May 18, 2008
Former Arabic School Principal Sued for Defamation
Debbie Almontaser was publicly drummed out of her job as the founder and principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, but she is now the one on the receiving end of a defamation lawsuit filed by members of an organization who attempted to prevent the dual-language school from opening. Sara Springer, Irene Alter and Pamela Hall are members of a group called the Stop the Madrassa Coalition. They're alleging that they were defamed by Almontaser, who said that critics of the school were stalking her.
Rabbi Michael Feinberg, a member of Communities in Support of KGIA, a group devoted to having Ms. Almontaser reinstated as the school principal, said: “They picked this whole fight from Day 1. I don’t know if they stalked her or not. But they have been absolutely relentless in the campaign of lies, distortions and calumny to shut down the school and have Debbie step down as principal.”Critics of the school's opening characterized it as a terrorist training academy and a school meant to religiously indoctrinate children in radical Islamism. Khalil Gibran was actually a Lebanese Christian who was educated in Boston; and naming the school after him was supposed to be emblematic of intercultural understanding.
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"Sara Springer, Irene Alter and Pamela Hall are members of a group called the Stop the Madrassa Coalition."
This says it all. No question about these morons and their intent. Broaden the term stalking, hell yes they were stalking her. Ah, yes, and I will bring in the entitled Park Slope resident slur. These folks are worthless. Their xenophobic post 9/11 moronics needs to be shut down and fast. This is not a Madrassa. It would be interesting to see the reaction of these folks to trying to shut down one of the Yeshivas here in Brooklyn, or one of the Catholic schools, or for that matter one of the fundamentalist christian churches. It's all about the brown skin with these folks. Now, you are banned from the internet forever.
Happily, these people will lose. Almontaser will be able to argue that
- these three are public figures (which entails a much higher threshold for defamation)
- that "stalking" is a reasonable interpretation of whatever they actually did. (It doesn't have to be factually accurate as much as a reasonable thing somebody might say.)
- that the three don't have a "good name" to begin with, and and thus cannot have suffered damages due to her statement.
Inshallah, Almontaser will win.
The group opposed to the school embraces a very ugly ideology, which has no place here in New York City.
"intercultural understanding?" Silly infidels better
understand the culture & language of command of their Saudi-sponsored masters. Let's tolerate intolerance, lest we be called intolerant ourselves. Appeasement at it's worst.
Rabbi Feinberg is just another "suicide Jew".
Forgot to post this link. Watch others too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9dXGJ2rYdA
Nice, nik13, those commenters calling Pat Condell a "cunt" were well worth the visit.
Fortyer (#1) is right about the coalition being morons, but contributes to the ignorance it is sowing by comparing the Arabic school with yeshivas or Catholic schools. Khalil Gibran is a PUBLIC school and teaches a PUBLIC SECULAR curriculum. The correct comparison is with foreign language immersion programs and schools that have thrived across the country for decades now -- all developing first rate foreign language speakers in critical and difficult languages for Americans to learn in ordinary high school language classes. Pity that New York students are being deprived of the opportunity to acquire valuable career skills and that the country is deprived of their service.
So, basically, we have bigots suing for the right to be bigots.
Amazing.
Maybe we do need tort reform after all.
lower manhattan: I agree on a certain level with you. My point was to emphasize the ignorance of the critics of Khalil Gibran. They were taking the purpose of the program totally out of context, that context being a language immersion program. They imply that it is an entity unto its own and not under the auspices of the school system. They implied that radical Islamic ideology would be taught and therefore would produce Jew-Hating students. Not said, but firmly implied in all of the outcry over the program. Also, the analogy with Yeshivas and Catholic Schools was meant to highlight the absurdity of their argument. Sorry for the confusion.