Critics Ignored Record of a Muslim Principal

A NYT article today about the ugly, hateful attacks on this principal and school.  That being said, knowing about these enemies and the scrutiny the school was under, what could Almontaser possibly have been thinking when she didn't immediately denounce the intifada t-shirts?
 
My view on this school (similar to the Utah voucher program) is that I'm not sure it will be a success, but unless I'm certain that something won't work or that there's a high likelihood of harm being done, I'm generally in favor of all types of experimentation to try to figure out what might help improve our schools.

Last Feb. 12, you may recall, New York education officials announced plans to open a minischool in September that would teach half its classes in Arabic and include study of Arab culture. The principal was to be a  veteran teacher who was also a Muslim immigrant from Yemen, Debbie Almontaser.  
 
The critical response began pouring in the very next  day.
 
“I hope it burns to the ground just like the towers did with all the students inside including school officials as well,” wrote an unidentified blogger on the Web site Modern Tribalist, a hub of anti-immigrant sentiment. A contributor identified as Dave responded, “Now Muslims will be  able to learn how to become terrorists without leaving New York  City.”
 
Not to be outdone, the conservative Web site Political  Dishonesty carried this commentary on Feb. 14:
 
“Just think, instead of jocks, cheerleaders and nerds, there’s  going to be the Taliban hanging out on the history hall,  Al Qaeda hanging out by the gym, and Palestinians hanging out in the science labs.  Hamas and Hezbollah studies will be the prerequisite classes for an Iranian physics. Maybe in gym they’ll learn how to wire their bomb vests and they’ll convert the football field to a terrorist training  camp.”
 
Thus commenced the smear campaign against the Khalil Gibran International Academy and, specifically, Debbie Almontaser. For the next six months, from blogs to talk shows to cable networks to the right-wing press,  the hysteria and hatred never ceased. Regrettably, it worked.

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August 29, 2007
On Education
Critics Ignored Record of a Muslim Principal
By SAMUEL G. FREEDMAN <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/samuel_g_freedman/index.html?inline=nyt-per>

Last Feb. 12, you may recall, New York education officials announced plans to open a minischool in September that would teach half its classes in Arabic and include study of Arab culture. The principal was to be a veteran teacher who was also a Muslim immigrant from Yemen, Debbie Almontaser.