Philadelphia: Fired teacher files complaint against Islamic school, alleging ‘overt’ anti-black racism
BY ROBERT SPENCER
Republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, & research purposes.
Hugh Fitzgerald summed it up in a 2020 article:
The late Anwar Shaikh, a scholar of Islam who lived in the West, argued in his Islam: The Arab National Religion that Islam has always been a “vehicle for Arab supremacism.” It’s not hard to see how he came to that conclusion. The Qur’an, after all, was delivered to an Arab, and in his language. The Qur’an ideally should be read, recited, and memorized, in the original Arabic. Muslims prostrate themselves in prayer five times a day, always turned toward Mecca, in Arabia. If they can afford it, Muslims should at least once in their lives make the hajj to that same Arabian city of Mecca. So great is the prestige of the Arabs in Islam that non-Arab Muslims, especially converts, frequently adopt Arab names. Many Muslims, too, especially in Pakistan, add the honorific “Sayid,” indicating — falsely — that they are descended from the Quraysh, the tribe of the Prophet.
“Lawsuit Filed against Philadelphia Islamist School, Alleging ‘Overt’ Anti-Black Racism,” by Sam Westrop, Focus On Western Islamism, July 10, 2023:
A teacher fired from Philadelphia’s Al-Aqsa Islamic Academy has filed a civil suit against the school and its principal, alleging extraordinary anti-black racism at the school.
Arslan Shaikh served as a “general studies” teacher with Al-Aqsa Islamic Academy from August 2020 to April 28, 2023. In his filed complaint, he alleges, throughout his time at the school, he observed “disproportionate allocation of discipline and removal of black children relative to their non-black counterparts.”
Moreover, Shaikh claims that a report he wrote, documenting racist comments aimed at black students by other students, was “edited … to omit [mention of] the overt racism.”
He also alleges that “non-black children were given privileges denied to black children. On one occasion, several non-black students received failing grades. These grades were then changed to ‘passing’ by Defendants. In the three years that Plaintiff taught at Al-Aqsa, he never saw this benefit conferred to black children.”
On April 27, 2023, Shaikh claims that during a conversation with the school principal, Shireen Hammoudeh, he was informed of a complaint lodged against him by students. Principal Hammoudeh reportedly told Shaikh that the complaint was only filed because “they’re black and are trying to manufacture a lawsuit.” She allegedly promised to “find a reason to get rid of [the black students].”
Shaikh informed other administration members at the school about the “display of overt racism,” only to be fired a few hours later.
The school’s 2019 “parent-student handbook” declares that Western culture is “toxic to Muslims.” And the uniform guides for the school require that female students be completely covered….