MIAMI (CITC) — The Florida Department of Education on Thursday threatened to restrict an Islamic school’s ability to participate in voucher programs after an imam allegedly associated with it prayed for the "annihilation of Jews."
The agency warned Reviver Academy it will prevent the school from taking part in Family Empowerment scholarships if it determines Fadi Kablawi has a relationship with the school. The scholarships give tuition assistance to children attending private schools in the state.
“In Florida, we will not tolerate calls for genocide. This is especially true when they are made in the presence of students,” Deputy Executive Director Cathy Russell wrote. “The Department has reasonable cause to believe that a violation of the state scholarship program requirements has occurred.”
The concerns stem from a prayer Kablawi led last month at the Masjid As-Sunnah An-Nabawiyyah mosque, which sits next to the school.
“Oh Allah, annihilate the tyrannical Jews. Oh Allah, annihilate them for they are no match for you. Oh Allah, annihilate the brothers of apes and pigs,” Kablawi said, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “Oh Allah, demonstrate upon them the wonders of your might ... Oh Allah, break up their fellowship. Oh Allah, disperse them and render them asunder.”The education department asked Reviver Academy for all information regarding the speech, including whether students attended it and if the address was related to school activities. In order to continue remaining eligible for the scholarship program, the academy must also define its relationship with Kablawi and whether the imam gave students any instruction or academic or spiritual guidance.
State Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, asked Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Díaz Jr. on Wednesday to pull funding from Reviver Academy and conduct an investigation. Quoting the school’s mission statement, the lawmaker claimed the mosque controlled the academy and denounced Kablawi’s speech.
“I have since learned that Imam Kablawi’s mosque owns and operates Reviver Academy, a school whose vision is to 'change the situation of the Muslim Ummah today...; to bring up a new generation with the right values, ethics, morals, and vision in the hope that a time will come when the graduates of this Academy will ... take decisions with an awareness of their own accountability to Allah,”' Rep. Fine wrote.
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“Imam Kablawi’s genocidal language makes clear what those ‘values, ethics, and morals’ look like – and that killing Jews is ‘their own accountability to Allah,’” he continued.Neither Reviver Academy nor Masjid As-Sunnah An-Nabawiyyah immediately returned Crisis in the Classroom's requests for comment Friday.
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