Opinion Editorials, September 2007
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The Khalil Gibran Academy opens in New York
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
ccun.org, September 6, 2007
Khalil Gibran International Academy (KGIA) opened in New York on September 4 as 55-students arrived for class amid increased security after heated controversy over the school.
Since the school was first announced in February this year, the right wing New York media have been running a smear campaign with ignorant, bigoted, and hateful commentaries against it. The anti-Arabic campaign was spearheaded by Islamophobists Daniel Pipes and Alicia Colon in the New York Sun and the New York Post.
Those who sought to equate the study of Arabic language, culture, and history with religious fanaticism and violence were irresponsibly aggravating a present moment of hysteria against Arab and Muslim communities and seizing this as another opportunity to promote hatred.
A public school, the misnomered “Arab American
School” is open to students of all ethnic backgrounds. As an educational
innovation the announcement should have been applauded but it almost
immediately it became controversial.
The KGIA’s original principal, Debbie Almontaser, was pressured to resign
last month after she was demonized for initially refusing to condemn a
t-shirt with the slogan "Intifada NYC," which was being sold by
the group "Arab Women Active in Art and Media." Aside from this,
Almontaser committed the second “crime” of explaining the meaning of the
word Intifada: "it basically means 'shaking off.' That is the root word
if you look it up in an Arabic dictionary.
The Gibran Khalid Academy takes it name from the Lebanese-born poet and
philosopher who is best known for his classic work, The Prophet, written
over 80 years ago and translated into over 20 languages.
One of 40 new schools was the dual-language (Arabic
and English) the KGIA is established not only in recognition of the growing
number of Arab American children in New York City's schools, but also the
need to understand the Arabic language and culture. It is open to students
of all ethnic backgrounds. It will have a standard college preparatory
curriculum that includes the history and contributions of the Arabs as a
people, as well as Arabic language instruction.
The New York City’s Department of Education has said that part of the
reason for the school is to respond to the need for Arabic speakers - one
that the federal government has recognized and has taken steps to address.
Grants have been given out to schools that teach students critical-need
languages such as Chinese and Arabic. While many of the grants have gone
toward Chinese-language programs, some have gone to schools in places
including Iowa and Michigan to teach or expand Arabic programs, according to
officials.
The KGIA offers instruction in Arab and English languages. The plan for the
school is to offer a standard college preparatory course, with the addition
of daily Arabic language instruction and a focus on international relations.
KGIA initially will offer only sixth grade class but will expand yearly
until it includes grades 6-12. Besides reiterating that the school is a
public school and not a private school, the NYC Department of Education has
said that the excitement and classes were the same as any other school.
In the post-9/11 world, a school educating our children about Arab history, culture, and language is not only crucial for the next generation to become informed leaders for positive change in our communities. It can also prove an extraordinary place of hope for peace, understanding, and justice for our embattled world.
Interestingly, while the KGIA has been attacked for indirectly teaching Islam in a public institution, it is hardly mentioned that Khalil Gibran himself was not even a Muslim. He was a Christian Arab. Anthony DiMaggio, author of Mass Media, Mass Propaganda, is right when he says that the administrators of the school have consciously chosen Gibran as an inspiration for the academy but this point is never explained in media debate. But Pipe's tirades, attempting to create inextricable links between the Arabic language and the Muslim faith, one would hardly know about the school's non-Muslim roots. The anti-academy comments of the New York Sun and the New York Post are also silent on that fact that the official language of the most populous Muslim country in the world, Indonesia, is not even Arabic, but Bahasa Indonesia.
The whole debate on the KGIA has been twisted as the post 9/11 US media commentaries have been hijacked by the right-wing writers who have no commitment to honest and impartial intellectual debate of the issues. It is alarming for the Arab and Muslim communities that the claims of Islamophobist Daniel Pipes and others about the academy were taken seriously by some New York political leaders and the media.
The following thoughtful lines from Kahlil Gibran, the person for whom this academy is named, resonate with its mission:
I believe in you, and I believe in your destiny.
I believe that you are contributors to this new civilization.
I believe that you have inherited from your forefathers an ancient dream, a
song, a prophecy, which you can proudly lay as a gift of gratitude upon the
lap of America.
I believe that you can say to the Founders of this great nation, "Here I am, a youth, a young tree, whose roots were plucked from the hills of Lebanon, yet am I deeply rooted here, and I will be fruitful.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of the online magazine the American Muslim Perespective: www.amperspective.com
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