Controversy
The ISA has been accused of promoting religious intolerance.
On February 23, 2005, the day after Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was indicted on terrorism charges, New York Senator Charles Schumer issued a press release questioning whether the ISA was "another madrassa". Madrassa is the Arabic word for school, but in America the term is often incorrectly associated with the teaching of radical Islamic theology. Senator Schumer sent letters to Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan and U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
In October 2007, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged the US State Department to shut down the ISA on the grounds it teaches religious intolerance. The Commission accused the ISA of promoting religious intolerance that could prove a danger to the United States. The Commission was not able to review the ISA's teaching materials because they refused to accept them from the ISA directly, but rather requested they be sent by the Saudi embassy. In response ISA officials stated that they had removed offensive passages from the books the previous summer, but did not explain why the Saudi embassy officials had refused to personally make the books available to the Commission. Officials of ISA criticized the USCIRF, saying that the panel unfairly damaged the school's reputation, and invited the commission members to review the books; an offer which was refused.
Read more about this topic: Islamic Saudi Academy
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