“In light of your partnership with the Qatar Foundation…”
In a letter dated October 13, 2014, Tucson Unified School District Governing Board president Adelita Grijalva was warned by the Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition of the activities of Qatar. According to the group, the letter was being sent to the district because it has accepted grant money from the Qatar Foundation to fund an Arabic language program.
The group, which includes Lt. Col. Allen B. West (US Army, Ret), Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., President & CEO, Center for Security Policy, Paul E Vallely, US Army (Ret), and Pamela Geller, advised Grijalva that “Qatar is a state-sponsor of terrorism, including Hamas, who routinely use civilians, including children, as human shields.”
The groups called on the district leadership, “In light of your partnership with the Qatar Foundation,” to use its “influence on the Qatari government to cease any type of involvement in all forms of Islamic terrorism, slavery, and drug trafficking.”
The group advised Grijalva to “consider that Qatar is arguably the preeminent sponsor of terror in the world today.”
“It is a benefactor of the genocidal armies of ISIS, al Qaeda, and Boko Haram; it is involved in Taliban narcotics trafficking through a relationship with the Pakistani National Logistics Cell; and profits from operating a virtual slave state,” alleges the group. “Qatar has leveraged its relationships with violent jihadi groups to its own benefit, and to the detriment of the United States and her allies.”
In August 2012, the TUSD Governing Board approved accepting grant funding from the Qatar Foundation International (QFI)for an Arabic teacher for Safford Magnet School. At the time, district officials wrote QFI that they “wish to undertake with QFI’s support is the development of Arabic Middle Years Program (MYP) units and the continued training of our Arabic teachers to accomplish this task.”
In 2011, the Muslim Brotherhood and its association with MEChA became an issue in TUSD during the appeal of the finding by Superintendent of Public Instruction (SOPI) that TUSD’s Mexican American Studies classes violate state law. The district’s then-superintendent John Pedicone testified at the appeal hearing as to an email he received from Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lupita Cavazos-Garcia. In the email, Dr. Garcia expressed her concerns regarding MEChA’s efforts to recruit primarily the district’s Mexican American Studies students for an occupied peoples’ conference at which Palestinian and TUSD students would be sharing their experiences living in occupied territories.
Dr. Garcia wrote that she was concerned about the organization’s “anti-Semitic tone and tenor on our campuses.” She went on to state that the some of the district’s students have little emotional support and “our Raza students are ripe for this kind of influence.” Concerns arose about the conference in the district when word went out that Homeland Security would be in attendance. Some of the more responsible adults in the district questioned the wisdom of allowing TUSD students to be put in a situation in which they might innocently come under scrutiny, suspicion, or harm.
Dr. Garcia and other educators expressed concerned about the “un-American leanings of MEChA,” the well documented anti-Semitism exercised and expressed by its associates, including the Muslim Brotherhood which has partnered with MEChA in forums on university campuses across the country.
In 2010, Congressman Raul Grijalva, Adelita’s father and former TUSD Governing Board member and current Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus, pushed for the IB program. He said, “This is a great opportunity for Tucson schools to lead the way in modernizing their curriculums and meeting the needs of the modern economy,” Grijalva said. “Arabic language and culture are a major global phenomenon, and helping students understand and study it at an early age is both wise and necessary.”
Related articles:
TUSD accepts grant from group with ties to Muslim Brotherhood (updated)
TUSD to spend more money; lawsuit settlement, Arabic classes, administrators
In their letter, the Qatar Awareness Campaign Coalition offers “additional facts regarding Qatar’s inroads to public education” in the U.S.:
Qatar is the host country of the Muslim Brotherhood, a stateless political organization which came to maturity at the same time as the Nazi Party in Germany. Indeed, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Third Reich shared many of the same aims in World War II, including the extermination of Jews. Their collaboration is well-documented.
A socially-minded, subversive organization, one particular focus of the Muslim Brotherhood has always been education. In fact, the most prolific Brotherhood author and “philosopher” was the racist Sayyid Qutb, an inspector for the Egyptian Ministry of Education. Likewise, Qatar as their host country, funds various educational initiatives around the globe, primarily through the Qatar Foundation.
Although Hamas’s disregard for civilian and children lives is notable, it is eclipsed by the wholesale violence committed by the Qatari-financed Islamic State (aka ISIS). Mass executions of innocents shock the conscience, and the Islamic State enthusiastically cleanses its conquered territory of all who oppose it: Christians, Yazidis, and more secularly minded Muslims included. The Islamic State even beheads young children, and teaches other children how to behead.
• The Qatar Foundation International operates an Arabic Language and Culture program in partnership with public school systems. This includes, as of September 2013, the New York City Department of Education.
• In May 2014, the Hurst-Euless-Bedford school district in Texas sent ten high school students to Qatar to learn Arabic through a grant by Qatar Foundation International. A few months later, Qatar-backed Hamas began a rocket offensive aimed at Israeli citizens.
• The Al Harma Academy in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts is partnered with the Qatar Foundation International to offer full-immersion courses in Arabic. Al Hamra was accredited by the New England Association of School and Colleges 2007.
• The Qatar Foundation’s WISE Initiative focuses on bringing Qatari ideals to education around the world. In this endeavor, they have a partner in the United Nations.
The letter is signed by:
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
President & CEO, Center for Security Policy
Paul E Vallely, US Army (Ret)
Chairman, Stand Up America
Pamela Geller
Atlas Shrugs
Walid Shoebat
Shoebat.com
Charles Ortel
Washington Times
Robert Spencer
Jihad Watch
Lt. Col. Allen B. West (US Army, Ret)
AllenBWest.com