In the city's insane system of dual-language schools, the Khalil Gibran International Academy will be the crown jewel ("Joel Klein's Choice," Editorial, Aug. 7).
This system, which promotes exclusion and separation rather than inclusion and assimilation, will now have a madrassa in its ranks - one that will indoctrinate rather than educate.
It sickens me to think that my tax dollars may be used to promote a radical Islamist agenda that could eventually produce the terror cell that will bring about my own demise.
Joe Mulvanerton
Sunnyside
It is beyond belief that a proposal to implement a voucher system, allowing families the option to send their kids to a parochial school, can be met with opposition from the Department of Education.
Yet that same department can quietly approve the Khalil Gibran International Academy and support it with our tax dollars. And all while we are in the midst of war.
Has the DOE become a fifth column?
Brian Madden
Manhattan
Just so I have this straight: If you're a principal pretending to be Harry Potter, you're fired. But if you are a principal supporting anti-Western intifada and T-shirts promoting NYC intifada, you can keep your job?
Allowing Dhabah Almontaser to be the principal at the Khalil Gibran International Academy would have been equal to putting a fox in a henhouse.
Americans' political correctness may kill us all. God knows how many troops have been killed honoring "rules of engagement."
Frank Begley
Manhattan
The Department of Education could not have been serious if it had allowed Almontaser to be the principal of a school after she approved use of the inflammatory "intifada" T-shirts.
This was just another example of the creeping Muslimization of America by people who want to set their own rules.
I absolutely do not trust her or any of her associates and recommend close monitoring of classes - that is, if the school actually opens.
John W. Fox
Galloway, N.J.
Instead of a school devoted to Arab-Americans, which could lead to requests for a long list of ethnocentric schools, it would be better for the Department of Education to show its wisdom and concern for the world by starting a joint Arab-Jewish school.
Parents and students could declare a commitment to peaceful co-existence in the Mideast by serving as models of such co-existence, focusing on the contributions to world culture of both ethnic groups.
There are many possibilities for cooperative studies and joint ventures.
Surely, no peace-loving person could object to the goals of such a school, and the educational goals would be well worth pursuing.
The choice of a principal would involve a great degree of wisdom, but surely the minds of the Department of Education could do a fine job of selecting someone with both the educational and diplomatic background - someone who sees hope for the future, whether it is pronounced "Shalom" or "Salaam."
Herb Munshine
Great Neck
One can only guess what will be taught inside the walls of the Khalil Gibran International Academy.
Given the climate of terror fostered worldwide by radical Islamists and the fact that this school is taxpayer-funded for Arab students, the Department of Education should examine the curriculum, teaching methods and credentials of the teaching staff.
Why, indeed, is taxpayer money funding a school that focuses on one ethnic group?
Chuck Eckstein
Brooklyn
This controversy is simply another case to support the fact that this country is being attacked from the inside as well as the outside.
What more is required before Americans wake up and realize that we are not engaged in a war with nations? Rather, we are engaged in a life-and-death struggle with an ideology that we must win at all costs.
Dr. Jeffrey Lamela
Jersey City, N.J.
I am a Jewish woman who finds your attacks on Almontaser reprehensible.
Her leadership in interfaith work post-9/11 and her steadfast championing of nonviolence are well-documented.
Abby Scher
Brooklyn