School defends against ‘Terror High’ label

ALEXANDRIA - Twelve U.S. senators and a federal commission want to shut it down, and its most virulent critics have dubbed it "Terror High."

The teachers, administrators and about 900 students at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Fairfax County have heard the allegations for years - after the Sept. 11 attacks and then a few years later when a class valedictorian admitted he joined al-Qaida.

Now the school finds itself on the defensive again. Last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued a report saying the academy should be closed until it can conduct a review of the curriculum and textbooks.

Abdalla al-Shabnan, the school's director general, says the criticism of the school is based not on evidence, but on preconceived notions of the Saudi educational system.

The school, serving grades K-12 on campuses in Fairfax and Alexandria, receives financial support from the Saudi government, and the textbooks are based on Saudi curriculum.

But al-Shabnan said the school significantly modified the books to remove passages deemed intolerant of other religions. And the Saudis initiated their own reforms several years ago in response to criticism.

At an open house earlier this month in which the school invited reporters to tour the school and meet with students and faculty, al-Shabnan seemed weary of the constant criticism.

"I didn't think we'd have to do this," al-Shabnan he said of the open house. "Our neighbors know us. They know the job we are doing."

Indeed, many people familiar with the school say the accusations are unfounded. Fairfax County Supervisor Gerald Hyland, whose district includes the academy, has defended the school and arranged for the county to review the textbooks to put questions about the curriculum to rest. That review is under way.

The academy's Alexandria campus is leased from Fairfax County.

The schools that regularly compete against the academy in interscholastic sports - many of them small, private Christian schools - are also among the academy's strongest defenders.

Robert Mead, soccer coach at Bryant Alternative High School, a public school in the Alexandria section of Fairfax county, said the academy's reputation has been unfairly marred by people who haven't even bothered to visit the school.

"We've never had one altercation" on the soccer field with the academy's players, Mead said. "My guys are hostile. Their guys keep fights from breaking out."