Islamic Academy In Virginia on Defensive As Legislators Press For Action

Last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the closure of the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax, Virginia, pending a review of its textbooks. (See prior posting.) Yesterday the AP reported that a group of U.S. senators has written the State Department urging it to act on the recommendations, and last week a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives to require implementation of USCIRF's recommendations. The Academy, however, is defending itself. It has given copies of its books to the Saudi embassy, which in turn forwarded them to the State Department, though USCIRF has not yet seen them. The school's director general, Abdalla al-Shabnan, says that it has modified Saudi textbooks to remove passage that are intolerant of other religions. The Academy is also strongly defended by schools that compete against it in interscholastic sports-- including private Christian schools.