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Virginia’s Islamic Academy on Shaky Legal Ground
The controversial school funded by the Saudi Embassy had its corporate charter revoked in 2004 and has never filed required tax forms with the IRS.
And statements made about the school’s alleged independence from the Saudi Embassy also appear to be unfounded. When USCIRF reviewed the academy’s corporate documents, it found that the school was using the Federal Employee Identification Number (EIN) of the “Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia.” And in its October 2007 report, USCIRF made the following observations regarding the relationship between the Islamic Saudi Academy and the Saudi Embassy:
- It is the only school in the United States that is operated with the direct authority of the Saudi embassy. Twenty such academies are operated by the government of Saudi Arabia in foreign capital cities around the world.
- It operates on two northern Virginia properties owned or leased by the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, with the leased property being leased by “the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia d/b/a (doing business as) the Islamic Saudi Academy.”
- The Saudi ambassador to the United States is the chairman of the school’s board of directors, which, according to the Academy’s web site, “oversees the educational and administrative operation” and “provides direction and guidance to every aspect of” the school’s operations.
- The school is funded by the government of Saudi Arabia.
- On numerous occasions, Saudi Embassy officials have spoken to the press on the ISA’s behalf-including in response to inquiries about its curriculum.
- According to the Academy’s brochure, posted on its own web site, the ISA uses Saudi government “curriculum, syllabus, and materials.”
As the academy has forfeited its Virginia incorporation and is now operating as a d/b/a of the embassy, and considering that the school is funded by the embassy, operates on property owned and leased by the embassy, the embassy speaks publicly on its behalf, and it uses Saudi government curriculum, it seems impossible to conclude anything but that it is solely an entity of the Saudi government controlled entirely by the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC — a position directly in opposition to the present claims of the State Department.
Our investigation also found that at no time has the Islamic Saudi Academy ever filed an IRS Form 990, which is required of every tax exempt organization, including private schools. And according to IRS Publication 78, at no time has the school ever requested or received a tax exemption letter from the IRS. Nor, apparently, has it ever filed corporate taxes with the US government as would be required if it were an entity independent from the Saudi embassy, as it has no recognized tax exemption. Because of privacy laws, detailed information about any possible IRS Form 1120 or Virginia Tax Form 500 filings for the school are limited and could only be obtained through a congressional or other official governmental inquiry.
If the school was a separate corporation as State Department officials have repeatedly claimed, it would have to have an active corporate charter (which it doesn’t appear to have since December 2004), and it would either have to file IRS Form 990s if it were operating as a tax exempt organization, or file tax returns if it were operating for-profit. That has not happened in either case according to our investigation. Rather, all evidence indicates that the Saudi Embassy is in full corporate control of the school, and it is operating entirely under its agency, which makes the school subject to the Foreign Missions Act and under the authority of the State Department. If it isn’t part of the Saudi Embassy, it seems that the academy is operating illegally.
This new evidence doesn’t give much leeway to the State Department to shirk the matter. However, it is understandable why State Department officials are eager to take a pass on this diplomatic and public relations conundrum. But there is no indication that the controversy surrounding the Islamic Saudi Academy is going to subside anytime soon.
As Congressional Quarterly observed in an article on Wednesday, the Islamic Saudi Academy has now become a campaign issue for the chairman of the Fairfax Board of Supervisors, Gerry Connolly, who is running as the Democratic Party candidate for Virginia’s 11th Congressional District, where the school is located. The National Republican Campaign Committee issued a press release this week accusing Connolly of flip-flopping on the issue of the school: he had publicly charged opponents of the academy’s lease renewal of “slander” for continuing to raise questions about the school’s curriculum. Later, he and his colleagues admitted in a letter to the State Department that they were not qualified to judge the matter.
Connolly’s Republican challenger, Keith Fimian, has criticized Connolly on the issue, telling CQ that the criticisms of the academy’s texts were well-known and should have been taken into consideration before renewing the school’s lease.
That same CQ article also quotes Rep. Frank Wolf, ranking member of the House State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee, calling for a congressional investigation into the matter. According to a follow-up CQ article published on Thursday, Wolf has sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging State to do a complete translation of the school’s textbooks. In a blunt assessment, Wolf appears to have handwritten on the letter to Rice, “The State Department is not doing its duty.”
One issue that the committee may want to look into is the alleged report prepared by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approving the school’s textbooks. While such a report was repeatedly invoked in the Board’s renewal of the school’s lease, the Board’s own spokesman, Merni Fitzgerald, told the Washington Times this week that no written report was ever issued and that the review was conducted by “a Fairfax County employee familiar with Arabic.” As CQ observes:
The board conducted its own study of the textbooks last year at the request of Supervisor Gerald Hyland, whose district encompasses the academy, according to the Associated Press.
Although Hyland and the county did not release the results of what they had found, Hyland said at the meeting in which the vote was taken that, “I would be less than frank if I didn’t tell you that the curriculum does contain references to the Quran, which, if taken out of context and read literally, would cause some concern.”
If the report was not written, on what basis did Supervisor Hyland and others make their statements?
The Islamic Saudi Academy controversy has also gone international, with Al-Jazeera wading into the fray with a June 17 video report (translated by MEMRI), claiming that opposition to the school is being led by congressmen “known for their great hostility towards Arabs and Muslims” and charging the school’s critics of violations of religious freedom — a particularly hypocritical charge, as the Saudi Kingdom enforces a draconian policy of religious apartheid prohibiting any religious expression except Islam in its borders and bans under the penalty of death anyone but Muslims from entering or even approaching the cities of Medina and Mecca.
Meanwhile, despite its protests that its texts are being “mistranslated and misinterpreted” by the USCIRF, the Islamic Saudi Academy and the State Department continue to refuse to turn over the school’s textbooks to the commission (the USCIRF had independently obtained copies of the texts for its recent report). It would seem that many questions could be resolved by providing such. That, however, doesn’t seem likely at the moment, and it might take a congressional investigation for the commission to accomplish.
In response to the Fairfax Board of Supervisors passing the issue off to the State Department, Wednesday’s Washington Times article appears to signal that State is attempting to distance itself from the issue, claiming a lack of authority. But the information regarding the school’s loss of its corporate charter and its operation as an arm of the Saudi Embassy clearly points to the fact that the school falls under the Foreign Missions Act — and thus is an issue that the State Department cannot escape responsibility for and must act on.
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Patrick Poole is a regular contributor to Pajamas Media, and an anti-terrorism consultant to law enforcement and the military.
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28 Comments
1. Richard:The Saudi’s are on their last legs. We’re paying them to run the country, and maintain 3 embassies in this country?
Jun 27, 2008 - 2:50 am 2. Always On Watch:Has everyone forotten that the VAST majority of the September 11, 2001 hijackers, and mass murderers were SAUDI ARABIAN?
Are we now in the business of raising that corrupt governments terrorist jihadist for them?
What in THE hell is going on in Fairfax?
The ISA has a record of having had some difficulties with serious matters for at least the past four years. Yet the school still operates?
Jun 27, 2008 - 5:25 am 3. Wayne:Richard; what’s going on in Fairfax is that the county is drifting left. The Democratic primary (that Connolly just won) was a contest between lefter and lefterer (kinda like the Dem presidential primary.) The P.C. content of the campaign junk mail this season was appalling. Virginia may go blue for the November elections due to the shift in the northern part of the state. People are affluent and feel safe, so they are comfortable enough for the luxury of moral vanity.
Jun 27, 2008 - 5:36 am 4. Lynn:Hmmm….Oily school, oily books, oily government officials and an oily media all combine to make OIL! No need to refine this recipe. And away we go!
Jun 27, 2008 - 6:08 am 5. RE:The US government’s deference to the Saudis is despicable. There is no other way to put it.
Jun 27, 2008 - 6:19 am 6. davod:“SAUDI ARABIAN?” or with Saudi Arabinasports?
Jun 27, 2008 - 7:01 am 7. davod:Sorry. I will start again.
Saudi Arabian? or with Saudi Arabian passport?
Jun 27, 2008 - 7:02 am 8. Patrick Poole:Andrew Cochran at Counterterrorism Blog has kindly posted a PDF of the Islamic Saudi Academy’s corporate history in Virginia showing the dissolution of the corporation in 2004:
http://counterterrorismblog.org/ISA%20VA%20corp%20history.pdf
Because this link was not static, there was no way to link to this info in the article. The link to the ISA’s corporate reports is static, however, and is already noted in the article:
http://scc-internet.scc.virginia.gov/corporate/arfilings/corpfilings.asp?charternumber=04982104
Here we see no further corporate activity or reporting since 2004, when the Islamic Saudi Academy, Inc. was dissolved by the State of Virginia.
Jun 27, 2008 - 7:08 am 9. Morton Doodslag:Sounds like a sweet little slice home for the Muslim invasion. Another murderous flag of the House of Islam ( Dar ul Islam ) has been established without a fight, or even the slightest resistance from us, on formerly filthy infidel land. Their jihad is moving forward with the connivance of our State Department, our President (who constantly flaks for them), our educational Academy, our media, and many other interests who refuse to see or discuss or learn about the arrogant triumphalist supremacist doctrine which motivates the Saudis, and all good Muslims everywhere. It is the brazen war doctrine of Islam. Not “radical Islam”, not a hijacked version of a “great world religion”, and certainly not a “Religion of Peace” (TM). This Saudi “academy” is the real deal.
Jun 27, 2008 - 7:26 am 10. rookie1824:gerry connolly’s publicly charging “opponents of the academy’s lease renewal of “slander” for continuing to raise questions about the school’s curriculum,” translates into another democrat choosing to live by the oft-quoted, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. they’ll stoop to anything to get elected. the “real” slander is connolly’s accusation.
Jun 27, 2008 - 8:03 am 11. J.J. Sefton:Somebody please dunk ‘em all in a mikvah…
Jun 27, 2008 - 8:26 am 12. Dawn:Apparently Virginians have their heads up their collective you know whats. How can we protect ourselves from these people if we just keep letting them walk all over us, our laws, our way of life? Close the school. We have plenty of school options available. If our schools aren’t good enough, go home.
Jun 27, 2008 - 8:44 am 13. Islamic Saudi Academy Latest Example of Saudis’ Distribution of Propaganda : Freedom Alert 2:[...] June 27: Patrick Poole has posted an explosive disclosure at Pajamas Media: – that while ISA operated for almost seven years as an entity separate from the Saudi Embassy, ISA [...]
Jun 27, 2008 - 9:21 am 14. Eowyn:I’m with Dawn.
They want Saudi-style education for their children. Wouldn’t they get it better back home? And WITHOUT the influence of the “filthy infidels.”
Jun 27, 2008 - 3:42 pm 15. Richard:Wayne,
I know NoVa’s out of control, and they believe that they truly rule the state. I have news for them however. There are still men and women in this lovely state, in which I live willing to do what it takes to make sure this crap isn’t perpetuated, and in effect, create an incubator for more of the “plants” who were predominantly SAUDI ARABIAN.
And to davod: Check it yourself. 15 of those bastards.
Jun 27, 2008 - 4:42 pm 16. Kay:Frankly I don’t care if they had a Denmark passport.
https://www.cia.gov/news-information/speeches-testimony/2002/DCI_18_June_testimony_new.pdf
Sic Semper Tyrannis Language:Latin
Translation:Thus Always to Tyrants Adoption:1776
With the current hit in housing prices, NoVa is one of the worst hit in the country-its been a massive bubble for years. I don’t think there is nearly enough ’security’ for it to go anywhere near blue this November….
Jun 27, 2008 - 5:27 pm 17. Kay:And this school is the least of our worries. There are by far more dangerous schools here in this nation. The left is obsessed with bowing to islamification in this nation. We are nowhere near as bad off as Europe as become, but if the Democrats continue to get its way, they will reach the zero security level in this nation in no time. The irony is that the vast majority of democrats have no idea why they are one in the first place(the vast majority are single-issue voters) and are just on for the ride.
Jun 27, 2008 - 5:31 pm 18. Al Jizz Whines Over Saudi Islamic Academy: “These flowers, which have just begun to bloom, have sprouted on American soil” » Winds Of Jihad:[...] will. “Virginia’s Islamic Academy on Shaky Legal Ground,” by Patrick Poole for Pajamas Media via [...]
Jun 27, 2008 - 5:32 pm 19. tanstaafl:Why do I get the impression that all these “issues” with the longstanding, (est. 1984) Saudi Academy in Alexandria, VA is something like trying to close the barn door after the horses have escaped ?
Also problematical is the attempt in NY to establish The Khalil Gibran school (t-shirts, “Intifada NYC”) and another public school in Minnesota where Islamic prayers are part of the everyday curriculum.
I mean, why not just hand over the keys to the kingdom to the Islamic agendists ?
Jun 28, 2008 - 8:05 am 20. Jihad in the U.S. -- Oh, yes, it's underway here too... - Page 15 - Trackpads Community:[...] probably will. "Virginia
Jun 28, 2008 - 9:05 am 21. US Woman:One of the major cources of the persistent criticism with Islam/Islamic nations is that while they insist on their right to institutions in non-Islamic nations, they are fanatically opposed to any such reciprocal institutions on their home ground.
Even in an ‘open’ society, shouldn’t the line in the sand be drawn against such lop-sided magnanimousness (is that a word)? We make tit-for-tat rules in trade agreements (or reserve the right to do so, anyway).
Is absolutely EVERYTHING allowed just to prove we’re an open society? When is enough enough?
Jun 30, 2008 - 5:29 am 22. Tommy Boy:The Saudis have spent their money wisely in the United States. I believe they “own” many of our politicians so-called leaders including President Bush and the Clintons. All one need do is find the money trail and follow it. Yes, why is it that Saudi Arabia has never been held to account for the fact that 15 of the 19 suicide bombers were Saudi citizens? Osama bin Laden is a Saudi. Wars have been fought over less. Want to speak about racism? The Saudis are one of the most racist in the world. They only made slavery illegal in 1963, but people are still owned there. Want to talk about tolerance? No Jews allowed in Saudi. Period. And no infidels allowed to visit either Medina or Mecca. Period. A Christian can’t display a cross in public and can’t even worship except in secret. And our elected officials allow them to fund—and run—this Islamic academy here, on our soil. Bravo Zulu to our elected officials!
Jun 30, 2008 - 6:46 am 23. asdfs:I say shut down every mosque in the US untill a church is built in Saudi. 1 for 1 basis.
Jul 2, 2008 - 7:11 am 24. T:Unbelievable, I am an American citizen. I attended public schools and served my at US Army for eight years. My sons attend ISA. It’s a very good school; I have seen all their books and attended many classes. Don’t believe these lies. At one time we targeted the Japanese and the Germans and then the Catholics and the Jews. Now all eyes are on the Muslims of this country. ISA is a very good school.
Jul 3, 2008 - 1:15 pm 25. You can’t eat your way out of hungry! « Across Walk:[...] domestic terror base we don’t want to think about. In case you’re puzzled, look up the school in Virginia our government has investigated, threatened to shut down, but won’t because (see above [...]
Jul 12, 2008 - 11:08 am 26. Big Lu:Please!!! Do your research, and check it again…….remember the deal over 30 years ago. We’ll help you build the rigs, and help you drill. We’ll buy your oil, you use your profits to pay our Architects, and Construction companies to build for you, Lavish Hotels, Apartments, Cars (100% Silver Audi), and the list goes on. I have been against the teachings of violence. Whether it’s done in school, church, and at home. I’ve been a part of the US public school system for over 25yrs, and there is voilence being taught on every grade level, and even today, it hasn’t stopped. This coming 2008-09 school year, the free career building programs that has helped the public H.S. school students make better choices in life, will be slashed from the constantly shrinking list. What’s left for them to do……..Generation Kill?….OOOOOOPS!!! Too Late, It’s already here.
Jul 15, 2008 - 8:41 pm 27. State Department will not Investigate Islamic School Despite Obligation « Unto the Breach Newsdesk:[...] Poole, “Virginia’s Islamic Academy on Shaky Legal Ground,” June 27, 2008, at http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/islamic-saudi-academy-on-shaky-legal-ground/ (August 22, 2008); Monty Tayloe, “State Dept. Stands Aside,” Fairfax County Times, July [...]
Sep 5, 2008 - 9:52 pm 28. Quran Tutor:muslims are being targeted in the whole World.
Aug 23, 2009 - 7:58 am