Bush’s Smiling Assassin Jailed – Indefinitely

Student Ahmed Abu Ali: Best (marksman / suicide bomber?) in his class

An American, Ahmed Abu Ali, has been indicted by a federal prosecutor for allegedly conspiring to assassinate President Bush, conduct a terrorist attack and establish an al Qaeda cell in the United States. However, a great deal of controversy surrounds his (indefinite) detention by federal authorities in Virginia last Wednesday. It turns out that Abu Ali was initially arrested in June 2003 in Saudi Arabia – by Saudi authorities acting at the behest of an American prosecutor. But he was never charged and now claims that the Saudi police “tortured” him systematically – often in the presence of American diplomats.

Abu Ali’s claims are as controversial as the federal prosecutor’s charges are serious. But neither the claims nor the charges is the most controversial aspect of this case. What is most controversial is what seems as first relatively innocuous: Abu Ali’s high school education right here in the United States.

Abu Ali attended the Islamic Saudi Academy in Alexandria, Virginia – not more than 10 miles from the White House in Washington, DC. This school, like others in America and hundreds around the world, is funded by the Saudi Royal family – purportedly close personal friends of the Bush family. But these are no ordinary schools. They are what President Musharraf of Pakistan called “a breeding ground for little bin Ladens”: Madrassas!

Does American freedom of education include allowing schools to teach religious hatred towards America? Textbooks at this madrassa just outside DC are replete with such anti-American lessons

But, unlike every other high school in America, the primary objective of Abu Ali’s school (madrassa) was not teaching English Math and Science. Instead, it was to teach a literal interpretation of the Koran (the holy book of Islam) and the doctrine of Wahhabism. This doctrine is the source of all that is controversial about Islamic fundamentalism. Because Wahabism teaches that all who do not conform their ascetic and jihadist religious practices are heathens and infidels.

Members of the ruling Saudi Royal family are the world’s most ardent and influential devotees of Wahhabism. The Saudis insist that Wahhabis like Osama bin Laden are rare. But they cannot deny that terrorists of every stripe derive jihadi justification and inspiration from the madrassas they fund worldwide. Indeed, the primary text in Abu Ali’s school was called “Monotheism” and was issued by the Saudi Ministry of Education. And, it is a text replete with references to Christians and Jews as mortal enemies of Islam: For example, a passage on page 64 under the title “Judgement Day” says: “The Hour will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews, and Muslims will kill all the Jews.” Abu Ali was the Valedictorian of his class.

It should be noted that Christian students are not entirely immune from similar fanatical indoctrination. But can you imagine a Christian school in Saudi Arabia or Iran (or even the bible belt of America for that matter) teaching children that it is their religious duty to kill Muslims? This begs the question: Why would the United States government permit the training of Islamic terrorists in our midst? Because no matter what Michael Moore presumes about the relationship between the Bushes and the Saudi Royal family, George W. Bush does not appear to have a death wish.

Of course, anyone who has traveled to or around America since 9/11 knows that there are many contradictions in the phalanx of homeland security measures that have been instituted for our protection. (For example: screening bags on planes but allowing them on trains unchecked; fortifying buildings in DC and NYC but leaving nuclear plants virtually unguarded; and, lecturing President Musharraf about madrassas in Pakistan but ignoring madrassas that are flourishing right here in the U.S.A.) Therefore, perhaps a school for little bin Ladens – down the street from the White house – is just another controversial feature in this regard. Let’s just hope that Abu Ali was not only the best in his class but also the only one in his madrassa who actually paid any attention.

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