Inver Grove Heights school on defensive after death threats

A charter school in Inver Grove Heights is taking extra security precautions and working with law enforcement agencies in the wake of death threats.

It all began with a series of newspaper columns accusing Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy of using taxpayer money to teach Islamic religion, something the school's director says is just plain false.

"We are fully aware of the obligations that come with that public money," the academy's director Asad Zaman told KARE 11 Wednesday, "And we take care to insure that we operate a non-sectarian program. None of the public money is spent on any religious activities. "

But recent articles published by a Minneapolis newspaper suggested otherwise, inflaming some readers and an even larger national audience via the Internet.

"The way they've been propagated on hate websites across the Internet caused us to receive numerous death threats, harassing e-mails, harassing phone calls," Zaman said.

Most of the messages were too profane for KARE 11 to share with readers, but one called Zaman a "son of a pig" while another said, "If you persist we will destroy you, your family and your country."

That's why Zaman turned to the Inver Grove Heights Police and the FBI, and now keeps the school's doors locked from the outside.

"Frankly I'm concerned about the safety of the children and the safety of my staff."

School's true focus

Zaman, a Bangladesh immigrant who built a career in software design, moved into public education because he saw a deep need for immigrant children to better themselves.

He's proud of the school's emphasis on academic achievement.

"I want them to be educated and to join the American mainstream," Zaman told KARE, "And I believe education is the way to do that."

The school has 360 students, kindergarten through 8th grade, who hail from all around the Twin Cities and represent 15 different countries of origin.

Zaman points out nearly 80 percent of the children are poor enough to qualify for subsidized school meals, and yet their academic performance has continued to rise year after year.

"I think it's confusing that people aren't focused on our student achievement because it's so outstanding," the school's lead teacher Wendy Swanson-Choi told KARE 11.

"They're focused instead on something that's not true about the school."

Swanson-Choi's job, for the past three years, has been to observe every classroom, as part of an effort to help teachers hone their instructional techniques.

"For three years I'm here all day," she said, "I never have seen any religious instruction; I've never seen teachers pressuring students to adhere to any religious activity."

The curriculum is the same as most public schools, and the staff is under the same pressure as all educators to make sure students perform well in standardized tests.

"We're on reading, math, writing, science, because of this focus on student achievement," said Swanson-Choi.

Arabic is the language taught as a second language, for 45 minutes a day. Many of the parents are from Arabic-speaking countries, and want their children to learn that tongue in addition to English.

"We teach Arabic as a second language, much like other kids teach Spanish or German or French," said Zaman, who noted it's a language skill in high demand by the US State Department and America's intelligence agencies.

"The rest of the classes are in English. And, by the way, we get very good test results in English."

Skewed Perceptions

At first glance an outsider may be tempted to brand Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy as a "Islamic School" as the columnist did.

For starters the name, which belonged to an 8th Century historic figure, doesn't roll off the tongues of most Minnesotans. And many of the girls come to school wearing the traditional Muslim head scarf.

The academy leases its classroom space from the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, which is headquartered in the adjoining building. And the school's director, Asad Zaman, is himself a Muslim imam at a mosque in Bloomington.

But he maintains the academy, like other charter schools in Minnesota that lease space from churches, is a separate entity.

As he put it, "We neither prefer a religion, nor do we prefer non-religion."

Federal law requires all schools to accommodate a student's right to practice his or her religion, which for devout Muslims includes praying five times daily.

In public schools that often means excusing children from class briefly to pray and to do ritual washing when desired. At Tarek ibn Ziyad children can pray in their classrooms at the appointed hour, which varies depending on the calendar.

On Wednesday during independent study time, Heidi Pendroy asked for her 1st graders attention.

"If you would like to, this is the time you have the option to pray."

A handful of boys and one girl walked over to one side of classroom without any prompting. A fellow student laid out a small rug and began quietly leading the children in prayers, which were barely audible.

In the meantime, two-thirds of the students kept working at their desks, seemingly oblivious to what was happening in one corner of the room. Their teacher did not take part in prayers, which lasted all of five minutes.

"I know some students are Muslim simply because I have seen them participate in rituals," Zaman explained.

"However, it is illegal for me to ask them their religion. The same goes for the kids who don't take part in prayer; I can't ask them whether or not they are Muslim."

Substitute's story

The newspaper accounts quoted a substitute teacher who came on a Friday and witnessed children being led into the gymnasium after lunch for a school assembly centered on prayer.

Staff members told KARE 11 that the weekly Friday assembly is led by parents who volunteer at the school for that purpose. They say those assemblies take the place of the midday prayers and, like the daily prayers themselves, are completely voluntary.

"We do not force anybody to pray," Zaman asserted, "And on any given day we can see many students pray and many students not pray."

Islamic studies classes are offered by the Muslim American Society, he said, but those are voluntary sessions are not subsidized by taxpayers.

"We don't own this building," Zaman pointed out, "We can't dictate how it's used after school hours."

The academy offers three of its own after school academic programs, he said, including remedial education. But, contrary to the newspaper's report, Zaman said teachers do not use class time to remind students about religion classes.

The Department of Education has conducted several routine visits to the school in the past. The school this year won a School Finance Award from the education department, which goes to schools "that exhibit sound fiscal health and financial management policies."

In response to the newspaper's columns and the uproar created by them, the state is planning to do another site visit in the near future.

In a statement dated April 9th, Education Commissioner Alice Seagren wrote, "The Department goes to great lengths to make clear to charter school sponsors that, while schools should accommodate students' religious beliefs, they must be 'nonsectarian' under the state's charter school law."

Tough year

The controversy and the threats all come on top of what has already been a tough year emotionally for the school and its leaders.

The charismatic founder of the Muslim Society, Hesham Hussein, died in a car accident in January while visiting relatives in Saudi Arabia. The 44-year-old engineer and imam left behind a wife, five children and many grieving friends.

Many of those who leveled complaints and threats appear to view the school as part of a larger conspiracy to establish the Muslim religion as the official worldwide religion.

"I can't even control my own parking lot," Zaman laughed, "Let alone the entire world!"

Zaman says he can only hope those who hate him because of some perceived threat will look at the world differently some day.

"All problems can be solved," he said, "We can solve this problem if only people would have reasonable, rational discussions instead of having hateful conversations."

He's heartened by letters of support, including a donation mailed in by a teacher in Hutchinson, Minnesota who wrote simply, "Please use this money to buy more books for your library."

As the children played at recess a police squad car could be seen slowly cruising through the parking lot nearby, part of stepped up patrols.

But, like most kids on a warm, sunny spring day in Minnesota, the youngsters were preoccupied with enjoying the outdoors.

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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