The Anti-Defamation League has charged that a group of publicly funded charter schools in the Fresno Unified School District may be indoctrinating students in Islam.
Even more alarming, according to the ADL, is that at least one of the schools may have direct links to the Islamic extremist terrorist organization Al Fuqra, a virulently anti-Semitic sect whose members have committed multiple fire bombings and murders.
All the charges could become moot, however, since the Gateway Academy charter schools and its 11 satellite campuses were expected to lose their licenses because of fiscal mismanagement as well as health and safety issues.
Doug Stone, director of communications for the California Department of Education, said the district board was unlikely to address the church and state issues, or the alleged terrorist ties, at this time. But he said that comments made last week by Fresno Unified to the media and the state board of education indicated that Gateway’s charter might be revoked as soon as the Jan. 16 meeting (after the Bulletin’s press time).
The board and district “said publicly that they’re disappointed” in Gateway, he noted. “There are some serious concerns regarding the operation of this charter and the constitutional issues raised by different entities.”
In a press conference Tuesday, Gateway’s attorney Akil K. Secret requested that the district allow the schools more time to address the issues at hand. But Fresno Unified spokeswoman Jill Marmolejo said that in her opinion, they had been given plenty of time already.
She dismissed the alleged church-state violations and ties to Al Fuqra, saying: “Fresno Unified’s oversight is about educational issues in school operations only. It would be inappropriate for us to go anywhere else, and so we haven’t.”
These church-state issues first came to light in December after the San Francisco Chronicle reported finding Korans in the principal’s office of the Silicon Valley Academy, a Gateway satellite campus based in Sunnyvale. In the newspaper article, students reported studying Islam and praying in class.
Because the Gateway charters are considered part of the public school system, “this is against the law,” Stone told the Bulletin.
Gateway was said to have severed ties with the Sunnyvale campus following the allegations, he added. And Fresno school officials said they were unaware of church-state issues at any of the other campuses.
But Jonathan Bernstein, executive director of the ADL’s Central Pacific region, noted, “They are all part of the same system.”
Massive reviews by Fresno Unified, meanwhile, uncovered a wide array of fiscal and safety violations, leading to the recommended charter revocation.
Even if the charter were to be revoked, however, Bernstein expressed concern that “they may have a way to get back into the system.” He said the ADL was planning to “keep an eye” on the issue.
The ADL remains concerned over claims that the Gateway Charter Schools’ superintendent Khadijah Ghafur is an officer of Muslims of the Americas, a group the ADL says is a front for the Islamic sect Al Fuqra; both were founded by Sheik Jilani of Pakistan.
In a letter addressed to state Education Superintendent Delaine Eastin earlier this month, the ADL pointed out that one Gateway charter school, the Miramonte Learning Center, is located inside a Fresno-area Muslim compound, Baladullah. The ADL says the compound, like several others throughout the country and Canada, may also have links to MOA and Al Fuqra.
Baladullah representatives have denied these links in various media reports. Questions regarding the compound were referred to Secret, who could not be reached as of press time.
The ADL has been reporting on Al Fuqra activities since the early 1990s, emphasizing that its members, primarily Muslims of African-American descent, have been involved in a wide array of violent activities. This most recently included the August slaying of a sheriff’s deputy in Fresno, allegedly by a man who was said to have stayed in Baladullah.
Such activities — by individuals in the groups — may be the result “of propaganda and statements made by their leaders, giving them inspiration,” according to Bernstein, who cited hateful anti-Semitic, anti-American comments that were found on the MOA Web site.
Among them: “Jews are an example of human Satans,” and “The Ku Klux Klan no longer need to wear pointed hoods and remain underground, as they are sitting in the Oval Office and walking the halls of Congress.”
The U.S. State Department has in the past listed Al Fuqra as a terrorist organization, and federal authorities are investigating the link between the sect and MOA.
In addition to the letter to Eastin, Bernstein discussed the issue with a representative of the state Justice Department last week.
“We’re fearful that its members will commit more crimes,” said Bernstein. “That’s why we’re making a big issue of this.”
Bernstein explained that the ADL is not trying to falsely incriminate the group but shed light on its potential for violence and “promulgating hateful messages” before a problem arises.
“I’d love to see us proven wrong,” added Bernstein. “It would be nice if there wasn’t a terrorism group in our backyard.”