But of course. What makes this especially stupid, aside from the fact that it comes in the context of the City trying to fund an Arabic-themed school, is that she actually admitted last week that it was wrong to have defended the “Intifada NYC” t-shirts:

In a statement late yesterday afternoon, Ms. Almontaser backed away from her comments, reported by the New York Post, saying she regretted suggesting the T-shirt slogan was appropriate. “By minimizing the word’s historical associations I implied that I condone violence and threats of violence,” she said. “That view is anathema to me and the very opposite of my life’s work.”

That sort of thing won’t help her much within “the community,” though, not to mention with any possible discrimination suits going forward (can you sue for wrongful termination if you resigned?) so now she’s singing a new tune:

“Unfortunately, a small group of highly misguided individuals has launched a relentless attack on me because of my religion,” Almontaser wrote to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein last Friday. “They have used my religion as the pretext to undermine the Academy and have taken my words out of context to distort my record and portray me as something that I am not.”

The punchline? Go see who her replacement is. I’m picturing Fran Drescher in the lead role when, not if, this gets made into a classroom comedy.

Thanks to JWF for staying all over this.