Saudi Islamic school in Virginia defends self against 'Terror High' label

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Its most virulent critics have dubbed it "Terror High," and 12 US senators and a federal commission want to shut it down. The teachers, administrators and some 900 students at the Islamic Saudi Academy in Virginia's Fairfax County have heard the allegations for years - after the September 11 attacks and then a few years later when one class's top scholar admitted he had joined al-Qaida. Now the school is on the defensive again, with a report issued last month by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom saying the academy should be closed, pending a review of its curriculum and textbooks. Abdalla al-Shabnan, the school's director general, says criticism of the school is based not on evidence, but on preconceived notions of the Saudi educational system.