion of the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA). I do so based on the issues of public safety of those children subjected to the ISA’s curriculum and the Saudi culture. The Saudi culture is not simply an “Arab” culture, nor is it simply an “Islamic” culture, as has been frequently misstated. The Saudi culture is a totalitarian and supremacist culture. Regardless of how the ISA claims now that it has “removed” the hate and intolerance from ISA textbooks, the long history of hate and intolerance in ISA textbooks is merely a symptom of the Saudi culture itself, which has been repeatedly condemned by the U.S. State Department for its rejection of human freedom and has been repeatedly condemned by the International Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The charges that many who have challenged this request for ISA expansion are “anti-Muslim” is both offensive and absurd. The argument that Saudi Arabia’s anti-freedom, supremacist, totalitarian culture represents “Muslims” has been repeatedly disproven. As stated by both the U.S. State Department and by the International Commission on International Religious Freedom, Saudi Arabia denies freedom and promotes intolerance against other forms of Islam such as Shi’a Islam and oppresses Muslims. Moreover, Muslim women of all sects are so oppressed in Saudi Arabia, that one Muslim woman recently described Saudi Arabia as the “world’s largest women’s prison.” Such intolerance against other Muslims has been a part of the ISA textbooks as well. So it is totally false that ISA defenders claim that they are speaking in defense of “Islam.” The fact is that the ISA has a documented history of textbooks promoting teachings against other Muslims. Furthermore, three Congressional representatives recently went to Saudi Arabia to protest the continued use of textbooks in Saudi Arabia that promote hate and intolerance. These are not isolated issues – they are part of a continuing culture of institutionalized hate that is inherent in the Saudi “culture” that will be taught by the ISA.
This past week – about 10 miles away from you – in the nation’s Capitol, there has been a conference discussing the horrific plight of Saudi Muslim women. It was held on Capitol Hill where Congressional representatives spoke as to the oppressive conditions that Saudi Muslim women live, and how some Congressional representatives have worked to help American women who have ended up in Saudi Arabia to flee for their freedom and their lives. The conference was held by the Center for Democracy and Human Rights (CDHR) in Saudi Arabia, led by its Muslim Director, Dr. Ali Alyami. I urge you to email or telephone (202-558-5552) Dr. Ali Alyami to obtain a balanced perspective on the totalitarian, supremacist Saudi ideology that is inherent in the ISA teachings in Fairfax County. This week at the Capitol, as numerous Muslim men and women spoke to the totalitarian and supremacist nature of ideology oppressing women and others in Saudi Arabia, no one accused the speakers of being “anti-Muslim.”
According to CDHR’s Muslim Director Dr. Ali Alyami, “The Saudi government prohibits all democratic freedoms including political parties, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, civil society, equality for women, equality for religious minorities and religious freedom. The autocratic regime considers these empowering values antithesis to God’s will.” The Declaration of Universal Human Rights that the United States and other free nations adopted 60 years ago, after the defeat of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany, was rejected by Saudi Arabia then, and is still rejected by Saudi Arabia today. Saudi Arabia remains a snapshot of the institutionalized hate of supremacism and totalitarianism that has vanished from many corners of the Earth today. That is the culture that is inherent in the ISA’s academy and teachings.
It is such a totalitarian culture that in the United Kingdom recently – ten have filed for political asylum to be protected from having to return to the Saudi Arabia prison state – and for some death sentences for “cultural” crimes. Just ten days ago, a woman filed for political asylum to be protected from being sent back to the Saudi Arabian prison state for fear of being stoned to death for having an “illegitimate” child. Imagine the Fairfax County Government approving an expansion of an academy to teach and promote a “culture” that people beg and plead for political asylum to prevent having to live under. This is the same totalitarian Saudi culture that refuses to protect children, where young girls are a significant part of human trafficking, and where “child marriage” is permitted — a Saudi culture where even 8 year old little girls are not safe.
The Saudi totalitarian, supremacist culture is the culture that children in Fairfax County will be taught by an expanded ISA. Challenging such an expansion of ISA is not “anti-Muslim;” it is in the public safety and human freedom interest of these vulnerable children who need the protection of responsible adults and authorities.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) has contacted you on this for the same public safety and human freedom reasons that we would if the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors was considering the expansion of a “South African Apartheid Racial Institute,” a “Communist Chinese Totalitarian Institute,” or a “Nazi Germany Aryan Supremacist Institute.” Our arguments and our concerns for the public safety of vulnerable and impressionable children would be same in any of those or similar circumstances. I realize that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors views the ISA expansion as a “land-use” only issue. I would expect that it would have the same “land-use” questions for the public safety of vulnerable and impressionable children in any of these circumstances.
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) urges you, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, to do the right thing in terms of protecting the minds of vulnerable children as a fundamental responsibility of protecting public safety as government representatives. Such children, whose public safety and whose futures are so vulnerable, are dependent on your actions to help protect them now.
We urge you, as Virginians, and as fellow free human beings, to be responsible for equality and liberty and protect children in Fairfax County from an expansion of the ISA.
Jeffrey Imm
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
Image from State Dept 2009 Human Trafficking Report, section "Gender Imbalance in Human Trafficking"